IT programming books related reviews
Product: Book Paperback
Title: A Guide to SQL Standard (4th Edition)
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: C. J. Date, Hugh Darwen
Rating: 5/5
Title: A Guide to SQL Standard (4th Edition)
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: C. J. Date, Hugh Darwen
Rating: 5/5
If you're a beginner, get a ["...For Dummies"] book. Ifhowever, you're looking to understand the internals of SQL and what iscommon to all relational databases, this is the book (if you wanttheory, I suggest 'Foundations of Databases' - Abiteboul, Hull, and Vianu, which is THE definitive book on the foundations and theory of database systems). This is after all what developers refer to when implementing a database that understands SQL(okay, I mean good developers, not the 'cut and paste' guys who make their living on other people's code without understanding how it works).
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Oracle SQL High-Performance Tuning (2nd Edition)
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
Authors: Guy Harrison
Rating: 5/5
Title: Oracle SQL High-Performance Tuning (2nd Edition)
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
Authors: Guy Harrison
Rating: 5/5
I had a nagging and peculiar performance problem with a specific query involving a quirk in the Oracle optimizer which I had been trying to solve on and off for months. With the help of this book, I resolved the problem. It has a level of detail in query optimization way beyond other "highly recommended" books. The explanations are clear, *complete* (completeness was lacking in the other books), and easy and enjoyable to read. I finally have the understanding of these Oracle internals that I have been seeking!
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Creating Interactive Web Sites with PHP and Web Services
Publisher: Sybex
Authors: Eric Rosebrock, Eric Rosebrock, Sybex
Rating: 5/5
Title: Creating Interactive Web Sites with PHP and Web Services
Publisher: Sybex
Authors: Eric Rosebrock, Eric Rosebrock, Sybex
Rating: 5/5
I'm your basic novice non-programmer type looking for a career change. I lucked into this book at Borders, sat down and looked through it. Well, I came home and have been working my way through this book all night. I've learned more about PHP and MySQL in about six hours time than I had expected to. This book is so incredibly easy to follow that I can't even put it down to sleep. So far, I'm up to Chapter 4 and going fast. Since I read the reviews after I bought the book, I made it a point to place a check mark next to each example that worked. That's all of them. So far, apart from the 'mydb' file that Rosenbrock used as an example in database creation, I've also managed to create a database for my movie collection. Next database will be my extensive library of books!The beauty of Rosenbrock's book is that he teaches how to do the things I actually want to do. Also, he assumes a reasonably intelligent audience. Rosenbrock also introduced me to a little gem, phpMyAdmin that makes MySQL far less painful. I'd been sweating bullets just thinking about getting into MySQL. Well, I'm in it and relishing it, all thanks to Eric Rosenbrock. The back of his book tells that the user level is Intermediate/Advanced, but I think that since his coverage is so painstaking and thorough, it should actually be Beginner/Intermediate/Advanced.I'd recommend that anybody wanting to do PHP and MySQL. I've got to find out what else Eric Rosenbrock has written. The dude is terrific!
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Oracle PL/SQL Language Pocket Reference, 3rd Edition
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Chip Dawes, Steven Feuerstein, Bill Pribyl
Rating: 1/5
Title: Oracle PL/SQL Language Pocket Reference, 3rd Edition
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Chip Dawes, Steven Feuerstein, Bill Pribyl
Rating: 1/5
Where's the index?? A REFERENCE is something you pick up to find a particular needed peice of information. Without an index you have to scan everywhere trying to find what you are looking for. What a waste of time! Dont' even waste the 10 bucks for this piece of junk...
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Weekend Crash Course
Publisher: Wiley
Authors: Alex Kriegel
Rating: 4/5
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Weekend Crash Course
Publisher: Wiley
Authors: Alex Kriegel
Rating: 4/5
I just want to comment on another reviewer (Dire). Stop bragging
that you're a dba and the book even didn't tell that this is for
experienced users like u. Dire, are there any crash course book for dbas like you.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: DB2 SQL Procedural Language for Linux, Unix and Windows
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
Authors: Paul Yip, Drew Bradstock, Hana Curtis, Michael Gao, Zamil Janmohamed, Clara Liu, Fraser McArthur
Rating: 5/5
Title: DB2 SQL Procedural Language for Linux, Unix and Windows
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
Authors: Paul Yip, Drew Bradstock, Hana Curtis, Michael Gao, Zamil Janmohamed, Clara Liu, Fraser McArthur
Rating: 5/5
A couple of weeks ago I sent Paul Yip a question about condition handling of messages. He gave me the answer and told me about his new book. Since then, I have purchased the book and it has proven very valuable. It explains SQL procedures, triggers and their scope much better than anything else I have run accross. It has made my life easier.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: PHP and MySQL Web Development
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Luke Welling, Laura Thomson
Rating: 5/5
Title: PHP and MySQL Web Development
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Luke Welling, Laura Thomson
Rating: 5/5
This book is amazing. I came to it with intermediate html skills and zero knowledge about perl, C or any other programming language. In a week I was able to write an entire php/mySQL based site, using complex database queries to organize and present information. I'm still awed at the site I was able to create. I did this with the information in the first 11 chapters -- I haven't even gotten to Chapters 12-30 yet.The book had me confused in a few places, but with careful rereading I was able to puzzle everything out. The examples are very helpful and great starting places for your own code. This book combined with a little online research at the php.net forums is all anyone should need to create a complex database driven website.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: A First Look at Microsoft SQL Server 2005 for Developers
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: Bob Beauchemin, Niels Berglund, Dan Sullivan
Rating: 5/5
Title: A First Look at Microsoft SQL Server 2005 for Developers
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: Bob Beauchemin, Niels Berglund, Dan Sullivan
Rating: 5/5
When it comes to SQL Server, I have always found BOL to be 99% comprehensive and 99% usable, so I regard the majority of aftermarket books to be written for people who want to avoid BOL for other reasons.
Of course, BOL 2005 is a work in progress, as is SQL 2005 itself, which makes the learning curve steep, especially if you didn't get started with an earlier beta, so I had high expectations for "A First Look at SQL Server 2005 for Developers" from Addison-Wesley. It's roughly 700 pages (depending on how you count; Amazon apparently counts every single sheet of paper between the covers, even if they aren't normal pages).
Let's get something straight right away: this book is for mainstream app developers. In particular, it's mostly about the CLR integration and XML-related features. Sure, general T-SQL enhancements and other areas like Notification Services get covered, and there's some cursory information about the new GUI tools. But topics like Analysis Services, DTS, Reporting Services, and migration/deployment are totally missing. I think this book does a great job covering its chosen topics in reasonable depth, but the bottom line is that you should set your expectations based on your interest in CLR and XML.
One more thing to get out of the way: The publisher's "Book Support" page is useless. The publisher claims that you should be able to find Errata here, but there's currently no link. Also, the Sample Chapter link is currently broken. (You can, however, find a sample chapter from this book in the Beta 2 Resource Kit recently posted on the MSDN Subscribers Download site. It's Chapter 15 covering the new Service Broker.)
The book has an official web site with updates, downloadable code examples, and errata. To find it, you must visit one of the links on page xxxiii and surf to the book site under Bob Beauchemin's site at DevelopMentor.
This is a very well-written book which does an outstanding job of moving from concepts to code. When concepts are introduced, some books drag out the process of putting them into context (either historical context such as the current situation in SQL 2000, or the context of real-world application usage). This book quickly and concisely explains why a feature is important, then proceeds to show how it works. The authors are careful not to become too concise when it comes to SQL terminology. Their trainer backgrounds probably tell them that many people don't know the formal names for things (especially users of Microsoft products who first learned things on-the-job with no help) so they are careful to define terms like aggregate functions and ACID when first used. Therefore, I think someone with little/no SQL experience will still be able to follow this book. Chapter 6 on security deserves a special mention for being accessible to a wide audience. If you're well-versed in SQL Server 2000, Windows, and .NET security, the reminders in this chapter are quick to review while discovering the 2005 improvements. If you're shamefully ignorant of current security issues, this chapter brings a lot together in only 35 pages.
On the other hand, if you are not already familiar with .NET, this book is not the place to start. There is an attempt in Appendix A to include a brief overview of .NET, but I seriously doubt it would be adequate for the stated audience: people "who haven't done any development at all using .NET."
Code fragments are intermixed with the text at the proper points, and they are just the right length to illustrate the point at hand. This book does not attempt to assemble a complete sample app as you go sequentially through the chapters, which makes it easier to jump around. Simple diagrams are used when needed. Some books use random screenshots and fancy charts just to break up the text and keep it from looking dense, but this book is readable without wasting space on fluff. There very few screenshots in the entire book, most of them in Appendix B which covers the GUI tools.
Based upon what I see in Amazon reviews of various .NET books and upon the fact that many .NET books go to the trouble of providing sample code in both C# and VB .NET, I gather that there are some VB .NET programmers who don't like books which use C# exclusively. If you're one of them, I urge you to give this book a chance, even though all the .NET example code is C#. The examples are short and so clearly written that you shouldn't have any trouble reading them.
The book is meant to cover Beta 2 as best it can, but the majority of the book had to be finalized in early May which you can tell from the sample PDF. Published copies were shipping several weeks before Microsoft built the actual Beta 2 release. Although the screenshots in Appendix B show "Beta 2" on the login dialog, the title bars still say "SQL Workbench" and a footnote acknowledges the discrepancy between the screenshots and the text which refers to SQL Server Management Studio. Luckily, the authors and early readers have been diligent about finding the things which need to be updated and corrected, so make sure to visit the book's web site. I expect relatively little of the book to be affected by Beta 3 and the site will probably cover whatever is.
While RTM remains many months away, this book is a good investment. It doesn't replace BOL, and other 2005 books will be coming out, but if you need a time-efficient way to get your arms around the CLR and XML capabilities of Beta 2, I recommend this book.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: SQL/400 Developer's Guide
Publisher: 29th Street Press
Authors: Paul Conte, Mike Cravitz
Rating: 5/5
Title: SQL/400 Developer's Guide
Publisher: 29th Street Press
Authors: Paul Conte, Mike Cravitz
Rating: 5/5
This is a very well-written book that covers SQL/400 thoroughly. I'm impressed with how well the authors have organized the breadth of material and the technical details which they've ferreted out of the sometimes impenetrable IBM manuals. The ILE RPG coding examples have some of the best-written code I've seen -- I learned a few RPG techniques (as well as SQL, of course) by going through them.This book lives up to the high reviews others have given it.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: PHP Pocket Reference, 2nd Edition
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Rasmus Lerdorf
Rating: 1/5
Title: PHP Pocket Reference, 2nd Edition
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Rasmus Lerdorf
Rating: 1/5
The book is simply a listing of commands, organised by the same categories as the on-line manual, but missing an index and also missing the explanations and exmaples of the on-line manual. So unless you know in which category to find a command, you might spend ages to find its reference. Even if you do find the reference, the information is so brief that it is useless. If you've used the command a few times before, you'll know already (even if you have a lousy memory) the things described. If you haven't used it before, what you find is not enough to know how to use it. Rasmus, I thank you for inventing PHP, but I consider this book [not worth the money].
