IT programming books related reviews
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Transact-SQL Programming
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Lee Gould, Andrew Zanevsky, Kevin Kline
Rating: 5/5
Title: Transact-SQL Programming
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Lee Gould, Andrew Zanevsky, Kevin Kline
Rating: 5/5
No, it does not have a ton of color screen shots and yes it looks like a textbook. So if you are looking for all of that get some other book.But, it is by far the most comprehensive and intellegent book I have ever read on Transact-SQL. It provides real world examples of how to use the commands. It provides in depth examples of how to use the commands. It provides guidance on when to use a command and when not to. And Yes everything does work in 7.0. This is a Transact-SQL book not a SQL Server admin book. It covers Transact-SQL for both Sybase and SQL Server with clear explanations of the situations on where there is a difference.If you want to develop a master level understanding of Transact-SQL this is the book.
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: 1/5
Title: PHP for the World Wide Web : Visual QuickStart Guide (2nd Edition) (Visual Quickstart Guides)
Publisher: Peachpit Press
Authors: Larry Ullman
Rating: 1/5
I decided to get myself into some coding and wanted a 'teach myself' style book to guide me along and this has done just that.
If you need to start somewhere I'd recommend starting with this as it made everything very clear and straightforward for me.
If I had anything bad to say it would be that the references to diagrams and their content can go a tad awry but it's easy to see what's meant.
All in all, I'm very pleased I bought the book.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Dreamweaver MX: PHP Web Development
Publisher: Peer Information
Authors: Bruno Mairlot, Gareth Downes-Powell, Tim Green
Rating: 4/5
Title: Dreamweaver MX: PHP Web Development
Publisher: Peer Information
Authors: Bruno Mairlot, Gareth Downes-Powell, Tim Green
Rating: 4/5
This is really a solid book on using Dreamweaver for PHP developing. Following the typical glasshaus approach the authors go straight to the relevant information, assuming the reader already know how to use Dreamweaver. A good amount of space is dedicated to MySQL and database-related topics, a wise choice in my opinion. All in all, a must have for Dreamweaver/PHP developers
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 Database Implementation Training Kit (Training Kit)
Publisher: Microsoft Press Rating: 4/5
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 Database Implementation Training Kit (Training Kit)
Publisher: Microsoft Press Rating: 4/5
After spending about a month studying this book and the "Books Online" (ships with the evaluation version of SQL Server included with this book), I passed the test with ease. The information I gained in studying has been quite useful in supporting production databases. This book is not just for test prep, it helps the new DBA deal with production environment issues. The book is not quite as detailed as I would prefer in some areas (hence the 4 stars). Overall, a good book.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Google, Amazon, and Beyond: Creating and Consuming Web Services
Publisher: Apress
Authors: Alexander Nakhimovsky, Tom Myers
Rating: 3/5
Title: Google, Amazon, and Beyond: Creating and Consuming Web Services
Publisher: Apress
Authors: Alexander Nakhimovsky, Tom Myers
Rating: 3/5
As titles go "Google, Amazon, and Beyond" sounds to me like Buzz Lightyear's latest slogan, but it's actually quite a good book about writing software to consume and provide web services.
The first two chapters are introductory material, though the authors quickly introduce some code with JavaScript routines to talk to both Google and Amazon. The second of them does a good job explaining the intricacies of DOM and how you use it to build a web page in Java. Then the authors get down to some serious work at using Java, including stand-alone applications and applets, to access web services.
They move fast throughout the book; this is not one to read quickly or without ready access to a computer. That said, the writing is good; the text is understandable and all the code is well explained.
The book covers a wide gamut of techniques and technologies, including SOAP and REST on the query side, and XSLT and XPath on the output side.
Then the book moves on to instructions for offering your own services. This part of the book starts off with WebDAV using Tomcat, though there is a short digression into Java Server Pages before really getting down to the nitty gritty. Finally the book shows how to use WSDL and Axis to easily create full web applications.
You can see that this volume covers a lot of territory. This breadth may well be the book's largest flaw; its wide reach means no topic gets a really deep coverage and a number of topics do not get the coverage they deserve. Indeed I would have to say that only a much better Java programmer than I would get full value from this volume -- there were parts where the authors lost me entirely and it took an effort to get back my understanding, occasionally resorting to a Java manual.
The publishers have a page for the book that has an example chapter, table of contents, index and source code. The example chapter, 4, details how to build a SOAP server using Java and provides an excellent example for the book. If you're a little unsure of your Java skills, take a look at this chapter and see if you can easily understand the code and explanation. If you can, then this volume should have no surprises for you.
It should be said that nothing about the book's cover tells you how much of it relies on Java, though a good read of the table of contents makes it obvious. I would have personally preferred a book that was more general in the programming language it used, covering more of the tactics and methods rather than examining specific code. If, on the other hand, you are an experienced Java programmer looking for a book on programming web services in that language, then this is an excellent volume.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Oracle PL/SQL Programming, Third Edition
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Steven Feuerstein
Rating: 5/5
Title: Oracle PL/SQL Programming, Third Edition
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Steven Feuerstein
Rating: 5/5
This book is exactly what it says. It is only PL/SQL. There is not a lot on SQL, but it has saved me several times. I was working on a project to create html pages from within a database and this book taught me some tricks to make it doable. It is excellently written with good examples. The only drawback I see is that their examples were not detailed enough. (too much "...") However, it was enough for me to do what I needed to do. I would suggest it for anyone working with PL/SQL.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Data Transformation Services DTS
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Timothy Peterson
Rating: 2/5
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Data Transformation Services DTS
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Timothy Peterson
Rating: 2/5
SQL Server 2000 DTS by Peterson.As much as DTS is used in the thousands of SQL Server (7 & 2000) implementations out there, for tasks as simple as copying or moving tables from one database to another, there is VERY little documentation on the product... that is, documentation that explores and explains the details and myriad of options available for use within the tool. I am a strong believer that because of this lack of documentation this wonderful tool is underutilized and regarded as a mystery to many.Here comes Mr. Peterson and gives us this great resource to help us better understand the intricacies of the tool, in a very logical and organized manner with the respect and level of content that a professional (such as is the target audience for this book) needs and appreciates.Chapters are specific, to the point and generally develop some sort of simple scenario that puts the theory into practice. The author constantly points out the areas where the 2000 version of the tool is enhanced over the previous version shipped with SQL Server 7. I also like the plethora of code samples and the side-by-side solution alternative presented with each code snippet vs. its UI counterpart implementation.The first two chapters alone are enough to get you started and excited about using the tool and it could stand on it own as a great article!, whereas the rest of the book presents a more detailed view of all the additional features as well as a very complete tutorial on coding DTS solutions.The book is a great sole reference and guide for DTS, partially because of the lack of "competition" but mostly because its content is valuable, complete and easy to follow. This text has been with me for almost 2 years and to this day it still helps me out when I'm in need.Granted it lacks some creativity when it comes to the content of such examples and resorts to using the over referenced Northwind and Pubs databases... I see a trend nowadays with several publications coming up with their own theoretical applications for equally fictional businesses but that add so much to the value of a book aimed at helping the real world professional and broadens horizons of creativity and knowledge. For this I give the text one star less than perfect and hope that newer editions incorporate more lively examples and spark some much needed creativity.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Database Administrator's Guidebook
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
Authors: Carl H. Speshock
Rating: 5/5
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Database Administrator's Guidebook
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
Authors: Carl H. Speshock
Rating: 5/5
This book has given me what I needed for the SQL Server DBA position I have been tasked with to perform. The book goes over many aspects(Hardware, Windows OS administration, Data modeling, technical writing, SQL Server Technology, and much more)of the DBA role that are required to become proficient in to be successful as a DBA. The CDROM is for once a useful CD that can be used by a DBA on a every day basis with respect to the scripts and documents that are on the CD. It is a great book that is well written and you can tell it comes from a DBA who is active in the field and has experience.I would recommend this book for all to buy
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Core PHP Programming: Using PHP to Build Dynamic Web Sites (2nd Edition)
Publisher: Pearson Education
Authors: Leon Atkinson
Rating: 1/5
Title: Core PHP Programming: Using PHP to Build Dynamic Web Sites (2nd Edition)
Publisher: Pearson Education
Authors: Leon Atkinson
Rating: 1/5
A friend of mine left this behind, along with some other eclectic freeware books. What's this PHP stuff? Well, I took a gander at this book and it really put me to sleep in no time flat. Reads like an (incomplete) reference manual. I found it about a hundred times easier to simply dive into a few of my friend's PHP pages and play around/add features just by inferring the syntax. PHP is that simple (mostly like a simple version of Perl), but this book obscures that in mind numbingly boringness. To boot, it's not even that useful in configuring your system. Avoid O'Reilly's "MySQL & mSQL" by Yarger et al. It's ...[horrible], too.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: PHP and MySQL Web Development, Second Edition
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Luke Welling, Laura Thomson
Rating: 5/5
Title: PHP and MySQL Web Development, Second Edition
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Luke Welling, Laura Thomson
Rating: 5/5
This is by far the best programming book that I have ever used. I am an Information Systems Major and I wish this was one of our textbooks. There are numerous examples and everything is explained clearly. No matter what way works best for you to learn something new, either visual or textual the authors of this title have found a way to get the information to the reader.
