I am a total javascript hater but reading just half of the "drawing with data" chapter made me go to the order page (just to see the print edition is not out yet). I really like the style.
seems like I will use d3 instead of gnuplot or gnumeric for even my simple graphing needs in the future. so much control in easy ways and of course that being automateble (as opposed to manually clicking in gnumeric). there might be other ways with python etc but D3 looks fun and hip and dynamic and useful for web stuff so I am sold.
Thanks for the kind words. My goal with this book is to make the content friendly and approachable. If I can convert a single JavaScript hater, then I have exceeded my own expectations. :-)
I'm having a quick read through (3 chapters so far) and I think it is beautifully written. (quite a few broken images in the SVG parts of chapter 3 at present)
Edit: just purchased the eBook, and the images are fine in the PDF.
I've been looking for additional resources to learn more about how to create nice visualizations, especially using D3. It seems to me that with D3 there is a lot of power, but this comes at the expense of a proportionately steep learning curve.
I've also found http://gis.stackexchange.com to be an excellent resource for finding techniques and getting help with visualizations programming.
This book is an expansion of his excellent D3 tutorials available here http://alignedleft.com/tutorials/d3/ (though now the free chapters from the book may be a better resource)
D3 really is a powerful way to visualize data on the web. Check out the gold standard of d3 charts, created by Mike Bostock: http://bl.ocks.org/mbostock.
UPDATE: Ebook available now, in all formats! Print version still won't come out until approx. March 2013, but you can pre-order.
The ebook version will be for sale via early release very soon (hopefully within a week or so). Note that the content is still unedited and quite rough, so that's what you'll get. But of course when you buy the ebook from O'Reilly, you get lifetime updates, including of course a copy of the "final" ebook once all the editing is done, around March 2013.
Currently, only the printed, paper edition is available for pre-order. Meaning, if you click the pre-order link now, you will get a paper copy, but not until March (or so).
Oh, interesting. That's how new this book is; when I (immediately) went to its page on O'Reilly, only the Print Pre-Order was enabled. Thanks for the update!
seems like I will use d3 instead of gnuplot or gnumeric for even my simple graphing needs in the future. so much control in easy ways and of course that being automateble (as opposed to manually clicking in gnumeric). there might be other ways with python etc but D3 looks fun and hip and dynamic and useful for web stuff so I am sold.