| |  | Dedication |
| |  | Acknowledgments |
| |  | About the Author |
| |  | Letter from the Series Editor |
| |  | Introduction |
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|  | What's in This Book? |
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|  | Why Learn Another Language? |
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|  | What's on the CD-ROM? |
| |  |
Part ONE:
Introducing High-Level Languages |
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|  |
Chapter 1.
High-Level Language Overview |
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|  | High-Level Language Roots |
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|  | How programming Languages Work |
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|  | Low-Level Languages |
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|  | Today's High-Level Languages |
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|  | The Pros of High-Level Languages |
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|  | Cons of High-Level Languages |
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|  | A Brief History of Structured Programming |
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|  | Introducing Python |
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|  | Introducing Lua |
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|  | Introducing Ruby |
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|  | Summary |
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|  | Questions and Answers |
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|  | Exercises |
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|  |
Chapter 2.
Python, Lua, and Ruby Language Features |
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|  | Syntactical Similarities of Python, Lua, and Ruby |
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|  | Hello World Samples |
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|  | Summary |
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|  | Questions and Answers |
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|  | Exercises |
| |  |
Part TWO:
programming with Python |
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|  |
Chapter 3.
Getting Started with Python |
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|  | Python Executables |
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|  | Python Debuggers |
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|  | Python Language Structure |
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|  | Creating a Simple user Interface in Python |
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|  | A Simple GUI with Tkinter |
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|  | Memory, Performance, and Speed |
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|  | Summary |
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|  | Questions and Answers |
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|  | Exercises |
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|  |
Chapter 4.
Getting Specific with Python Games |
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|  | The Pygame Library |
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|  | Python Graphics |
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|  | Sound in Python |
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|  | Networking in Python |
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|  | Putting It All Together |
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|  | Summary |
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|  | Questions and Answers |
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|  | Exercises |
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|  |
Chapter 5.
The Python Game Community |
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|  | Engines |
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|  | Graphics |
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|  | Commercial Games |
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|  | Beyond Python |
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|  | Summary |
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|  | Question and Answer |
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|  | Exercises |
| |  |
Part THREE:
programming with Lua |
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|  |
Chapter 6.
programming with Lua |
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|  | Lua Executables and Debuggers |
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|  | Language Structure |
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|  | Memory, Performance, and Speed |
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|  | Summary |
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|  | Questions and Answers |
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|  | Exercises |
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|  |
Chapter 7.
Getting Specific with Games in Lua |
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|  | LuaSDL |
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|  | Gravity: A lua SDL Game |
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|  | The lua c API |
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|  | Summary |
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|  | Questions and Answers |
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|  | Exercises |
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|  |
Chapter 8.
The lua Game Community |
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|  | Game Engines |
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|  | Graphics |
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|  | The Games Themselves |
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|  | Beyond Lua |
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|  | Summary |
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|  | Exercises |
| |  |
Part FOUR:
programming with Ruby |
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|  |
Chapter 9.
Getting Started with Ruby |
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|  | Debuggers |
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|  | Language Structure |
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|  | Memory, Performance, and Speed |
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|  | Summary |
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|  | Questions and Answers |
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|  | Exercises |
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|  |
Chapter 10.
Getting Started with Ruby Games |
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|  | FXRuby |
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|  | Ruby and OpenGL |
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|  | Ruby and SDL |
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|  | Summary |
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|  | Questions and Answers |
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|  | Exercises |
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|  |
Chapter 11.
The Ruby Game Community |
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|  | Ruby and Game Engines |
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|  | Ruby and Graphics |
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|  | Ruby and Games |
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|  | Beyond Ruby |
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|  | Summary |
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|  | Questions and Answers |
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|  | Exercises |
| |  |
Part FIVE:
The Wrap Up |
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|  |
Chapter 12.
Using Python, Ruby and lua in Development |
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|  | High-Level Languages in the Development Cycle |
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|  | Extending Python, Lua, and Ruby |
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|  | Python versus lua Versus Ruby |
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|  | Summary |
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|  | Exercises |
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|  |
Appendix A.
History of Computer Programming |
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|  |
Appendix B.
Meet the Family |
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|  | ABC |
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|  | Ada |
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|  | AFNOR |
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|  | C |
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|  | C++ |
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|  | Cobol |
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|  | Eiffel |
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|  | FORTRAN |
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|  | GNU Octave |
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|  | Java |
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|  | Icon |
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|  | Modula |
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|  | Pascal |
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|  | Perl |
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|  | PHP |
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|  | Prolog |
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|  | PureBasic |
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|  | Smalltalk |
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|  | Squeak |