IT programming books related reviews
Title: Dreamweaver MX: PHP Web Development
Publisher: Peer Information
Authors: Bruno Mairlot, Gareth Downes-Powell, Tim Green
Rating: 5/5
I have been using Dreamweaver for over 3 years and more recently Dreamweaver MX. I consider myself an expert in Dreamweaver, but I have never used its dynamic features. This book was a great resource for me. After reading through it, and its examples, I was creating PHP MySQL dynamic pages in two days. I never knew how easy Dreamweaver MX makes PHP MySQL development until this book explained it to me. This has unleashed a whole new aspect of Dreamweaver MX for me. I can't wait to start using it on my web sites.
Title: SQL: The Complete Reference, Second Edition
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: James R Groff, Paul N. Weinberg
Rating: 5/5
This is very big book and when you see it, you will think "Woo! What a big book!" The fact is that it is a big book because it is very complete and thorough. I have had this book two or three month now and every time I go to look inside it for some information I find it there with a very good explanation. Beside being through, this book also has many helpful diagrams and is easy to read. I can't not think of anything negative to say about it or think of anything that is missing, so I will just say you should buy it!
Title: Professional Apache (Professional)
Publisher: Wrox Press
Authors: Peter Wainwright
Rating: 5/5
This book doesn't waste much time spoon feeding people. I love it. When Peter starts a topic, he explores it completely and IN DETAIL.Nice work.
Title: McSe Exam Notes: SQL Server 6.5 Administration (Certificaiton Study Guide)
Publisher: Sybex Inc
Authors: Rick Sawtell, Lance Mortensen
Rating: 2/5
Too many errors in the definitions. Errors in DUMP, LOAD....If I did not have SQL 6.5 at home to test with I never would have caught them. They should do a better job on qualiy control and of reviewing before they publish. I do not recommend this book to use to preprare for the exam.
Title: Sybase SQL Server 11 Unleashed
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Ray Rankins, Jeff Garbus, David Solomon, Bennett W. McEwan
Rating: 5/5
If you buy only one book covering Sybase, this should be it. This book covers everything from security to tuning to backup and recovery. In my department, we refer to this book as "The Bible". I would like to have seen some coverage of Replication Server, but hey, I guess you can't have everything. I can't wait for the next edition covering 11.5 and 11.9. Keep up the good work guys!
Title: Optimizing Transact-SQL : Advanced Programming Techniques
Publisher: SQL Forum Press
Authors: David Rozenshtein, Anatoly Abramovich, Eugene Birger
Rating: 5/5
Read all the reviews. I've read all of the public articles that Rozenshtein wrote. Those of you who read the book and did not value the content, I wonder about you. "Impossible" "Skip this one" "Esoterica" Did you miss the most important point of the book? Think differently and you just might find a simple elegant solution to your data access problem.I can hear the groanings now, "cross table joins, elegant"? What you do not know is that when Rozenshtein proposed the solutions you read about, the companies he worked with set down expectations under which Rozenshtein worked. He was to find a one-pass method of solving the data access problems of a company who had poorly designed very large databases and a limited time to assemble the data needed for daily reporting. Rozenshtein only had enough time to make one-pass through all the databases at once to collect the data for these daily reports.What you read in this book is about brilliant problem solving that produces results businesses value. Rozenshtein is a mathmatician sought out by large companies to solve data access problems that their staff could not solve. This book is about data access problem solving to produce results. I believe most everyone could stand to improve their results.
Title: PHP and MySQL Web Development, Second Edition
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Luke Welling, Laura Thomson
Rating: 3/5
Good book for beginners. Okay book fom intermediates. Why? Good explanations and examples, well thought out progression of chapters... BUT its index is pretty weak and really hampers the books use as a desk reference. Extremely frustrating book to use when trying to find out certain specifics. I'm picking up a PHP Desk Reference to supplement this book.
Title: SQL Server 2000 Programming by Example
Publisher: Que
Authors: Carlos Rojas, Fernando Guerrero
Rating: 5/5
This is an excellent book for average/advanced programmers who
want to review and learn all about SQL Server 2000 basics with very good and very concise,very clear examples.I recommend this book for people preparing for the Microsoft 70-229 database design and implementation.A must READ. I thank the authors.
Title: Special Edition Using Microsoft SQL Server 6.5 (2nd Edition)
Publisher: Que
Authors: Stephen Wynkoop
Rating: 5/5
The formatting of the book is lousy. There are many errors in the examples given. The book is written in parts as if you know nothing about database theory or SQL and other parts take an assumption that you are an expert and only have the book for a quick reference. There is too much cross references in the book to be a useful.
Title: SQL Queries for Mere Mortals: A Hands-On Guide to Data Manipulation in SQL
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: Michael J. Hernandez, John L. Viescas
Rating: 5/5
Our company switched to and extensively uses SQL. In an effort to educate the entire I.T. staff on the effective use of SQL, we purchased Microsoft Office Curriculum (to assess whether it fit our needs), searched book stores, and checked with Universities (online and local) for acceptable SQL curriculum. Our search was disappointing until we found this book. We enhanced this book with company-specific examples and created our own course using this book as the main text. We employed an instructor from a local university to conduct the course and have it certified by the state dept of education. It provides good information about good practices using SQL.

