IT programming books related reviews
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Oracle PL/SQL Programming: Guide to Oracle8i Features
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Steven Feuerstein
Rating: 5/5
Title: Oracle PL/SQL Programming: Guide to Oracle8i Features
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Steven Feuerstein
Rating: 5/5
The political stuff doesn't bother at all. It's just the variable names of the packages and procedures. But what is more important. New technologies like row level security (DBMS_RLS) , the Fine Grained Acces Control - the new dynamic SQL - possibilites like creating an Oracle schema/user dynamically (eg. one who logs himself in over a browser/webserver, which calls the relevant package that implements the technique) - logging mechanisms thru autonomous transactions. I could use all of that stuff for an Oracle 8i-JavaServlet-JavaServerPages - Project, which would otherwise have let me look in 10 different books ! Great ; but that's almost normal from Stevens books ! You sometimes almost can just copy and paste and adjust a bit. Saved me a lot of time.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: SQL: Self-Teaching Guide (Wiley Self Teaching Guides)
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Authors: Peter Stephenson, Glenn Hartwig
Rating: 2/5
Title: SQL: Self-Teaching Guide (Wiley Self Teaching Guides)
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Authors: Peter Stephenson, Glenn Hartwig
Rating: 2/5
I found several types of errors in the first half of the book: typos; errors in examples and answers to practice questions; a paragraph I read 3 times and still don't understand; use of the term 'SQL database' instead of 'relational database'; use of the word 'database' instead of 'dbms'.I plan to wade through the rest of the book.One author is a marketing consultant and computer books author. The other author is a freelance writer and consultant. I can't tell from the 'About the authors' section that they have any programming experience.Since I have about 23 years of programming experience and a little DB2 experience I know enough to correct the errors as I read along. I wouldn't recommend buying this book. And from what I'm seeing, the price is too high.Now don't get me wrong. I am learning something from this book. It has some good information. If you already own the book or if you can borrow the book you can probably pick up some good information, but be careful.I keep wondering if this book was ever proof read before it was printed.I expected better.
Product: Book
Title: Administering SQL Server 7: Complete Administration Reference
Publisher:
Authors: Divya Chaturvedi, Paritosh Pathak
Rating: 4/5
Title: Administering SQL Server 7: Complete Administration Reference
Publisher:
Authors: Divya Chaturvedi, Paritosh Pathak
Rating: 4/5
The book explained the basics of SQL Server and was helpful for a beginner like me. It helped me get started quickly with SQL Server 7.0
Product: Book Paperback
Title: MCDBA SQL Server 7 Database Design, Study Guide (Exam 70-29)
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies Rating: 1/5
Title: MCDBA SQL Server 7 Database Design, Study Guide (Exam 70-29)
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies Rating: 1/5
This book is a waste of paper! It is full of errors. The examples are basic and when they are not full of errors do not illustrate or reinforce the points in the book. It does not follow a logical flow when discussing the concepts. I must agree that this one was rushed to press! It did nothing to prepare me for the exam! Nor did it give me any new information on the product. Save your $$$ and put it toward your exam (since you'll likely take it twice!)
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Transact-SQL Cookbook (O'Reilly Windows)
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Ales Spetic, Jonathan Gennick
Rating: 1/5
Title: Transact-SQL Cookbook (O'Reilly Windows)
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Ales Spetic, Jonathan Gennick
Rating: 1/5
When they called this a cookbook, I was expecting lots of advanced sample code, especially given that the book comes from O'Reilly. I could not be more disappointed. The examples (the few that there are in such a thin, 302 page book) are really on the level of the Books Online. There aren't a lot of gourmet dishes in this one. Recommend you pass on it and get something like Henderson's two Guru's Guide books instead. Now _those_ are cookbooks!
Product: Book Paperback
Title: PHP Certification Study Guide
Publisher: Sams Rating: 1/5
Title: PHP Certification Study Guide
Publisher: Sams Rating: 1/5
I've been using php since 1998 and now php software development is the primary focus of my business. This book is written by many well known experienced php developers and is a study guide for the php certification test which is also written by many of the same authors.Because of the php knowledge held by the authors, I expected it to be fairly in depth and accurate and perhaps it could teach me a few odd things. At the same time I wanted to see if this PHP certification was something I should be looking for when my business hires future php developers.I have to give this book the lowest rating available simply because it is so ridiculously riddled with mistakes. I expect technical books to have a few errors in them but I was often finding one or more errors on every page. Barely into the 4th chapter I tossed the book out when not only did they have a mistaken output code but now they went on to explain why it printed out that output even though php could of never given that output from their example code (regardless of version).If it was just the type or cut 'n paste type errors I would of over looked them and knocked my review only down to two stars but to see them describing something that is incorrect php behaviour (they do it right in the very next sentence for a different section of the same example so they know the behaviour, but why would they describe it wrong in an earlier section of the same example)These developers do know php well so I am stumped at the poor quality of this book. I'm wondering if this thing even proof read or just translated from another language by non-programmers?Some people will want to know the errors and there are too many to list them all but an example of small errors is the very first chapter ends with 3 exam prep questions of which 2 have errors in the ending descriptions as to why an answer is right. The first one has the line "(the remainder of the division of 5 by 2)" when it should be 5 by 3. The third question in the description says increment instead of decrement.These two examples of mistakes are small however and only annoying though most of these should of been easily caught. Where I lost faith in the technical aspects of the book was at the beginning of chapter 4.Here they start to describing how php handles array keys. They start with example code along with the output code from the example code and then go on to describe how php behaves in a specific situation (converting "numerical" string keys into integers). Their output code printed is wrong as the very first key would of been an integer and not a string as they printed it.I figured this was just another small mistake but then they go on in the description as to why it outputs this code taking you through each key. The first key they again say it will keep the string value of "1" as the key (which is wrong). Then in the very next sentence they explain why the second key is converted from a string to an integer because of one of php's behaviours to convert numeric strings to integers (though they left out that this behaviour only happens to the keys when you are creating arrays, not the values). This means they know this behaviour but obviously missed it in the first key as it was also a numeric string and would of been converted to an integer as well.It was obvious they wrote the output code by hand rather than actually running it and in doing so made a mistake in it which could of been easily prevented. What bothered me is that they then go on and describe why it output this code, even though php could not of output this code from their example. It is as if the writer of this section didn't know why the first key came out as a string so they just repeated as they were in a hurry to show the second key as their big example of insight missing the fact the first key they rushed over should of been the exact same example.After seeing this level of lack of attention to detail spent in this book I lost all respect for the book. I also lost faith in the level of detail the same authors would of put into their Zend PHP Certification test.With the book being my only guide to the quality of the certification test, as an owner of a software development business I will NOT put applicants for php programmers that have Zend PHP certification above any other applicant until I have reason to believe otherwise.The current edition of my book I would not even give away but all is not lost as I have already found a good use for it. When hiring other php developers I will give this book to an applicant during an interview and let them read any two random pages and have them tell me where the mistakes are in the code or descriptions of the code. If they know php well enough to quickly see these types of errors, then this is perhaps the best test of all to see their deeper understanding of php.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: PHP and MySQL Web Development
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Luke Welling, Laura Thomson
Rating: 5/5
Title: PHP and MySQL Web Development
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Luke Welling, Laura Thomson
Rating: 5/5
Yes, the book helped me with my first few contracts in PHP and MySQL, but what it didn't provide me with were good coding techniques. I've learned so much since from other books and developers, and looking back on this book and the code they provide as examples... well, I can't believe that people actually paid me for that early work.
------- what I wrote about it before
I owe my last 3 contracts to this book. It's that simple. I picked it up after setting up my BSD development platform and I was ready to go. If you're not a programmer, don't worry. The first 150 pgs are dedicated to you. It teaches you the basics of strings, variables, functions... everything. Even if you're a programming whiz, it's also good to have a refresher from time to time... hell, it corrected a few of my bad practices.
It walks you through the installation process of mysql and php on both *nix and windows systems in the appendix, and learning mysql from command line was simple after reading this book. For the more advanced people, you ever built your own shopping cart from scratch? Well, you will about 1/3 of the way through the book. It also provides insightful reading about security, best practices, etc. that are well written and necessary if you are to take what you learn in this book seriously.
I highly recommend it.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: SQL Bible
Publisher: Wiley
Authors: Alex Kriegel, Boris M. Trukhnov
Rating: 5/5
Title: SQL Bible
Publisher: Wiley
Authors: Alex Kriegel, Boris M. Trukhnov
Rating: 5/5
An excellent, easy to follow text. While I had known SQL prior to this, it is not a necessity for anyone. The author is skilled at covering all the salient points of SQL, and gives plenty of clear examples.I recommend it to anyone who needs a thorough education in SQL. It will take you some time to get thru it. Sheer size of the book. But well worth your time.Alois
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
I have been working on a project involving DTS and needed a firm grash of it. the book far from scaring me with all the technicalities and programming depth at the begining gradually introduced me to DTS and step by step with example showed me how to harness the power of DTS including the programming side it is the perfect book to introduce you to the subject and for self learner like me it succeed at opening your mind and pointing you to the right direction I 'll recommend it
Product: Book Paperback
Title: OCP Developer PL/SQL Program Units Exam Guide
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Steve O'Hearn
Rating: 5/5
Title: OCP Developer PL/SQL Program Units Exam Guide
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Steve O'Hearn
Rating: 5/5
The questions at the end of each chapter and the exams at the end of the book are very very good. This is my first Oracle exam, and I am really surprised to see how similiar these questions are. The CD practices sometimes show wrong answers, but check them out on the book instead.
