Free book on coding

Here’s a lovely internet publishing story that we should all support. Daniel Shiffman, a professor of the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University, has made his book 'The Nature of Code' free to read online under a Creative Commons license. Bugs can be reported via GitHub, where you can download the book's code.

Born from a passion for programming, the book is a coder's joy. It focuses on the programming strategies and techniques behind computer simulations of natural systems using Processing. It's a fascinating subject, although you’ll need a maths or a coding foundation to follow most of it.

If you like the book you can buy a draft PDF for a name-your-price sum (with donations to the Processing Foundation). There’s also a print version available for $29.95 from CreateSpace and Amazon.

The Nature Of Code, authored by Daniel Shiffman, is available from natureofcode.com now.

This showcase was originally published in .net magazine issue 236.

Now read these!

• 40 amazing examples of HTML5
• 30 web design secrets to boost your skills!
• 101 CSS and JavaScript tutorials to power up your skills