Coding Roblox Games Made Easy. The ultimate guide to creating games with Roblox Studio and Lua programming

Zander Brumbaugh

Roblox is a global virtual platform like no other for both playing and creating games. With well over 150 million monthly active users, Roblox hosts all genres of games that can be played by other members of the community using the Lua programming language. Not only can you create games for free, but you can also earn considerable sums of money if from the success of your games, and become part of the vast and supportive developer circle that provides excellent opportunities for networking in a tight-knit community.With this practical book, you'll get hands-on experience working on the Roblox platform. You'll start with an overview of Roblox development and then understand how to use Roblox Studio. As you progress, you'll gradually learn everything you need from how to program in Roblox Lua to creating Obby and Battle Royale games. Finally, you'll delve into the logistics of game production, focusing on optimizing the performance of your game by implementing impressive mechanics, monetization, and marketing practices.By the end of this Roblox book, you'll be able to lead or work with a team to bring your gaming world to life, and extend that experience to players around the world.

Blender 3D Printing Essentials. Learn 3D printing using the free open-source Blender software. This book gives you both an overview and practical instructions, enabling you to learn how to scale, build, color, and detail a model for a 3D printer

Gordon Fisher, Ton Roosendaal

Like computing, 3D printing has been around for decades but it was expensive and was only used for making complex prototypes. Now, prices have dropped and third-party printing services such as Shapeways have become available, making the technology available to everyone.Blender is an open source modeling and animation program popular in the 3D printing community. 3D printing demands more of a modeler than animation or virtual reality. The model maker must engineer their model to work in the real world. They must keep in mind the particular needs of the materials and printers that they are planning to use to print their model. This practical guide gives Blender users all the information they need to design high-quality 3D printed objects. With a solid exploration of the 3D modeling process, design considerations for 3D printing, plus step-by-step exercises, you will soon be comfortable making 3D objects for real-world enjoyment. Starting with an overview of 3D printing, this guide moves onto to precision measurement, fixing problems in a 3D model, and how to make it light and strong enough for real-world use.You will learn how to scale, build, and detail a model for a 3D printer. You will learn to color and decorate it, as well as making parts precisely in the size you want them, so that multi-part objects fit together smoothly. You will also learn tips on saving money when you have printed your model.With the help of this guide, you will be able to complete your project and learn how to export the file so it is ready for a variety of 3D printers.

Mastering NServiceBus and Persistence. Design and build various enterprise solutions using NServiceBus while utilizing persistence enterprise objects

Richard L Helton

ASP.NET Core 9 Web API Cookbook. Over 60 hands-on recipes for building and securing enterprise web APIs with REST, GraphQL, and more

Luke Avedon, Garry Cabrera

Discover what makes ASP.NET Core 9 a powerful and versatile framework for building modern web APIs that are both scalable and secure. This comprehensive, recipe-based guide leverages the authors’ decade-long experience in software development to equip developers with the knowledge to create robust web API solutions using the framework's most powerful features.Designed for intermediate to advanced .NET developers, this cookbook contains hands-on recipes that demonstrate how to efficiently build, optimize, and secure APIs using this cutting-edge technology. You'll master essential topics, such as creating RESTful APIs, implementing advanced data access strategies, securing your APIs, creating custom middleware, and enhancing your logging capabilities. The book goes beyond traditional API development by introducing GraphQL, SignalR, and gRPC, offering insights into how these technologies can extend the reach of your APIs. To prepare you for real-world challenges, the recipes cover testing methodologies, cloud deployment, legacy system integration, and advanced concepts like microservices and Hangfire.By the end of this book, you’ll gain the expertise needed to build and manage enterprise-grade web APIs with ASP.NET Core 9.

Learn React Hooks. Build and refactor modern React.js applications using Hooks

Daniel Bugl

React Hooks revolutionize how you manage state and effects in your web applications. They enable you to build simple and concise React.js applications, along with helping you avoid using wrapper components in your applications, making it easy to refactor code.This React book starts by introducing you to React Hooks. You will then get to grips with building a complex UI in React while keeping the code simple and extensible. Next, you will quickly move on to building your first applications with React Hooks. In the next few chapters, the book delves into various Hooks, including the State and Effect Hooks. After covering State Hooks and understanding how to use them, you will focus on the capabilities of Effect Hooks for adding advanced functionality to React apps. You will later explore the Suspense and Context APIs and how they can be used with Hooks. Toward the concluding chapters, you will learn how to integrate Redux and MobX with React Hooks. Finally, the book will help you develop the skill of migrating your existing React class components, and Redux and MobX web applications to Hooks.By the end of this book, you will be well-versed in building your own custom Hooks and effectively refactoring your React applications.

Mastering Python Regular Expressions. For Python developers, this concise and down-to-earth guide to regular expressions

Victor Romero, Felix L Luis

Regular expressions are used by many text editors, utilities, and programming languages to search and manipulate text based on patterns. They are considered the Swiss army knife of text processing. Powerful search, replacement, extraction and validation of strings, repetitive and complex tasks are reduced to a simple pattern using regular expressions.Mastering Python Regular Expressions will teach you about Regular Expressions, starting from the basics, irrespective of the language being used, and then it will show you how to use them in Python. You will learn the finer details of what Python supports and how to do it, and the differences between Python 2.x and Python 3.x.The book starts with a general review of the theory behind the regular expressions to follow with an overview of the Python regex module implementation, and then moves on to advanced topics like grouping, looking around, and performance.You will explore how to leverage Regular Expressions in Python, some advanced aspects of Regular Expressions and also how to measure and improve their performance. You will get a better understanding of the working of alternators and quantifiers. Also, you will comprehend the importance of grouping before finally moving on to performance optimization techniques like the RegexBuddy Tool and Backtracking.Mastering Python Regular Expressions provides all the information essential for a better understanding of Regular Expressions in Python.

Mahara ePortfolios: Beginner's Guide. Create your own ePortfolio and communities of interest within an educational and professional organization with this book and

Thomas Bell, Derrin Kent, Richard Hand, Thomas W. Bell, ...

Mahara ePortfolios helps you to use software as you follow an experiential learning cycle. In Mahara you can:Plan your learning.Do what you do and gather evidence of your competence as you do those things.View and organize your work by structuring your data in easy-to-make (web)pages and (mini-website) collections of those pages.Reflect on your learning by use of professional journals, engaging feedback on your pages and establishing and engaging in online communities who share a similar interest.Mahara ePortfolios: Beginner's Guide is a step-by-step guide to develop a feature-rich and highly personal electronic portfolio. Form a digital repository of reflective journals, action learning plans, presentations, reports, images and videos. Easily share this with your friends, family, tutors, students, project team and others using this step-by-step guide written in a clear and easy to learn manner.This book guides you to build an impressive e-Portfolio and to work in professional communities of interest within a Mahara walled garden. It brings to life the key features of Mahara which will help thoughtful people to display their artefacts coherently and to engage with like-minded peers professionally.This book introduces you to exciting features of Mahara framework and helps you develop a feature-rich e-portfolio for yourself. You will see how easily you can create folders, upload multiple files like project documents, pictures and videos and share them with your friends. You will learn to set up single pages and collections of pages which organize these files, making these visible only to your own chosen peers, supervisors or friends. Then, you will allow people to give their inputs.You will learn to create journals, learning plans, your professional resume, group spaces and forums which help you get connected to the rest of the world. Customization and administration of your Mahara site will be easy after you have gone through this book. Imagine how good you will feel when you will see your knowledge, success, and ideas going live and available to your chosen audiences for their inputs.Mahara ePortfolios: Beginner's Guide is a step-by-step guide to building an impressive professional e-portfolio using Mahara. It covers the key features of Mahara that will help you set up your customized digital portfolio and display the artefacts in your preferred way allowing contribution from selected users only.

HashiCorp Terraform Associate (003) Exam Guide. Prepare to pass the Terraform Associate exam on your first attempt

Chandra Mohan Dhanasekaran, Manjunath H. Gowda

This HashiCorp Terraform Associate (003) exam guide simplifies technical content relating to the exam and helps you learn using real-world examples. The book is aligned with the latest exam objectives, which enables you to streamline your learning experience instead of referring to multiple sources for preparation. Moreover, the book is designed to serve as a one-stop solution for readers with varied levels of experience in Terraform.You'll learn how to efficiently provision and manage cloud and on-premises infrastructure using Terraform. As you progress, you’ll focus on essential commands, state management techniques, and best practices. Later chapters will show you how to harness the power of Terraform modules for code reusability and scalability. You’ll also gain insights into advanced topics such as debugging, troubleshooting, and leveraging Terraform Cloud and Terraform Enterprise for collaborative infrastructure management. This book provides you with lifetime access to supplementary practice resources such as mock exams, flashcards, and exam tips from experts.By the end of this book, you’ll have the knowledge and skills you need to confidently tackle the Terraform Associate certification exam and excel in your career.

Mastering BeagleBone Robotics. Master the power of the BeagleBone Black to maximize your robot-building skills and create awesome projects

Richard Grimmett

Learning Puppet. Build intelligent software stacks with the Puppet configuration management suite

Jussi Heinonen, Jussi Heinonen

Real-Time 3D Graphics with WebGL 2. Build interactive 3D applications with JavaScript and WebGL 2 (OpenGL ES 3.0) - Second Edition

Farhad Ghayour, Diego Cantor

As highly interactive applications have become an increasingly important part of the user experience, WebGL is a unique and cutting-edge technology that brings hardware-accelerated 3D graphics to the web. Packed with 80+ examples, this book guides readers through the landscape of real-time computer graphics using WebGL 2. Each chapter covers foundational concepts in 3D graphics programming with various implementations. Topics are always associated with exercises for a hands-on approach to learning.This book presents a clear roadmap to learning real-time 3D computer graphics with WebGL 2. Each chapter starts with a summary of the learning goals for the chapter, followed by a detailed description of each topic. The book offers example-rich, up-to-date introductions to a wide range of essential 3D computer graphics topics, including rendering, colors, textures, transformations, framebuffers, lights, surfaces, blending, geometry construction, advanced techniques, and more. With each chapter, you will level up your 3D graphics programming skills. This book will become your trustworthy companion in developing highly interactive 3D web applications with WebGL and JavaScript.

The Small Business' Guide to Social CRM. Build customer relationships that will accelerate your business

Craig M Jamieson

Modern Python Cookbook. The latest in modern Python recipes for the busy modern programmer

Steven F. Lott

Python is the preferred choice of developers, engineers, data scientists, and hobbyists everywhere. It is a great scripting language that can power your applications and provide great speed, safety, and scalability. By exposing Python as a series of simple recipes, you can gain insight into specific language features in a particular context. Having a tangible context helps make the language or standard library feature easier to understand.This book comes with over 100 recipes on the latest version of Python. The recipes will benefit everyone ranging from beginner to an expert. The book is broken down into 13 chapters that build from simple language concepts to more complex applications of the language. The recipes will touch upon all the necessary Python concepts related to data structures, OOP, functional programming, as well as statistical programming. You will get acquainted with the nuances of Python syntax and how to effectively use the advantages that it offers. You will end the book equipped with the knowledge of testing, web services, and configuration and application integration tips and tricks. The recipes take a problem-solution approach to resolve issues commonly faced by Python programmers across the globe. You will be armed with the knowledge of creating applications with flexible logging, powerful configuration, and command-line options, automated unit tests, and good documentation.

Azure Stack Hub Demystified. Building hybrid cloud, IaaS, and PaaS solutions

Richard Young

Azure Stack Hub is the on-premise offering from Microsoft, which provides Azure Cloud services within a customer's own data center. It provides consistent processes between on-site and the cloud, allowing developers to test locally and deploy to the cloud in exactly the same manner. Azure Stack Hub Demystified provides complete coverage of deploying, configuring, administrating, and running Microsoft Azure Stack Hub efficiently.Firstly, you will learn how to deploy Azure Stack Hub within an organization. As you progress, you'll understand configuration and the different services provided by the platform. The book also focuses on the underlying architecture and connectivity options for the modern data center. Later, you will understand various approaches to DevOps and their implementation, and learn key topics for the AZ-600 exam.By the end of this Azure book, you will have a thorough understanding of Azure Stack Hub and the services that are provided by the platform, along with the confidence and information you need to be able to pass the AZ-600 exam.

101 UX Principles. A definitive design guide

Will Grant

We want our UX to be brilliant. We want to create stunning user experiences. We want our UX to drive the success of our business with useful and usable software products. This book draws on the wisdom and training of Jakob Nielsen and Don Norman to help you get your UX right - in 101 ways!101 UX Principles shows you the 101 most important things you need to know about usability and design. A practical reference for UX professionals, and a shortcut to greatness for anyone who needs a clear and wise selection of principles to guide their UX success. Learn the key principles that drive brilliant UX design.Enjoy 101 Principles including ‘Good UX has a Beginning, a Middle, and an End’, ‘Make Your Links Look Like Links’, ‘Don't Use Obsolete Icons’, ‘Decide Whether an Interaction Should Be Obvious, Easy, or Possible’, ‘Test with Real Users’, ‘Making the most of fonts’, ‘Good UX for search results’, and ‘Show your user - don't tell your user!’“Good to read from beginning to end, and a nice dip-in-and-out text, the chapter titles reminded me of principles I don't even think about explicitly when I likely should. The book inspired me to start more explicitly articulating some of the principles I just take for granted.”- Elizabeth Churchill, Director of User Experience at Google“This is a great practical read. It is convenient to use as a reference when solving real UX problems. I would definitely recommend it as an introduction to UX, but also as a good reminder of best practices for more experienced designers.”- Anne-Marie Léger, Designer at ShopifySome more of the 101 UX Principles featured in this book:Work with user expectations not against themHow to build upon established metaphorsHow to arrange navigation elementsHow to introduce new ideas to your userMatching pagination and content structureWhen invention is not good for UXStriving for simplicityReducing user tasksWhat to make clickableMaking the most of fontsMaking your links look like linksPicking the right control for the jobData input and what users care aboutHow to handle destructive user actionsWhen color should not convey informationTappable areas and the size of fingersGetting payment details the right wayUse the standard e-commerce patternIf you really must use a flat designWhen to use progress bars or spinnersDropdowns the right and wrong wayHandling just-off-screen contentHow to do Hamburger menus rightWhen to hide Advanced SettingsGood UX for Notifications

Amazon Redshift Cookbook. Recipes for building modern data warehousing solutions - Second Edition

Shruti Worlikar, Harshida Patel, Anusha Challa, Ippokratis Pandis

Amazon Redshift Cookbook offers comprehensive guidance for leveraging AWS's fully managed cloud data warehousing service. Whether you're building new data warehouse workloads or migrating traditional on-premises platforms to the cloud, this essential resource delivers proven implementation strategies. Written by AWS specialists, these easy-to-follow recipes will equip you with the knowledge to successfully implement Amazon Redshift-based data analytics solutions using established best practices.The book focuses on Redshift architecture, showing you how to perform database administration tasks on Redshift. You'll learn how to optimize your data warehouse to quickly execute complex analytic queries against very large datasets. The book covers recipes to help you take full advantage of Redshift's columnar architecture and managed services. You'll discover how to deploy fully automated and highly scalable extract, transform, and load (ETL) processes, helping you minimize the operational effort that you invest in managing regular ETL pipelines and ensuring the timely and accurate refreshing of your data warehouse.By the end of this Redshift book, you'll be able to implement a Redshift-based data analytics solution by adopting best-practice approaches for solving commonly faced problems.