BlackBerry Development Fundamentals

Posted: October 14, 2009 | | Categories: BlackBerry

For those of you who are waiting for an update on my new BlackBerry development book called BlackBerry Development Fundamentals, I thought I'd let you know that it's almost done. I approved the final cover today (although we're waiting to hear back from RIM to see whether they have an issue with using the BlackBerry Curve 8900 device image on the cover) and I'm staring at the final manuscript - giving it one final review. The plan, as I understand it, is to finish the manuscript this week (Friday) and send it to the printer. It's expected to be out of the printer and in stock in the warehouse in about three weeks. They've got some little changes to make based upon my review this evening and apparently they're working on the index in parallel. I think, but I'm not sure that I'll be holding a printed copy of the book in my hot little hands in about a week. I can't wait.

We ended up not having enough room for all of the sample applications and the book's two appendices, so they'll all be up on the book's web site. The book weighed in at about 600 pages which was way more than the publisher bargained for. By removing some screen shots and moving some of the content to the book's web site, we got it down to about 450 pages. Still a lot of content when you look at it and I'm still amazed that I wrote so many pages. It was the most technical writing I've ever done (and I've done quite a bit of technical writing in my life). All told, when the book goes to the printer on Friday, it will have been 10 months and 15 days since I wrote the first word of the first chapter.

Local BlackBerry expert Ben Pijor asked to interview me for an article in an online publication, so I finished that up yesterday morning - expect to see it on or about the time the book pops into the warehouse. His questions were spot on and I really enjoyed answering them. Gave me a chance to give my thoughts on the BlackBerry space - I may even have made a prediction or two, who knows if they'll come true.

If you happen to be attending the BlackBerry Developer Conference, look me up. I'll be there attending sessions (nope, I didn't get selected as a speaker) and the publisher will likely be there with a stack of books for sale.

Here's the full cover in case you wanted to look at it:

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Header image: Photo by Randy Lu on Unsplash.