IT programming books related reviews
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
I read it and I was able to concoct a decent looking web application using Oracle in a week! This book was written with PHP3 in mind and should be updated with the tricks like start_session, session_register, foreach and alike, but altogether, it's an excellent introductory text, especially if you have a C++ experience. Authors did a great job and I can only recommend the book.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Official Guide to Mini SQL 2.0
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Authors: Brian Jepson, David J. Hughes
Rating: 3/5
Title: Official Guide to Mini SQL 2.0
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Authors: Brian Jepson, David J. Hughes
Rating: 3/5
Boy, was I glad when this book finally came out. Sure, there are mailing lists and discussion groups devoted to MiniSQL (aka mSQL), but what I really wanted was a well-edited, authoritative guide to the best nearly free SQL database implementation. "Official Guide to MiniSQL 2.0" is almost everything I was hoping for. It certainly is authoritative, given that mSQL's creator, David Hughes, is the coauthor. It's also comprehensive, covering not only what mSQL can do but also, and more importantly for practical purposes, how you can interface with mSQL via Java, Perl, and other languages by using existing APIs. The downside to that breadth of coverage, however, is fewer examples of complete database applications. Ironically, mSQL doesn't really need the in-depth coverage as much as do the various APIs (from MsqlPerl to DBD::mSQL). Nevertheless, "Offical Guide to MiniSQL 2.0" is an indispensable resource for anyone using or considering MiniSQL.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 24 Hours (3rd Edition)
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Ryan Stephens, Ron Plew
Rating: 1/5
Title: Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 24 Hours (3rd Edition)
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Ryan Stephens, Ron Plew
Rating: 1/5
This book might be OK - in an instructor lead class; unfortunately one cannot rely on it for self-study; it is full of typos and outright errors( e.g. Hour 10 Quiz answer 2 tells you that "The HAVING clause can be used without a GROUP BY clause" !!! which is, of course, impossible...Also, the book pretends to be SQL-dialect neutral, in reality it is so ORACLE biased that some of its very basic SQL statements would not compile in Sybase or MS SQL Server...
I am a DBA (MS SQL Server/Sybase/ORACLE) with 5 years of experience; I looked into the book only because a friend of mine asked me for advice after struggling with it for couple weeks. Disappointing, to put it mildly.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Professional SQL Server 2000 DTS (Data Transformation Services)
Publisher: Wrox
Authors: Mark Chaffin, Brian Knight, Todd Robinson
Rating: 2/5
Title: Professional SQL Server 2000 DTS (Data Transformation Services)
Publisher: Wrox
Authors: Mark Chaffin, Brian Knight, Todd Robinson
Rating: 2/5
This book was a disappointment. Mostly it shows how to create packages using the Enterprise Mgr interface. I don't need a book to do that. Right now I am coding a VB app using DTS, and this book was definitely not enough. This is a beginner book, introductory in nature. There is an Object reference, but I can see that in the Object Browser. The examples are simplistic and not real-world. The examples on the SQL Server 2000 Resource Kit are better. I am moving large amounts of data data and have to deal with permissions, constraints, dependency tables -- none of this is covered. You can manipulate the object model thousands of ways; without any guidance on these advanced topics (not covered by MSDN) you are adrift... and your packages will fail every time.
If you are a programmer, don't bother with this one.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Core PHP Programming: Using PHP to Build Dynamic Web Sites (2nd Edition)
Publisher: Pearson Education
Authors: Leon Atkinson
Rating: 1/5
Title: Core PHP Programming: Using PHP to Build Dynamic Web Sites (2nd Edition)
Publisher: Pearson Education
Authors: Leon Atkinson
Rating: 1/5
This book lacks detail of implementation of all but the most basic concepts of PHP. About half of the book is a badly formatted function reference. What's left is riddled with inaccuracies and uninformed comments, and it is devoid of important details.My impression was that the author had little if any experience with PHP or web programming other than that gathered to write this book.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: PHP Essentials, Second Edition
Publisher: Muska & Lipman/Premier-Trade
Authors: Julie C. Meloni
Rating: 5/5
Title: PHP Essentials, Second Edition
Publisher: Muska & Lipman/Premier-Trade
Authors: Julie C. Meloni
Rating: 5/5
This book is well written, but I was expecting more contents.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: The Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: Ken Henderson
Rating: 5/5
Title: The Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: Ken Henderson
Rating: 5/5
600 sample SQL scripts... need I say more?? This book explores every nook and crannie of Microsoft's version of the language. It condenses, in a single volume, all you need to know to become a Transact-SQL virtuoso. The SELECT chapter is a fine example. Here, the author covers the things not found in the BOL, things that you'd miss were it not for books like this. You learn how to use Transact-SQL's quirks to your advantage, how to program the language the way it was intended to be programmed. More importantly, you gain insight into coding in general -- much of the book's advice applies equally well any language (e.g., use the language the way it was designed to be used; take advantage of what comes in the box (don't reinvent the wheel); resist the temptation to throw technology at a problem, get your techniques right, etc).I like this book better than Transact-SQL Programming (by O'Reilly) because it covers all the new features in SQL Server 7.0 extensively and because it is more systematic. The sample queries and the book's chapters have an orthogonality to them that is refreshing in these days of disparate books written by whole teams of people.I can't give this a higher recommendation. My advice: get it, read it, refer to it often.
Product: Book Hardcover
Title: MCSD: SQL Server 6.5 Database Design Study Guide
Publisher: Sybex Inc
Authors: Kevin Hough
Rating: 2/5
Title: MCSD: SQL Server 6.5 Database Design Study Guide
Publisher: Sybex Inc
Authors: Kevin Hough
Rating: 2/5
This book is a good place to start studying for exam 70-127. It breaks down the exam objectives nicely into separate chapters, and touches on most of the material that you'll need. However, there is no way nearly enough information to prepare you sufficiently for the exam.You're going to need another resource, and may I suggest Inside SQL Server 6.5 by Ron Soukup. It's an excellent book, very readable, which touches on virtually everything you need to know for the exam. Use Hough's book to guide you through the objectives, but pull most of the information from Soukup. You have to do this anyway due to the vast number of errors in Hough's book, as many reviewers have already pointed out. (Be sure to download the errata from the Sybex site.)This book has very poor coverage of many areas including cursors, transactions, the DUMP command, and locking, amongst others. You'll need to refer to your secondary resource for this additional coverage, and I would recommend SQL Server Books Online too - which incidentally comes on CD with Soukup's book.Top all this study off with the Transcenders, and you're ready to go. Good luck!
Product: Book Paperback
Title: The SQL Server 6.5 Performance Optimization and Tuning Handbook
Publisher: Butterworth-Heinemann
Authors: Ken England
Rating: 5/5
Title: The SQL Server 6.5 Performance Optimization and Tuning Handbook
Publisher: Butterworth-Heinemann
Authors: Ken England
Rating: 5/5
England really hits the mark with this one. He logically informs the reader of how SQL Server stores data and thinks, and then lets you know how to make it think smarter. I used his techniques, and they work! He presents the info in a clear and concise manner, making this one a quick, but essential read.
Product: Book Hardcover
Title: MCSE Training Kit : Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Database Design and Implementation (Exam 70-229)
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: Microsoft Corporation
Rating: 3/5
Title: MCSE Training Kit : Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Database Design and Implementation (Exam 70-229)
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: Microsoft Corporation
Rating: 3/5
This book contains enough information in the following areas:
stored procedures, triggers, XML, entities and indexes.It also contains poor information in the following areas:
Managing and manipulation data.
Cursors.
SQL Server tuning.I strongly recommend the Microsoft self-paced book. It contains more material for the exam.
