I’m writing a book for Apress:
I guess someone wanted to be very precise and thorough. 😀
I will blog about the book’s progress here and when it’s published I will add additional materials so readers can continue their journey here. Since this journey is just beginning - I’m submitting the first chapter aptly titled “Introduction” tomorrow - and writing a whole 400 pages book is an entirely new experience to me, I want to let you in on the journey.
Help me help you by providing feedback to the book’s content as I’m writing it!
For the coming weeks, I will announce the current book chapter title and a short description and ask you what you’d like to see in this chapter. I will make these posts every Friday starting tomorrow until the book is complete. In this post you could start by telling me what you’d expect from this book or what you’d like to see in it just given its title? I guess your answer will be “a lot” given the title’s elongated nature. :p
I hope you forgive me if content updates to this website will not be as comprehensive over the coming months, in favor of writing the book and coding sample games. Plus I’m cooking up something special on the side, but all in due time.
Oh, by the way, if you happen to know what kind of fruit that is on the cover I’d like to know. I could just ask my editor but I’d like to see if we can figure it out without the help from Apress. It doesn’t really look like a coconut to me, which would have been fitting given the subject. If you have any ideas what fruit it is, let me know! It sure looks exotic and it’s definetely not a banana nor a lemon. So what is it? The first to post the correct answer in a comment, together with a link to Wikipedia or some other website as proof, gets a copy of the book for free when it’s out (or $40 now)!
And now for something completely different …
As a side note, the Xcode project files from the Xcode Tutorial are now available for download here. I used to ask you to join my Newsletter but I don’t feel too good about hooking you up with my Newsletter using the project as a dangling carrot, so joining the Newsletter will now be a completely voluntary thing. I only send newsletters for substantial updates and important news, at most once or twice per month, so that’s the thing you want if you are already struggling with RSS overflow.
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looking forward to it!
It’s a cocoa fruit (or cocoa pod)! The seeds that come out of it are roasted and processed into cocoa beans.
Cheers!
Rob
Shoot, forgot the link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocoa_bean
Cheers!
Rob
Sweet! I’ve been waiting for a book on Cocos! Will keep following.
About the fruit:
Looks like passion fruit, some variation of it (it has many variations):
http://www.dominica-weekly.com/images/ru-photos/passion-fruit/passion-fruit-seeds.jpg
http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/passionfruit.html
http://www.daleysfruit.com.au/plant/Passionfruit.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passiflora_edulis
Another good look on the fruit:
http://www.daleysfruit.com.au/i/b/Passionfruit.jpg
Oh, it’s on Alfred. 😛
I refer you to exhibit A, a Google Image search:
http://tinyurl.com/Cocos2dPod
See, totally a Cocoa pod. First you have the ridges which are not on a passion fruit. Next, the seeds that aren’t all gooey, but in a pithy kind of inner-fruit hammock.
Add to that the whole “Cocos sounds like Cocoa” (and Pod as in iPod, if you really want to stretch into the unlikely, which I am prepared to do) and you’ve got the fruit that brings us chocolate.
Cocoa Pod. QED
Cheers,
Rob
You are indeed correct, my editor confirmed it and I was thinking the same about the “gooey” stuff.
For what it’s worth, my first thought was passion fruit too even though I had no idea what that fruit looks like. Weird.
@Rob: please contact me by email so we can talk about how you’d like your copy of the book, on paper in several months or as a $40 donation right now (may be better in case i forget *G*).
You are totally right Rob! Since passion fruit is a common fruit here in Brazil, the image was somewhat familiar for me, but I was wrong, hehe.
Well done!
Regards!
Hah, well played. I never met a cocoa pod in person, but I doubt I could distinguish them from across the room.
If you weren’t in Brazil, I’d let you borrow it on the weekends. 😉
Cheers,
Rob
I look forward to seeing it in print Steffen.
I’m sure this will definitely be an inspiration to those looking to use Cocos2d.
I really wish I had a copy when I started playing with Cocos2d two months ago.
Keep up the good work.
Ron
Thank you!
If you want you can give me feedback on the book as i write it. See here:
http://www.learn-cocos2d.com/2010/07/cocos2d-book-chapter-2-started/
😮 I hate you guys… 😀
oh well, I blame the timezone difference, I just got out of bed (ljubljana, slovenia)… and I so knew it was the fruit of a cocoa plant… :p
anyway, can’t wait for the book… 😉
I get 20 copies of the book, I think I’m going to run another competition after the book is out, and have the first 3 win a copy. I’ll sign them of course. 😉
Great news! But when the PDF version will be available? I hate apress’s password protected ebooks, but a PDF is much better for me than a printed book!
I have a number of Apress eBooks and they’re all password protected PDFs using the email address you used to buy them. I think it’s a minor nuisance and I have no issues reading the PDFs on my iPhone or iPad (GoodReader). Though I wish I had used a shorter email address when I registered. 😉
I am in the same situation, but I prefer a praprog’s style. The user who pays, otherwise, ends up being the only one negatively affected. I would prefer an access to the beta (pragprog) or MEAP (Manning). However:
1) do you have an idea about when the book will be available (‘Not Yet Published’ is very vague looong time)?
2) the blog’s followup notify system is working? I do not receive any comment notification (correct email)!
Thanks
As far as I know the book will be in the Apress Alpha program. I don’t know when that’ll start though.
Availability is listed on Amazon as December which makes sense, it should be out before Xmas.
Comment notification is a plugin. I’ll try another plugin now, to see if that works better.
A book that I must buy!!!
Hopefully one of two chapter can talk about basic concept.
Hi Steffen this is the exact book i need to learn cocos2d.I heard people on the blog saying they had read 5 of the chapters.How do i buy the book so that i can start reading right away.Thanks!!
You can buy the Alpha eBook from Apress, currently it has 11 Chapters available. As Alpha Book customer you get access to the final eBook for free. From the same page you can also download the book’s source code, whether you own the book or not.
Here’s the link, see also the sidebar with the book’s image to the right:
http://apress.com/ecommerce/cart?act=add&bid=1524