Apply modern reinforcement learning and deep reinforcement learning methods using Python and its powerful libraries Key Features * Your entry point into the world of artificial intelligence using the power of Python * An example-rich guide to master various RL and DRL algorithms * Explore the power of modern Python libraries to gain confidence in building self-trained applications Book Description Reinforcement Learning (RL) is the trending and most promising branch of artificial intelligence. This Learning Path will help you master not only the basic reinforcement learning algorithms but also the advanced deep reinforcement learning algorithms. The Learning Path starts with an introduction to RL followed by OpenAI Gym, and TensorFlow. You will then explore various RL algorithms, such as Markov Decision Process, Monte Carlo methods, and dynamic programming, including value and policy iteration. You'll also work on various datasets including image, text, and video. This example-rich guide will introduce you to deep RL algorithms, such as Dueling DQN, DRQN, A3C, PPO, and TRPO. You will gain experience in several domains, including gaming, image processing, and physical simulations. You'll explore TensorFlow and OpenAI Gym to implement algorithms that also predict stock prices, generate natural language, and even build other neural networks. You will also learn about imagination-augmented agents, learning from human preference, DQfD, HER, and many of the recent advancements in RL. By the end of the Learning Path, you will have all the knowledge and experience needed to implement RL and deep RL in your projects, and you enter the world of artificial intelligence to solve various real-life problems. This Learning Path includes content from the following Packt products: * Hands-On Reinforcement Learning with Python by Sudharsan Ravichandiran * Python Reinforcement Learning Projects by Sean Saito, Yang Wenzhuo, and Rajalingappaa Shanmugamani What you will learn * Train an agent to walk using OpenAI Gym and TensorFlow * Solve multi-armed-bandit problems using various algorithms * Build intelligent agents using the DRQN algorithm to play the Doom game * Teach your agent to play Connect4 using AlphaGo Zero * Defeat Atari arcade games using the value iteration method * Discover how to deal with discrete and continuous action spaces in various environments Who this book is for If you’re an ML/DL enthusiast interested in AI and want to explore RL and deep RL from scratch, this Learning Path is for you. Prior knowledge of linear algebra is expected.

Learn end-to-end automation testing techniques for web and mobile browsers using Selenium WebDriver, AppiumDriver, Java, and TestNG Key Features * Explore the Selenium grid architecture and build your own grid for browser and mobile devices * Use ExtentReports for processing results and SauceLabs for cloud-based test services * Unlock the full potential of Selenium to test your web applications. Book Description Selenium WebDriver 3.x is an open source API for testing both browser and mobile applications. With the help of this book, you can build a solid foundation and can easily perform end-to-end testing on web and mobile browsers.You'll begin by being introduced to the Selenium Page Object Model for software development. You'll architect your own framework with a scalable driver class, Java utility classes, and support for third-party tools and plugins. You'll design and build a Selenium grid from scratch to enable the framework to scale and support different browsers, mobile devices, and platforms.You'll strategize and handle a rich web UI using the advanced WebDriver API and learn techniques to handle real-time challenges in WebDriver. You'll perform different types of testing, such as cross-browser testing, load testing, and mobile testing. Finally, you will also be introduced to data-driven testing, using TestNG to create your own automation framework.By the end of this Learning Path, you'll be able to design your own automation testing framework and perform data-driven testing with Selenium WebDriver. This Learning Path includes content from the following Packt products: * Selenium WebDriver 3 Practical Guide - Second Edition by Unmesh Gundecha * Selenium Framework Design in Data-Driven Testing by Carl Cocchiaro What you will learn * Use different mobile and desktop browser platforms with Selenium 3 * Use the Actions API for performing various keyboard and mouse actions * Design the Selenium Driver Class for local, remote, and third-party grid support * Build page object classes with the Selenium Page Object Model * Develop data-driven test classes using the TestNG framework * Encapsulate data using the JSON protocol * Build a Selenium Grid for RemoteWebDriver testing * Build and use utility classes in synchronization, file I/O, reporting and test listener classes Who this book is for This Learning Path is ideal for software quality assurance/testing professionals, software project managers, or software developers interested in using Selenium for testing their applications. Professionals responsible for designing and building enterprise-based testing frameworks will also find this Learning Path useful. Prior programming experience in Java are TestNG is necessary.

Apply cloud native patterns and practices to deliver responsive, resilient, elastic, and message-driven systems with confidence Key Features * Discover best practices for applying cloud native patterns to your cloud applications * Explore ways to effectively plan resources and technology stacks for high security and fault tolerance * Gain insight into core architectural principles using real-world examples Book Description Cloud computing has proven to be the most revolutionary IT development since virtualization. Cloud native architectures give you the benefit of more flexibility over legacy systems. This Learning Path teaches you everything you need to know for designing industry-grade cloud applications and efficiently migrating your business to the cloud. It begins by exploring the basic patterns that turn your database inside out to achieve massive scalability. You’ll learn how to develop cloud native architectures using microservices and serverless computing as your design principles. Then, you’ll explore ways to continuously deliver production code by implementing continuous observability in production. In the concluding chapters, you’ll learn about various public cloud architectures ranging from AWS and Azure to the Google Cloud Platform, and understand the future trends and expectations of cloud providers. By the end of this Learning Path, you’ll have learned the techniques to adopt cloud native architectures that meet your business requirements. This Learning Path includes content from the following Packt products: * Cloud Native Development Patterns and Best Practices by John Gilbert * Cloud Native Architectures by Erik Farr et al. What you will learn * Understand the difference between cloud native and traditional architecture * Automate security controls and configuration management * Minimize risk by evolving your monolithic systems into cloud native applications * Explore the aspects of migration, when and why to use it * Apply modern delivery and testing methods to continuously deliver production code * Enable massive scaling by turning your database inside out Who this book is for This Learning Path is designed for developers who want to progress into building cloud native systems and are keen to learn the patterns involved. Software architects, who are keen on designing scalable and highly available cloud native applications, will also find this Learning Path very useful. To easily grasp these concepts, you will need basic knowledge of programming and cloud computing.

Explore the world of neural networks by building powerful deep learning models using the R ecosystem Key Features * Get to grips with the fundamentals of deep learning and neural networks * Use R 3.5 and its libraries and APIs to build deep learning models for computer vision and text processing * Implement effective deep learning systems in R with the help of end-to-end projects Book Description Deep learning finds practical applications in several domains, while R is the preferred language for designing and deploying deep learning models. This Learning Path introduces you to the basics of deep learning and even teaches you to build a neural network model from scratch. As you make your way through the chapters, you’ll explore deep learning libraries and understand how to create deep learning models for a variety of challenges, right from anomaly detection to recommendation systems. The book will then help you cover advanced topics, such as generative adversarial networks (GANs), transfer learning, and large-scale deep learning in the cloud, in addition to model optimization, overfitting, and data augmentation. Through real-world projects, you’ll also get up to speed with training convolutional neural networks (CNNs), recurrent neural networks (RNNs), and long short-term memory networks (LSTMs) in R. By the end of this Learning Path, you’ll be well versed with deep learning and have the skills you need to implement a number of deep learning concepts in your research work or projects. This Learning Path includes content from the following Packt products: * R Deep Learning Essentials - Second Edition by F. Wiley and Mark Hodnett * R Deep Learning Projects by Yuxi (Hayden) Liu and Pablo Maldonado What you will learn * Implement credit card fraud detection with autoencoders * Train neural networks to perform handwritten digit recognition using MXNet * Reconstruct images using variational autoencoders * Explore the applications of autoencoder neural networks in clustering and dimensionality reduction * Create natural language processing (NLP) models using Keras and TensorFlow in R * Prevent models from overfitting the data to improve generalizability * Build shallow neural network prediction models Who this book is for This Learning Path is for aspiring data scientists, data analysts, machine learning developers, and deep learning enthusiasts who are well versed in machine learning concepts and are looking to explore the deep learning paradigm using R. A fundamental understanding of R programming and familiarity with the basic concepts of deep learning are necessary to get the most out of this Learning Path.

If your application source code is overly verbose, it can be a nightmare to maintain. Write concise and expressive, type-safe code in an environment that lets you build for the JVM, browser, and more. Key Features *Expert guidance that shows you to efficiently use both object-oriented and functional programming techniques *Understand functional programming libraries, such as Cats and Scalaz, and use them to augment your Scala development *Perfectly balances theory and hands-on exercises, assessments, and activities Book Description This book teaches you how to build and contribute to Scala programs, recognizing common patterns and techniques used with the language. You’ll learn how to write concise, functional code with Scala. After an introduction to core concepts, syntax, and writing example applications with scalac, you’ll learn about the Scala Collections API and how the language handles type safety via static types out-of-the-box. You’ll then learn about advanced functional programming patterns, and how you can write your own Domain Specific Languages (DSLs). By the end of the book, you’ll be equipped with the skills you need to successfully build smart, efficient applications in Scala that can be compiled to the JVM. What you will learn *Understand the key language syntax and core concepts for application development *Master the type system to create scalable type-safe applications while cutting down your time spent debugging *Understand how you can work with advanced data structures via built-in features such as the Collections library *Use classes, objects, and traits to transform a trivial chatbot program into a useful assistant *Understand what are pure functions, immutability, and higher-order functions *Recognize and implement popular functional programming design patterns Who this book is for This is an ideal book for developers who are looking to learn Scala, and is particularly well suited for Java developers looking to migrate across to Scala for application development on the JVM.

Use an open source firewall and features such as failover, load balancer, OpenVPN, IPSec, and Squid to protect your network Key Features *Explore pfSense, a trusted open source network security solution *Configure pfSense as a firewall and create and manage firewall rules *Test pfSense for failover and load balancing across multiple WAN connections Book Description While connected to the internet, you’re a potential target for an array of cyber threats, such as hackers, keyloggers, and Trojans that attack through unpatched security holes. A firewall works as a barrier (or ‘shield’) between your computer and cyberspace. pfSense is highly versatile firewall software. With thousands of enterprises using pfSense, it is fast becoming the world's most trusted open source network security solution. Network Security with pfSense begins with an introduction to pfSense, where you will gain an understanding of what pfSense is, its key features, and advantages. Next, you will learn how to configure pfSense as a firewall and create and manage firewall rules. As you make your way through the chapters, you will test pfSense for failover and load balancing across multiple wide area network (WAN) connections. You will then configure pfSense with OpenVPN for secure remote connectivity and implement IPsec VPN tunnels with pfSense. In the concluding chapters, you’ll understand how to configure and integrate pfSense as a Squid proxy server. By the end of this book, you will be able to leverage the power of pfSense to build a secure network. What you will learn *Understand what pfSense is, its key features, and advantages *Configure pfSense as a firewall *Set up pfSense for failover and load balancing *Connect clients through an OpenVPN client *Configure an IPsec VPN tunnel with pfSense *Integrate the Squid proxy into pfSense Who this book is for Network Security with pfSense is for IT administrators, security administrators, technical architects, chief experience officers, and individuals who own a home or small office network and want to secure it.

A fast-paced guide to putting your GeoServer-based application into fast, user-friendly, and secure production Key Features * Resolve bottlenecks, optimize data stores, and cluster server resources * Use identity management and authentication for a user-specific, secure web application * Go beyond traditional web hosting to explore the full range of hosting options in the cloud Book Description GeoServer is open source, server-side software written in Java that allows users to share and edit geospatial data. In this book, you'll start by learning how to develop a spatial analysis platform with web processing services. Then you'll see how to develop an algorithm by chaining together geospatial analysis processes, which you can share with anyone in the world. Next you'll delve into a very important technique to improve the speed of your map application—tile caching. Here, you'll understand how tile caching works, how to develop an effective tile cache-supported web service, and how to leverage tile caching in your OpenLayers web application. Further on, you'll explore important tweaks to produce a performant GeoServer-backed web mapping application. Moving on, you'll enable authentication on the frontend and backend to protect sensitive map data, and deliver sensitive data to your end user. Finally, you'll see how to put your web application into production in a secure and user-friendly way. You'll go beyond traditional web hosting to explore the full range of hosting options in the cloud, and maintain a reliable server instance. What you will learn * Develop a WPS-processing service to allow web-based geospatial data processing * Get to know important techniques to improve the speed of your web map application—tile caching, raster data optimization, and server clustering * Find out which GeoServer settings resolve bottlenecks * Develop an algorithm by chaining geospatial analysis processes together * Put your application into production with hosting, monitoring, and automated backup and recovery * Understand how to develop an effective tile cache-supported web service * Master techniques that ensure resilient server deployment Who this book is for This book is for anyone who wants to learn about advanced interfaces, security, and troubleshooting techniques in GeoServer. A basic understanding of GeoServer is required

If you are a web developer with some experience in JavaScript and want to enter the world of modern web applications, then this book is ideal for you. Learning how to leverage the three tools (Yo, Bower, and Grunt) in the Yeoman workflow will be perfect as your next step towards building scalable, dynamic, and modern web applications for just about any platform.

VMware vSphere 6.5: Deployment, Migration, Patch-Management

A solution-based guide to put your deep learning models into production with the power of Apache Spark Key Features * Discover practical recipes for distributed deep learning with Apache Spark * Learn to use libraries such as Keras and TensorFlow * Solve problems in order to train your deep learning models on Apache Spark Book Description With deep learning gaining rapid mainstream adoption in modern-day industries, organizations are looking for ways to unite popular big data tools with highly efficient deep learning libraries. As a result, this will help deep learning models train with higher efficiency and speed. With the help of the Apache Spark Deep Learning Cookbook, you’ll work through specific recipes to generate outcomes for deep learning algorithms, without getting bogged down in theory. From setting up Apache Spark for deep learning to implementing types of neural net, this book tackles both common and not so common problems to perform deep learning on a distributed environment. In addition to this, you’ll get access to deep learning code within Spark that can be reused to answer similar problems or tweaked to answer slightly different problems. You will also learn how to stream and cluster your data with Spark. Once you have got to grips with the basics, you’ll explore how to implement and deploy deep learning models, such as Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) and Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN) in Spark, using popular libraries such as TensorFlow and Keras. By the end of the book, you'll have the expertise to train and deploy efficient deep learning models on Apache Spark. What you will learn * Set up a fully functional Spark environment * Understand practical machine learning and deep learning concepts * Apply built-in machine learning libraries within Spark * Explore libraries that are compatible with TensorFlow and Keras * Explore NLP models such as Word2vec and TF-IDF on Spark * Organize dataframes for deep learning evaluation * Apply testing and training modeling to ensure accuracy * Access readily available code that may be reusable Who this book is for If you’re looking for a practical and highly useful resource for implementing efficiently distributed deep learning models with Apache Spark, then the Apache Spark Deep Learning Cookbook is for you. Knowledge of the core machine learning concepts and a basic understanding of the Apache Spark framework is required to get the best out of this book. Additionally, some programming knowledge in Python is a plus.

Leverage the power of Hyperledger Fabric to develop Blockchain-based distributed ledgers with ease About This Book ? Write your own chaincode/smart contracts using Golang on hyperledger network ? Build and deploy decentralized applications (DApps) ? Dive into real world blockchain challenges such as integration and scalability Who This Book Is For The book benefits business leaders as it provides a comprehensive view on blockchain business models, governance structure, and business design considerations of blockchain solutions. Technology leaders stand to gain a lot from the detailed discussion around the technology landscape, technology design, and architecture considerations in the book. With model-driven application development, this guide will speed up understanding and concept development for blockchain application developers. The simple and well organized content will put novices at ease with blockchain concepts and constructs. What You Will Learn ? Discover why blockchain is a game changer in the technology landscape ? Set up blockchain networks using basic Hyperledger Fabric deployment ? Understand the considerations for creating decentralized applications ? Learn the process of creating good business networks using Hyperledger ? Write Smart Contracts quickly with Hyperledger Composer ? Design transaction model and chaincode with Golang ? Deploy Composer REST Gateway to access the Composer transactions ? Discern how business network impacts your Hyperledger Fabric solutions In Detail Blockchain and Hyperledger technologies are hot topics. Hyperledger Fabric and Hyperledger Composer are open source projects that help organizations create private, permissioned blockchain networks. Applications that exploit them include finance, banking, supply chains, IoT, and much more. This book will be an easy reference to explore and build blockchain networks using Hyperledger technologies. This book will start by explaining the blockchain evolution, including an overview of relevant blockchain technologies. You will learn how to configure Hyperledger Fabric on a cloud platform. Understand the architectural components of Hyperledger Fabric, and how they are configured to build private blockchain networks, and applications that connect to them. You'll build up a network and application from scratch, starting with first principles. You'll learn how to implement smart contracts in chaincode and much more on the Hyperledger network. By the end of this book, you will be able to build and deploy your own decentralized applications using Hyperledger, addressing the key pain points encountered in the blockchain life cycle. Style and approach An easy-to-follow step by step guide which will help you get to grips with real world application of Hyperledger

Explore the best tools and techniques to create lightweight, maintainable, and scalable Python web services Key Features *Combine Python with different data sources to build complex RESTful APIs from scratch *Configure and fine-tune your APIs using the best tools and techniques available *Use command-line and GUI tools to test CRUD operations performed by RESTful Web Services or APIs Book Description Python is the language of choice for millions of developers worldwide that builds great web services in RESTful architecture. This second edition of Hands-On RESTful Python Web Services will cover the best tools you can use to build engaging web services. This book shows you how to develop RESTful APIs using the most popular Python frameworks and all the necessary stacks with Python, combined with related libraries and tools. You’ll learn to incorporate all new features of Python 3.7, Flask 1.0.2, Django 2.1, Tornado 5.1, and also a new framework, Pyramid. As you advance through the chapters, you will get to grips with each of these frameworks to build various web services, and be shown use cases and best practices covering when to use a particular framework. You’ll then successfully develop RESTful APIs with all frameworks and understand how each framework processes HTTP requests and routes URLs. You’ll also discover best practices for validation, serialization, and deserialization. In the concluding chapters, you will take advantage of specific features available in certain frameworks such as integrated ORMs, built-in authorization and authentication, and work with asynchronous code. At the end of each framework, you will write tests for RESTful APIs and improve code coverage. By the end of the book, you will have gained a deep understanding of the stacks needed to build RESTful web services. What you will learn *Select the most appropriate framework based on requirements *Develop complex RESTful APIs from scratch using Python *Use requests handlers, URL patterns, serialization, and validations *Add authentication, authorization, and interaction with ORMs and databases *Debug, test, and improve RESTful APIs with four frameworks *Design RESTful APIs with frameworks and create automated tests Who this book is for This book is for web developers who have a working knowledge of Python and would like to build amazing web services by taking advantage of the various frameworks of Python. You should have some knowledge of RESTful APIs.

Get started with designing your serverless application using optimum design patterns and industry standard practices About This Book ? Learn the details of popular software patterns and how they are applied to serverless applications ? Understand key concepts and components in serverless designs ? Walk away with a thorough understanding of architecting serverless applications Who This Book Is For If you're a software architect, engineer, or someone who wants to build serverless applications, which are non-trivial in complexity and scope, then this book is for you. Basic knowledge of programming and serverless computing concepts are assumed. What You Will Learn ? Comprehend the popular design patterns currently being used with serverless architectures ? Understand the various design options and corresponding implementations for serverless web application APIs ? Learn multiple patterns for data-intensive serverless systems and pipelines, including MapReduce and Lambda Architecture ? Learn how to leverage hosted databases, queues, streams, storage services, and notification services ? Understand error handling and system monitoring in a serverless architecture a serverless architecture ? Learn how to set up a serverless application for continuous integration, continuous delivery, and continuous deployment In Detail Serverless applications handle many problems that developers face when running systems and servers. The serverless pay-per-invocation model can also result in drastic cost savings, contributing to its popularity. While it's simple to create a basic serverless application, it's critical to structure your software correctly to ensure it continues to succeed as it grows. Serverless Design Patterns and Best Practices presents patterns that can be adapted to run in a serverless environment. You will learn how to develop applications that are scalable, fault tolerant, and well-tested. The book begins with an introduction to the different design pattern categories available for serverless applications. You will learn the trade-offs between GraphQL and REST and how they fare regarding overall application design in a serverless ecosystem. The book will also show you how to migrate an existing API to a serverless backend using AWS API Gateway. You will learn how to build event-driven applications using queuing and streaming systems, such as AWS Simple Queuing Service (SQS) and AWS Kinesis. Patterns for data-intensive serverless application are also explained, including the lambda architecture and MapReduce. This book will equip you with the knowledge and skills you need to develop scalable and resilient serverless applications confidently. Style and approach Readers will be taken through a set of specific software patterns and learn, in detail, how to apply these patterns and build working software on top of a serverless system. At each step along the way, the reader will learn about the subcomponents and subsystems which comprise the larger system and which may be used in the future to solve different types of challenges.

Leverage the power of PostgreSQL 10 to design, administer and maintain a high-performance database solution About This Book ? Obtain optimal PostgreSQL 10 database performance, ranging from initial design to routine maintenance ? Fine tune the performance of your queries and avoid the common pitfalls that can slow your system down ? Contains tips and tricks on scaling successful database installations, and ensuring a highly available PostgreSQL solution Who This Book Is For This book is designed for database administrators and PostgreSQL architects who already use or plan to exploit the features of PostgreSQL 10 to design and maintain a high-performance PostgreSQL database. A working knowledge of SQL, and some experience with PostgreSQL will be helpful in getting the most out of this book. What You Will Learn ? Learn best practices for scaling PostgreSQL 10 installations ? Discover the best hardware for developing high-performance PostgreSQL applications ? Benchmark your whole system – from hardware to application ? Learn by real examples how server parameters impact performance ? Discover PostgreSQL 10 features for partitioning and parallel query ? Monitor your server, both inside and outside the database ? Design and implement a good replication system on PostgreSQL 10 In Detail PostgreSQL database servers have a common set of problems that they encounter as their usage gets heavier and requirements get more demanding. Peek into the future of your PostgreSQL 10 database's problems today. Know the warning signs to look for and how to avoid the most common issues before they even happen. Surprisingly, most PostgreSQL database applications evolve in the same way—choose the right hardware, tune the operating system and server memory use, optimize queries against the database and CPUs with the right indexes, and monitor every layer, from hardware to queries, using tools from inside and outside PostgreSQL. Also, using monitoring insight, PostgreSQL database applications continuously rework the design and configuration. On reaching the limits of a single server, they break things up; connection pooling, caching, partitioning, replication, and parallel queries can all help handle increasing database workloads. By the end of this book, you will have all the knowledge you need to design, run, and manage your PostgreSQL solution while ensuring high performance and high availability Style and approach This book has been organized in such a manner that will help you understand basic PostgreSQL 10 performance tuning to an advanced-level configuration.

Learn how to write efficient, clean, and reusable code with Scala About This Book ? Unleash the power of Scala and apply it in the real world to build scalable and robust applications. ? Learn about using and implementing Creational, Structural, Behavioral, and Functional design patterns in Scala ? Learn how to build scalable and extendable applications efficiently Who This Book Is For If you want to increase your understanding of Scala and apply design patterns to real-life application development, then this book is for you.Prior knowledge of Scala language is assumed/ expected. What You Will Learn ? Immerse yourself in industry-standard design patterns—structural, creational, and behavioral—to create extraordinary applications ? See the power of traits and their application in Scala ? Implement abstract and self types and build clean design patterns ? Build complex entity relationships using structural design patterns ? Create applications faster by applying functional design patterns In Detail Design patterns make developers’ lives easier by helping them write great software that is easy to maintain, runs efficiently, and is valuable to the company or people concerned. You’ll learn about the various features of Scala and will be able to apply well-known, industry-proven design patterns in your work. The book starts off by focusing on some of the most interesting and latest features of Scala while using practical real-world examples. We will be learning about IDE’s and Aspect Oriented Programming. We will be looking into different components in Scala. We will also cover the popular "Gang of Four" design patterns and show you how to incorporate functional patterns effectively. The book ends with a practical example that demonstrates how the presented material can be combined in real-life applications. You’ll learn the necessary concepts to build enterprise-grade applications. By the end of this book, you’ll have enough knowledge and understanding to quickly assess problems and come up with elegant solutions. Style and approach The design patterns in the book are explained using real-world, step-by-step examples. For each design pattern, there are tips on when to use it and when to look for something more suitable. This book can also be used as a practical guide, showing you how to leverage design patterns effectively. We've designed the book to be used as a quick reference guide while creating applications.

Design accessible and creative games across genres, platforms, and development realities About This Book ? Implement the skills and techniques required to work in a professional studio ? Ace the core principles and processes of level design, world building, and storytelling ? Design interactive characters that animate the gaming world Who This Book Is For Whether you are a student eager to design a game or a junior game designer looking for your first role as a professional, this book will help you with the fundamentals of game design. By focusing on best practices and a pragmatic approach, Practical Game Design provides insights into the arts and crafts from two senior game designers that will interest more seasoned professionals in the game industry. What You Will Learn ? Define the scope and structure of a game project ? Conceptualize a game idea and present it to others ? Design gameplay systems and communicate them clearly and thoroughly ? Build and validate engaging game mechanics ? Design successful business models and prepare your games for live operations ? Master the principles behind level design, worldbuilding and storytelling ? Improve the quality of a game by playtesting and polishing it In Detail If you are looking for an up-to-date and highly applicable guide to game design, then you have come to the right place! Immerse yourself in the fundamentals of game design with this book, written by two highly experienced industry professionals to share their profound insights as well as give valuable advice on creating games across genres and development platforms. Practical Game Design covers the basics of game design one piece at a time. Starting with learning how to conceptualize a game idea and present it to the development team, you will gradually move on to devising a design plan for the whole project and adapting solutions from other games. You will also discover how to produce original game mechanics without relying on existing reference material, and test and eliminate anticipated design risks. You will then design elements that compose the playtime of a game, followed by making game mechanics, content, and interface accessible to all players. You will also find out how to simultaneously ensure that the gameplay mechanics and content are working as intended. As the book reaches its final chapters, you will learn to wrap up a game ahead of its release date, work through the different challenges of designing free-to-play games, and understand how to significantly improve their quality through iteration, polishing and playtesting. Style and approach A practical step by step guide to get you up and running with Game Design from scratch

Make the most of Kotlin by leveraging design patterns and best practices to build scalable and high performing apps About This Book ? Understand traditional GOF design patterns to apply generic solutions ? Shift from OOP to FP; covering reactive and concurrent patterns in a step-by-step manner ? Choose the best microservices architecture and MVC for your development environment Who This Book Is For This book is for developers who would like to master design patterns with Kotlin to build efficient and scalable applications. Basic Java or Kotlin programming knowledge is assumed What You Will Learn ? Get to grips with Kotlin principles, including its strengths and weaknesses ? Understand classical design patterns in Kotlin ? Explore functional programming using built-in features of Kotlin ? Solve real-world problems using reactive and concurrent design patterns ? Use threads and coroutines to simplify concurrent code flow ? Understand antipatterns to write clean Kotlin code, avoiding common pitfalls ? Learn about the design considerations necessary while choosing between architectures In Detail Design patterns enable you as a developer to speed up the development process by providing you with proven development paradigms. Reusing design patterns helps prevent complex issues that can cause major problems, improves your code base, promotes code reuse, and makes an architecture more robust. The mission of this book is to ease the adoption of design patterns in Kotlin and provide good practices for programmers. The book begins by showing you the practical aspects of smarter coding in Kotlin, explaining the basic Kotlin syntax and the impact of design patterns. From there, the book provides an in-depth explanation of the classical design patterns of creational, structural, and behavioral families, before heading into functional programming. It then takes you through reactive and concurrent patterns, teaching you about using streams, threads, and coroutines to write better code along the way By the end of the book, you will be able to efficiently address common problems faced while developing applications and be comfortable working on scalable and maintainable projects of any size. Style and approach This book explains design patterns in a step-by-step manner with clear and concise code examples

Learn how to implement the reactive programming paradigm with C++ and build asynchronous and concurrent applications About This Book ? Efficiently exploit concurrency and parallelism in your programs ? Use the Functional Reactive programming model to structure programs ? Understand reactive GUI programming to make your own applications using Qt Who This Book Is For If you’re a C++ developer interested in using reactive programming to build asynchronous and concurrent applications, you’ll find this book extremely useful. This book doesn’t assume any previous knowledge of reactive programming. What You Will Learn ? Understand language-level concurrency in C++ ? Explore advanced C++ programming for the FRP ? Uncover the RxCpp library and its programming model ? Mix the FP and OOP constructs in C++ 17 to write well-structured programs ? Master reactive microservices in C++ ? Create custom operators for RxCpp ? Learn advanced stream processing and error handling In Detail Reactive programming is an effective way to build highly responsive applications with an easy-to-maintain code base. This book covers the essential functional reactive concepts that will help you build highly concurrent, event-driven, and asynchronous applications in a simpler and less error-prone way. C++ Reactive Programming begins with a discussion on how event processing was undertaken by different programming systems earlier. After a brisk introduction to modern C++ (C++17), you’ll be taken through language-level concurrency and the lock-free programming model to set the stage for our foray into the Functional Programming model. Following this, you’ll be introduced to RxCpp and its programming model. You’ll be able to gain deep insights into the RxCpp library, which facilitates reactive programming. You’ll learn how to deal with reactive programming using Qt/C++ (for the desktop) and C++ microservices for the Web. By the end of the book, you will be well versed with advanced reactive programming concepts in modern C++ (C++17). Style and approach The book includes real-world problems that you will solve with the reactive programming model. It highlights the way event processing has evolved in the programming world.

Build enterprise-grade microservice ecosystems with intensive case studies using C# About This Book ? Learn to build message-based microservices ? Packed with case studies to explain the intricacies of large-scale microservices ? Build scalable, modular, and robust architectures with C# Who This Book Is For C# developers, software architects, and professionals who want to master the art of designing the microservice architecture that is scalable based on environment. Developers should have a basic understanding of.NET application development using C# and Visual Studio What You Will Learn ? Explore different open source tools within the context of designing microservices ? Learn to provide insulation to exception-prone function calls ? Build common messages used between microservices for communication ? Learn to create a microservice using our base class and interface ? Design a quantitative financial machine microservice ? Learn to design a microservice that is capable of using Blockchain technology In Detail C# is a powerful language when it comes to building applications and software architecture using rich libraries and tools such as .NET. This book will harness the strength of C# in developing microservices architectures and applications. This book shows developers how to develop an enterprise-grade, event-driven, asynchronous, message-based microservice framework using C#, .NET, and various open source tools. We will discuss how to send and receive messages, how to design many types of microservice that are truly usable in a corporate environment. We will also dissect each case and explain the code, best practices, pros and cons, and more. Through our journey, we will use many open source tools, and create file monitors, a machine learning microservice, a quantitative financial microservice that can handle bonds and credit default swaps, a deployment microservice to show you how to better manage your deployments, and memory, health status, and other microservices. By the end of this book, you will have a complete microservice ecosystem you can place into production or customize in no time. Style and approach A step-by-step guide that enables readers to create a complete microservice ecosystem they can place into production or customize in no time.

This book will give you an all encompassing view of the domain name ecosystem combined with a comprehensive set of operations strategies. About This Book ? Manage infrastructure, risk, and management of DNS name servers. Get hands-on with factors like types of name servers, DNS queries and and so on. ? Practical guide for system administrators to manage mission-critical servers ? Based on real-world experience - Written by an industry veteran who has made every possible mistake within this field. Who This Book Is For Ideal for sysadmins, webmasters, IT consultants, and developers-anyone responsible for maintaining your organization's core DNS What You Will Learn ? Anatomy of a domain - how a domain is the sum of both its DNS zone and its registration data, and why that matters. ? The domain name ecosystem - the role of registries, registrars and oversight bodies and their effect on your names. ? How DNS queries work - queries and responses are examined including debugging techniques to zero in on problems. ? Nameserver considerations - alternative nameserver daemons, numbering considerations, and deployment architectures. ? DNS use cases - the right way for basic operations such as domain transfers, large scale migrations, GeoDNS, Anycast DNS. ? Securing your domains - All aspects of security from registrar vendor selection, to DNSSEC and DDOS mitigation strategies. In Detail Managing your organization's naming architecture and mitigating risks within complex naming environments is very important. This book will go beyond looking at “how to run a name server” or “how to DNSSEC sign a domain”, Managing Mission Critical Domains & DNS looks across the entire spectrum of naming; from external factors that exert influence on your domains to all the internal factors to consider when operating your DNS. The readers are taken on a comprehensive guided tour through the world of naming: from understanding the role of registrars and how they interact with registries, to what exactly is it that ICANN does anyway? Once the prerequisite knowledge of the domain name ecosystem is acquired, the readers are taken through all aspects of DNS operations. Whether your organization operates its own nameservers or utilizes an outsourced vendor, or both, we examine the complex web of interlocking factors that must be taken into account but are too frequently overlooked. By the end of this book, our readers will have an end to end to understanding of all the aspects covered in DNS name servers. Style and approach The book is divided into two parts, the first part looks at the wider domain name ecosystem: registries, registrars and oversight policies. The second and larger part goes into operations. Every aspect of naming is considered from the viewpoint of how this affects ones domains, what are the ramifications of different operating methods as portfolios scale.

Find out how to create visually stunning and feature-rich applications by empowering Python's built-in Tkinter GUI toolkit About This Book ? Explore Tkinter's powerful features to easily design and customize your GUI application ? Learn the basics of 2D and 3D animation in GUI applications. ? Learn to integrate stunning Data Visualizations using Tkinter Canvas and Matplotlib. Who This Book Is For This book will appeal to developers and programmers who would like to build GUI-based applications. Knowledge of Python is a prerequisite. What You Will Learn ? Implement the tools provided by Tkinter to design beautiful GUIs ? Discover cross-platform development through minor customizations in your existing application ? Visualize graphs in real time as data comes in using Tkinter's animation capabilities ? Use PostgreSQL authentication to ensure data security for your application ? Write unit tests to avoid regressions when updating code In Detail Tkinter is a lightweight, portable, and easy-to-use graphical toolkit available in the Python Standard Library, widely used to build Python GUIs due to its simplicity and availability. This book teaches you to design and build graphical user interfaces that are functional, appealing, and user-friendly using the powerful combination of Python and Tkinter. After being introduced to Tkinter, you will be guided step-by-step through the application development process. Over the course of the book, your application will evolve from a simple data-entry form to a complex data management and visualization tool while maintaining a clean and robust design. In addition to building the GUI, you'll learn how to connect to external databases and network resources, test your code to avoid errors, and maximize performance using asynchronous programming. You'll make the most of Tkinter's cross-platform availability by learning how to maintain compatibility, mimic platform-native look and feel, and build executables for deployment across popular computing platforms. By the end of this book, you will have the skills and confidence to design and build powerful high-end GUI applications to solve real-world problems. Style and approach This is a comprehensive guide that explores the essential Tkinter features and modules and implements them in building real-world cross-platform GUI applications