IT programming books related reviews
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Apache Server Administrator's Handbook
Publisher: Hungry Minds
Authors: Mohammed J. Kabir, Kabir
Rating: 5/5
Title: Apache Server Administrator's Handbook
Publisher: Hungry Minds
Authors: Mohammed J. Kabir, Kabir
Rating: 5/5
I don't read most IDG books because they are novice oriented. This one is different! Its for the pros who need real info in real time.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: PHP for the World Wide Web : Visual QuickStart Guide (2nd Edition) (Visual Quickstart Guides)
Publisher: Peachpit Press
Authors: Larry Ullman
Rating: 4/5
Title: PHP for the World Wide Web : Visual QuickStart Guide (2nd Edition) (Visual Quickstart Guides)
Publisher: Peachpit Press
Authors: Larry Ullman
Rating: 4/5
PHP is a wonderfull beast, and Larry Ullman does a very good job of presenting it from the ground up. He assumes only that the reader has computer experience and understands HTML. Although previous programming experience is helpfull, his approach is such that it is not needed.
He works through in a very solid manner, building scripts that he uses in latter chapters to do something different, so it is a very good book to work along with.
The minus points are in that it seems almost rushed at times, and it is the slimest Visual Quickstart Guide I have ever seen. It is half the size of ELizabrth Castro's HTML book (same price) and about a third the size of DHTML/CSS by Jason Teague Cranford (...).
That would be fine if he didn't constantly say 'that is beyond the scope of this book', sometimes that statement is valid because of the technical depth involved, other times it seems it would have required another chapter which they didn't have time to bother with.
Also it appears as if an advantced version of this book is due out in a couple of weeks, so it looks like they are trying to put PHP into two books, as they have done with Flash and other topics. The manufacturers price is (...)for that which is much higher than the VQG norm, so I can only hope it is a much bigger and complete beast. I shall be buying it...
Product: Book Paperback
Title: SQL: The Complete Reference, Second Edition
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: James R Groff, Paul N. Weinberg
Rating: 5/5
Title: SQL: The Complete Reference, Second Edition
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: James R Groff, Paul N. Weinberg
Rating: 5/5
I was forced to buy this book for a database class. I didn't fully appreciate it until I took a programming job and found myself using SQL quite a bit. This book lives up to its name, as it is truly a complete listing of all the concepts in SQL. It gives quality examples of how to use embedded SQL, dynamic SQL, and standard SQL. The authors are to be commended as this book is truly easy to read and quite informative. If you are interested at all in working with database programming, I can't recommend this SQL book high enough!! Plus, there is software included on the CD for many DBMS (Oracle, SQL Server, and others), which makes this book a good value.
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: 4/5
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: 4/5
Well, I thanked the authors of this book,because it was the only material that I used to pass the exam, but the problem I noticed is that the scope of the books is wider than the exam,hence I read a lot of (OP) out-of-ponits, any which way I passed.The flashcards were wonderful too.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Professional SQL Server 7.0 Programming
Publisher: Wrox Press
Authors: Rob Vieira
Rating: 4/5
Title: Professional SQL Server 7.0 Programming
Publisher: Wrox Press
Authors: Rob Vieira
Rating: 4/5
It's short (okay, for an advanced computer book it's short, it will still work as a boat anchor), it's clear, and it's complete. The beginner may head toward something that says "learn SQL Server in X Days," but the real beginner will need the details listed in this book. An error number table, a data type interaction table... how can you live without it!
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Professional PHP Programming
Publisher:
Authors: Jesus Castagnetto, Sascha Schumann, Harish Rawat, Chris Scollo, Deepak T. Veliath
Rating: 4/5
Title: Professional PHP Programming
Publisher:
Authors: Jesus Castagnetto, Sascha Schumann, Harish Rawat, Chris Scollo, Deepak T. Veliath
Rating: 4/5
Boy, my reviews of Wrox books probably seem a little boring, since there is so little fault to find with them. The Wrox programming books are really the best books on the market, and it's interesting that the Oreilly books haven't yet published a decent book on php or xml stuff. I liked the way this PHP book explained the various setup options and the amount of space discussing mysql (which is a major reason why people are using php anyway). What distinguishes this book from the rest are the examples. The tutorial part of the book works with two simple projects, an online job app and an address book, which were easy enough to follow. Actually, I found this book to be a useful intro to cgi script writing in addition to php. Also interesting were 4 case studies about ways to use php. Example: did you know that with the qt libraries, php can manipulate images (such as zooming, and overwriting images with text)? That is amazing! A chapter on phorum explains how a discussion software uses php, and another one explains the use of a shopping cart (I tend to agree with the other reader who thinks that this is not necessarily the best example to use). The book also describes other things like using php for file management and storage, email configuration, and network connections. Some other topics covered in depth include: xml, security and database integration. The appendix has many things. First, obviously, it has an alphabetical list of all the php functions. It also has a helpful appendix on http headers and another on browser support of html tags. This last thing is only somewhat handy to have, because web developers reading this book are past the point of needing browser support info re legacy html tags. Instead developers should be worrying about xml and xslt. Some technical books increase the size of their book by stuffing a lot of code throughout it. Wrox seems to like to increase the size by including large and somewhat irrelevant appendices. This book made me realize many new potential ways in which php could be used. That is the most valuable thing about the book. I have not tried very much of the code, so I can't comment on whether it all works. But (to summarize) it will really broaden your horizons of what php is capable of. The only reason I've given it 4 stars is that I haven't read the whole thing yet.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: The Guru's Guide to SQL Server Stored Procedures, XML, and HTML (With CD-ROM)
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: Ken Henderson
Rating: 1/5
Title: The Guru's Guide to SQL Server Stored Procedures, XML, and HTML (With CD-ROM)
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: Ken Henderson
Rating: 1/5
Except for minimal coverage of XML that is common knowledge at this point, maybe 20 to 40 pages, this is the same set of procs from book one that show up in magazines as tricks etc. The command line mindset still pervades this book.
No professional programming tools or techniques are mentioned let alone talked about in any detail.
Pros no longer use command line mentality in the real IT environments of today. [...] Even the best programmers of all time find problems with their own work let alone someone else's. I'd be very leery of these multitude of perfect scores. I own the book and can say with certainty it's not perfect in any ways mentioned and lacks any visual cues or talk of modern concerns such as security and other up to date topics. This is very outdated compared to how relational database programming is really done by the US's best programming pros.
Do yourself a favor, think it over if you wnat a book with nothing but text, no visual cues, missing explanations and example code that has no bearing on a real project in any sense. And all of it in a command line format. If you are like me you will be disappointed in how superannuated this book is.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Visual Basic Developer's Guide to E-Commerce with ASP and SQL Server
Publisher: Sybex Inc
Authors: Noel Jerke
Rating: 2/5
Title: Visual Basic Developer's Guide to E-Commerce with ASP and SQL Server
Publisher: Sybex Inc
Authors: Noel Jerke
Rating: 2/5
This development method doesn't take advantage of the 3/n-tier method of development. It seems to me that the title should be the VBScript developer's guide. I saw one COM component built in this book, while the rest was based on stored procedures and ASP. I was hoping to see visual basic used more than once.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Advanced PHP for Flash
Publisher: Wrox Press
Authors: Steve Webster, Matt Rice, Havard Eide, Jacob Hanson, Todd Marks, James Palmer, Kev Sutherland
Rating: 4/5
Title: Advanced PHP for Flash
Publisher: Wrox Press
Authors: Steve Webster, Matt Rice, Havard Eide, Jacob Hanson, Todd Marks, James Palmer, Kev Sutherland
Rating: 4/5
1. too many errors2. the codes don't work.. and you don't get support from the team that put them together... you will have to be overly nice to even here... "Oh! we will get back to you" from them3. Full e-commerce app? what is an e-commerce system without a checkout feature? they basically leave out all the meat and expect you to work at the same projects you bought the book for on your ownbasically, looks more like a couple of tutorials taken from the internet and thrown together in the form of a book in a hurry to capture the market before a better one does. LEAVE IT ON THE SHELF!!
Product: Book Paperback
Title: The Rational Guide to: SQL Server Reporting Services (Rational Guides)
Publisher: Rational Press
Authors: Anthony T. Mann
Rating: 2/5
Title: The Rational Guide to: SQL Server Reporting Services (Rational Guides)
Publisher: Rational Press
Authors: Anthony T. Mann
Rating: 2/5
Its a very low cost, quick-to-market overview of the product, and so I applaud Mr. Mann and the folks at Rational Press for that. However, its nothing more than a rehash of the Microsoft marketing information and technical documentation freely available from www.microsoft.com/sql. If you don't have an internet connection, then by all means by the book. Otherwise, you won't be gaining much at all by picking up this guide.
