IT programming books related reviews
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Professional SQL Server 7.0 Programming
Publisher: Wrox Press
Authors: Rob Vieira
Rating: 5/5
Title: Professional SQL Server 7.0 Programming
Publisher: Wrox Press
Authors: Rob Vieira
Rating: 5/5
This book was so good that I bought three more so everyone on my programming team had their own copy. It has an easy, conversational style of writing that makes the topic easy to conceive. It's great for all levels and is very useful as a reference book. It also cuts through alot of techo mumbo jumbo that you find in many other technical books. My advice is to start your studying for the MCDBA in this book, get the understanding of the topic, and then use other books to fill in additional deatil.I am hoping that Rob Viera gets to work and writes his next book about SQL2000. When he does, he has at least four more sales!
Product: Book Paperback
Title: MCSE Exam Notes: SQL Server 7 Administration
Publisher: Sybex Inc
Authors: Rick Sawtell, Lance Mortensen, Joseph L. Jorden
Rating: 4/5
Title: MCSE Exam Notes: SQL Server 7 Administration
Publisher: Sybex Inc
Authors: Rick Sawtell, Lance Mortensen, Joseph L. Jorden
Rating: 4/5
I was both disappointed and pleasantly suprised when I finished reading this book.As a study guide for exam 70-028, it doesn't go into enough detail all the time. In some parts it's very general, giving a high-level overview and in other parts it goes into great detail, telling you the exact menu selection (Tools - Replication - Configure ....) You need to have some experience with SQL Server to get the most out of this book. As I said, it will certainly supplement another more detailed study guide.However, I believe this books strength is that it WILL be used as a reference guide to working with SQL Server. The chapters are well laid out and topics are easy to locate. I use this book in the "real world" quite a bit.All in all, a very good book to have, but not the best source when you're studying for the exam
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Apache Jakarta-Tomcat
Publisher: Apress
Authors: James Goodwill
Rating: 4/5
Title: Apache Jakarta-Tomcat
Publisher: Apress
Authors: James Goodwill
Rating: 4/5
I have read James' other books, and enjoy how he writes. He doesn't treat the reader as an idiot like some of the other technical authors. He writes to the experienced developer who wants some insight into different areas. I found this book to be very helpful in diving in much deeper to Tomcat than what is available via technical documentation. No, it won't answer all of your deployment questions, but it will point you in the right direction.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Create Dynamic Webpages Using PHP & MySQL
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: David Tansley
Rating: 4/5
Title: Create Dynamic Webpages Using PHP & MySQL
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: David Tansley
Rating: 4/5
For a beginner like me the book was just great and I appreciated having the CD so I could easily copy and paste the code snippets.
It could have assumed more than just a linux audience as there were one or two difficulties I faced as a windows user.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Core PHP Programming: Using PHP to Build Dynamic Web Sites (2nd Edition)
Publisher: Pearson Education
Authors: Leon Atkinson
Rating: 2/5
Title: Core PHP Programming: Using PHP to Build Dynamic Web Sites (2nd Edition)
Publisher: Pearson Education
Authors: Leon Atkinson
Rating: 2/5
This book seems to have a very low content to page ratio. It uses a large font, wide margins. I counted several pages, and found it averaged around 100 words per page, making the book feel like more than it really is.I did not look at the CD. But the description of the CD seems to indicate that it pretty much has the standard fair of freeware suites like Apache, PHP, ... I downloaded the same stuff from NuSphere. NewShpere had a nice installation program that set up my PC, without my having to think.I take it that this book was meant primarily as a reference. The small amount of programming information in the front of the book was decidedly uninformative. I personally found the big red (somewhat terse) Professional PHP book to be a better reference manual.The book really does not succeed as an introduction to programming, nor does it succeed as a PHP tutorial. The are not many cut and paste examples for people looking to snag code.If you are looking for a large type PHP reference, then the book is okay. Personally, I wouldn't buy it.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: OCP Developer PL/SQL Program Units Exam Guide
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Steve O'Hearn
Rating: 5/5
Title: OCP Developer PL/SQL Program Units Exam Guide
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Steve O'Hearn
Rating: 5/5
This book covered everything on the exam and provided plentiful practice test questions. You don't need Self-Test Software when you have this book. I scored 52 out of 57 and I don't even work with Oracle. The one glaring problem with this book is numerous errors in the practice test, but they are easy to identify.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Professional SQL Server 2000 Programming
Publisher: Wrox
Authors: Robert Vieira
Rating: 5/5
Title: Professional SQL Server 2000 Programming
Publisher: Wrox
Authors: Robert Vieira
Rating: 5/5
This is really a great book on SQL Server 2000, with a lot of information, techniques, example that show a great subject's knowledge.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: SQL Server 7 Developer's Guide
Publisher: Osborne Publishing
Authors: Michael Otey, Paul Conte
Rating: 3/5
Title: SQL Server 7 Developer's Guide
Publisher: Osborne Publishing
Authors: Michael Otey, Paul Conte
Rating: 3/5
This 1000 page book is a collection of sections that feel largely cut and pasted from some manual. The rest could be written by a good secretary. Still, that would be of real use if you could find stuff; but the index is quite inadequate. There are two sections. The first half is administrative recipes, the second is programmer recipes. I give it a whole 3 stars because some of these admin recipes are useful. Like how to back up a database, some platitudes about performance, a little about cubes and replication, etc. SQL Server is a big topic; you can easily fill 400 pages just covering basics, and that's a worthwhile thing.But for a book that is supposed to be a developer's resource, in the end you get about 40 well ventilated pages that deal with the only current data access technique, namely ADO. There's a summary view of the SQL language and some rudimentary discussion of stored procedures. The rest of the developer stuff deals (superficially) with every piece of old technology, like Access, DAO, ODBC, RDO and DBLIB. There's a lot of filler; two page code quotes are followed by stultifying enumerations of what functions the code called. The Web and ASP? You get 60 flaccid pages in the last section; by the end of that chapter you are into deleting rows, and then onto 4 pages on Interdev, but there are, mercifully, lots of pitures. Why is it that they make you feel like you're lucky to even be getting that last chapter?The problem all around is that this is all very superficially treated, with a lot of white space, pages of double-spaced code, and pictures. I don't see what you could possibly develop, based on this book. If you have progressed to the point where you have doubts and questions, it's very unlikely you will find the answers here. This is more of a "don't rock the boat" sort of book, and it's an OK intro. $ is a little steep, considering that $ also buys you something the author put his heart and mind into, like "Pro SQL Server 7.0 Programming" by Robert Vieira. A more accurate title would be "A reluctant developer's introduction to SQL Server". If your favorite tools were VB3 and Access, and you think all these newfangled things like COM and OOP and Java and XML and UML are just "fads", then this is maybe the SQL book for you.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft SQL Server 7 in 10 Minutes (Sams Teach Yourself)
Publisher: Sams
Authors: William Robison, William Robinson
Rating: 4/5
Title: Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft SQL Server 7 in 10 Minutes (Sams Teach Yourself)
Publisher: Sams
Authors: William Robison, William Robinson
Rating: 4/5
I needed a quick way to get exposed to the basics of SQL Server 7.0 due to the nature of my most recent job. Therefore I spent some time shopping, looking for the options that would allow me to achieve this. Price was not my main concern, yet William Robinson's book from the '10 minutes' series by Sams, gave quick answers to most of my questions, in a very nicely structured way: in lessons you can digest 10 minutes at a time. Major drawbacks: it refers too often to a Database you might not have installed in your machine (i.e. if you're reading the book at home in order to apply the acquired knowledge at work), PLUS there is an unnecessary sidetrack in lessons 4-8 (in my opinion). If you're using SQL Server, I don't think you'll be using it as much to interact with Word or Excel. Yet you can easily skip these lessons and the flow will not be affected significantly. Overall, I give it 4.5 stars.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: MCSE Test Success: SQL Server 7 Administration
Publisher: Sybex Inc
Authors: Michael Lee, Rick Sawtell
Rating: 5/5
Title: MCSE Test Success: SQL Server 7 Administration
Publisher: Sybex Inc
Authors: Michael Lee, Rick Sawtell
Rating: 5/5
This book was a great study aid while preparing for the 70-028 test. Does it give you the answers for the test, no. Does it review key subject area necessary for passing the test, yes. Too many paper MCSEs (or wannabes) expect to get the answers to the test before taking the test. The purpose of these exams is to test your knowledge of the product and not how well you memorized the questions from practice exams. Using a book like this, BOL, and the product, you should be able to pass the exam. And for you people who expect to get the answers to the test before you take the test, there are at least two questions that I saw from this book on the test.
