I finished copy edits on my JavaScript Cookbook, which now enters the production process.
The first half of the book focuses on the basic components of JavaScript, while the latter half gets into the more complex material. I touch on the basic JavaScript objects, such as String and Number, but also spend a considerable amount of time covering new ECMAScript 5 and HTML5 scripting features: HTML5 drag and drop, postMessage, the Files API, worker threads, the wonderful new object methods, and so on.
I devoted one chapter to covering ARIA, Accessible Rich Internet Applications, as well as some other accessibility features. The more I work with ARIA, the more I view it as more of a rendering semantics than something purely for screen readers. For a data person like myself, ARIA is a very comfortable technology to use. I’ll have more on ARIA in later writings at MyTech.
Speaking of which, I’ve added ARIA landmarks to my web sites. Use View->Source to look for the role attribute, which is how ARIA landmarks are added. It was easy to update the Drupal templates to incorporate the new material. Unfortunately, the pages don’t validate, but I no longer care about validation. Frankly, the days of trying to code your pages to meet some validation criteria are over. Nowadays, pragmatism is the word in web development.
I am at work on my next book, but it’s not going to be for O’Reilly. Instead, I’m going to try my hand at self-publication, which is why I’m spending so much time working with ePub and other eBook formats. I’m also trying to strengthen my self-editing skills. After 18 books, I’ve become dependent on copy editors—my writing has become sloppy, and full of typos. Speaking of which, I strongly recommend, Paula LaRocque’s “The Book on Writing: The Ultimate Guide to Writing Well.” LaRocque’s book has proven invaluable as I root out my bad writing habits.