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 does an excellent job as a reference guide. This book is not good for someone not already familiar with SQL query language. The book is also not for someone that is new to SQL Server. For someone who is familiar with both this is then book to buy. The author is great at giving examples when illustrating a lesson or warning of common errors. I am currently developing two custom applications for my employer and this book never leaves my desk.
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: 4/5
Title: A First Look at Microsoft SQL Server 2005 for Developers
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: Bob Beauchemin, Niels Berglund, Dan Sullivan
Rating: 4/5
"A First Look at SQL Server 2005 for Developers" is aptly named. It's a timely, detailed, and very useful introduction to what's new in SQL Server 2005 for three types of developers: database-oriented developers (e.g., with a Transact-SQL background), .NET developers (using C# or VB.NET), and XML-focused developers (perhaps most focused on Web services, XML Schema, etc.). SQL Server 2005 attempts to provide a more seamlessly unified set of services for these three developer approaches, and the book does a great job of explaining how all of the pieces fit together, along with ramifications for SQL Server architecture and security.
The authors faced a major challenge in that SQL Server 2005 hasn't shipped yet, and Microsoft made some changes after the book was published. The chapter on ObjectSpaces, for instance, no longer applies to SQL Server 2005 (at least to pre-Longhorn releases of SQL Server 2005). The ObjectSpaces chapter is still a useful preview of more complete, future integration among programming models, but Microsoft will no doubt make some major changes before Longhorn is finalized.
(p.s. sorry for the EMPHATIC capitalization of my last name in this review; Amazon.com appears to discriminate against people who have apostrophes in their last names, so I had to choose between "O'kelly" and "O'KELLY")
Product: Book Hardcover
Title: Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2000 (With CD-ROM)
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: Kalen Delaney
Rating: 5/5
Title: Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2000 (With CD-ROM)
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: Kalen Delaney
Rating: 5/5
As the author of SQL Server book, I would not hesitate to recommend Kalen Delaney's book or any of her seminars. Her book is a reference work that I keep handy on my shelf. Each time I hear her speak I am impressed with her knowledge and her ability to communicate difficult concepts clearly. Every published book serves a specific purpose - Inside SQL Server's purpose is to illuminate the internal architecture of SQL Server so that developers and admins can make better educated decisions and develop better databases. Within that purpose her book is excellent and well written. Is it all things to all people? no. Does it do an excellent job of meeting its purpose? without question, yes. There are some reader reviews that seem to criticize Kalen's work for not meeting other needs, and I don't understand these comments. If you need a general SQL, T-SQL programming tutorial, XML/SQL, or introductory SQL Server book, Inside SQL Server is probably too focused on the internal workings of SQL Server and I'd recommend that you begin with one of the other excellent books on SQL Server. But, if you want to get deeper into the internals so you understand why you're writing code or tuning indexes, then there can be no question that Kalan's book is a must have on your shelf. Sooner or later, if you're serious about SQL Server, you should read this book.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Professional PHP4 Programming
Publisher: Wrox Press
Authors: Deepak Thomas, Wankyu Choi, John Coggeshall, Ken Egervari, Martin Geisler, Zak Greant, Andrew Hill, Chris Hubbard, James Moore, Devon O'Dell, Jon Parise, Harish Rawat, Tarique Sani, Christopher Scollo, Chris Ullman, et al
Rating: 5/5
Title: Professional PHP4 Programming
Publisher: Wrox Press
Authors: Deepak Thomas, Wankyu Choi, John Coggeshall, Ken Egervari, Martin Geisler, Zak Greant, Andrew Hill, Chris Hubbard, James Moore, Devon O'Dell, Jon Parise, Harish Rawat, Tarique Sani, Christopher Scollo, Chris Ullman, et al
Rating: 5/5
With the book market flooded with compendia on PHP and MySQL,
I have been looking avidly around for a PHP book with coverage on PostgreSQL and ODBC.
This book has come at the right time for me - It covers the functionality aspects of MySQL,
PostgreSQL and ODBC - MS access and SQL server, through a common application that
runs through each of these chapters. I must admit however that the application was not high-end, but
it served very well the purpose of demonstrating the functionality of each database with PHP. I further
appreciated the use of GTK to develop a standalone app for the same database application. I am looking
forward to buying more of these common-theme-thread books - It has really helped me to good effect.
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 have never written a review before, but I felt that I needed to put my 5-star vote in as my small token of thanks to the authors. So here it goes:
I have dabbled in PHP for a few months now, but am developing a php/mysql app for the first time. I refer to this book every single day. It's my favorite Oracle. I ask, it answers:
"How do I $MyDailyQuestion?"
"See page $MyDailyAnswer."
Sure puts a smile on my face!
This book does not make me read through pages and pages of code and explanation. Just enough code snippets and the most insightful reminders to help me solve my daily how-do-I's. It also tells you where to look up further info for each function/feature on-line.
I think you would love this book as much as I do if:
- you are somewhere between PHP super-newbie and super-master
- you have a pretty solid background in some other language
- you are using PHP now and have problems to solve everyday
- you learn well from small examples
- your vision starts to blur when presented with long chapters
My thanks to authors Sklar and Trachtenberg! Happy hunting.
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
This book has saved my butt while I was having trouble during version 6.5-to-7 upgrading, ODBC Unicode and language headaches and while trying to understand proper application of transactional replication. The sections od database design are very good. As a DBA for a major Turkish user of SQL 7, this book is a good reference. I first look at it before calling online help. It lacks a bit on low-level details when compared to "Inside Microsoft SQL Server 7" by Soukup and Delaney. But, the language here is more business like rather than technical.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Programming PHP
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Rasmus Lerdorf, Kevin Tatroe
Rating: 4/5
Title: Programming PHP
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Rasmus Lerdorf, Kevin Tatroe
Rating: 4/5
easy to read and very illuminating on the working of PHP, however, I was hoping for more dirty details and advanced examples. Basically a thicker book would have made me happy
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Developing Time-Oriented Database Applications in SQL (Morgan Kaufmann Series in Data Management Systems)
Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers
Authors: Richard T. Snodgrass, Christian S. Jensen
Rating: 2/5
Title: Developing Time-Oriented Database Applications in SQL (Morgan Kaufmann Series in Data Management Systems)
Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers
Authors: Richard T. Snodgrass, Christian S. Jensen
Rating: 2/5
One can tell that this work stems from the research of the author but he fails to translate it into something useful. It took a lot of effort to translate the concepts into something that my students would use in the database real world. I got sick of the little sidebars that had interesting but useless tidbits concerning notions of time. This is not for the developer but it might be useful for someone that is SQL knowledgeable that wants to check out some variations on time and temporal specifications.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: The Practical SQL Handbook: Using Structured Query Language (3rd Edition)
Publisher: Pearson Education
Authors: Judith S. Bowman, Sandra L. Emerson, Marcy Darnovsky
Rating: 5/5
Title: The Practical SQL Handbook: Using Structured Query Language (3rd Edition)
Publisher: Pearson Education
Authors: Judith S. Bowman, Sandra L. Emerson, Marcy Darnovsky
Rating: 5/5
If you know nothing about databases, this book is a great place to start. It explains what a relational database is, how to design and create one, and how to perform updates and queries. It covers just about everything you'll need to know, such as normalization, outer joins, security, and transaction processing. Even though the book sticks with the basics, it covers everything that most SQL programmers will need to know.One weakness of the book is that it doesn't distinguish which features are part of SQL-89, which are part of SQL2 (aka SQL-92). For some features, such as outer joins, implementation-specific syntax is given without the standard SQL syntax. Because of this, it may be more difficult for readers of this book to write SQL that will work on many different databases.An important thing to note about this book is that it covers only SQL. That means it doesn't cover stored procedure dialects, embedded SQL, or SQL APIs such as ODBC, JDBC, or DBI. If you're going to actually use SQL, you'll need another reference that explains how to interface with a SQL database.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Joe Celko's SQL for Smarties: Advanced SQL Programming (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Data Management Systems)
Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann
Authors: Joe Celko
Rating: 4/5
Title: Joe Celko's SQL for Smarties: Advanced SQL Programming (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Data Management Systems)
Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann
Authors: Joe Celko
Rating: 4/5
If you need to sling some really nasty SQL which you probably shouldn't be writing in the first place, then this book is for you. Celko is the man. As a cover-to-cover read, you will pick up on a lot of new SQL techniques, but in general, this is a "I know where to look when I need to know that book." If you know the basics of SQL and want to start your SQL Master training, then start here. Just keep it close by when you need to remember how Celko was able to get "that" to work.
