Programming Interactivity

Colophon

The animals on the cover of Programming Interactivity are guinea fowl (family Phasianidae, subfamily Numindinae). Sometimes known as guinea hen, wild guinea fowl originally hail from western Africa. Featherless heads with black crests and dark gray or deep blue plumage distinguish guinea fowl from other birds.

Domesticated guinea fowl (descended from Numida meleagris) make popular additions to farms, as farmers value the birds for their ability to control insects (guinea fowl dine on insects, leafy greens, and seeds). Farmers and other guinea fowl owners also appreciate the birds’ paranoid natures; guinea fowl will cry out at provocations as slight as the bark of a dog, the beep of a horn, or a stranger’s footsteps.

Their distinctive cries provide an easy way to distinguish the gender of the birds. While females and males both make a piercing “ah, ah, ah” sound when provoked, only the female can produce a two-syllable call that sounds as if she is saying “come back, come back, come back” or “buckwheat, buckwheat, buckwheat.”

Gourmands prize cooked guinea fowl for their lean, tender flesh, which possesses a less gamy flavor than pheasant, while others say the prepared bird tastes like chicken (and also a little bit like turkey).

The cover image is from The Riverside Natural History. The cover font is Adobe ITC Garamond. The text font is Linotype Birka; the heading font is Adobe Myriad Condensed; and the code font is LucasFont’s TheSansMonoCondensed.