IT programming books related reviews
Product: Book Paperback
Title: PHP and MySQL Web Development
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Luke Welling, Laura Thomson
Rating: 5/5
Title: PHP and MySQL Web Development
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Luke Welling, Laura Thomson
Rating: 5/5
This was the first book I ever bought on PHP/mySQL. Usally you can find a good book on PHP or mySQL, but never both. Well, this is great AND it has both. I don't think I would be where I am today programming PHP if it wasnt for this book.Easy to follow and with great examples. I keep it by my side all the time!
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Professional PHP4 XML
Publisher: Peer Information
Authors: Luis Argerich, Chris Lea, Ken Egervari, Matt Anton, Chris Hubbard, James Fuller, Charlie Killian
Rating: 5/5
Title: Professional PHP4 XML
Publisher: Peer Information
Authors: Luis Argerich, Chris Lea, Ken Egervari, Matt Anton, Chris Hubbard, James Fuller, Charlie Killian
Rating: 5/5
The book features the most solid documentation on core XML technologies that i have ever read:
The SAX chapter is very interesting read because it goes beyond the installation of the SAX libraries and learning how to use the functions. Covering Expat, the chapter explains a great deal about how to use the less uncommon functions like xml_set_notation_decl_handler(), xml_set_external_entity_ref_handler() and the others effectively. Also of note, the diagrams and code examples were very clear and well done in this chapter. The chapter also looks at writing a properly modeled object-oriented SAX parser using eXtremePHP and covers common problems like removing whitespace, handling erroneous XML input and extending the white box infrastructure within eXtremePHP to create very powerful, yet elegant, XML Parsers.The DOM chapter covers the latest DOM extensions introduced in PHP 4.2.1 and even provides code examples and heads up information on what is to come in PHP 4.3.0. The chapter introduces what DOM is and even shows the reader a beautiful diagram illustrating how all the functions relate to an example. By simply looking at this, you can get a feel for how to use DOM almost immediately. The chapter continues to discuss how to enable DOM within your PHP installation on both Windows and UNIX and looks at the real-world advantages and disadvantages to using DOM over SAX. Next, the chapter explains the new DOM object model and looks at the underlying architecture before diving into any code examples. This information sets up the rest of the chapter, making it a lot easier for non-object oriented programs to visualize what methods belong to what objects and understanding the data relationships of the DOM tree. The chapter then presents a lot of code examples. First, it illustrates how many of the methods and functions of the DOM library work and then covers more complicated examples, illustrating how to parse, create and modify DOM documents with and without using HTML forms. The chapter closes with a pretty comprehensive look into the limitations of the DOM standard, explaining to the reader what the boundaries are, common problems with the API yet unfixed and provides future directions the library might take to correct many of the architectural, standards-based and object-oriented capabilities within the library.Kudos to everyone that made this book happen.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Special Edition Using SQL (SE Using)
Publisher: Que
Authors: Rafe Colburn
Rating: 5/5
Title: Special Edition Using SQL (SE Using)
Publisher: Que
Authors: Rafe Colburn
Rating: 5/5
When I was doing sorta minimal SQL and mostly concentrating on programming, database administration and debugging, the fairly sketchy SQL books I happened to buy first were good enough. But recently I've started doing lots of web-database development, writing much more complex queries and having to be a lot smarter about SQL. This book has been quite helpful. Yes, there are a lot of words here, and yes, I would have trimmed a couple of chapters. But the book explains a great deal of complex info and is written very clearly. It's clear that the author is tied to real world -- I gather from his bio that he's a web application developer in real life. Wish I'd bought the book earlier. When I want to quickly remind myself of some common bit of syntax, there are other books where I can find the info quicker. But when I have those "gee, how am I going to do *this*?" moments, this is the book I grab.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: The Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: Ken Henderson
Rating: 5/5
Title: The Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: Ken Henderson
Rating: 5/5
I am a SQL Server trainer based in New York. We buy all the books that come out on SQL Server and evaluate them for classroom use. This book is hands-down the best book money can buy on Transact-SQL and maybe even on SQL Server. My take on the other Transact-SQL books:Teach Yourself Transact-SQL (both versions) - too shallow and too disorganized to teach you anything in 21 months, let alone 21 daysTransact-SQL (Amo) - nearly everything in it is in the Books Online. It is also quite dated.Transact-SQL Programming (Klein, et al) - Very dated (SQL Server 2000 is not covered at all and SQL Server 7.0 is relegated to an appendix) and gets off into topics that have nothing to do with Transact-SQL (for example, the bcp utility). It was unfortunately the best of the lot until the Guru's Guide came out.Advanced Transact-SQL Programming (Moreau, et al) - Not advanced at all - really just a rehash of the Books Online. Examples have numerous flaws. Recommends techniques that MS has deprecated. Book is a difficult read because of obvious problems with English on the part of the authors.SQL for Smarties (Celko) - not a Transact-SQL book, per se, but we looked at using it to teach ANSI-compliant Transact-SQL since it purports to teach ANSI syntax. The problem with it is that 1) the examples are loaded with errors 2) many of the examples (and recommendations) come straight from academia - they aren't applicable to the real world. People who come to us for training usually want to learn something that will help them do their jobs better. This book doesn't really do that.So, there you have it: our brief survey of the available Transact-SQL books. Given the competition, Henderson's book easily walks away as the best Transact-SQL book your money can buy. It is practical, well-written, and loaded with great examples and good advice. The parts we use most are:Cursors chapter - shows how to properly use cursors to solve complex problems.Concurrency chapter - shows how to design Transact-SQL code to deal with locking/blocking/concurrency issues. Explains locking in detail and explains how to use it to your advantage.SELECT chapter - all you ever wanted to know about SELECT and more.Statistics chapters - these gems show how to solve hard row-positioning problems with Transact-SQL code that will actually work in the real world.Administrative chapter - most of our students are DBAs who want to know how to do their jobs better. This chapter not only includes lots of useful code that you can drop into place in production environments, it also reveals a lot about how SQL Server works internally. It's probably our most popular lesson.Stored procedures - DBAs usually wind up writing a fair number of stored procedures, so this chapter has also proved very popular.Performance and Tuning - this chapter could be its own book. It's crammed full of useful techniques for speeding up slow Transact-SQL code. It's my personal favorite.Full-text search - Since its addition in SQL Server 7.0, this topic has garnered a lot of interest from our students. We've used Henderson's Full-Text chapter to teach FTS from soup to nuts.In our opinion, this is the best Transact-SQL book money can buy. It's also the best SQL book of any kind out there - it's more useful than books like Celko's because the 600+ examples in it actually work :-) And it may even be the best SQL Server book around. Though we also like and use books like Inside SQL Server 2000 and various others from Microsoft, this book stands apart from them because of how well written it is. We've had students who weren't even SQL Server people comment on what an easy read the prose is. The Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL is exactly what its title implies: the definitive word on Transact-SQL written by a master of the language.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: MCSE Test Success: SQL Server 7 Administration
Publisher: Sybex Inc
Authors: Michael Lee, Rick Sawtell
Rating: 5/5
Title: MCSE Test Success: SQL Server 7 Administration
Publisher: Sybex Inc
Authors: Michael Lee, Rick Sawtell
Rating: 5/5
This book was a great study aid while preparing for the 70-028 test. Does it give you the answers for the test, no. Does it review key subject area necessary for passing the test, yes. Too many paper MCSEs (or wannabes) expect to get the answers to the test before taking the test. The purpose of these exams is to test your knowledge of the product and not how well you memorized the questions from practice exams. Using a book like this, BOL, and the product, you should be able to pass the exam. And for you people who expect to get the answers to the test before you take the test, there are at least two questions that I saw from this book on the test.
Product: Book Hardcover
Title: Ocp: Oracle8I Dba SQL and Pl/SQL Study Guide : Exam 1Z0-001 (OCP Study Guide)
Publisher: Sybex Inc
Authors: Chip Dawes, Biju Thomas
Rating: 5/5
Title: Ocp: Oracle8I Dba SQL and Pl/SQL Study Guide : Exam 1Z0-001 (OCP Study Guide)
Publisher: Sybex Inc
Authors: Chip Dawes, Biju Thomas
Rating: 5/5
This is the best book for exam IZO-001. If you read this thoroughly and answer all the questions, you will be ready for anything on the exam. I just passed the first exam today at the first attempt, and have no prior experience in either oracle or programming.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: SQL Server 2000: The Complete Reference
Publisher: Osborne/McGraw-Hill
Authors: Jeffrey Shapiro
Rating: 5/5
Title: SQL Server 2000: The Complete Reference
Publisher: Osborne/McGraw-Hill
Authors: Jeffrey Shapiro
Rating: 5/5
I am writing this in respone to the 1 star review, particularly the XML and ISAPI comments. Chapter 23 covers ALL of the XML functionality in SQL2K. This is not a book on ASP development, that is why there is a SQL2k Web Applications Developer Guide, one by Osborne which is excellent written by Craig Utley, but probably 100 other ASP programmers guides. ASP has absolutely nothing to do with SQL Server. You can make a career writing ASP and never touch a SQL2K database. This book is for the beginner or experienced DBA who needs to get up to speed on SQL2K and what it does. The chapter on XML has a fully functional demo app that uses ASP, XML and VBScript and a SQL2K database. I would reccomend this book to anyone that want to learn all of the ins and outs of SQl2K, and wants a good understanding of the XML support in SQL2K. There are tons of samples and code in this book, and i think that is what makes it so good, and a very good read. But in the end, it is a SQL2000 Complete Reference, so that is the main concentration. A must have for any serious DBA!
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Oracle Utilities: Using Hidden Programs, Import/Export, SQL*Loader, Oradebug, Dbverify, Tkprof and More
Publisher: Rampant TechPress
Authors: Dave Moore
Rating: 2/5
Title: Oracle Utilities: Using Hidden Programs, Import/Export, SQL*Loader, Oradebug, Dbverify, Tkprof and More
Publisher: Rampant TechPress
Authors: Dave Moore
Rating: 2/5
Content directed to new land and showed how to find such info in future releases.. Introduction to OraStack, OraDim, MaxMem.. and Java within Oracle is excellent. Well balanced content..
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Oracle PL/SQL 101
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Christopher Allen
Rating: 5/5
Title: Oracle PL/SQL 101
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Christopher Allen
Rating: 5/5
JOB WELL DONE Mr. Christopher Allen!! This is the MOST helpful book to me on Oracle Pl/ SQL that I have ever seen in Silicon Valley area! I have spent many months browsing and buying books on Oracle from almost all bookstores in the bay area, but this book is the only one that helped me. I am very thankful for that. Abdullahi Koshin from Oakland, CA
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Hands On SQL Server 7 with VB6 (Hands on)
Publisher: Premier Press
Authors: Wayne S. Freeze
Rating: 3/5
Title: Hands On SQL Server 7 with VB6 (Hands on)
Publisher: Premier Press
Authors: Wayne S. Freeze
Rating: 3/5
Excellent background explanations of SQL databases and ADO and how to use built-in VB6 database access.Good separation of DB design, VB data access, and web-based data access.Surprise bonus under web-based data access is difficult to find info on VB6 "IIS Application".Unfortunately does not include any reference for SQL Server 7 (language syntax, etc).
