IT programming books related reviews
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
From page 1 to the very last one, this book is T-SQL in the eXtreme. It teaches the language using the language - a very smart way of doing it. You have no choice but to master the language - you can't get through the book without it!You add to this to author's insistance on writing "the way that people speak" and you have this very practical, hands-on guide that's loaded technically but still very friendly and readable. I wish all database books were written this way.Last but not least, I want to thank the author for tolerating my many questions. I wrote him shortly after I got the book and have been corresponding with him since. He has never failed to answer my questions, regardless of how difficult they were. I know he must get a lot of email, but he took the time for me anyway. A true gentleman.
Product:
Title:
Publisher: Rating: 1/5
Title:
Publisher: Rating: 1/5
This is a good book on Oracle8 PL/SQL. The book has two weak sides though: firstly, a lot of errors, and secondly, poor description of Oracle8 related features. The book is written around older version of PL/SQL with new features added in a hurry.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: SQL/400 by Example
Publisher: 29th Street Press
Authors: James Coolbaugh
Rating: 1/5
Title: SQL/400 by Example
Publisher: 29th Street Press
Authors: James Coolbaugh
Rating: 1/5
This book is better easy reading with very little insight to the more intricate functions of SQL for the 400. Might be useful if you have never programmed SQL.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Setting Up LAMP: Getting Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP Working Together
Publisher: Sybex
Authors: Eric Rosebrock, Eric Filson, Eric Filson
Rating: 5/5
Title: Setting Up LAMP: Getting Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP Working Together
Publisher: Sybex
Authors: Eric Rosebrock, Eric Filson, Eric Filson
Rating: 5/5
I am one of the embarrassed few who find making the transition to Linux from Windows/Mac very difficult. I have spent many hours at the bookstore trying to find a book that explains the basics before moving onto more complex issues. This book was the only one that I found that truly accomplishes this goal.
I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a clearer understanding how to set up LinuxApache/MySQL/PHP.
Eric Rosebrock you are the man!!!
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Oracle PL/SQL Best Practices
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Steven Feuerstein
Rating: 1/5
Title: Oracle PL/SQL Best Practices
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Steven Feuerstein
Rating: 1/5
If PL/SQL is your very 1st language, ever, you may find this book interesting. Otherwise, read its equivalent for an object-oriented language, or even C, Fortran, VB, Pascal, you name it.Just as structured programming in Fortran is dull, so it is with PL/SQL (if not more so). Any knowledge you have for a more complex procedural language is easy to apply.Having read the whole book, I'm afraid that only one page out of 182 actually had anything that was of interest to me (NOCOPY option for IN OUT parameters). The author seemed to be struggling to find enough to fill his book.If you want a quick perusal of interesting language features, read something like the author's PL/SQL pocket reference.As an aside, I would even criticize the applicability of some of what is prognosticated in this book, simply because PL/SQL is not meant to be used to write a hugely complex application. After all, Oracle put Java in the database for just such a situation. There is a law in 'increasing returns' when you use good programming practices, and the code bloat in PL/SQL project sizes applicable to the language would not be worth it.Ex.: replacing the one line 'SELECT patient_seq.NEXTVAL INTO my_id FROM dual' with a function 'next_patient_id' that takes ten lines of code to write! What kind of PL/SQL programmer would rather have a function call hide the fact that the id comes from a sequence, anyway? What about the overhead of placing the function call itself?My final beef is that there is no index in this book. What possible excuse/justification/rationalization is there for that? Lucky for me I just need to do a search for 'nocopy parameter pl/sql' in Google to get what I need :P
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Sams Teach Yourself PHP, MySQL and Apache in 24 Hours
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Julie C. Meloni
Rating: 3/5
Title: Sams Teach Yourself PHP, MySQL and Apache in 24 Hours
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Julie C. Meloni
Rating: 3/5
I picked up this book figuring that it would help me figure out the basics of how to install and get PHP, MySQL and Apache up and talking to one another. I figured wrong. If each chapter is supposed to take an hour to read and complete this book was useless in less than 20 minutes. It didn't tell me how to get MySQL started after installing it. Even with the "Advanced" section later in the book the stuff they put back there could have been in chapter one. It still wouldn't have made a difference since the best advice they gave was "if you have any problems getting it working RTFM."This book is going back to the store and I am just going to use Easy PHP to install the three. If I was able to understand all the instructions and technical stuff I wouldn't NEED the book in the first place. When I am ready for the true technical stuff I'll just install the three myself and compare settings to an already working server.Thanks for nothing...
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Instant SQL Programming
Publisher: Wrox Press
Authors: Joe Celko
Rating: 5/5
Title: Instant SQL Programming
Publisher: Wrox Press
Authors: Joe Celko
Rating: 5/5
I have been working with sql for years and this is by far the best book I have read.Extremely easy to follow.Joe has a way of making even the most complicated aspects of sql seem trivial!! I highly recommend this book!
Product: Book Paperback
Title: The Guru's Guide to SQL Server Architecture and Internals
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: Ken Henderson
Rating: 5/5
Title: The Guru's Guide to SQL Server Architecture and Internals
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: Ken Henderson
Rating: 5/5
Don't let the 1000 pages deter you. Some of the chapters are likely to be considered too in-depth, but the book is loaded with so much info that you're sure to find something that makes it a worthwhile purchase. The material is presented well and the kiddy stuff is skipped so you're not wasting time flipping through material you've known for the last few years. I like the inclusion of the MS Debugger. The examples in the book have given me an introduction to it, and in time I expect that it will come in handy. In my years of reading SQL Server books, few have been as comprehensive as this one. It goes somewhat beyond Inside SQL Server, though I have not purchased that book since SQL 7. This is the type of book from which certification questions should be derived. It describes the nuances in using SQL Server and I've enjoyed reading several chapters of this book highlighting along the way. I consider it a better reference than SQL Server 2000 Resource Kit, and my only complaint is that it doesn't include other important subject areas such as security and hacking. Those areas are addressed in other references like SQL Server Security by Andrews, Litchfield, and Grindlay which I've got ready to read as soon as time permits.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Google Hacks
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Tara Calishain, Rael Dornfest
Rating: 4/5
Title: Google Hacks
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Tara Calishain, Rael Dornfest
Rating: 4/5
If you're looking for a book that will teach you to do more effective searches in Google... this isn't it, although it does have a fair number of hacks usable directly from the search window. You can find plenty of good information on doing effective searching in Google itself, in the "All About Google" section, where you'll find a tutorial entitled "How to Search"."Google Hacks" is really for the programmer looking to integrate Google into other web apps. While a good deal of information on the Google API can be found at Google, along with the downloadable developer's kit, this book provides a number of excellent examples of scripts in various languages. It's not a tutorial, but rather a compilation of shorts hacks and scripts that use Perl (of course), XML, Python, Java, C# and probably others I'm forgetting to add Google functionality to applications.This isn't a book for the complete novice at scripting, but beginner's should be put off by it. If you have a basic understanding of Perl and HTTP there's a good deal of usefulk information to be gleaned here.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: SQL Unleashed, Second Edition (2nd Edition)
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Sakhr Youness
Rating: 1/5
Title: SQL Unleashed, Second Edition (2nd Edition)
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Sakhr Youness
Rating: 1/5
I have read a number of SQL books for different purposes. "SQL Unleashed" stands out as an excellent reference book that nicely combines practical approach with understanding of the underlying concepts. The author has gone a great length in making the book practically useful, starting with "nuts and bolts" with plenty of examples, tips, real life experiences and "dos and don'ts".
