Learn the Google Maps API... In the Next Hour!
(Wed Nov 23, 2005) [/Books] #
I was honestly planning to get some "real" work done this afternoon. That is, until I made the mistake of opening the latest Pragmatic Friday: Google Maps API. Here comes the understatement of the year: This stuff is cool!
Seriously, I've been seeing these integrated maps pop up all over the 'net, but I never had the time to dig through blogs and whatnot to assemble the necessary pieces of information. And with technology this close to the hemmoraging edge and just outside my core interests, I'm inclined to sit back and wait for a concise write-up. Here's where I think the Pragmatic Fridays format really shines—timely, focused, and authoritative information that you can put to work immediately. (And at $8.50, I think it's a great value.)
Scott Davis has done a remarkable job bottling up everything I need to know to do web mapping like the cool kids. And truth be told, I'll still get real work done this afternoon. It took about an hour to read through the 71 pages of well-written explanations and comprehensive example code. Again, the Fridays format lends itself really well to this topic in that the PDF has external hyperlinks to running examples. I found those to be tremendously helpful.
So after just an hour, I'm confident I could put a dynamic Google Map in any web app.
Bravo, Scott!
Obligatory disclaimer: Despite my relationship with the Pragmatic Bookshelf, and contrary to popular belief, I don't make any money off sales of this book. I simply think it rocks!
