IT programming books related reviews
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Beginning PHP4 Databases
Publisher: Wrox Press
Authors: Andrew Hill, Chris Lea, Christopher Scollo, Deepak Thomas, Harish Rawat
Rating: 5/5
Title: Beginning PHP4 Databases
Publisher: Wrox Press
Authors: Andrew Hill, Chris Lea, Christopher Scollo, Deepak Thomas, Harish Rawat
Rating: 5/5
This book aims to teach the skills necessary to develop any size web application with PHP, backed by a database. They start off with the now de facto PHP introduction and then jump head first into database fundamentals. Nearly half of this book is devoted to teaching database layout, design, and use. This is long over due in the PHP community. Too many PHP developers are creating database enabled applications that have absolutely no prior experience with databases! This book covers everything from elementary topics, such as table creation, selects, inserts, and deletes, to advanced database usage with joins, stored procedures, triggers, and cursors. While they did cover indexing, I feel that it was a bit lacking and could have used a more in depth exploration.One pleasant surprise was that no one particular database is favored; in fact use of the database abstraction layer in PEAR is encouraged for code portability. I am encouraged by the use of PEAR in this book, as it can only help to bring the community together in its use and promote PEAR as a standard of sorts. The PEAR database abstraction layer is picked apart so that you may understand exactly how it works and be that much more efficient with using it.At the end of this book, it offers two chapters dedicated to designing and implementing applications using a native XML database. The first of the two chapters concentrates on the fundamentals of native XML databases; what they are and how they work. The second chapter then presents a case study using Xindice.I found this book to be very thorough and well put together. Cheers to Wrox for another fine book!
Product: Book Paperback
Title: SQL Server The Complete Reference
Publisher: Osborne Publishing
Authors: Gayle Coffman
Rating: 1/5
Title: SQL Server The Complete Reference
Publisher: Osborne Publishing
Authors: Gayle Coffman
Rating: 1/5
The title of this book should be "SQL Server 7 for SQL Server 6.5 DBAs". Almost half the book is "what's new in 7.0" and the rest is a quick overview (yes, quick, despite the fact that it's almost 1000 pages!) and incomplete (try finding a list of string manipulation functions like substring() or rtrim() -- good luck!) of SQL Server 7 syntax. When I have a question, I don't even bother with this book, I go straight for my five-year-old copy of _SQL Server 6.5 Unleashed_.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Oracle PL/SQL by Example, Third Edition
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
Authors: Benjamin Rosenzweig, Elena Silvestrova
Rating: 4/5
Title: Oracle PL/SQL by Example, Third Edition
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
Authors: Benjamin Rosenzweig, Elena Silvestrova
Rating: 4/5
Very much a task oriented book, suitable for a classroom or self paced study. It is aimed at someone who wants or needs explicit lessons and exercises. Thoughtfully, the authors also furnished answers to the exercises. Sometimes with other computing books, I have wondered why their authors omit questions. Perhaps the nature of the topic makes it awkward to provide problem sets. But not for Oracle's PL/SQL language. So this book is chock-a-block with them.To students, retention is greatly enhanced by doing, and the book will take you a long way into facility with PL/SQL if you can discipline yourself to go through it methodically and not peek at the answers till you have given the problems a fair go.As far as the language itself, the book's presentation reminds me of a text on fortran or C, and unlike a text on java or C#. Firstly, the latter two are object-oriented, while PL/SQL, fortran and C are procedural. So if you have already learnt fortran or C and you read this book, step back and defocus a little from the specific syntax. Stylistically, the book has the flavour of many texts in those languages. Reinforced by PL/SQL not having a GUI. The I/O is character based. A slight retro feel. [Though PL/SQL should NOT have a GUI. It is optimised as a query language.]One thing to note is that the book explains using examples and exercises that are at the subroutine or procedural level, as mentioned above. Bite sized. What it lacks are higher level examples that necessitate decomposing a problem into several procedures. But this may be unfair. Those are harder, more abstract issues, whereas this book is meant for someone who still needs to learn the syntax in the first place. It does suggest the utility of such a book, as a logical successor to this.A final note relates to the problem sets. There is a difficulty with learning PL/SQL compared to, say, C or java. With C you can download an open source compiler. With java, you can get a free compiler from Sun or IBM. With SQL, there is the open source MySQL. Not so with PL/SQL. I don't think Oracle offers a free version. So if you are studying on your own, this is a severe quandary. How do you get a PL/SQL executable? Otherwise, the attraction of this book, or any other on PL/SQL, for that matter, is greatly restricted to classrooms or companies that already have that, and not to individuals. Well, the authors and the publisher offer access, at the publisher's website. This may be the strongest merit of the book.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Oracle PL/SQL Programming, Third Edition
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Steven Feuerstein
Rating: 4/5
Title: Oracle PL/SQL Programming, Third Edition
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Steven Feuerstein
Rating: 4/5
O'Reilly publishes good reference books. I always look for one of their books first when I am looking for a book in a given subject area. No one book in their Oracle series has it all, though. Each book covers it's subject area in depth...just make sure you get the right book! If you like the "Whatever For Dummies" kind of books, then O'Reilly books aren't for you. My only knock is that there are more books in the Oracle series than is really necessary...marketing at it's worst! Some of the seperate PL/SQL related books should have been combined into one volume.
Product: Book Hardcover
Title: Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2000 (With CD-ROM)
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: Kalen Delaney
Rating: 2/5
Title: Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2000 (With CD-ROM)
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: Kalen Delaney
Rating: 2/5
If you're looking to really understand the core engine of SQL Server and how to optimize your code, this is a really good book. If you're a database architect, this book may be a little too microscopic for you, lacking in design strategy. Surprisingly, I think this is actually a great book for the DBA - the discussions on the underlying mechanics are second to none.This book is named very appropriately. The author does an excellent job detailing what goes on under the hood of SQL Server. As an example, she exposes the details of the Bulk Change Map pages in database files and how they work in relationship with the Bulk Logged recovery mode, new to SQL Server 2000. It's one thing to read and memorize what can and can't be accomplished in Bulk Logged recovery mode, but it's a totally different feeling being enlightened on why it works the way it works. There are many core principles in how SQL Server operates that the author describes in detail.Here what I wished to have seen more coverage on: 1. Replication - this book does not cover replication. There are other books that show you how to point and click (I guess those point-and-click picture books will be called "Outside SQL Server 2000"), but none I've seen go into the "Inside" level. 2. Distributed Partitioned Views - This book shows how to create a distributed partitioned views, but it stops there. There are very important design considerations such as knowing where to place your data so as to minimize joins across the network. 3. Indexed Views - Same as distributed partitioned views - ends at the "how to create". I'd like to see how it works under the hood. 4. One way to classify this book is that it is very "server-centric". Many of us work on systems of database servers that work in concert under the application layer. I'd like to see more inter-server ("system-centric") insights.It really wouldn't be fair for me to ask for clustering or log shipping in this book - those really aren't developer issues. Clustering is much more of a Windows 2000 feature than a SQL Server feature. If you're interested in clustering or log shipping, check out the SQL Server 2000 Admin Companion and the SQL Server 2000 Resource Kit.Given the microscopic details packed into about 1000 pages, I found myself relying on Books Online for supplement. Many times, however, this book is actually more in depth than Books Online. I do agree with a few other reviewers that there's a lot of similarity with the version 7.0 of this book; however, there are many aspects of the products that are the same as well. If you really read the two books, though, you'll find that the 2000 version of the book is actually more in depth than the 7.0 version.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: PHP Pocket Reference, 2nd Edition
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Rasmus Lerdorf
Rating: 2/5
Title: PHP Pocket Reference, 2nd Edition
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Rasmus Lerdorf
Rating: 2/5
The most serious problem with this book is that there's no index. If you want to remind yourself of what arguments a particular function needs, you have to work out which category the function falls in and hunt through the appropriate chapter.It's useful as a reference if you can't get at the online PHP manual, but I've found that I rarely use it now. Maybe it's simply that the annotated online manual is so good, the book is redundant.Having said that, some of the example code provided is extremely useful, though the code layout suffers from the small size of the pages.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Microsoft SQL Server(TM) 2000 Programming Step by Step
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: Rebecca Riordan
Rating: 1/5
Title: Microsoft SQL Server(TM) 2000 Programming Step by Step
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: Rebecca Riordan
Rating: 1/5
Having a reasonable background in Access, I thought this would be a good book to learn SQL Server. WRONG! About the only things she explains are the wizards - which I thought were supposed to be self-explanatory. I was about 200 pages into the book before I found something even remotely useful, and by then I had no patience left to finish the book. If you're really thinking about buying this book, save yourself some money... at least go to the book with a list of questions and try to answer them using just the book... I guess I should check out Andy Baron/Mary Chipman's book on Access/SQL Server/ADPs... This book would only be good for starting up the BBQ...
Product: Book Unknown Binding
Title: Apache Server Unleashed
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Richard Bowen, Matthew Marlowe, Ken Coar, Patrik Grip-Jansson, Mohan Chinnappan
Rating: 4/5
Title: Apache Server Unleashed
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Richard Bowen, Matthew Marlowe, Ken Coar, Patrik Grip-Jansson, Mohan Chinnappan
Rating: 4/5
From a beginners point of veiw, this is an awesome place to start with apache server.. it starts from it's infancy and covers almost every aspect. definately a good read..
Product: Book Hardcover
Title: MCDBA SQL Server 7 Administration Study Guide (Book/CD-ROM Set)
Publisher: Mcgraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Syngress
Rating: 3/5
Title: MCDBA SQL Server 7 Administration Study Guide (Book/CD-ROM Set)
Publisher: Mcgraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Syngress
Rating: 3/5
May be this is a good book for person who have knowledge on SQL server already> However, as one of the elective exam for a MCSE, I believe the material is flustra. Let's forget about all the typo error and using the beta 3 interface. e.g. Ch1. The autor only use 1 sentece each to describe all different kind of (Inner, cross and outer join.) It me make me think am i really too stupid to understand what the autor try to say? I am only read to the 3rd Chapter at the first 7 days and cannot go on anymore, the more I read, the more I confuse. Maybe someone will say, that's the way the exam should be. Then, you are wrong. I go to bookstore and try to look for the other book. I found one published by Sybex named "MCSE: SQL Server 7 Administration Study Guide" by Lance Mortensen, Rick Sawtell. It is way way better. The author present the material step by step. It takes you from nothing till lead you to what you need to know about the exam. Although I read the review for the Sybex about SQL 6.5. It said that although material is writng in plain english, but the material isn't enough pass the exam. However, I still feel much more comfortable about the material from Sybex. I try to be as fair to both books. i will recommend those people go to book store and pick up both books. read only the first chapter and I am sure you will choose Sybex
Product: Book Paperback
Title: The Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: Ken Henderson
Rating: 1/5
Title: The Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: Ken Henderson
Rating: 1/5
If you are serious about squeezing everything out of SQL SERVER then this is THE book to buy. This is one of those rare books I take to work, leave there and refer to often. It somehow shows you the hard stuff when you need it.When I first read the book I kept saying WOW, I didn't know that, or 'That's how you do it'. I'd still pay for the book, if it was 1 chapter long. That's how much I've gotten from it!
