IT programming books related reviews
Product: Book Paperback
Title: PHP Cookbook
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: David Sklar, Adam Trachtenberg
Rating: 5/5
Title: PHP Cookbook
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: David Sklar, Adam Trachtenberg
Rating: 5/5
I ordered a copy of the "PHP Cookbook ORA", along with a copy of the "Professional PHP 4 web Development Solutions WROX". Upon reading both these books, i thought i should offer a honest review comparing the two:Both the books were informative in their own right o The ORA book had small snippets of code based solutions (very similar to the PHP Developers cookbook from Sterling and Andrei) that are very useful for programmers who are confounded with small to medium coding problems. However, there was nothing enterprising about the coverage, that one could not achieve from using a combination of the online docs + mailing lists. Another downside was that i could not find full solutions that i could re-use in my projects.On the Other hand, i found o The WROX book offered complete solutions to real world problems - a Simple/advanced CMS (the core of which you can plug into your site), a simple search engine, a classified ads board, and lots of cool creative case study solutions that i could extend to use in my hobby sites. The content was very enterprising and all of the solutions presented are the most popular one's amongst web developers these days. More interesting is that these solutions can be completely re-used and extended into your projects. However, the downside of this book is that you would need to have prior PHP knowledge either picked up from WROX' Professional PHP 4 (as is mentioned as a pre-requisite in the book) or from the Programming PHP ORA, or any another competent professional PHP programming books in the market.So the bottomline is:oCare for an appetiser - Pick up the ORA book.
oCare for a full meal - Pick up the Wrox book.I am posting this same review for both the books (so customers can benefit from it). However, i have ranked the Wrox book, a notch above this one, simply because i wanted a burp:-)
Product: Book Paperback
Title: PHP and MySQL Web Development, Second Edition
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Luke Welling, Laura Thomson
Rating: 4/5
Title: PHP and MySQL Web Development, Second Edition
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Luke Welling, Laura Thomson
Rating: 4/5
I found this book to be worth its weight in gold. There are some code errors such as list 1.3 on page 47, however this does not detract from the overall quality of the book. This book assumes that you understand html and if you don't you would not realize that the missing <html> tag and improper use of double quotes (improperly escaped) would result in the error. While an error free book would be nice, I realize that errors do happen. It would be nice if SAMS would have a place on their site for submitting spotted typos for an online errata (at least this wasn't obvious when browsing their site).
As a professional developer, I found that the book offers good advice for the beginner, explains best practices very well, and takes you to the next level. The first 11 chapters may be redundant for some, and may progress too quickly for less experienced coders, however, I feel that the book covers it's bases well.
On a positive note (concerning coding errors), if you get the code to work then you have really accomplished two tasks. Learning PHP and debugging :-) Five stars minus one star for those pesky 6 legged critters that keep popping up! Anyone with previous programming experience won't have any trouble coping with the bugs.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: SQL Server DTS
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Jim Samuelson, M. Santos, S. Miller, S. Hughes, B. Sullivan
Rating: 2/5
Title: SQL Server DTS
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Jim Samuelson, M. Santos, S. Miller, S. Hughes, B. Sullivan
Rating: 2/5
Haven't gotten too far into this book yet. Almost gave up on the whole book just based on my experiences in Chapter 2. It is full of errors. The calls to the lookups have the parameters in the wrong order in listing 2.1 and 2.2. The instructions in chapter 2 are confusing and hard to follow. You shouldn't mix Sql 7 and 2000 together. They should be in separate sections.He references a task on page 36 that doesn't even exist. I spent a whole day trying to interpret what I was really supposed to do. I finally did so, but someone needs desperately to edit this chapter. As I get further into this book, I will update this review. Hopefully, it will improve as I go thru it.
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
Tired of writing boring static websites? Then PHP is your answer and "PHP and MySQL Web Development" is your book.PHP is much more powerful than Javascript, faster than Perl, it's free unlike ColdFusion, and much easier to learn than JSP or ASP.Everything you need to know about writing PHP/MySQL is in this great book. Very well written and very easy to understand. Whether you're new to programming in general or you're a seasoned pro....this book is for you.If want to get a few more books (which I recommend) to compliment this book, I'd get a PHP reference book like "PHP Functions Essential Reference" from New Riders. I'd also get a book on MySQL, don't get "Core MySQL". I'd also pick up a book with a ton of PHP exmaples and projects like, "Instant PHP 4". And for the advanced PHPer, pick up "PHP 4 Multimedia" from Wrox Press.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Oracle PL/SQL Language Pocket Reference, 3rd Edition
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Chip Dawes, Steven Feuerstein, Bill Pribyl
Rating: 3/5
Title: Oracle PL/SQL Language Pocket Reference, 3rd Edition
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Chip Dawes, Steven Feuerstein, Bill Pribyl
Rating: 3/5
I've worked with Oracle for quite a while, and I've tinkered with PL/SQL, triggers, etc. on and off during the time that I used Oracle. Recently, I needed to write a really simple PL/SQL program to assist in doing a backfill. I bought this book expecting to pluck out details quickly for writing this program. Unfortunately, there was no index, and the table of contents was a little too high-level to help you find specific information. Finally, once you locate an appropriate section, the text is terse and the examples are quite basic.I concede that I probably should've bought "Oracle PL/SQL Language" the book for which this is a reference for my particular need. Just beware, however, that this book is solely a reference, and is hard to use unless you already know PL/SQL.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: MCDBA SQL Server 7 Database Design, Study Guide (Exam 70-29)
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies Rating: 1/5
Title: MCDBA SQL Server 7 Database Design, Study Guide (Exam 70-29)
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies Rating: 1/5
I had to force myself to even get through the first five chapters to see if it would get any better (it didn't!). I've done SQL on various platforms for over 10 years and am MCSE certified on MS SQL 6.5, and this book is horrible! For example, they confuse "row" with "column", and don't seem to know what "dynamic sql" is! The practice exam on the CD has 195 questions -- I gave up after question #60 because 10% of their answers were wrong, or at best amgibuous.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 Unleashed
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Sharon Bjeletich, Greg Mable
Rating: 5/5
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 Unleashed
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Sharon Bjeletich, Greg Mable
Rating: 5/5
This book was a tad dissappointing to me. Maybe that is because of the standards I have come to expect from the unleashed series. In my opinion, the 6.5 sql server unleashed book is more thorough. While this book is still a good reference, it does not provide the in-depth coverage of the more advanced topics that everyone has come to expect from the unleashed team.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: PHP Advanced for the World Wide Web Visual QuickPro Guide
Publisher: Peachpit Press
Authors: Larry Ullman
Rating: 4/5
Title: PHP Advanced for the World Wide Web Visual QuickPro Guide
Publisher: Peachpit Press
Authors: Larry Ullman
Rating: 4/5
I came across this book while trying to find a more advanced PHP book. I own many on on the subject and have tired of them all covering the same handful of topics. I was after more of a "PHP theory" book. Something that takes the next step beyond syntax and reference (both of which are abundant online for free) and tackle the "how to put it all together" issues. This book was one of the only books to start down that path. While not perfect, it begins to focus more on concepts than content. It's exactly what I expect from a Visual Quick-guide/start book. It gets you going and leaves you wanting more (which I think is a good thing). I am hopeful that someone will pick up on this idea and expand upon it.Either way, this book offers far more than [price] worth of thought provoking information and insight. And while I wouldn't recommend it for your only PHP book, I would advise you to pick it up if you are looking to add to your knowledge.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: MCSE SQL 2000 Administration Exam Cram (Exam: 70-228)
Publisher: Coriolis Group Books
Authors: Kalani Kirk Hausman
Rating: 4/5
Title: MCSE SQL 2000 Administration Exam Cram (Exam: 70-228)
Publisher: Coriolis Group Books
Authors: Kalani Kirk Hausman
Rating: 4/5
Although the middle chapters are formulaic and repetitive, I passed the exam on the first try using just this book to study. I have to side with results - the chapter-end tests and especially the self test covered almost all of the same types of questions I encountered.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Transact-SQL Programming
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Lee Gould, Andrew Zanevsky, Kevin Kline
Rating: 5/5
Title: Transact-SQL Programming
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Lee Gould, Andrew Zanevsky, Kevin Kline
Rating: 5/5
This is an outstanding book on writing Transact SQL. The changes brought by SQL Server 7.0 have little impact on the value this book provides to programmers that are new to T-SQL. The book is focused on writing better code, database design, and optimization. If you are looking for a book on SQL Server, this is not for you. If you are looking for an introductory level book, this book is not for you.
