Listen to Our Podcasts

07 May 04:36 Listen (duration 24:10)	Dave Thomas on Pragmatic Publishing and the Joy of Programming Join us as Daniel Steinberg interviews Pragmatic co-founder Dave Thomas. Dave explains a bit about how we started the publishing business, and our unique production process and its separation of content from presentation. You’ll hear all about reader involvement in our books, what makes a Pragmatic book, and Dave’s take on the book industry as a whole. Dave reminds us of why we’re in this business: for the joy and passion of programming.
23 Apr 09:39 Listen (duration 23:13)	Programming Groovy Making the hard stuff simpler Venkat Subramaniam, author of “Programming Groovy: Dynamic Productivity for the Java Developer” talks at length with Daniel Steinberg about coding in Groovy, metaprogramming, and choosing a language. You’ll learn when Groovy is a great choice, and when it’s not. Venkat shares how to use builders to relieve the tedium of XML processing, explains why metaprogramming is so hard in Java, and why type-safety isn’t what you think. Finally, Venkat explains how programming is a lot like a chainsaw.
09 Apr 09:00 Listen (duration 16:32)	FXRuby with Lyle Johnson Cross-platform GUIs in Ruby FXRuby is a cross-platform GUI for Ruby. Listen as Pragmatic editor Susannah Pfalzer interviews Lyle Johnson, the lead developer of FXRuby and author of the new book, “FXRuby: Create Lean and Mean GUIs with Ruby.” Lyle explains what you need to know before using FXRuby, some interesting aspects of FXRuby and the FOX toolkit, the target and message approach, automatic GUI updating, recommended guides to user interface design, and more!
26 Mar 00:00 Listen (duration 14:29)	Core Animation and the iPhone New interfaces. Cool. Easy. Daniel Steinberg interviews Bill Dudney, author of “Core Animation for OS X: Creating Dynamic Compelling User Interfaces”. Listen as Bill discusses user interfaces on the iPhone and desktop, and how you can develop using core animation on the desktop and apply it directly to iPhone development. Bill explains about using animated layers in 3D space, how Cocoa and Interface Builder avoid the trap of generated code stubs, the growing opportunities of internal fat-client apps on the iPhone platform, and opportunities in consulting for new rich user interfaces.
12 Mar 17:40 Listen (duration 28:52)	Mastering Dojo with Craig Riecke, Rawld Gill, and Alex Russell More than just Ajax Plumbing Pragmatic editor Jackie Carter talks to Craig Riecke, Rawld Gill, and Alex Russell, authors of the upcoming book, “Mastering Dojo: JavaScript and Ajax Tools for Great Web Experiences.” Dojo gives you more than just Ajax Plumbing: you get everything from easy-to-use widgets for a rich UI, to optimization and deployment. Dojo covers a surprising depth and breadth of functionality, combining the best of leading edge features and stable, corporate-friendly maturity. Listen as the authors discuss Dojo, the Dojo foundation, and how Dojo is brutally Pragmatic.
27 Feb 13:27 Listen (duration 20:39)	Rails for PHP Developers interview with Derek DeVries Using the best tool for the job Susannah Pfalzer interviews Derek DeVries, co-author of “Rails for PHP Developers.” Listen as Derek describes structure in PHP vs. Rails, web programming frameworks and feature cross-pollination. Derek suggests the best way to learn Rails, discusses development process and best practices, and describes using ActiveResource to let PHP and Rails coexist. Is Rails better than PHP? It’s all about using the right tool for the job at hand. Give a listen and Derek will explain.
13 Feb 03:00 Listen (duration 23:07)	Christophe Porteneuve on JavaScript Frameworks Why Javascript alone isn't enough Author Christophe Porteneuve explains what Prototype and script.aculo.us are, how they relate to Dojo, and why Javascript alone isn’t enough for modern applications. See how to smooth over browser incompatibilities, tame the wild DOM, and more.
19 Dec 13:14 Listen (duration 13:05)	Jeremy Sydik on Designing Accessible Web Sites Improve your website with these Top Ten Design Principles Pragmatic Editor Susannah Pfalzer interviews Jeremy Sydik, author of Design Accessible Web Sites. You’ll find that when you design your websites to be more accessible, the design is cleaner and more attractive to all of your visitors. Hear how you can best improve your whole website as Jeremy discusses accessibility and shares his Top Ten Design Principles for websites.
28 Nov 00:00 Listen (duration 20:18)	Johanna Rothman on how to "Manage It" Hope is not a methodology What should a manager actually do? What does multitasking really mean? What does an MBA qualify you for? Learn the answers to these and other critical questions as Johanna Rothman, author of “Manage It”, explains how to really make teams go faster, and discover the importance of practice, feedback, and fun. Plus Johanna reads an except from her Schedule Games chapter.
07 Nov 02:52 Listen (duration 11:19)	Michael Nygard Interview, Part Two And then it crashed... Join MIke Nygard, author of “Release It!” as he explains that 50% of datacenter outages are human-induced, and how to approach configuration and deployment the right way. As an extra bonus, listen to Mike read an excerpt from his new book.