Creating Mac Widgets with Dashcode (FirstPress) [Paperback]

William Murray (Author), H. Chris Pappas (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1430209674 | ISBN-13: 978-1430209676 | Publication Date: April 30, 2008 | Edition: 1

With the advent of Mac OSX Leopard and Dashcode, it has become very easy to write your own widgets (small programs that typically do one task). Even business people can write little programs to do things like graph sales that automatically update. So this book is written for all users who may want to create their own widgets. The topic can be covered in detail and so we will cover Javascript integration and using other Mac scripts to integrate widgets in applications.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

The authors, Murray and Pappas, are professors of Computer Science in the S.U.N.Y system college in upstate New York. They have, over the past decades, authored over fifty books on topics ranging from assembly language, Visual Basic, C, C++, C#, Intel hardware, Java, HTML and more. They have also published numerous articles in Byte, PC Tech Journal, Dr. Dobb's, and RealBASIC magazines.

While they "grew up" in a PC environment, their real passion is for the MAC computer. Their earliest success involved Quine-McClusky logic circuit reductions written in Pascal on an Apple II computer. They have never forgotten their heritage.

Product Details

• Paperback: 89 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (April 30, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1430209674
• ISBN-13: 978-1430209676
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #820,816 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Dashcode book incomplete, May 16, 2008

By 

D. Davis "DD" (San Francisco,CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Creating Mac Widgets with Dashcode (FirstPress) (Paperback)

I got a copy of this book and read to the end. The last paragraph said "in the next 2 chapters......" ,but there were no next chapters. I wanted to learn about using program changes to add to widgets, but those chapters were not there. The information which was there was simply a minor rewrite of Apple's developer documentation, which is available online free (and which does describe how to change the programs). Books of this type usually expand on the free Apple material, and offer expert advice on how to make better use of the tool. This one does not - and so in my opinion, it is of no use.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Worthless, May 27, 2008

By 

MiniMossMan (Southampton, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Creating Mac Widgets with Dashcode (FirstPress) (Paperback)

As the other reviewer noted, the book is missing two chapters. What remains is utterly worthless. I contacted the publisher regarding the missing chapters, they apologised and said the following:

"We were informed that the chapters 4 and 5 was [sic] going to exist, but it ended up not making it to the book and should have been erased."

The book should never have been published in this state, it fails to cover the topics stated on the back cover.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't buy this it says nothing new, June 21, 2008

By 

Alastair Bramall-Watson "Alastair Bramall-Watson" (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Creating Mac Widgets with Dashcode (FirstPress) (Paperback)

I have nothing much different to say from the other 2 reviews here, but had to write something as i am so annoyed that i waited for this book to come out hoping it would give me further insight in addition to the available release notes from the Apple web site. It doesn't. This book is a waste of money. The two authors of this work claim to be Professors of Computer Science, that may well be the case, but i would expect something with a more in depth approach into the subject than just a rework of some free notes that anybody can download from two people who sign their qualifications as such on the book itself. Not cool guys, you should be ashamed of yourselves. That aside, there are 2 chapters missing, it claims that Javascript code will be discussed on the back cover, it doesn't. is that legal? The book should be removed from sale.