IT programming books related reviews
Product: Book Hardcover
Title: Oracle8i Certified Professional SQL & PL/SQL Exam Guide
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
Authors: Jason S. Couchman
Rating: 5/5
Title: Oracle8i Certified Professional SQL & PL/SQL Exam Guide
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
Authors: Jason S. Couchman
Rating: 5/5
At the first glance, it covers both DBA and OCP. Contents are well organized. A sample test cd is also included. You may pass the first part with it easily.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Oracle PL/SQL Program Units
Publisher: Course Technology
Authors: Joan Casteel
Rating: 5/5
Title: Oracle PL/SQL Program Units
Publisher: Course Technology
Authors: Joan Casteel
Rating: 5/5
This is a text book - this book is written specifically for college classes. Any books you see that are published by Course Technology are text books.
This book is written in a format that user's with only SQL knowledge and are brand new to PL/SQL can learn the fundamentals of PL/SQL programming. The text covers all the concepts for the Oracle9i PL/SQL program units certification exam. Every chapter contains hands-on exercises to illustrate each concept. The data files for the book can be downloaded from the publishers web site. Chapters covering dynamic SQL and programming with Oracle object technology is also included.
Thanks for your interest!
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Microsoft(r) SQL Server(tm) 2000 Analysis Services Step by Step
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: OLAP Train, Reed Jacobson
Rating: 2/5
Title: Microsoft(r) SQL Server(tm) 2000 Analysis Services Step by Step
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: OLAP Train, Reed Jacobson
Rating: 2/5
The book covers Analysis Services quite well if you are willing to go through the steps that they have for each section. As the name implies it steps you through examples and is NOT a reference guide by any means. It is also not a step by step guide that you can just read. You must be working through the examples while you read or you will get lost pretty fast because many examples build on previous ones. Their coverage of MDX is fairly weak unless you need exactly what they query on. Other than that they cover the topics pretty well.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Brian Larson
Rating: 2/5
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Brian Larson
Rating: 2/5
Brian Larsen made an excellent start to his book, SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services. Chapter 3, for example, may be the best concise explanation I've ever read of database fundamentals. But it goes downhill from there. The basics of the SQL Server Reporting Services program is fairly well covered, and the examples and exercises are excellent - but they come with only the barest explanations as to how the report works, or why the program works this way. From the standpoint of the SQL expert, this book may be enough - but for the person who wants to be able to design and use the reports drawn from that database, there's not enough. Microsoft hypes the Reporting Services program as being well-suited for the non-SQL expert. This book doesn't help much; for example, Larsen gives short shrift to the graphic query designer, preferring instead to write his own SQL queries. This is fine if you're an SQL expert - but the cover of the book says I don't need to know a lot about programming. Many features of the program are undescribed. Many others are referred to, but with minimal explanation as to how the feature works, or why we might want to use it. In many cases, I'm unable to fathom why certain features might be useful, or how to accomplish certain goals. For example, what do "details groups" do in a list data region? I _think_ this might be a useful feature - but this book doesn't cover it. When Brian covers SQL stored procedures, the author simply types one in - without ANY explanation as to what it does or why it does it. It's a nice magic trick - but what I need is a book that covers the secrets _behind_ the tricks. It's a good book, _IF_ you're an SQL expert. I'm not. This book doesn't really meet my needs.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: The Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: Ken Henderson
Rating: 5/5
Title: The Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: Ken Henderson
Rating: 5/5
This book is dynamite! I was blown away by all the code. It's a treasure trove of good SQL that you can put to use immediately. I also really liked the epigraphs at the start of each chapter. They're humorous and right on the money.My favorite chapters are:Performance TuningTransactionsUndcoumented T-SQLCursorsI have all the SQL books out there and this one is hands-down the best. If you want to *really* know Transact-SQL, this book belongs in your library.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Apache Server 2.0: A Beginner's Guide
Publisher: Osborne/McGraw-Hill
Authors: Katherine Wrightson, Kate Wrightson
Rating: 3/5
Title: Apache Server 2.0: A Beginner's Guide
Publisher: Osborne/McGraw-Hill
Authors: Katherine Wrightson, Kate Wrightson
Rating: 3/5
While this book does cover the software mentioned in its title, it spends a lot of time with the Apache 1.3 series. In fact, Apache 2.0 was still in beta when the book was published so the author seems a little apprehensive with the material.It is nice as a general overview, and contains a lot of good "filler" such as an appendix on common Unix commands and Unix text editors.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Beginning PHP 5 and MySQL E-Commerce: From Novice to Professional
Publisher: Apress
Authors: Cristian Darie, Mihai Bucica
Rating: 4/5
Title: Beginning PHP 5 and MySQL E-Commerce: From Novice to Professional
Publisher: Apress
Authors: Cristian Darie, Mihai Bucica
Rating: 4/5
I like the book - the language - the examples. I'm new to PHP so I didn't understand the implications of the requirement to have PHP5 vs PHP4. Chapter 1 and 2 code examples worked OK with some minor tweeking (My host has PHP4xx). Chapter 3 is another story. I've looked around and most hosting companies have 4xx. I'm guessing this will change soon, but not sure if I should wait or fork out $$ to change host.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Advanced PHP Programming
Publisher: Sams
Authors: George Schlossnagle
Rating: 4/5
Title: Advanced PHP Programming
Publisher: Sams
Authors: George Schlossnagle
Rating: 4/5
This is the 3rd PHP book I've read. In my opinion, a professional PHP programmer can find a lot of useful things in this book about serious programming in PHP. The disadvantages of the book, however, are:
1. many errors in the code
2. also the code is not organized very well (it is not plug 'n' play)
3. the sort of difficult language (for non-English speaking readers)
Product: Book Paperback
Title: .NET Enterprise Design with Visual Basic .NET and SQL Server 2000
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Jimmy Nilsson, Jimmy Nilsson
Rating: 5/5
Title: .NET Enterprise Design with Visual Basic .NET and SQL Server 2000
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Jimmy Nilsson, Jimmy Nilsson
Rating: 5/5
First of all this book is not about learning a new language syntax! The book is also not filled with code listings. Code fragments are just printed if they have added value in the book. The author provides code examples separately (provided with comments). So it is not a book that the fellow below is looking for (a book that teaches him how to contact SQL Server from Visual Basic .NET)The book is focused on people that want to learn more about building (large scale) enterprise applications using the Microsoft .NET platform. I personally think this book is as well suited for architects as well as more code addicted people.
The author provides guidelines and patterns for developing and designing data centric N-tier enterprise applications using the .NET platform (using ADO.NET, COM+/.NET Component services, VB.NET/C#) and SQL Server (including T-SQL). Some subjects being discussed in this book: where to put business rules, how to implement these business rules, a new data access pattern, concurrency control, transactions etc.
The book also provides guidelines (not just on the end of the book!) for dealing with testing, error handling and preparing for debugging so it has a positive impact on quality as well as productivity.
The author uses VB.NET for coding examples. I personally prefer coding using C#, but I don't find it inconvenient that the code is in VB.NET.
I like the author's way of writing and the structure of the book. I like the way he describes the pros and cons for solutions and the influences on performance, productivity, scalability and extensibility. He also describes his own experiences (not just theory).
The book gives you guidelines (not only how but also why) so you can evaluate for yourself what will be the best solution for your situation (after all, every advantage has a disadvantage).I found this book very helpful. It is a long time ago I read an ICT related book from beginning to end!
Product: Book Hardcover
Title: MCSE/MCSD: SQL Server 7 Database Design Study Guide
Publisher: Sybex Inc
Authors: Kevin Hough
Rating: 2/5
Title: MCSE/MCSD: SQL Server 7 Database Design Study Guide
Publisher: Sybex Inc
Authors: Kevin Hough
Rating: 2/5
When my company went to MS SQL 7 I wanted a source that tells me what I needed in a complete but easy to understand manner. This book does it in a manner that everyone should be able to take advantage of. I'm using this book so much at work and home that I bought a second copy.
