I'm about halfway through 'Build You Own Lisp' and I'm really enjoying it. Each chapter builds on the last by adding something new to the same project (and thereby explaining some new concept). I find that the books I'm least likely to bail on are the ones that lead me through the building of one big project like this. What are some of the best titles in this little subgenre?
Michael Hartl's Rails tutorial (<a href="https://www.railstutorial.org/" rel="nofollow">https://www.railstutorial.org/</a>) is a great example of this.<p>It'll run you through building a twitter clone and introduce you to git, heroku, a bit of CSS/HTML, and even goes into AJAX a bit.<p>I can't recommend it enough to people looking to get into rails.
TECS: "The Elements Of Computing Systems"
<a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/elements-computing-systems" rel="nofollow">https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/elements-computing-systems</a><p>In this book you build a (virtualized) computer. It is one of the best books I ever read.
What a delightful coincidence! I just posted the next chapter on my in-progress book "Crafting Interpreters" which walks you through implementing an interpreter (well, two actually) from scratch, a chapter at a time:<p><a href="http://www.craftinginterpreters.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.craftinginterpreters.com/</a><p>I really liked "Build Your Own Lisp" too. Fun book. :)
Miguel Grinberg's "Flask Web Development" [1] is an excellent introduction Python-based web development. You build a Twitter-clone. The book is an adaptation of the authors 18-part tutorial on the same topic [2].<p>[1] <a href="http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920031116.do" rel="nofollow">http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920031116.do</a><p>[2] <a href="https://blog.miguelgrinberg.com/post/the-flask-mega-tutorial-part-i-hello-world" rel="nofollow">https://blog.miguelgrinberg.com/post/the-flask-mega-tutorial...</a>
Linux From Scratch: <a href="http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/" rel="nofollow">http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/</a><p>Goes through building a Linux system from the ground up, and gives a pretty thorough overview of why everything is working the way that it is.
"Physically Based Rendering" walks you through the theory behind, and the implementation of, a photo-realistic rendering system (not real-time).<p>An extremely thorough guide to ray tracing.<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Physically-Based-Rendering-Third-Implementation/dp/0128006455/ref=la_B0034NX0WA_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1487268089&sr=1-1" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Physically-Based-Rendering-Third-Impl...</a>
Orchestrating Docker.<p>I don't know if it's one of the best, but it teaches Docker concepts with a single project, and as you progress through chapters, you will find different ways you can deploy applications using Docker containers.<p><a href="https://www.packtpub.com/virtualization-and-cloud/orchestrating-docker" rel="nofollow">https://www.packtpub.com/virtualization-and-cloud/orchestrat...</a>
Eloquent Javascript - <a href="http://eloquentjavascript.net/" rel="nofollow">http://eloquentjavascript.net/</a><p>You build 5 projects through the book - a programming language, paint program, a dom game and a skill sharing website using node js.
Aaron Reed has a terrific book, "Creating Interactive Fiction with Inform 7" (<a href="http://inform7.textories.com" rel="nofollow">http://inform7.textories.com</a>) that walks you through building a complete (and fairly sophisticated) text adventure.<p>Inform 7 is very much a niche programming language, but it's really interesting and unusual, well worth investigating if you want to broaden your horizons. Vaguely Prolog-like, but written in natural language.
Not a book but Casey Muratori's Handmade Hero series is really interesting. It's a from scratch tutorial on building game in C on windows but delves into many interesting programming topic that would be useful outside game development.<p><a href="https://handmadehero.org/" rel="nofollow">https://handmadehero.org/</a>
Programming Phoenix Productive |> Reliable |> Fast. It goes through building a website that starts from the beginning and goes up to Phoenix Channels (websockets) for a real-time video streaming application that lets users comment on the video at specific times and it is broadcasted to all other users.
so, this isn't exactly what you are after; but, I've always had a bunch of little exercises and projects that I just kind of go through in a new language/platform as a learning exercise.<p>Examples:<p>1. given a large file, or set of files, write a program/routine to count the number of times an arbitrary sequence of characters appears. No regular expressions or other pattern matching helpers from a library/sdk, you have to do it all yourself. This one is pretty small, but there's lots of opportunity for optimization.<p>2. build a link shortener service with some analytics/tracking.<p>3. write a simple tokenizer for whatever syntax/language you feel like. JSON is a super easy one.<p>4. write a little website crawler. multithread it. implement rate limiting (something more advanced than random sleeps; e.g. token bucket, etc...).<p>5. make a couple easy data structures yourself. If the language/platform you are working in has the same structure in an SDK (or there's a good open source one), write yours to the same interface and then run it through their test suite. e.g. linked lists, queues, etc...
If you are interested in assembly language concepts and don't mind something slightly archaic, I thoroughly enjoyed this book: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Peter-Nortons-Assembly-Language-Book/dp/0136619010" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Peter-Nortons-Assembly-Language-Book/...</a><p>It goes through lessons that build up to a pretty good interactive disk editor (DSKPATCH) written entirely in x86 assembly.<p>Its the book that got 12 year old me out of the BASIC ghetto.
A Retargetable C Compiler: Design and Implementation<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Retargetable-Compiler-Design-Implementation/dp/0805316701" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Retargetable-Compiler-Design-Implemen...</a><p>A most excellent grimoire.
<a href="https://github.com/thewhitetulip/web-dev-golang-anti-textbook" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/thewhitetulip/web-dev-golang-anti-textboo...</a><p>You can learn how to build a todo list manager in Go.<p>This book is about building a webapp from scratch without using a framework.
I remember seeing a C++ (Borland) book that was entirely about building a flight simulator. Google is betraying my attempts to find it though, and i'm not sure who the actual publisher was. That was during the 90's when I was 14 or something so it was a bit above my head, but I remember almost buying it anyway.<p>Edit: It may have been this: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Build-Your-Own-Flight-Sim/dp/1571690220" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Build-Your-Own-Flight-Sim/dp/15716902...</a>
The classical Design Patterns book has a first chapter which takes you through the design of a text editor using the patterns provided in the book. If what you do is read the chapter and then the patterns referenced as you go and build the text editor based on their design you get exactly the sort of thing you are looking for. Its a different way of doing it than the entire book but arguably just in a different format for what is otherwise a reference book.<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Design-Patterns-Elements-Reusable-Object-Oriented/dp/0201633612/ref=mt_hardcover?_encoding=UTF8&me=" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Design-Patterns-Elements-Reusable-Obj...</a>
> Each chapter builds on the last by adding something new to the same project<p>I bet this is what you are looking for:<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Compiler-Construction-Using-Java-JavaCC/dp/0470949597" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Compiler-Construction-Using-Java-Java...</a><p>This book taught me how to write a compiler.<p>Here is its description from its website:<p>* Comprehensive treatment of compiler construction.<p>* JavaCC and Yacc coverage optional.<p>* Entire book is Java oriented.<p>* Powerful software package available to students that tests and evaluates their compilers.<p>* Fully defines many projects so students can learn how to put the theory into practice.<p>* Includes supplements on theory so that the book can be used in a course that combines compiler construction with formal languages, automata theory, and computability theory.<p>If you already know C or C++ or Java then this book is for you. In my opinion, you can learn many computer science concepts and be able to apply to your field. The book will teach you how to write a grammar then write a parser from it then eventually be able to improve it as you go on reading and doing the exercises. It was a great moment when I feel comfortable writing recursive functions since grammars are composed of recursive functions. You'll also learn a nice way on how you can get your compiler to generate assembly code. Another feature of the book is the chapter on Finite Automata wherein you'll learn how to convert between regular expressions, regular grammars and finite automata and eventually write your own 'grep' which was for me is a mind-blowing experience. There are lots of other stuffs in this book that you could learn. Thank you Anthony J. Dos Reis for writing great books for people like me.
This is a slightly different response from others, but I think fits the intent of the question: The Better Explained Guide to Calculus: <a href="https://betterexplained.com/calculus/" rel="nofollow">https://betterexplained.com/calculus/</a><p>Kalid basically iterates the series around the concept of deriving the formula for the area/perimeter of a circle, and then builds up to deriving the surface area/volume of a sphere. The focus throughout is the building up of an intuition of calculus before leaping into formulas. Even with uni-level calculus, I did strengthen my intuition of what's going on by reading through his book.<p>It's pretty fun, and I actually spent some time visualizing the calculus of geometric solids afterward i.e <a href="http://www.trinco.io/blog/derivative-of-x3" rel="nofollow">http://www.trinco.io/blog/derivative-of-x3</a>
Hacking the Xbox by Andrew 'bunnie' Huang. (<a href="http://hackingthexbox.com/" rel="nofollow">http://hackingthexbox.com/</a>) The book is free and can be downloaded online.<p>It goes from adding the LED to the XBox to tapping the security mechanism. Plus, the original Xbox is cheap nowadays too, so you won't have to shell out a lot of money doing it. Local craigslist should have plenty of them.
<i>Physically Based Rendering – From Theory to Implementation</i> doesn't necessarily have the reader build a project, but it explains its reference implementation very well, and you could go ahead and write your own in parallel based on it. <a href="http://www.pbrt.org/" rel="nofollow">http://www.pbrt.org/</a>
Ray Tracing in One Weekend<p>Ray Tracing: The Next Week<p>Ray Tracing: The Rest of Your Life<p><a href="http://in1weekend.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow">http://in1weekend.blogspot.com/</a>
I haven't bought or started this yet, but this book on interpreters is on my todo list: <a href="https://interpreterbook.com/" rel="nofollow">https://interpreterbook.com/</a>
Make: Analog Synthesizers<p>Build an old-school analog music synth. Very DIY friendly, and great for electronics n00bs. The book is build around a project call the Noise Toaster, but you learn all the analog synth basics along the way. Fun stuff. Old school, and it isn't a wall-sized rack of Moog modules, but hey, good humor.
Test Driven Development with Python (<a href="http://www.obeythetestinggoat.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.obeythetestinggoat.com/</a>) teaches you to use Django and TDD practices to create a basic list web app.
Build Your Own AngularJS
<a href="https://teropa.info/build-your-own-angular/" rel="nofollow">https://teropa.info/build-your-own-angular/</a>
Web Development with Go (see <a href="https://www.usegolang.com" rel="nofollow">https://www.usegolang.com</a>) is based on starting with pretty minimal Go and web development experience and walking you through the process of building a complete web application.<p>I find this approach works well because you don't have to ask "why did he make that design decision" but instead I intentionally make common mistakes a beginner would make, wait until they become an issue, and then I demonstrate how we can fix that issue. As a result you really get to understand not only how to create a web app in Go but also why developers tend to follow different design patterns.<p>I said this in another comment, but it is based on Michael Hartl's Rails Tutorial. I think showing someone how to go from nothing to a full app is a great way to help them get into web development without the frustration that comes from piecing together blog posts/docs/trial&error.<p>If you are interested in Go I'd love to get your feedback :) and if it isn't obvious, I am the author of the book.
Practical Common Lisp
<a href="http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/" rel="nofollow">http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/</a><p>Filter spam, Parse binary files, catalog MP3s, stream MP3s over a network, and provide a Web interface for the MP3 catalog and server.
"Let's Build a Compiler"[1] by Jack Crenshaw is fantastic. It uses Pascal as the implementation language, but I used Rust, and while the book targets 68000 assembly, I compiled things to x86_64 assembly.<p>[1]: <a href="http://compilers.iecc.com/crenshaw/" rel="nofollow">http://compilers.iecc.com/crenshaw/</a>
For HTML & CSS: <a href="http://learn.shayhowe.com/html-css/" rel="nofollow">http://learn.shayhowe.com/html-css/</a> [0]
This is the project you build as you learn: <a href="http://learn.shayhowe.com/practice/organizing-data-with-tables/index.html" rel="nofollow">http://learn.shayhowe.com/practice/organizing-data-with-tabl...</a><p>[0] There's an e-book version too. Scroll the page down just a little bit.
Elixir in Action by Saša Jurić<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Elixir-Action-scaron-Juri-cacute/dp/161729201X" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Elixir-Action-scaron-Juri-cacute/dp/1...</a>
<a href="http://www.nand2tetris.org" rel="nofollow">http://www.nand2tetris.org</a><p>There is an associated book. Great intro to the fundamentals of computer engineering.
Ray Wenderlich's online tutorials on How to Make a Game Like Candy Crush <a href="https://www.raywenderlich.com/66877/how-to-make-a-game-like-candy-crush-part-1" rel="nofollow">https://www.raywenderlich.com/66877/how-to-make-a-game-like-...</a>
I bought this a year or two ago: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Tricks-Programming-Gurus-Advanced-Graphics-Rasterization/dp/0672318350" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Tricks-Programming-Gurus-Advanced-Gra...</a><p>It's basically a set of tutorials that lead you through the steps of building a software 3D graphics rasterizer. It covers rasterizing, lighting, shading, shadows, textures, etc, and the math behind each set of concepts. It's built on late-90s C and DirectX, but the capabilities used are covered by just about any game programming library. The author builds kind of an abstraction library on top of the DirectX code, and that's pretty easy to rewrite in whichever language and toolset you're comfortable with.
My book "Learning Swift" does this.<p>Swift 2 version: <a href="http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920045946.do" rel="nofollow">http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920045946.do</a><p>Swift 3 version: <a href="http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920053989.do" rel="nofollow">http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920053989.do</a><p>We build a note-taking app for iOS, macOS, and watchOS.
Not exactly a book but gitlet.js: <a href="http://gitlet.maryrosecook.com/docs/gitlet.html" rel="nofollow">http://gitlet.maryrosecook.com/docs/gitlet.html</a><p>About how to build a subset of git's functionality in NodeJS
'The Art of Monitoring' by James Turnbull (<a href="https://www.artofmonitoring.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.artofmonitoring.com/</a>)
I liked Take Off With Elixir, by Rob Conery. It walks you through writing a program for a fictional aerospace start-up. It also comes with a 3-hour companion video, which is good too.<p><a href="https://bigmachine.io/products/take-off-with-elixir/" rel="nofollow">https://bigmachine.io/products/take-off-with-elixir/</a>
I used the older React+Webpack version of <a href="https://survivejs.com/" rel="nofollow">https://survivejs.com/</a> to learn React recently. You build a small Kanban/Trello webapp.
Bill Hails implements Scheme in Perl, maybe interesting to compare the two books:
<a href="http://www.billhails.net/Book/" rel="nofollow">http://www.billhails.net/Book/</a>
Michael Hartl's Rails Tutorial (<a href="https://www.railstutorial.org/" rel="nofollow">https://www.railstutorial.org/</a>) leads you through Ruby, Rails, Git, and deployment to Heroku through two very small projects and one related larger project that takes up the bulk of the book.
<a href="http://www.helios32.com/resources.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.helios32.com/resources.htm</a><p>Radiosity: A Programmer's Perspective by Ian Ashdown is a full numerically accurate hemicube radiative transfer engine from start to finish. Now a free pdf.
One of my favourites: <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/little-schemer" rel="nofollow">https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/little-schemer</a>
I always thought "Building X in Y" would be a great brand for a series of books. There was a dBase III book in the mid 80's that I loved that took you though building an invoicing system for a fictional company. It wasn't just about learning the language/runtime but rather took you though the author's thought process and outlined the pros and cons of different approaches and db schemas.
My Nim book[1] is sort of like this. Instead of working on a single project, most chapters have a little project (for example a chat CLI app or a Twitter-like website) which teaches you different things about Nim.<p>1 - <a href="https://manning.com/books/nim-in-action?a_aid=niminaction&a_bid=78a27e81" rel="nofollow">https://manning.com/books/nim-in-action?a_aid=niminaction&a_...</a>
C++ design Patterns and derivatives pricing by Mark Joshi<p>He kinda takes a "Defense of Duffers Drift" approach towards designing iterative versions of the same project, slowly introducing concepts such as factories and singleton.
Richard Stevens' UNIX Network Programming books: <a href="http://amzn.to/2lmH8hy" rel="nofollow">http://amzn.to/2lmH8hy</a> The 1st volume at least is going through a simple TCP/IP telnet server and enhancing it with features as you go (single connection, multiple connection, forking, multi-threaded server), etc.
A bit late to the party, but I've been making by way though "Developing Games With Ruby" (<a href="https://leanpub.com/developing-games-with-ruby/read" rel="nofollow">https://leanpub.com/developing-games-with-ruby/read</a>)<p>It's really good and the game is actually pretty fun.
Big Nerd Ranch books - at least the Android one<p><a href="https://www.bignerdranch.com/books/" rel="nofollow">https://www.bignerdranch.com/books/</a>
Automate the boring stuff - Al Sweigart.<p>This book teaches you python through a series of example projects. You can get it online or order a physical copy and help support the author here:<p><a href="https://automatetheboringstuff.com/" rel="nofollow">https://automatetheboringstuff.com/</a>
One of the most memorable experiences of my life was building a small 2D RPG named Dungeon Of Despair from the book "Game Scripting Mastery" <a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/Game_Scripting_Mastery.html?id=q5jdl_LLreMC" rel="nofollow">https://books.google.ca/books/about/Game_Scripting_Mastery.h...</a> by Alex Varanese.<p>The game teaches you to build a simple game for Win32 from scratch. The graphics would be pretty dated now, but the scripting system for enemy AI and quests is a Turing-complete programming language. I learned more from that book than from my compiler course in university.
I have made a curated list for this post, feel free to contribute.
<a href="https://github.com/AlgoryL/Projects-from-Scratch" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/AlgoryL/Projects-from-Scratch</a>
Crafting interpreters. It's still a work in progress, but the chapters published so far are very good.<p><a href="http://www.craftinginterpreters.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.craftinginterpreters.com</a>
I remember The Unix Programming Environment by Kernighan and Pike as an excellent introduction to Unix shells and general Unix programming. IIRC, throughout the chapters, it has you build some kind of interactive command line music organizer, which really demonstrates how much you can get done with a few simple shell scripts.<p>Amazon link:<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Unix-Programming-Environment-Prentice-Hall-Software/dp/013937681X" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Unix-Programming-Environment-Prentice...</a>
"The Art of the Metaobject Protocol" leads you from a very thin layer on top of CLOS to a very rich layer of objects-oriented object implementations. It's a classic.
Erlang and OTP in Action
<a href="https://www.manning.com/books/erlang-and-otp-in-action" rel="nofollow">https://www.manning.com/books/erlang-and-otp-in-action</a>
You build an application with increasing complexity. There are some other applications that are built along the way to demonstrate some ideas in a smaller scope, but the overall structure of the book is designed around making one application better as you learn more about OTP.
Programming from the Ground Up teaches x86 assembler from first principles. All on a free OS (Linux using asm). There is a free version available online, but if you want to support the author you can buy it from amazon. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Programming-Ground-Up-Jonathan-Bartlett/dp/0975283847" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Programming-Ground-Up-Jonathan-Bartle...</a>
All the compiler construction and Scheme books from Nils Holm [0]<p><a href="http://t3x.org/index.html" rel="nofollow">http://t3x.org/index.html</a>
<i>Code</i> by Charles Petzold takes this approach to explaining how a computer works. By the end he has a working system with CPU, RAM, inputs, and outputs.
OK, you don't build a complete project, but it's a similar approach:<p>Think Stats: Probability and Statistics for Programmers
<a href="http://greenteapress.com/thinkstats/" rel="nofollow">http://greenteapress.com/thinkstats/</a><p>Here, you learn statistics by implementing statistics functions in Python along the way and use them to solve the questions in the book.
This was on HN recently, but I really enjoyed Robin Wieruch's react tutorial in which you build a HN like app: <a href="https://github.com/rwieruch/the-road-to-learn-react" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/rwieruch/the-road-to-learn-react</a>
Wondering why no one mentioned, LFS :)
It's not directly about building something in a concrete programming language but it's about build your own linux system.
<a href="http://www.linuxfromscratch.org" rel="nofollow">http://www.linuxfromscratch.org</a>
MEAN Web Development - great book, really nice to kick start with the MEAN stack.<p><a href="https://www.amazon.de/MEAN-Web-Development-Amos-Haviv/dp/1783983280" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.de/MEAN-Web-Development-Amos-Haviv/dp/178...</a>
django's tutorial has you creating a polling website: <a href="https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.10/intro/tutorial01/" rel="nofollow">https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.10/intro/tutorial01/</a>
<a href="http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920028093.do" rel="nofollow">http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920028093.do</a><p>Build your own legit Analog Synthesizer!!! Not software but it is an end to end project. Good little book.
Discover Meteor is like this, involves building a reddit clone type thing called Microscope(a reduced version of an actual product Telescope).<p><a href="https://www.discovermeteor.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.discovermeteor.com/</a>
I loved the MINIX book: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Operating-Systems-Design-Implementation-3rd/dp/0131429388" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Operating-Systems-Design-Implementati...</a>
Coincidentally I'm about halfway through writing a long Vue.js tutorial series where I build one project in this manner. Would love to hear more ideas about what people look for with this type of book.
1)- Sudoku Programming with C : <a href="http://www.apress.com/gp/book/9781484209967" rel="nofollow">http://www.apress.com/gp/book/9781484209967</a>
2)- Programming Sudoku : <a href="http://www.apress.com/gp/book/9781590596623" rel="nofollow">http://www.apress.com/gp/book/9781590596623</a>
I haven't read any of them though. They are on my list of "books to read in the future"
Anything by Manning that ends with "In Action". I volunteer to be a technical reviewer if there is a new technology I want to learn (and get a free physical book!)
I believe this is how education systems should be like. You learn about stuff your subject while dealing with a project to do. Makes learning so much fun and better.
<i>3D Game Engine Architecture</i> by David H. Eberly:<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Game-Engine-Architecture-Engineering-Applications/dp/012229064X" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Game-Engine-Architecture-Engineering-...</a><p>Not only is this a fantastic introduction to the math and the data structures involved in computer graphics, the book also walks you through the construction of an in-software renderer!
Maybe not best in the "build a project" genre, but about (Common) Lisp, you have Land of Lisp - in which you build several small games and sort of reuse some code between chapters, and Let Over Lambda, which does build its further code on top of earlier code, although it's more of an exercise in bending Lisp to your will than a well-defined project. I recommend both books; I found them very good.
I already answered about "The Art of the Metaobject Protocol" but then two more language-implementation-centric books came to mind today.<p>1. "Writing Compilers and Interpreters" by Ronald Mak
2. "Building an Optimizing Compiler" by Bob Morgan<p>Morgan's book is well sought after and out of print. It's one of the few books in the field for which the print edition prices keep climbing.
Not a book, but I loved this series about building a Pascal interpreter (currently 12 parts): <a href="https://ruslanspivak.com/lsbasi-part1/" rel="nofollow">https://ruslanspivak.com/lsbasi-part1/</a><p>It was always on my bucket list to learn to write programming languages, but it's very daunting - this made it easy to learn in bite-sized chunks.
Ben Rady's Serverless Single Page Apps is one I've enjoyed recently, maybe not something I'll use at work anytime soon though.<p><a href="https://pragprog.com/book/brapps/serverless-single-page-apps" rel="nofollow">https://pragprog.com/book/brapps/serverless-single-page-apps</a>
More hardware oriented I would suggest some of the new Raspberry Pi or Arduino based electronics kits, which are similar to books in that they provide a prescriptive path in to comprehending new areas through the satisfying and hand-on exploration of a defined project. Programming is involved too.
PHP and MySQL by example: you build an IMDB like website in a very progressive and beginner manner.<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/PHP-MySQL-Example-Ellie-Quigley/dp/0131875086" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/PHP-MySQL-Example-Ellie-Quigley/dp/01...</a>
I wrote Flexible Rails back in 2007 that did this:
<a href="https://www.manning.com/books/flexible-rails" rel="nofollow">https://www.manning.com/books/flexible-rails</a><p>I wouldn't read the book now though, since Flex, but the approach worked well.
I remember liking <a href="http://www.tangowithdjango.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.tangowithdjango.com/</a> .<p>It goes over building a link aggregating service using Django.<p>However, I also remember it being free. Doesn't seem to be an option with the most recent release.
A mostly dead technology, but does teach some general programming in the way you're asking: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/d/0596805632" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/d/0596805632</a>
I had an interface electronics course back in the day that was like this.<p>Bandit Algorithms book is sort of like this. starts out simple and touches different methods
Two decent ones for game development:<p><a href="https://howtomakeanrpg.com/" rel="nofollow">https://howtomakeanrpg.com/</a><p>Walks through building a JRPG-style game with Lua. Pretty impressive for the price, especially with all the royalty-free assets that are included.<p><a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Programming_an_RTS_Game_with_Direct3D.html?id=jVkmAQAACAAJ" rel="nofollow">https://books.google.com/books/about/Programming_an_RTS_Game...</a><p>A little dated now, (although DirectX 9 isn't quite dead yet), but this one has some pretty interesting topics. Good chapter on procedural terrain generation, some basic pathfinding, minimaps and fog-of-war.
I co-wrote a book on Flask that walks through the building and progressive refinement of a blog: <a href="https://www.packtpub.com/web-development/learning-flask-framework" rel="nofollow">https://www.packtpub.com/web-development/learning-flask-fram...</a>