IT programming books related reviews
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Real World Web Services
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Will Iverson
Rating: 5/5
Title: Real World Web Services
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Will Iverson
Rating: 5/5
Since Domino 7 will start to incorporate web services more readily into application development, I figured it was time to start getting a little more versed on the subject. To that end, I got a copy of Real World Web Services by Will Iverson (O'Reilly). Coupled with a detailed tutorial/reference manual, this is a really good selection.
Chapter List: Web Service Evolution; Foundations of Web Services; Development Platform; Project 1: Competitive Analysis; Project 2: Auctions and Shipping; Project 3: Billing and Faxing; Project 4: Syndicated Search; Project 5: News Aggregator; Project 6: Audio CD Catalog; Project 7: Hot News Sheet; Project 8: Automatic Daily Discussions; Future Web Service Directions; Index
While the book is smallish (206 pages), there's a lot of value packed in it. Iverson takes you from the beginning of simple HTTP request and responses, through data scrapping, into RPC technology, and then finally into web services. The overview really helps you to understand how we got to where we are. He explains how to set up a simple test development environment as well as what you'll need, and then it's directly into the example projects. Here's where the book shines. These projects connect to live data sources such as Amazon, Google, FedEx, and eBay, so you're not dealing with simple examples that don't translate to the real world. Each of the projects are applications that you could easily see yourself using on a daily basis, either exactly as written or with some moderate tweaking. And since you're learning the mechanics of connecting with that service, it's easy to extrapolate the information into the areas that might interest you more.
If you have no background in SOAP or WSDL, I'd recommend you get a foundational book that has a good tutorial and reference material. You won't get it from this book, nor should you expect to. It's not his intended purpose for the book. But this is the book that will help you go from theoretical to practical, and that's worth its weight in gold.
Very good book if you're looking to take the next step in your web services development...
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Dreamweaver MX: PHP Web Development
Publisher: Peer Information
Authors: Bruno Mairlot, Gareth Downes-Powell, Tim Green
Rating: 5/5
Title: Dreamweaver MX: PHP Web Development
Publisher: Peer Information
Authors: Bruno Mairlot, Gareth Downes-Powell, Tim Green
Rating: 5/5
I am an experienced Dreamweaver user and with the release of Dreamweaver MX I was inspired to take advantage of the new server capabilities (and my expensive DSL) and set up a web server. I needed to know PHP fast and this book is hands down the most complete introductory crash course available. I am, as i type this, buying the follow-up to this book called Advanced PHP Web Developement.The biggest strengths of this book are that it gets you initiated into the exclusive and close-knit PHP club pretty quickly. And even better, it tells you how to do this using the provided Dreamweaver MX tools.After mastering this book and devouring sections of it, you will be thirsting for more knowledge and scouring php bulletin boards for answers to your questions.This book is a must-have for people looking to dive head first into the world of open source web developement and server-side scripting without drowning.You will however find that this book is really only good for beginners and that you will very quickly find the plateau, leaving you grasping for more. But that is why I am buying the advanced php book: because I am ready for it now.
Product: Book Hardcover
Title: MCSD: SQL Server 6.5 Database Design Study Guide
Publisher: Sybex Inc
Authors: Kevin Hough
Rating: 4/5
Title: MCSD: SQL Server 6.5 Database Design Study Guide
Publisher: Sybex Inc
Authors: Kevin Hough
Rating: 4/5
I have already picked through Ken Hough's other book (VB Developer) so I was excited about this one. I haven't been disappointed. I installed SQL Server and have been working through the chapters. END
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 would also disagree with the negative reviews here that rate the book at one or two stars. It is no where near that bad.I am an experienced Oracle DBA who needs to support new SQL Server database applications in my company (a relatively new and unavoidable trend) so my concerns were questions concerning the history of the product, the memory and file architecture and internals, the support tools, the SQL interface, the optimizer, the database objects, etc. This books provides all this information and more.If you are looking for a step-by-step installation and/or maintenace guide with lots of screen graphics or a design or special feature book (XML, etc), this is not the one for you. If that is the case it is not the fault of the writer. The book's front cover clearly says "The definitive guide to the architecture and internals of the premier enterprise class RDBMS" (a very debatable but not misleading statement). On this point the book definitely delivers. For the experienced DBA, it is well organized and not at all badly written.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: SQL Server 6.5 Secrets (Secrets S.)
Publisher: Wiley Publishing
Authors: David K. Rensin, Andrew M. Fedorchek
Rating: 5/5
Title: SQL Server 6.5 Secrets (Secrets S.)
Publisher: Wiley Publishing
Authors: David K. Rensin, Andrew M. Fedorchek
Rating: 5/5
These guys know SQLserver inside out, and let you benefit from their knowledge. The discussion is not just another manual, but real tips, tricks and traps.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: SQL Server 2000 Developer's Guide
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Michael Otey, Paul Conte
Rating: 5/5
Title: SQL Server 2000 Developer's Guide
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Michael Otey, Paul Conte
Rating: 5/5
This is a hefty book that so far looks like a good choice for my first SQL Server 2000 book. The core stuff on T-SQL and ADO is solid and does a good job on new features like cascading foreign keys. The additional topics are what have really made this book a good value for me. As examples, this is the first SQL Server book I've found that grapples with Windows 2000 Server Active Directory and how to use it with SQL Server security. The XML coverage is also top notch and got me over several hurdles quickly. Some of the admin areas, like backup and recovery, aren't covered as deeply as in books targeted specifically at DBAs, however.The writing is very clear and direct and there's lots of example code. Although I've found a few typos, so far the technical information seems accurate. In several places, the authors provide useful tables that bring together information that's spread around different topics in the on-line documentation. I also found their recommendations for specific database settings and coding techniques helpful.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Oracle PL/SQL 101
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Christopher Allen
Rating: 3/5
Title: Oracle PL/SQL 101
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Christopher Allen
Rating: 3/5
This is a good reference for Oracle SQL. Although PL/SQL portion is very less with few examples. As an experienced Oracle developer, I won't recommend it anyone looking for PL/SQL reference. Go for Scott Urman or Steve Feuerstein rather.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Oracle SQL by Example, Third Edition
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
Authors: Alice Rischert
Rating: 5/5
Title: Oracle SQL by Example, Third Edition
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
Authors: Alice Rischert
Rating: 5/5
This book by Alice Rischert is one of the greatest Oracle SQL books ever written. I purchased the 1st edition of this book back in the day and it helped me pass the Oracle 8i OCP SQL exam. After reading the 1st edition, I was very much compelled to purchase the 3rd edition. The 3rd edition of the book is much better with all the errors from the previous versions corrected. This is the book they use for the students at Columbia University in New York. After you read this book and do all the exercises and test your thinking projects, you become a master of the subject. If you want to learn Oracle SQL, there is no greater learning tool than this book. Indeed, there is much time, effort, and loads of quality and research put into this book. The format of the book is reading and then hands-on labs which reinforce the topics you just read. After you read this book you should purchase the Oracle PL/SQL by Example third edition. It goes hand-in-hand with this book. AFterward, you'll know enough to go take the Oracle SQL and PL/SQL exam.
Product: Book Hardcover
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 7 Administrator's Guide
Publisher: Muska & Lipman/Premier-Trade
Authors: Ron Talmage
Rating: 1/5
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 7 Administrator's Guide
Publisher: Muska & Lipman/Premier-Trade
Authors: Ron Talmage
Rating: 1/5
The negative reviews of this book, authored by the remaining 15 people who have no other duties than DBA, are misleading. The book is appropriately titled and is for an administrator.This is the best book for the DBA that has been tasked with administering a DB management system in addition to thier normal IS administration or programming duties.If you are a DB implementor, this book is not for you. If you read this book, you will be provided with a clear understanding of SQL Server 7.0 and be able to administrate it appropriately.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Beginning Php 4 (Programmer to Programmer)
Publisher: Peer Information
Authors: Chris Lea, Allan Kent, Ganesh Prasad, Chris Ullman
Rating: 1/5
Title: Beginning Php 4 (Programmer to Programmer)
Publisher: Peer Information
Authors: Chris Lea, Allan Kent, Ganesh Prasad, Chris Ullman
Rating: 1/5
The book is out of date as it covers PHP4 before security changes were made. It is also very inconsistant later on, as the various authors seem to believe in very different conventions, for example early on they claim type casting is unnecessary, then in Ch. 10 they use it loads - without any explanation, also in Ch. 10 they start introducing new functions without any explanation of how they work or even what they do (they explain some but not others) and the examples are really tedious due to similarity in some parts. The different authors also type the same commands differently (e.g echo ""; and echo(""); - again without explanation, and they obviously didn't collaborate enough to ensure consistency.Otherwise an ok introduction to PHP4, but I'm sure there are better guides out these that will be more consistent.
