Silverlight is a lightweight browser plug-in that frees your code from the traditional confines of the browser. It's a rules-changing, groundbreaking technology that allows you to run rich client applications right inside the browser. Even more impressively, it's able to host true .NET applications in non-Microsoft browsers (like...

Open source software, also known as free software, now offers a creative platform with world-class programs. Just ask the people who have completed high-quality projects or developed popular web 2.0 sites using open source desktop applications. This phenomenon is no longer underground or restricted to techies—there have been more than 61...

The new world of cloud computing needs data storage. CouchDB is the scalable, portable, simple database engine that is helping open source cloud architects put their data stores onto a firm foundation. Beginning CouchDB provides the tools to begin using this very powerful database engine without having to pay license fees for the...

This textbook offers an accessible and highly-effective approach which is characterised by the combination of the textbook with a detailed study guide on an accompanying CD. This study guide divides the whole learning task into small units which the student is very likely to master successfully. Thus he or she is asked to read and study a...

Ruby has built an enormous following of developers attracted by its intuitiveness, flexibility, and simplicity. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s .NET has grown and matured into a platform of unparalleled power. IronRuby brings them together, enabling developers to write elegant, efficient Ruby code that seamlessly...