IT programming books related reviews
Product: Book Paperback
Title: PHP Anthology
Publisher: SitePoint
Authors: Harry Fuecks
Rating: 5/5
Title: PHP Anthology
Publisher: SitePoint
Authors: Harry Fuecks
Rating: 5/5
This is a great book!
I bought about 10 PHP books to help me with a web project involving MySQL/PHP. I am a professional Java developer, therefore the principles of PHP are not hard to grasp. Still, everything is different in PHP, and before I saw this book I had the impression that the majority of PHP developers are hacking, cutting and pasting examples into procedural code at random.After getting started using "PHP and MySQL Web Develpment" by Luke Wellling and Laura Thompson (highly recommended) this book brought me to a level that I can now clain to be a professional PHP programmer too.This book clearly shows that it is possible to develop PHP in an organized way, using proper design, good object-oriented principles and design patterns (in vol.II). Besides that, there are many practical tips about things I found really difficult as Java programmer: magical quotes, .ini file settings, & references, file downloads, paging result tables, etc. etc. The book is clearly written and answers every question from the standpoint of how to do something using good design and how to write code that is maintainable, extensible and reusable.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Programming PHP
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Rasmus Lerdorf, Kevin Tatroe
Rating: 5/5
Title: Programming PHP
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Rasmus Lerdorf, Kevin Tatroe
Rating: 5/5
I work in a student design center and use this book to create applications of various complexity, from simple webpages, to a small online marketplace, to a complex, dynamic database. Everyone that found this book "out of focus" and the examples irrelevant is simply a coder below the level of the book. If you know your way around programming, this book is very helpful. If you don't, it'll confuse you. I have little "formal" training in programming, but I've been messing around with various languages like Pascal and C++ since I was 10, so I can read books like this easily. Someone who just wants to make a "rad" webpage and has no coding background (CSS expertise doesn't count, sorry boys and girls) will run into a brick wall because of the level of understanding this book requires.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro Guide
Publisher: Peachpit Press
Authors: Larry Ullman
Rating: 5/5
Title: PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro Guide
Publisher: Peachpit Press
Authors: Larry Ullman
Rating: 5/5
I took this book out of the bookshop in the same bag as what looked like its obvious competitor on the shelf, 'PHP and MySQL for Dummies'. It is Larry Ullman's book that I am going through seriously, dipping into 'Dummies' (which is a good book) for an alternative explanation here and there. Whereas 'Dummies' starts with MySQL, Larry begins with some PHP basics before delving into the database, and this made more intuitive sense to me, since there were many things I wanted to do on my site (such as make an emailing form and add a readers' comments facility) with PHP before starting to think about what I could do with a MySQL database.
Notwithstanding the comments of one or two other reviewers, I have no experience of programming in any language, and yet I found this book started in the right place for me. What really made it valuable is that every concept is demonstrated right away in a real example that you can try out yourself and invent variants on to see the difference. This helps to sort out all the stupid questions and confusions that an expert probably can't even imagine your having.
Apart from Unix commands in the appendix on installation, there is not a single example in the book of something that has to be typed in 'on faith' (not quite true of the 'Dummies' book, though almost). In every chapter you are told what to type, what it does and why. Larry does move fast, and I had to puzzle over his explanation of database design and normalisation, along with his initial explanation of getting data output from the database in PHP. But this is only another strength of the book. He doesn't cut corners but he does ask you to think and not skip over too much.
Like some other people here, I have been to the book's website and forum and asked a question, and like them, I got a useful answer straight from the author. I will definitely choose his books again, and have a good feeling about Peachpit's Visual QuickPro/QuickStart books in general.
The design is equally well done. The fact that every script is shown both as an illustration and as annotated text makes the book much thicker than it might have been, but it is useful to see the script on its own and explanations (even if sidenotes to the script would have achieved both purposes, surely). The Comic sanserif used to show code is far better for long-distance reading than the monospaced font used in 'Dummies', and colour is used very effectively. I feel lucky I found this book!
Product: Book Hardcover
Title: Data Mining with Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Technical Reference
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: Claude Seidman
Rating: 1/5
Title: Data Mining with Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Technical Reference
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: Claude Seidman
Rating: 1/5
This book just likes an academic seminar paper. It's hard to understand. It's not a practical book for study data mining.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 Database Implementation Training Kit (Training Kit)
Publisher: Microsoft Press Rating: 4/5
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 Database Implementation Training Kit (Training Kit)
Publisher: Microsoft Press Rating: 4/5
The book, the accompanying CD and Books on Line are enough to pass... although it took me over 2 monthes of reading/practice/study ! (Books On Line comes FREE from MS with SQL ... SQL comes FREE with this book) In most other MS exams, you can pretty much zip through them ... this exam covered a ton. The materials presented in this book, if studied and practiced, will be enough to pass ('nuff said ?)
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Sams Teach Yourself Transact-SQL in 21 Days (2nd Edition)
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Lowell Mauer
Rating: 5/5
Title: Sams Teach Yourself Transact-SQL in 21 Days (2nd Edition)
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Lowell Mauer
Rating: 5/5
I regret wasting my money on this book. It is simultaneously pretentious and banal -- its lone accomplishment as a book. You will not learn Transact-SQL in 21 days or 21 months using this text. It is mostly a reproduction of the vendor documents. You would be much better served to get Inside SQL Server or the Guru's Guide to T-SQL if you want to get your feet wet with Transact-SQL
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 really an awesome book! The level of technical detail and good programming advice is much better than I've found in most of the AS/400 books that are out there. In two weeks of using this book, I've dog-eared a dozen or so pages that I use for quick reference (e.g., column types).This is also a book that was obviously written for serious developers. I've found complete coverage of transactions, security, naming standards, and lots of other topics that are often ignored or treated superficially in other programming books.This book really does deserve the praise other reviewers have given it.
Product: Book Hardcover
Title: MCDBA SQL Server 7 Administration Study Guide (Book/CD-ROM Set)
Publisher: Mcgraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Syngress
Rating: 5/5
Title: MCDBA SQL Server 7 Administration Study Guide (Book/CD-ROM Set)
Publisher: Mcgraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Syngress
Rating: 5/5
I see a lot of complaints in regards to the use of beta in this book. I feel quite differently from some. The fact that this book was and is offered before others makes it extremely valuable to me. Plus, the book is certainly not "junk". Anyone who knows the product and is an intermediate or advanced user should realize that the use of beta does not devalue this at all. Incorrect and useless information devalues a book, and this one is not bad. Strong sections on replication, and replication scenarios. Would have liked a bit mpore on planning for nstallation, but even this is not a bad chapter. Found a few typos, but nothing overwhelming. This is a good value, and I don't think you'll be disappointed in it.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: PHP Developer's Cookbook (2nd Edition)
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Sterling Hughes, Andrei Zmievski
Rating: 5/5
Title: PHP Developer's Cookbook (2nd Edition)
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Sterling Hughes, Andrei Zmievski
Rating: 5/5
If you have learned PHP - then you must own this book. The regexp and file handeling sections are great. Best book to date for someone who knows a little PHP.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro Guide
Publisher: Peachpit Press
Authors: Larry Ullman
Rating: 3/5
Title: PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro Guide
Publisher: Peachpit Press
Authors: Larry Ullman
Rating: 3/5
This book has one major fault which brings down its readability. It has the code in a box, but then describes the code in step-by-step instructions. This step-by-step repeats major portions of the code, so you're getting the same thing twice, spread out over various pages. Real ugly. The step-by-step approach works well for Castro's HTML book, but not for a real programming book.
