IT programming books related reviews
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Core PHP Programming, Third Edition
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
Authors: Leon Atkinson, Zeev Suraski
Rating: 5/5
Title: Core PHP Programming, Third Edition
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
Authors: Leon Atkinson, Zeev Suraski
Rating: 5/5
Now, understand I went into this book knowing NOTHING about PHP, but I did have a background in Perl, HTML, JavaScript, ASP, Visual Basic, C++, CSS, and QBasic. What's another language, right? It seems to me that all the (horribly) negative reviews for this book come from people that didn't understand it. Programming books are written for certain types of people, and most of the myriad of choices are valid for someone. If you do not know what "syntax" means, this book might not be for you.
I purchased this book because it had simple tutorials and a good index in the back. Because I knew nothing about PHP structurally speaking, I needed a few chapters of tutorials to figure out how to do this or that. From there, I relied on their reference for at-a-glance instructions on how to form arrays, or functions. Again, if you do not know what an array is or what a function is, this book is not for you.
When selecting a programming book, whether you have digital bytes running through your blood or just starting out, go to a freakin' book store and thumb through the resources on the shelf. See how they are written. See if they will teach you something productive. Many basic books fail to tell you the transitional steps to make your own code. Many "advanced" books are merely reference code, that are not a very good starting point for people, well, starting out. Some have illustrations. Some have CDs.
For me, this was the perfect guide. In conjunction with PHP.net, there is no task I cannot conquer with this language.
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
I really liked this book. It tells you how the server works internally and that's essential if your going to build robust systems with it. I keep this book close at hand at all times - its that valuable. I rank it right up there with Hendersons' Guru's Guide book.
Product: Book Hardcover
Title: MCAD/MCSE/MCDBA Self-Paced Training Kit: Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Database Design and Implementation, Exam 70-229, Second Edition
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: Microsoft Corporation, Microsoft Corporation
Rating: 3/5
Title: MCAD/MCSE/MCDBA Self-Paced Training Kit: Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Database Design and Implementation, Exam 70-229, Second Edition
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: Microsoft Corporation, Microsoft Corporation
Rating: 3/5
The book gives a cursory overview of the topics needed for the exam. This comes as no surprise since the teams that write the courses/books and the teams that write the exams are completely separate and do not work with each other. The book has serious problem with errors, particularly when describing the examples, the text and examples don't match. But if you are at all familiar with Microsoft's other products such as application software or operating systems, this should come as no surprise.
Again, while the book does give you a brief look at the topics you will need to explore, I found purchasing Self Test Software's practice exams to be of more help in both preparing for the test and understanding the materials. Their explanations of the correct and incorrect answers helps flesh out the missing pieces of this book.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Oracle SQL*Loader: The Definitive Guide
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Jonathan Gennick, Sanjay Mishra
Rating: 5/5
Title: Oracle SQL*Loader: The Definitive Guide
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Jonathan Gennick, Sanjay Mishra
Rating: 5/5
Very good book on SQL loader. Eveything is in one place and easy to find. Answered all my questions and I got a few ideas about other ways to use SQL loader.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: PHP Essentials
Publisher: Muska & Lipman/Premier-Trade
Authors: Julie C. Meloni
Rating: 1/5
Title: PHP Essentials
Publisher: Muska & Lipman/Premier-Trade
Authors: Julie C. Meloni
Rating: 1/5
The only persons who may consider to get this book are people with no programming experience. They should not. This book does not provide an extensive view of what PHP is about, and is not didactic enough to be considered as a primer. And it is sadly outdated.Even if the differences between PHP version 3 and 4 are not numerous nor extensive, you could find yourself disappointed.....
Product: Book Paperback
Title: SQL for Dummies
Publisher: For Dummies
Authors: Allen G. Taylor
Rating: 1/5
Title: SQL for Dummies
Publisher: For Dummies
Authors: Allen G. Taylor
Rating: 1/5
People who write books for "dummies" need to test it out on a genuine "dummy" before they publish it. This "wonderful" book won't tell you much of anything about how to get SQL server up and running, how to set up a data base, query it, modify it etc. Why? Because the author won't give you the basic information necessary to do these tasks. He assumes you already own something called "RAD" (and won't tell you what that is, either) and fails to explain the use of the internal tool ISQLW, leaving his dummy audience trying figure out how to get into MS SQL to use the "rich" language to create and modify tables. Sorry, I'm the "dummy" that bought this book, and after reading three or four chapters had to find other sources of information so that I could, at least, set up a data base. To IDG Books: Next time you publish a SQL book for "dummies", try not to assume anything. Keep in mind who you are talking to: people who don't know the first thing about SQL server and don't want to run out and buy some other "tool" in order to be able to make it do what it's supposed to do.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: The Essence of SQL : A Guide to Learning Most of SQL in the Least Amount of Time
Publisher: Coriolis Group Books
Authors: David Rozenshtein
Rating: 4/5
Title: The Essence of SQL : A Guide to Learning Most of SQL in the Least Amount of Time
Publisher: Coriolis Group Books
Authors: David Rozenshtein
Rating: 4/5
The book is good. It teaches essential and good SQL skill, and provides a good understanding.
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
Microsoft continues to integrate its SQL Server deeper into its .NET framework. One result is this book, with a heads-up on new features with a nominal release date of 2005. YOu can see a lot of changes.
Most significant, perhaps, is that the .NET CLR engine is now embedded into the SQL Server engine. So that stored procedures can now be written, and in several .NET languages, at that. Stored procedures are a key optimisation technique of sophisticated databases, so it is very good to see it here.
Hmm, I wonder. This book scrupulously avoids mentioning any rival databases. But at the low end, SQL Server has to ward off the free MySQL. The latter lacks stored procedures [for now]. So this lets Microsoft put some distance between them. Plus, above SQL Server in functionality sits Oracle and dB2. So stored procedures help close the gap here.
Another interesting note about the book is the sheer space devoted to integrating in XML. There is now a native XML data type in SQL Server. All relational databases are having to move towards handling XML. This also makes it harder for pure object oriented databases, like Versant, to make inroads when major databases like SQL Server handle XML.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Hitchhiker's Guide to Visual Basic and SQL Server
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: William R. Vaughn
Rating: 5/5
Title: Hitchhiker's Guide to Visual Basic and SQL Server
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: William R. Vaughn
Rating: 5/5
Tons of well-written examples.Lots of practical applications and historical tips. . . very helpful if you weren't following the development of ADO, DAO, and RDO.Applies to not only SQL Server, but to any data source that you might to access.Written to teach you how to use VB with SQL Server; in addition to providing some reference material.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes, Third Edition
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Ben Forta
Rating: 2/5
Title: Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes, Third Edition
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Ben Forta
Rating: 2/5
I would give this book only one star, but because it did do a good job of explaining the SQL language, I'm going to give it two. Not once in this book did they explain MySQL, which is the most popular database used today. Also, the book did cover ASP a little, but no PHP. How can you have a book about SQL and not cover the topics of PHP and MySQL, even if for a brief moment. However, they did cover Microsoft SQL Server, a commercial database server which most people will never have to interact with, and of all things, Microsoft Query. I didn't even know Microsoft still did this. They also covered Oracle, another important DBMS, but again people, Oracle is something only encountered in a commercial world. It is a great system, but most of us will not have to worry about it. And finally, the title totally throws the readers off. It is impossible to learn SQL in ten minutes. Besides the fact that most people can't read an entire book in ten minutes, it's impossible to comprehend all the material the book gives you in ten minutes. But anyway, if you're looking to get some information on how to use SQL with MySQL, or if you plan to use PHP to connect to your database, DON'T BUY THIS BOOK! It will not help you at all.
