{"product_id":"2940014078337","title":"Linux Journal February 2012","description":"A quick overview of what's in this Web Development issue:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e*Create Web Apps with Catalyst and Perl\u003cbr\u003e*Intro to the Sinatra Micro-Framework\u003cbr\u003e*HTML5 for Audio Applications\u003cbr\u003e*Basic Web Design with Drupal 7\u003cbr\u003e*Interview with Stephen Wolfram\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDetailed Overview: More Than Dark Rooms and Red Lights\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDeveloping photographs used to be a mysterious process that took place in\u003cbr\u003erooms lit like horror films, using pans of dangerous chemicals. From those\u003cbr\u003ecreepy rooms eventually emerged beautiful photographs of literally\u003cbr\u003eeverything under the sun. Web development is surprisingly similar. If you\u003cbr\u003ereplace the dangerous chemicals with a clacking keyboard and the red\u003cbr\u003elights with the blue glow of an LCD screen, they're just about the same.\u003cbr\u003eThis month, we delve into the mystical world of Web development, which turns\u003cbr\u003eordinary tags and scripts into the beautiful Web sites we visit every day.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eReuven M. Lerner is right at home with our focus this month and shows us\u003cbr\u003eSinatra. No, he doesn't teach us to be crooners; instead, he demonstrates\u003cbr\u003ethe micro-framework that makes small Web apps a breeze to create. If you\u003cbr\u003eneed to do something small, and Ruby seems like overkill, give Sinatra a try. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDave Taylor explains how to make a small program this month as well,\u003cbr\u003ebut his script is a little more nefarious. If you want to be a lying,\u003cbr\u003echeating dog when you play Scrabble against your friends, Dave can help you\u003cbr\u003eout. He shows how to make a shell script that finds words based on the\u003cbr\u003eletters you have. As a purely educational endeavor, it's a great article, but\u003cbr\u003eas of now, I will no longer play Words With Friends\u003cbr\u003ewith any Linux Journal readers!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKyle Rankin continues his series on GPU-powered password cracking. Even if\u003cbr\u003eyou're not interested in learning to brute-force attack passwords, I\u003cbr\u003erecommend reading his article. It will convince you to use a strong\u003cbr\u003epassword quicker than any warning I might give you. Don't tell Kyle I told\u003cbr\u003eyou, but I watched him enter his password once at a conference. It's just a\u003cbr\u003ebunch of asterisks! \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI got into the Web-themed spirit this month too. This month we're launching a\u003cbr\u003ebrand-new column, written by yours truly. The Open-Source Classroom is\u003cbr\u003ean education-focused column, and this month, I break down the venerable\u003cbr\u003eMoodle software package. Moodle has matured so much since we last covered\u003cbr\u003eit, I felt it deserved some attention.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRuby on Rails is a very popular Web framework, but Henry Van Styn knows\u003cbr\u003ethat it's not the only show in town. He describes how to develop Web\u003cbr\u003eapplications with Catalyst and Perl. Regardless of the framework you use to\u003cbr\u003edevelop, an application is only as good as the server hosting it. Martin\u003cbr\u003eKalin shows us the nitty-gritty of Web servers and explains\u003cbr\u003emultiprocessing, multithreading and evented I\/O. The Internet demands a\u003cbr\u003elot from our Web servers, and Martin helps us understand exactly how those\u003cbr\u003edemands are met.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePossibly bigger than even the Web 2.0 buzz of a few years ago is the\u003cbr\u003etransition to HTML5. Although to most folks it's just a bunch of geek jargon,\u003cbr\u003efor Web programmers it means user interaction like never before. Paul\u003cbr\u003eFreitas shows how to take advantage of HTML5 to serve up audio. No, we\u003cbr\u003edon't mean those annoying MIDI files playing when the page loads, but\u003cbr\u003erather using plain-old HTML tags to play audio on your Web site. If it\u003cbr\u003esounds too simple to be true, you'll want to read Paul's article.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat if you want to develop a Web site, but you're not a programmer? That's\u003cbr\u003ewhere content management systems like Drupal come into play. Kenneth P. J.\u003cbr\u003eDyer walks through designing a Web site with Drupal 7. The learning curve\u003cbr\u003efor using Drupal traditionally has been pretty steep, but with version 7,\u003cbr\u003ethat's starting to change. Kenneth teaches how things work in Drupal\u003cbr\u003eand gets us started on our way to developing a powerful and flexible\u003cbr\u003eWeb site.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWe never alienate our non-developer readers in issues like this, and this\u003cbr\u003emonth is no different. We have tons of UpFront articles,\u003cbr\u003eproduct announcements and even some handy tips to make your Linux life a\u003cbr\u003elittle easier. In fact, this month James Gray had an opportunity to\u003cbr\u003einterview Stephen Wolfram. Yes, that Stephen Wolfram. Whether you're a\u003cbr\u003emath nut who loves Mathematica or are fascinated by the Wolfram|Alpha\u003cbr\u003ecomputational knowledge engine, this is an interview you won't want to\u003cbr\u003emiss.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSo until next month, keep clacking those keyboards. If turning on a red light\u003cbr\u003ewill help you develop Web sites, by all means, feel free to do so. The\u003cbr\u003eonly dangerous chemical we recommend, however, is caffeine. If you want to\u003cbr\u003edrink your coffee out of developing trays, well, I guess that's up to you.\u003cbr\u003eEither way, we hope you enjoy this issue! ––Shawn Powers","brand":"Linux Journal","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47145915908336,"sku":"2940014078337","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940014078337_p0.jpg?v=1763600270","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940014078337","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}