The Professional's Guide to Programming Joomla! 

With a lifelong interest in software development, and a significant career in software development in general, I found it quite easy to learn the syntax of a new language, and start being productive with a language which I'm not familiar with. However, having said that, the most difficult part of learning and getting to grips with a new language, is learning its API (Application Programming Interface). Each language, or framework has its own API which usually requires a good reference to enable you to be productive with the framework.

The API is quite a different story. It takes time to get familiar with an API and usually a good book eases the transition to a new framework. Having written a few extensions in Joomla 1.0, the switch to Joomla 1.5 was another hurdle.

Mastering Joomla 1.5 Development

The book Mastering Joomla 1.5 - Extension Development by James Kennard published under Packt Publishing is a refreshing help. The book was a very excellent resource for me to get to grips with the Joomla 1.5 API. The book has been written with developer's like me in mind, i.e. people who have knowledge of general web application programming but little or no knowledge of Joomla. The way the book has been sectioned is excellent, starting with a brief intro to Joomla (for completeness' sake), a Joomla programming Getting Started chapter and then delves into the API per se. It introduces the general classes Joomla uses, and how they relate to each other. Each chapter then introduces and describes more enhanced  functionality, such as accessing the database, developing components, the MVC model, and keeps on building, with each chapter building and adding to the knowledge learned in the previous chapters.

Besides being a good all round development book , its an excellent reference. When you are stuck on something, just find the relevant chapter, read through the examples, and soon you'll have enough information to get yourself going. The Appendix also has a full API reference with all classes and methods, which once again is a golden nugget.

Overall I think this book is a great book for anyone delving into the Joomla Development world, and highly recommend this book. 

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