IT programming books related reviews
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: 5/5
Title: Oracle Utilities: Using Hidden Programs, Import/Export, SQL*Loader, Oradebug, Dbverify, Tkprof and More
Publisher: Rampant TechPress
Authors: Dave Moore
Rating: 5/5
This book is another in the series of technical volumes published by "Rampant Techpress," published by Don Burleson. The purpose of this book by Dave Moore is to explain to the reader the use of the various Oracle utilities. Some of these utilities are well-known, such as Tkprof; others are far more obscure-such as the Dbms_Profiler utility, or the PL/SQL Wrap Utility.Mr. Moore succinctly illustrates how to use each utility. For example, in the section Dbms_Repair, he takes the reader through the following steps: Configuring the environment; Finding corrupt blocks; Repairing corrupt blocks, Rebuilding Freelists. Each topic includes a discussion of the purpose, as well as an example of how to accomplish the action.One particularly interesting section is the discussion entitled "Dbms_Alert Utility." Mr. More gives a brief background on this tool, explains how it works, provides a sample Java program, provides a sample trigger test script, then shows a sample run display. Finally, he also illustrates the use of an associated database table.As Mr. Moore explains in the Introduction, this is a PRACTICAL book-not just some theoretical treatise on approaches to performance tuning. He concisely explains the utilities that are available, with plenty of examples. I found the book easy to read, and the examples very clear.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Creating Interactive Web Sites with PHP and Web Services
Publisher: Sybex
Authors: Eric Rosebrock, Eric Rosebrock, Sybex
Rating: 5/5
Title: Creating Interactive Web Sites with PHP and Web Services
Publisher: Sybex
Authors: Eric Rosebrock, Eric Rosebrock, Sybex
Rating: 5/5
This is a very informative book! It is extremely thorough from start to finish, with real world examples and solutions. It is obvious that the author put a great deal of time into this book, as evidenced by the in-depth coverage of the code and services. This book, along with www.phpfreaks.com, gives the average coder the tools necessary to become a superior developer.I highly recommend this book to anyone who is working with PHP and web services, beginner to advanced levels. Great job, Eric!
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Advanced PHP Programming
Publisher: Sams
Authors: George Schlossnagle
Rating: 3/5
Title: Advanced PHP Programming
Publisher: Sams
Authors: George Schlossnagle
Rating: 3/5
PHP *needs* capable writers, like this one. Developers, who take time to write, seem rare - compared to writers, who rarely get to do development projects, anymore. This author is clearly a very experienced practitioner. He outlined a great table of contents.
He advocates and provides guidance for adhering to best practices, regarding design patterns, scalability, caching, unit testing, profiling & tuning etc. The last 1/6 of the book is about C language PHP extension. Excellent "Further reading" suggestions are provided at the end of each chapter.
Out of a high-volume PHP site developer, since 1999, I would expect creative examples. If your site provides Fibonacci sequences and readability scores web services, you'll find this book highly useful. Though on page 1, the author PROMISES NO* "foo-bar" examples, he provides plenty (on pages: 19, 53, 56, 68, 102, 158, 166, 227, 230, 255, 268, 274, 325, 373, 405, 466, 483, 484, 563). Since a reader devotes plenty of time to contemplating foo-bar examples, I came to realize why they bother me so much ... they're unimaginative (i.e. mentally lazy), regarding pragmatic applications for the technology.
I found myself constantly marking comma's in the text - to ease the readability and follow what was being said. If the author doesn't know where to put comma's, the editors should! There's no bold text - to illustrate lessons within the code. As far as I can remember, there's no offer of complete code (e.g. from a website), either.
This is a good, author with generally readable writing style and a wealth of experience to convey. I wouldn't dissuade anyone from buying this book; there's a tremendous amount to be learned and gained from this ... probably the most advanced PHP text, available. I'm just a bit disappointed, because, though it's very good, it could have been world class. I would buy future books from this author; I hope that they get even better!
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Oracle PL/SQL Programming: Guide to Oracle8i Features
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Steven Feuerstein
Rating: 4/5
Title: Oracle PL/SQL Programming: Guide to Oracle8i Features
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Steven Feuerstein
Rating: 4/5
In the preface of this book Steven announced that he is developing the third edition of his well-known book "Oracle PL/SQL Programming" that will cover Oracle8i. I hope he'll postpone this release until Oracle9i hits the market so he can cover this major release too. In the meantime I think this book is perfect supplement to PL/SQL series from O'Reilly. Even if you don't follow Steven series on PL/SQL (which I doubt if you're Oracle developer on planet Earth ;-) you'll find this book more than adequate resource for quick reference on all major Oracle8i PL/SQL features. I particularly liked chapters on invoker rights, native dynamic SQL, fine-grained access control and new trigger features. If you're not familiar with these terms then you'll be glad that you read this book! The only (minor!) deficiency that I found in this book was what Steven is calling "breath of fresh air" approach to examples that will help us engage with the technical material. Perhaps I could better relate to the examples about USA health care, gun lobby or fairness of wage structures if I ever lived in the states. Steven, if you're reading this please go back to old boring emp/dept examples or pick somehow less distract full examples.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: PHP Graphics Handbook
Publisher: Wrox Press
Authors: Jason E. Sweat, Allan Kent, Mitja Slenc
Rating: 4/5
Title: PHP Graphics Handbook
Publisher: Wrox Press
Authors: Jason E. Sweat, Allan Kent, Mitja Slenc
Rating: 4/5
This book covers image manipulation using PHP pretty well. It will take a method such as resizing, explain the functions required, give you some example code how to scale, and the explain the code. It covers just about everything that you would ever want to do, including using ImageMagick (which many servers do have!).
The book does, however, have some dead spots. Twards the end it starts talking about different kinds of graphs. It will give you huge chunks of code and not explain it very well; and it doesn't come with a CD so you would have to re-type it.
This book has got many jobs though. Employers that don't know that PHP can do these things to images are shocked that I know how to do it. And odds are good that none of the other people applying will have something like that. Putting some sample functions on you portfolio will certainly impress them!
In conclusion, I would buy this book again as long as it was under $20. Anything more and I would just find some documentation online. But knowing how to manipulate pictures with PHP is one of the things I am most proud of on my portfolio.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: 10 Projects You Can Do with Microsoft,(r) SQL Server 7
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Authors: Karen Watterson, Bill Shadish, Garth Wells
Rating: 5/5
Title: 10 Projects You Can Do with Microsoft,(r) SQL Server 7
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Authors: Karen Watterson, Bill Shadish, Garth Wells
Rating: 5/5
I would give this book 6 stars. I love books that educate by using real world projects. I highly recommend this book for anyone wanting to learn SQL 7.0 (intermediate, not for beginners), and make it immediately useful. I would recommend this book after reading Teach Yourself SQL Server 7.0 in 21 days by Richard Waymire and Rick Sawtell (SAMS). The perfect combination.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: MDX Solutions: With Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services
Publisher: Wiley
Authors: George Spofford
Rating: 2/5
Title: MDX Solutions: With Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services
Publisher: Wiley
Authors: George Spofford
Rating: 2/5
The book provides an excellent tutorial & reference to MDX which is today's default lingua franca as OLAP query language. George does a great job in bringing home MDX and developing solutions using MDX. I recommend this book and also the other title from George & Erik Thomsen on Microsoft OLAP solutions which is as well a excellent book on building OLAP solutions with Microsoft Analysis Services. The other salient feature I wish to emphasise is the author - George Spofford as been kind enough to answer email queries from readers on the subject matter. Erik Thomsen and George Spofford are gurus in the Microsoft Analysis Services. The best thing I found about the book was the authors not only bring out the strengths of analysis services but also its limitations. This helps somebody embarking on implementing analysis services be aware of its limitations and workaround those limitations. In all I give 5 stars for the book there are not many honest authors out there. My only request to the authors is now since the next release of Microsoft SQL Server - Yukon is due for release is next 3 months and Yukon will be another major landmark in SQL Server and Analysis Services technology with several major features slated to debut in Yukon it would be highly appreciated if the authors post appendix chapters on new Yukon features as and when it comes on their web site which will be a great benefit to existing owners of their books.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Bible with CD-ROM
Publisher: Wiley
Authors: Paul Nielsen
Rating: 2/5
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Bible with CD-ROM
Publisher: Wiley
Authors: Paul Nielsen
Rating: 2/5
I like this book and use it often. For the basic product, it is as good as Inside SQL Server.One area in which it could be better is depth. It makes the mistake of trying to cover too many topics. Many of them are simply glossed over. If you need good T-SQL advice, DTS info or replication recommendations, get another book or books in addition to this one.By and large though this is a book that you will find useful if you manage SQL Servers on a regular basis.
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Publisher: Rating: 5/5
Title:
Publisher: Rating: 5/5
Scott Urman has done a terrific job in explaining PL/SQL with such a clarity, making this subject easy to understand. What I really like is that he uses examples, not jargons, to illustrate PL/SQL concepts. This book is a must-have for everyone who either wants to master PL/SQL or simply want to clear up confusions after reading PL/SQl sections of Koch & Loney (Don't take me wrong, it was also a wonderful book.). This book worths every penny!
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Transact-SQL Programming
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Lee Gould, Andrew Zanevsky, Kevin Kline
Rating: 1/5
Title: Transact-SQL Programming
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Lee Gould, Andrew Zanevsky, Kevin Kline
Rating: 1/5
Since the book says it was published in 1999, I don't understand why it doesn't cover SQL Server 7.0 better. It should not have been published w/out decent 7.0 coverage. Worse, the cover claims it covers 7.0, but the only real 7.0 coverage is in a single appendix. This borders on false advertising. Had I known this when I first looked at it, I would not have bought it.
