IT programming books related reviews
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Microsoft SQL Server Black Book: The Database Designer's and Administrator's Essential Guide to Setting Up Efficient Client-Server Tasks with SQL Server
Publisher: Coriolis Group Books
Authors: Patrick Dalton
Rating: 5/5
Title: Microsoft SQL Server Black Book: The Database Designer's and Administrator's Essential Guide to Setting Up Efficient Client-Server Tasks with SQL Server
Publisher: Coriolis Group Books
Authors: Patrick Dalton
Rating: 5/5
I am a new client server DBA. My background consists of many years of mainframe programming. After making the "switch" I was desperate for help with my new endeavor. A colleague at a recent technical conference recommended Patrick Dalton's SQL Server Black Book. Being a beginner, I have found it extremely easy to read and understand. It has provided me with a solid base level understanding of SQL Server and has allowed me to perform my job with much more confidence. It is packed with many "real world" examples that I had experienced first-hand. I have incorporated many of Mr. Dalton's solutions into my own system, several of them word for word right out of the book. I would highly recommend this book for the SQL Server DBA.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Special Edition Using SQL (SE Using)
Publisher: Que
Authors: Rafe Colburn
Rating: 4/5
Title: Special Edition Using SQL (SE Using)
Publisher: Que
Authors: Rafe Colburn
Rating: 4/5
I have reviewed alot of Oracle SQL books and you would have to spend alot of money to get what this book delivers. You get the skinny on SQL. It mainly covers Oracle, but mentions the other databases thoughout the book. I go to this book when I need the syntax of how to construct a SQL statement. Very good book.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: A Guide to SQL Featuring Oracle
Publisher: Course Technology
Authors: Phillip J. Pratt
Rating: 4/5
Title: A Guide to SQL Featuring Oracle
Publisher: Course Technology
Authors: Phillip J. Pratt
Rating: 4/5
A fantastic book for learning SQL. I did not have Oracle and was learning on Microsoft Access instead, but I found the book very helpful nonetheless. The author does a good job of explaining SQL and databases. This book is also a very handy reference when programming. I still find myself using it as a guide when writing SQL statements in my programs. Overall a good book. I recommend it for SQL beginners and highly recommend it for users of Oracle.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Advanced Oracle PL/SQL Programming with Packages (Nutshell Handbook)
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Steven Feuerstein
Rating: 4/5
Title: Advanced Oracle PL/SQL Programming with Packages (Nutshell Handbook)
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Steven Feuerstein
Rating: 4/5
The book is structured around a set of packages called PL/Vision. Eighty percent of the book is devoted to describing how to use PL/Vision and what it can do. PL/Vision is a useful set of tools; the P package in particular will be useful to any developer, though most will have already written something similar (though maybe not so fancy) for themselves. P is a packaged version of the dbms_output routines, and allows formatted output, debug output and other similar facilities.However, the book is not really a reference for Oracle packages. Most of what you need as a reference can be found in Feuerstein's "Oracle PL/SQL Programming", which I recommend. This book is more to give you an idea of what you can do with packages. I found it interesting, but I rarely refer to it--the other Feuerstein book is so comprehensive it covers almost all my questions.
Product: Book Hardcover
Title: Microsoft SQL Server(TM) 7.0 Performance Tuning Technical Reference
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: Jamie A. Reding, Steve Adrien DeLuca, Edward Whalen, Marcilina Garcia
Rating: 4/5
Title: Microsoft SQL Server(TM) 7.0 Performance Tuning Technical Reference
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: Jamie A. Reding, Steve Adrien DeLuca, Edward Whalen, Marcilina Garcia
Rating: 4/5
Definitely not another Books Online. I bought this book to better understand hardware requirements for VLDB systems (1+Terabytes)... the book explains in great depth all vital hardware components in a system (RAID levels, CPU, RAM)... not just what is best but why, and the dynamics of how each component functions. The Sizing and Capacity Planning section was also great, as it gave mathematical equations for calculating system statistics... equations I had not seen before. I did not find the performance monitoring section especially helpful - although the book did make good suggestions about charting db performance over time.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Code Centric: T-SQL Programming with Stored Procedures and Triggers
Publisher: Apress
Authors: Garth Wells
Rating: 5/5
Title: Code Centric: T-SQL Programming with Stored Procedures and Triggers
Publisher: Apress
Authors: Garth Wells
Rating: 5/5
You can learn more about this book by visiting: www.SQLBook.com. The site contains eight sample chapters and four appendixes from the book, so you can try it before you buy it and make an informed decision about whether it will help you in your programming endeavors.
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
A truely do-it-all book. Robert Vieira has written the Transact-SQL programmer's dream. Not only is it a good reference for the more advanced DBA, but makes a decent beginner's guide (the book is not a "teach yourself", but rather for a beginner who has completed some SQL Server basics). This is the book for the beginner who wants to move through intermediate to advanced topics. The book covers:I. Particulars and History - Building DB Connected Systems, Data Access Models.II. RDBMS - The components of a SQL Server DBIII. Tools of the Trade - Client/Server Network Utilities, Enterprise Manager, DTS, MS DTC, Performance Monitor, Profiler, Query Analyzer, OSQL, Service ManagerThen The Good Stuff:First the basics:IV. The Foundation Statements of T-SQL - Select, Where, ETC.V. Joining Tables - Inner/Outer, Cross, Full, UnionVI. Creating and Altering TablesThen the Intermediate Stuff:VII. Constraints - Primary Keys, Foreign Keys, Unique, Check, Default, Disabling, Rules, TriggersVIII.Normalization and Basic Design Issues - Relationships, Diagramming, De-Normalizing, ExamplesThen the Advanced Stuff:IX. Speeding Performance: Storage and Index StructuresX. Views - Simple, Complex, Editing, etc.XI. Writing Scripts and Batches - OSQLXII. Code Storage: Stored Procedures - Intermediate to Advanced - This is pretty much exhaustivly covered. Includes error handling, control of flow.XIII.Transactions and Locks - More advanced SProc handling, Checkpoints, Locks and Concurrancy, Handling DeadlocksXIV. Triggers - A truely great chapter, untangling what is usually a badly explained subject.And a lot more... Chapters 15 through 25 cover the really advanced subjects like: Advanced Queries, Distributed Queries/Transactions, SQL Cursors, BCP, DTS, Replication (in detail), Advanced DB Design, OLAP (in detail), English Query and Full Text Search, Security (very well done), Performance Tuning (in detail), Advanced Administration.The appendices cover: Global Variables, Functions, Tools, Error Listing, Access Upsizing. An excellent index rounds out the package. If you are worried about coverage on any of the above topics...don't the book is a real luggable (1.5" thick, a couple of pounds in weight).The only other book I would recommend to round out the SQL Server DBA's library would be MS Press' Administrator's Pocket Guide. You really won't need anything else! This book is a must have.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Microsoft SQL Server(TM) 2000 Administrator's Pocket Consultant (It-Administrator's Pocket Consultant)
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: William R. Stanek
Rating: 5/5
Title: Microsoft SQL Server(TM) 2000 Administrator's Pocket Consultant (It-Administrator's Pocket Consultant)
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: William R. Stanek
Rating: 5/5
Hats off to author William Stanek for another fine Pocket Consultant. I have 5 of these books in my library now (Windows NT 4, Windows 2000, Exchange 2000, SQL Server 7 and SQL Server 2000.) Since I picked up the first Pockete Consultant a yaer ago I haven't found a daily administration question that wasn't answered. You'll find that SQL Server 2000 Pocket Consultant is more of the same. The attention to detail and the focus on day to day administration tasks is fantastic! Mr. Stanek always starts with an overview of the subject of discussion and then digs right in. I've found that this book (and the rest in the series) answer 100% of my questions quickly and meanwhile the 1,000 page luggables used by my colleagues just get them frustrasted. I've made quite a few converts in the office.The nice thing about these books is the day to day focus. You get what you need to accomplish your task spelled out clearly and concisely in a style that I've found that only Mr. Stanek can deliver. It is refreshing. Now I'm not saying the books are pefrect. If you need to learn from scratch this isn't the answer. Look elsewhere. If you need to brush up and extend your skills to new stuff (like going from SQL 6.5 or SQL 7 to SQL 2000), is a good choice. If you need a book to help with day to day, is a good choice. If you need a book to put in your backpack and carry with you, is a good choice.Last I want to say thank you to Mr. Stanek. Thank you, I'm looking forward to more. --JW
Product: Book Paperback
Title: XML and PHP
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Vikram Vaswani
Rating: 4/5
Title: XML and PHP
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Vikram Vaswani
Rating: 4/5
Chapters two and three start the book with good examples of SAX and DOM use in PHP respectively. This provides a solid foundation for the rest of the book which shows examples of popular XML based technologies as applied to PHP. These include XSLT (Sablotron), XML-RPC, SOAP, XML in databases and other topics. Each of these discussions contains some real world examples to provide context.It's a short and concise book that is well written. The use of graphics could be more effective. For example the screenshot in figure 6.8 is a single line in a vast sea of whtie browser space. The code sample could use some annotation or at the very least some bolding to hi-light the important segments.The value of this book will depend on the degree to which you use XML in the PHP context. If you want a quick booster rocket to get you into SAX or DOM work within PHP this book will do the trick since it's far better than the documentation on the PHP site.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Pete Cassidy's Cookbook for Oracle SQL*Plus
Publisher: Chef Pierre
Authors: Pete W. Cassidy, Carole B. Cassidy
Rating: 5/5
Title: Pete Cassidy's Cookbook for Oracle SQL*Plus
Publisher: Chef Pierre
Authors: Pete W. Cassidy, Carole B. Cassidy
Rating: 5/5
Got to be the worst cover ever - even though its his daughters idea sorry! I cover it in brown paper at client sites. Its an excellent dip in and read and contains solutions to many commonly experienced problems both for experience and neophytes alike. For me its a MUST HAVE. I can give it to very inexperiened developers rather than explain for the n'th time how to define your editor in SQLPLUS for example. Howard Latham Editor Oracle Scene.
