IT programming books related reviews
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Optimizing Transact-SQL : Advanced Programming Techniques
Publisher: SQL Forum Press
Authors: David Rozenshtein, Anatoly Abramovich, Eugene Birger
Rating: 5/5
Title: Optimizing Transact-SQL : Advanced Programming Techniques
Publisher: SQL Forum Press
Authors: David Rozenshtein, Anatoly Abramovich, Eugene Birger
Rating: 5/5
Somebody took my copy of this book, which I've owned for years, and now I MUST get another copy! I feel naked without it!
It's helped me do things never considered possible previously. I guess I'd call it "Quantum SQL".
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
This was my first Wrox Press book, but certainly not the last. In this book Rob will take you through virtually all aspects of SQL 7.0 development. I especially liked the fact that he explains his ways of accomplishing things. You can pick up many little gems on the way and by the end of the book you'll be taken through a lot of practical examples. The chapter on SQL Server Storage and Indexing is especially good. The only reason why I didn't give it a five star is the lack of source code. I know, you can download it from their website, but it was a hassle. If you have a slow connection you won't get a full directory listing of their FTP site. Also, once I had the source code file, I discovered that some code is missing. For example you cannot find NorthwindTriggers.dts anywhere in the package, therefore you'll have a little problem following the examples in chapter 14. I must also mention though, that when I mailed Wrox's support, they sent me the missing source code within a day. They were very professional and efficient.All in all, this book is worth much more than it's price and I strongly recommend you buying it. I'm also looking forward to reading more titles from Wrox Press.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Professional SQL Server 2000 DTS (Data Transformation Services)
Publisher: Wrox
Authors: Mark Chaffin, Brian Knight, Todd Robinson
Rating: 2/5
Title: Professional SQL Server 2000 DTS (Data Transformation Services)
Publisher: Wrox
Authors: Mark Chaffin, Brian Knight, Todd Robinson
Rating: 2/5
This book was a disappointment. Mostly it shows how to create packages using the Enterprise Mgr interface. I don't need a book to do that. Right now I am coding a VB app using DTS, and this book was definitely not enough. This is a beginner book, introductory in nature. There is an Object reference, but I can see that in the Object Browser. The examples are simplistic and not real-world. The examples on the SQL Server 2000 Resource Kit are better. I am moving large amounts of data data and have to deal with permissions, constraints, dependency tables -- none of this is covered. You can manipulate the object model thousands of ways; without any guidance on these advanced topics (not covered by MSDN) you are adrift... and your packages will fail every time.
If you are a programmer, don't bother with this one.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Professional SQL Server 7.0 Programming
Publisher: Wrox Press
Authors: Rob Vieira
Rating: 5/5
Title: Professional SQL Server 7.0 Programming
Publisher: Wrox Press
Authors: Rob Vieira
Rating: 5/5
I have used *almost* all of the books on the market to bring me up to speed with SQL Server 7 and this book is the best to date. The best part, in my opinion, is the coverage on cursors. I have avoided using them like they were the plague, but this book brought to light the proper usage and handeling of cursors.Not only does this book cover DTS and other features I needed for a project, but the book made it easy from the sample code included.This book, along with Professional SQL Server 7 Programming will make any developers like much easier. Note: There is no ADO specific code samples, this is strictly on Transact-SQL (T-SQL).Great book!
Product: Book Paperback
Title: SQL Server 7 Developer's Guide
Publisher: Osborne Publishing
Authors: Michael Otey, Paul Conte
Rating: 2/5
Title: SQL Server 7 Developer's Guide
Publisher: Osborne Publishing
Authors: Michael Otey, Paul Conte
Rating: 2/5
This book hardly dives into the intricate details needed for an experienced developer and it's contents are too shallow for a DBA. This book is basically a bunch of facts gathered from various resources and pasted together. The author states facts and presents tables without any explanation as to why or how sql server behaves but presents common trivial tasks in a cookbook fashion.Some of the material presented in this book is innacurate or outdated and no longer applies to SQL Server 7. For a technical book that has taken almost two years of effort, you would expect much more and should be devoid of factual errors such as "a terabyte is 1000 megabytes" (page 399).Despite it's shortcommings, you will find SQL Server 7 Developer's Guide a reasonable reference for the average database programmer, however if you want good advice from "experts" pertaining to SQL Server 7 who write from experience rather than present information easily obtained from online manuals (which becomes outdates very quickly) I recommend Inside SQL Server 7 from Microsoft Press.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 System Administration Online Training Kit (It-Online Training Kit)
Publisher: Microsoft Pr Rating: 5/5
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 System Administration Online Training Kit (It-Online Training Kit)
Publisher: Microsoft Pr Rating: 5/5
I used the CD training and it was better that the MS Official Curriculum class that I took from a well known Company. In fact that is all I will use in my future training. I like to be able to stop the CD and test ideas on a system what I just learned. I passed the exam and was able to use the information on a server that I was setting. Well done MS. Now can you do this with your Win2000 products?
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Apache Server 2 Bible
Publisher: Wiley
Authors: Mohammed J. Kabir
Rating: 5/5
Title: Apache Server 2 Bible
Publisher: Wiley
Authors: Mohammed J. Kabir
Rating: 5/5
Apache Server Bible is a well organized reference that provides extensive detail information (this is a good thing)
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 7 DBA Survival Guide
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Orryn Sledge
Rating: 5/5
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 7 DBA Survival Guide
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Orryn Sledge
Rating: 5/5
I found the 6.5 version of this book extremely helpful as it seemed to cover more extensively some of the features that other books did not cover very well. Along with a lot of examples that were extremely practical and helpful.I found this version for 7.0 to be as good and I was looking forward to its release.I highly recommend.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 Database Implementation Training Kit (Training Kit)
Publisher: Microsoft Press Rating: 3/5
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 Database Implementation Training Kit (Training Kit)
Publisher: Microsoft Press Rating: 3/5
be warned: i have written dozens of exams in my day including a few MCSE's and 70-029 is by far the toughest of the MCSE's i've done so far, and one of the hardest of any i can remember.the training kit is mediocre. too many useless examples that underscore simple points. conversely the exam dealt quite a bit with SHOWPLAN TEXT which is barely covered in the training kit. i would generally not recommend this product EXCEPT it has the huge plus of including a free eval copy of SQL server. it worked right away whereas the one you can download off their web site, well i never could get that to work for some reason.back to the exam, look out for DBCC SHOWCONTIG and lots of arcane design questions ... one with 8 different tables described in over 2 full screens of text followed by questions like 'this design allows for no redundant data, T or F'?
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Mastering Oracle SQL, 2nd Edition
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Sanjay Mishra, Alan Beaulieu
Rating: 4/5
Title: Mastering Oracle SQL, 2nd Edition
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Sanjay Mishra, Alan Beaulieu
Rating: 4/5
I found this book especially helpful because it was written so a beginning DBA can turn to a page and immediately make sense of what's written. I am a fledgling DBA working with large SQL-type databases in a high-pressure environment. This book provided interesting gotcha's and excellent tips and work-arounds that have been useful in debugging code real-time.
Written to encompass Oracle 10g, this book is a great addition to the manual and has helped me finesse my skills in writing queries, working with the built-in functions, and re-working some of the once-valuable strings that were abandoned after upgrading to a newer version.
Well worth the money - time well spent reading - and pays for itself after helping you out of the inevitable jam.
