IT programming books related reviews
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
With this book, I was able to start programming PHP almost immediately. I've had some previous computer programming experience, but this book covers the main PHP concepts in a way that's really easy to understand for anyone. The MySQL section is also well-written, and the appendixes are pretty thorough in the installation of Apache, PHP, and MySQL. If you want to set up an e-commerce site using PHP and MySQL, you can't go wrong buying this book.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: SQL for Dummies
Publisher: For Dummies
Authors: Allen G. Taylor
Rating: 3/5
Title: SQL for Dummies
Publisher: For Dummies
Authors: Allen G. Taylor
Rating: 3/5
A good introduction to SQL for people who have some programming experience, and need to know how to integrate their applications with a database, and for people who use MS Access, but want to work independently of the query design grid. The book is especially good for defining the common SQL and database terminology. It was nice to finally get a thorough explanation of the various types of joins, and the brief chapter on ODBC was pleasantly simple. SQL is not a very exciting subject, however, and a little more humor would have been helpful to ward off boredom. Some hands-on exercises for MS Access, VB or SQL Server would have been helpful.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 7 DBA Survival Guide
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Orryn Sledge
Rating: 5/5
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 7 DBA Survival Guide
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Orryn Sledge
Rating: 5/5
I love this book. My background is a little unusual -- I've been running Linux for 7 years, and I know very little about running MS servers. I had worked with MySQL, but never with a fully featured commercial SQL engine. When I started running MS-SQL, the confusing part was the administration, not the actual SQL database operations. And this book told me everything I needed to know. It's easy to look up practical "HOWTO" style advice. If you need to setup security, they tell you how. If you need to backup your db (and who doesn't?) they tell you how. If you need to set up replication (which is cooler and more complicated than you'd think) they tell you how. It's easy to find what you need and make it happen with a minimum of hassles and floundering. The discussion of indexes alone is probably worth buying the book. If you run MS-SQL, you should buy this book.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Web Database Applications with PHP & MySQL, 2nd Edition
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Hugh E. Williams
Rating: 5/5
Title: Web Database Applications with PHP & MySQL, 2nd Edition
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Hugh E. Williams
Rating: 5/5
I've found Web Database Applications with Php and MySql to be an excellent book. It is an excellent book for learning from scratch as well as a useful reference. For the projects I've done I've only occasionally looked elsewhere (online) for technical references.
My style for doing a project using a new language or development environment is to learn just enough to do the project. It is not my goal to become an expert in the system or language at hand, in this case Php and MySql. I just want to get the project done in fairly efficient and practical manner.
After having decided that Php and some open source database such as MySql is what I wanted to use for my project (an online testing system) I read through the book to get an overall understanding of these tools. I then designed the system for my project and began coding. At the coding stage I would go back to the book to get the syntax and details of coding. I rely on sample code a lot, one of the principal strengths of this book.
The authors have implemented a complete online store. The code is well written and the application exercises many features of Php and MySql. That the sample code is from the application or based on the application makes it eminently practical. Perhaps more importantly the fact that the book is grounded in a complete application means many details concerning issues such as security and user interface are covered which might easily have been overlooked.
The book, however, is not a regurgitation of the application code nor a tour of the creation of the online store. The book is a well thought out development of the tools and ideas for web database applications. It begins with typical details of the Php language and object oriented programming, database basics and queries with MySql and proceeds with features and ideas useful in web database applications culminating in the case study of the online store.
Except for an initial glitch in getting setup on my OS X system everything worked out well. We switched our online testing system from FileMaker Pro, QuidProQuo and Frontier to Apache, Php and MySql. Similarly our placement test system has been converted. I switched our department's web site to one which dynamically creates interlocking web pages. I added a password protected system for staff to update text and calculator reference webpages and a simple means to create and edit our online schedule of classes. I built a similar system for instructors to access records of student use of tutor facilities for their classes.
I am very impressed by this book. I have not had a book which has been so thoroughly practical, complete and easy to use.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: PHP for the World Wide Web : Visual QuickStart Guide (2nd Edition) (Visual Quickstart Guides)
Publisher: Peachpit Press
Authors: Larry Ullman
Rating: 5/5
Title: PHP for the World Wide Web : Visual QuickStart Guide (2nd Edition) (Visual Quickstart Guides)
Publisher: Peachpit Press
Authors: Larry Ullman
Rating: 5/5
If you're new to PHP, read this book. If you'll follow the examples in order, you will be using PHP in your own applications in a very short time.After only 2 days, I was coding PHP while glancing back at this quick-start guide for help. In a week, I was writing my own first simple application in PHP.I've read plenty of PHP books by now, but this is book is the one I always return to for a reference.Overall, this book is the fastest solid PHP foundation you'll find - assuming you're lazy like me and prefer to learn visually instead of plowing through endless code.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes, Third Edition
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Ben Forta
Rating: 4/5
Title: Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes, Third Edition
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Ben Forta
Rating: 4/5
I use this book to do a quick lookup of commonly used SQL commands and their syntax. This is not a book intended to teach you everything about SQL, but if you need a quick reference on a 'join' command, for example, this is the book to use.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Beginning SQL Programming (Programmer to Programmer)
Publisher: Wrox Press
Authors: John Kauffman, Brian Matsik, Kevin Spencer, Ian Herbert, Sakhr Youness, Julian Skinner
Rating: 1/5
Title: Beginning SQL Programming (Programmer to Programmer)
Publisher: Wrox Press
Authors: John Kauffman, Brian Matsik, Kevin Spencer, Ian Herbert, Sakhr Youness, Julian Skinner
Rating: 1/5
It's difficult to know where to start with this book. Errors I suppose is the best place. There are so many errors in the examples in this book it is embarrassing, it would be laughable as well, but instead it is seriously annoying. It makes grasping the concepts almost impossible as you keep having to tinker with the code to get it to work, or seek other sources of information to find out how it should be done, which defeats the purpose of using this book altogether. As another reviewer has mentioned, I don't believe the authors communicated much, if at all, when writing this book. It explains some concepts several times throughout the book, as if each author is taking a crack at it, and then other concepts are ignored completely. Another really annoying thing about this book is that there isn't much hands on stuff, they just talk at you, rather than involve you. The 'try it out' sections typical of Wrox books are few and far between in this publication. There aren't any questions to test your knowledge at the end of each chapter either. I say again this book just 'talks at you'; it leaves you feeling quite numb. It's odd that for a manual of over 700 pages you will feel as if you have learnt very little. Anything of real value, that would help you in the real world of development, has been left out. Sometimes it mentions some feature that would be of real value and then the words 'but we won't be covering that in this book' appear. This happens again and again to the point of insanity.The only thing I have learnt from this book is that I will have to buy another book to learn SQL, but it won't be a Wrox publication this time, Wrox are beginning to fall in my estimation. I really don't know what Wrox and the authors were thinking when they released this, it really is terrible. You know you really get the feeling that Wrox are getting you to do their proof reading for them!
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
i had a slew of questions about transact-sql, and this book answered them all quickly and in depth. Great book.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Apache Jakarta-Tomcat
Publisher: Apress
Authors: James Goodwill
Rating: 3/5
Title: Apache Jakarta-Tomcat
Publisher: Apress
Authors: James Goodwill
Rating: 3/5
The information is somewhat helpful. It is far from comprehensive and lacks in depth. It helped me get some basic tasks done but left a lot of questions unanswered. There is definitely a lot of room for a superior book on this subject to come along. I'd like to see such a book on Tomcat because I can't stand reading online documentation from start to finish. Online docs are only good for looking up particular info.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: MCSE SQL 7 Database Design and Administration Practice Tests Exam Cram (Exam: 70-028, 70-079)
Publisher:
Authors: Geoffrey Alexander, Joseph, Jr. Alexander
Rating: 5/5
Title: MCSE SQL 7 Database Design and Administration Practice Tests Exam Cram (Exam: 70-028, 70-079)
Publisher:
Authors: Geoffrey Alexander, Joseph, Jr. Alexander
Rating: 5/5
This book is a good resource for practice tests and the only one thing I used for practice in order to prepare to take the exam 70-029 . The tests are very tough and the answers are very interesting. Thanks to it I'm now the second MCDBA in Dominican Republic. Highly recommended.
