IT programming books related reviews
Product: Book Hardcover
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 2000(TM) Performance Tuning Technical Reference
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: Edward Whalen, Marcilina Garcia
Rating: 5/5
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 2000(TM) Performance Tuning Technical Reference
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: Edward Whalen, Marcilina Garcia
Rating: 5/5
As both a professional database consultant and DBA, I must agree that this is hands down the best overall tuning book for SQL Server 2000. It covers the gamut from hardware planning and sizing/tuning to database performance tuning. Easy to read and quite useful! Great job Microsoft Press another winner. Get it and become a tuning god.
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
I picked up this one thinking I could learn about SQL Server 2000. This book doesn't even cover SQL Server 7.0, let alone 2000. The code examples are all geared toward 4.2 and 6.5. Also, they use techniques that were deprecated even in 6.5 days. For example, old-style outer joins are all over the place. Many of the examples no longer work because so many things have changed in SQL Server since 6.5. Some don't work because they never did -- even on 4.2/6.5.Last, the depth of coverage is really erratic. One minute they're giving you the command line options for the bcp utility (what does this have to do with Transact-SQL?), the next minute they're glossing over something really important.A real loser of a book in my opinion.
Product: Book Hardcover
Title: MCSE/MCSD: SQL Server 7 Database Design Study Guide
Publisher: Sybex Inc
Authors: Kevin Hough
Rating: 1/5
Title: MCSE/MCSD: SQL Server 7 Database Design Study Guide
Publisher: Sybex Inc
Authors: Kevin Hough
Rating: 1/5
The book is well-written and easy to understand. However, it's also very elementary. It would be a great beginner's intro to SQL Server, but as a MCDBA study guide - no way !! If this is your test preparation, you don't have a prayer of passing the exam
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: 5/5
Title: The Guru's Guide to SQL Server Stored Procedures, XML, and HTML (With CD-ROM)
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: Ken Henderson
Rating: 5/5
As an English major, I'm often very critical of the way in which technical books are written. Many times, the authors simply aren't very good writers. They may know their technical stuff, but they don't write very well. This book is a noteworthy exception. It is written in a clear, lucid style that flows naturally and keeps you engaged all along the way. Henderson actually makes stored procedure programming exciting and fun, which is no small feat considering the subject matter.I found that while the book isn't for dummies, it proceeds logically and systematically through the topics it broaches. I especially appreciated the discussion of design patterns. I don't know why someone didn't think of it before, but, in hindsight, applying common software design patterns to Transact-SQL makes perfect sense, and I commend Henderson for coming up with the idea and for his sagely advice on how to go about it.Also, the XML instruction is simply wonderful. From the XML language tutorial to all the SQL Server-specific information to the discussion of .NET, I found Henderson's teaching insightful and thorough. This section alone is worth the purchase price of the book.Lastly, I loved the essays. Showing that he is more than just a technical scribe, Henderson spreads his wings a bit and provides us some wonderful bits that would be at home in virtually any magazine, technical or not. As I said before, this author is also a writer in the true sense of the word. Very, very enjoyable book.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 7 for Dummies
Publisher: For Dummies
Authors: Anthony T. Mann
Rating: 1/5
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 7 for Dummies
Publisher: For Dummies
Authors: Anthony T. Mann
Rating: 1/5
This book is obviously written on the author's work on the Beta version of SQL 7.0. Unfortunately Microsoft has changed several things from the beta to the final release, which makes this book a poor buy. At least if you were planning on leaning how to install a SQL server, then your money is absolutely wasted...
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Real World Web Services
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Will Iverson
Rating: 4/5
Title: Real World Web Services
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Will Iverson
Rating: 4/5
This book is mainly code applied to several web services case studies. There is an introductory segment at the beginning which has some nice illustrations. After that the book uses a combination of Java code and screenshots to demonstrate eight example uses of web services. The most handy one, in my opinion, is the News Aggegator, which uses web services to retrieve information from sites like Amazon. Then it turns that information into RSS so that you can retrieve it with your news reader.
There is a lot more code than text in this book. If you learn well by looking at code then this book should work for you. This book is a little looser than the O'Reilly standard. There are more screenshots than usual, the UML graphics are not as well done as usual, and the code is not as well annotated. That being said, it's a fun and informative read that finally injects a little reality into the web services hype.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Beginning E-Commerce with Visual Basic, ASP, SQL Server 7.0 and MTS
Publisher: Peer Information
Authors: Matthew Reynolds
Rating: 5/5
Title: Beginning E-Commerce with Visual Basic, ASP, SQL Server 7.0 and MTS
Publisher: Peer Information
Authors: Matthew Reynolds
Rating: 5/5
I was extremely pleased with this title! It covers everything from picking a hosting company, specific Access and SQL configuration, simple shopping carts (with source code!), security issues, and even user tracking. There is also a support section on the Wrox website that gives you updated info and the code in the book in seperate ASP files. I borrowed this from a friend for the weekend and after a few hours I knew I had to have my own copy! Even if you don't know any much ASP/ADO or VB script you're in good hands - everything done is step by step and by example. Thank you Wrox! Okay enough ranting :)
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes, Third Edition
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Ben Forta
Rating: 5/5
Title: Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes, Third Edition
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Ben Forta
Rating: 5/5
Ok, I would give it 4 1/2 if I could, but can't so I will round down. If you are learning SQL or are going to in a class room, this is a GREAT way to start, even before you start taking lessons. this book will break up learning into "10 minute" lessons, which the first few can be done thourghly in 5. (Possibly because I had already learned it but oh well). Anyway, if you go through every lesson seriously, you will walk away with a GOOD knowledge of SQL, take it from someone who uses SQL in the field.
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 bought this book not knowing what to expect. The title seemed a little pretentious to me. Well, I was wrong. This is a _great_ book -- one of the best computer books I've ever read. The coverage of Transact-SQL is so deep that I seem to glean something new each time I pick up the book. I've been working with MS SQL since 4.2, and I thought I knew all the in's and out's of the language. I was wrong about that, too. The book showed me just how little I knew.The chapter on undocumented T-SQL alone is worth the cost of the book and taught me loads I didn't know. All those hidden DBCCs, trace flags, and undocumented stored procedures were fun to discover and will definitely come in handy. Without reservation, I can recommend this book to anyone looking for the ultimate tome on SQL Server's Transact-SQL.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: .NET Enterprise Design with Visual Basic .NET and SQL Server 2000
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Jimmy Nilsson, Jimmy Nilsson
Rating: 5/5
Title: .NET Enterprise Design with Visual Basic .NET and SQL Server 2000
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Jimmy Nilsson, Jimmy Nilsson
Rating: 5/5
This book is a must for developers of COM+ applications developed using any .NET language and any database. The ideas discussed within it apply equally to all languages and databases. Some of the code will need to be re-written in order to work on other databases/lanaguages, but this does not negate the fact that the author covers the concepts relevant to developing the business and database tiers of a multi-tier application.The author covers testing, debugging, error logging, configuration, transactions, business rules, COM+ settings, data access, error handling and concurrency issues. With each of these subjects, he disusses the subject and then suggests a suitable approach to handle the point in question.The author obviously has a lot of experience in developing COM+ applications, and this book helps with a lot of the important aspects of distributed application design.I would defintely recommend this book to anyone designing distributed COM+ applications.
