Your computer won’t respond when you yell at it. Why not learn to talk to your computer in its own language? Whether you want to write games, start a business, or you’re just curious, learning to program is a great place to start. Plus, programming is fun!

Hello World! provides a gentle but thorough introduction to the world of computer programming. It’s written in language a 12-year-old can follow, but anyone who wants to learn how to program a computer can use it. Even adults. Written by Warren Sande and his son, Carter, and reviewed by professional educators, this book is kid-tested and parent-approved.

You don’t need to know anything about programming to use the book. But you should know the basics of using a computer–e-mail, surfing the web, listening to music, and so forth. If you can start a program and save a file, you should have no trouble using this book.

WHAT’S INSIDE:

• Makes programming fun and easy to learn
• Explains concepts in clear language梟o “geek speak”
• Lots of pictures, cartoons, and fun examples to hold your interest
• Complete set of fully-worked questions and examples make it great for use by yourself or in a classroom

Though the concepts and ideas presented apply to any programming language, Hello World! uses the easy to learn Python programming language. Python is free, and is available for different platforms, including Windows, Linux, and Mac. Hello World! covers all the basic concepts of computer programming, including memory, looping, decisions, input and output, data structures, graphics, and many more. It then applies them to fun, interesting topics like computer graphics, game programming, and simulations.

Hello World! makes computer programming accessible and fun for kids, which is essential in today’s hi-tech world. It can be used at home or in a classroom setting.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Warren Sande is an Electronic Systems Engineer who uses Python (and other languages) in his work, and also uses it to help teach his son about computers and programming. He holds a degree in Electronic Systems Engineering from the University of Regina, Saskatchewan, as well as a Diploma in Communication Arts, specializing in Broadcasting, from the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology. He has taught introductory software courses to computer novices. He has written many readable and user-friendly technical documents in his engineering work.

Carter Sande is a bright, curious, energetic, and thoughtful boy who loves computers, playing the piano, bouncing on the trampoline, and Pokemon. He has been playing and experimenting with computers from a young age.

Mule is a widely used open source enterprise service bus. It is standards based, provides easy integration with Spring and JBoss, and fully supports the enterprise messaging patterns collected by Hohpe and Woolf. You can readily customize Mule without writing a lot of new code.

Mule in Action covers Mule fundamentals and best practices. It is a comprehensive tutorial that starts with a quick ESB overview and then gets Mule to work. It dives into core concepts like sending, receiving, routing, and transforming data. Next, it gives you a close look at Mule’s standard components and how to roll out custom ones. You’ll pick up techniques for testing, performance tuning, BPM orchestration, and even a touch of Groovy scripting.

Written for developers, architects, and IT managers, the book requires familiarity with Java but no previous exposure to Mule or other ESBs.

WHAT’S INSIDE

• Mule deployment, logging, and monitoring
• Common transports, routers, and transformers
• Security, routing, orchestration, and transactions

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Both authors are Java EE architects. David Dossot is the project “despot” of the JCR Transport and has worked with Mule since 2005. John D’Emic is Chief Integration Architect at OpSource Inc., where he has used Mule since 2006.

Agile principles have been a breath of fresh air to many development teams stuck in the middle of a rigid, process-driven environment. Unfortunately, it’s not so easy to bring Agile into an existing organization with established people and practices. Becoming Agile shows you practical techniques and strategies to move from your existing process to an Agile process without starting from scratch.

Many books discuss Agile from a theoretical or academic perspective. Becoming Agile takes a different approach and focuses on explaining Agile from a ground-level point-of-view. Author Greg Smith, a certified ScrumMaster with dozens of Agile projects under his belt, presents Agile principles in the context of a case study that flows throughout the book.

Becoming Agile focuses on the importance of adapting Agile principles to the realities of your environment. While Agile purists have often discouraged a 損artial-Agile� approach, the reality is that in many shops a 損urist� approach simply isn’t a viable option. Over the last few years, Agile authorities have begun to discover that the best deployments of Agile are often customized to the specific situation of a given company.As well, Becoming Agile addresses the cultural realities of deploying Agile and how to deal with the needs of executives, managers, and the development team during migration. The author discusses employee motivation and establishing incentives that reward support of Agile techniques.

Becoming Agile will show you how to create a custom Agile process that supports the realities of your environment. The process will minimize risk as you transition to Agile iteratively, allowing time for your culture and processes to acclimate to Agile principles.

WHAT’S INSIDE:

• How to migrate to Agile
• How to get your team to buy into the change
• How to scale and sustain your new Agile process
• How to create an Agile process that works for your company
• How to use Agile in special situations
• How to iteratively build up your Agile process and culture

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Greg Smith is a certified ScrumMaster and a Senior Project Manager. Greg is also an instructor of Agile Project Management at Bellevue Community College. Greg has over 20 years of experience as a development manager, project manager, business analyst, and product manager. He has worked for large conglomerates, tiny start-ups, and medium size companies including: Philips Electronics, R.R. Donnelley, Oh Boy! Oberto, and the Seattle Times New Media group. Greg helps companies create a custom agile process that supports the realities of their environment. Greg’s focus has been on iteratively migrating a company to agile and actively involving the development team in the process. This background has given him insight into what it takes to sustain an agile culture and process over time.

Dr. Ahmed Sidky guides organizations during their transition to agile software development. His research includes a value-based agile measurement index, known as the Sidky Agile Measurement Index, and a process framework for the adoption of agile practices. Dr. Sidky developed Dr. Agile (www.dragile.com), an online readiness assessment tool that helps guide organizations aspiring to adopt agile practices. He has worked as a software developer at some of the largest software firms in the Middle East and holds a Masters degree in Software Engineering from Virginia Tech (USA) with a research focus on Requirements Engineering and a doctorate in Agile Software Development Methodologies and Process Improvement. Dr. Sidky is a frequent speaker at international agile conferences.

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Software Oriented Architecture, or SOA, has become embraced by many organizations as a means of improving reusability of software assets; providing better alignment between business and IT; and, increasing agility for responding to demands in the marketplace. This is accomplished by breaking individual units of functionality into services that can then be exposed through open protocols and standards.

Until recently, many of the software technologies used for developing SOA-based solutions were limited to expensive, commercial offerings. However, that has now changed, and a compelling open source SOA platform can be implemented exclusively with open source products. This book identifies a suite of open source products that can be used for a building SOA environment, and describes how they can be integrated by practitioners. It includes a hands-on introduction to the products selected; a multitude of source code examples; and implementation through real-life case studies.

WHAT’S INSIDE:

• History and fundamentals of SOA.
• Evaluation criteria for selecting open source SOA products.
• Using Apache Tuscany to create protocol-neutral services:
  • Understanding the Service Component Architecture (SCA)
  • Defining services declaratively.
  • Wiring together of service components.
  • Deployment and production using Tuscany
  • Developing components using scripting languages
  • Understanding callbacks and message exchange patterns.
• Business Process Management (BPM) using JBoss jBPM
  • Creating business processes using jBPM.
  • Understanding and using tasks.
  • Extending and integrating jBPM.
  • Service-enabling jBPM using Apache Tuscany.
• Event Stream Processing (ESP) using Esper
  • Understanding ESP and its essential role in SOA.
  • Using the Esper Query Language.
  • Patterns for filtering and monitoring business events.
  • Service-enabling Esper using Apache Tuscany.
  • Integrating Esper with jBPM.
• Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) using Apache Synapse
  • Appropriate uses of an ESB in SOA.
  • Core features and capabilities of Synapse.
  • Using Synapse for service mediation.
  • WS-Security, policies and service discrimination using Synapse.
  • Complete end-to-end use case demonstrating Synapse in action.
• Business Rule Management using JBoss Drools.
  • Role of business rules in SOA.
  • Developing rules using the Drools Rule Language.
  • Creating user-friendly rules using DSLs and decision tables.
  • Using the Guvnor Business Rule Management System (BRMS).
  • Exposing Drools as a decision services using Apache Tuscany

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jeff Davis is Director of Software Architecture at HireRight. In that capacity, he designed the company’s integration platform, and is the SOA evangelist. He has over 15 years of experience in software development, with an emphasis on enterprise architecture and integration.