IT programming books related reviews
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Writing Stored Procedures with Microsoft SQL Server: The Authoritative Solution
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Matt Shepker
Rating: 5/5
Title: Writing Stored Procedures with Microsoft SQL Server: The Authoritative Solution
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Matt Shepker
Rating: 5/5
This book really helped me to discover the proper and efficient use of Stored Procedures. You will be impressed to know what you can do with Stored Procedures. This book covers every aspect of dealing with Stored Procedures and really is a must have for any SQL Programmer.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Writing Apache Modules with Perl and C
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Lincoln Stein, Doug MacEachern
Rating: 3/5
Title: Writing Apache Modules with Perl and C
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Lincoln Stein, Doug MacEachern
Rating: 3/5
A good tutorial starts out with something basic and gradually builds on it. This book starts out with three chapters of pure reference material. Granted some of this is a half-assed description of setting up Apache and compiling in mod_perl. I found the docs that come with the Apache and mod_perl source code to be far more useful (and accurate). Then you get this long list of Perl API classes, request object functions, Perl handlers, etc. All of which is wonderfully useful information ... presented at the wrong time ... we have yet to begin writing a useful module.When we do begin the writing of a module, it isn't a basic, stand-alone module, but a module to add footers to other content. So, the text digresses into a long and technical discussion of the various ways to configure Apache and associate MIME types so that this module will work with documents that we might or might not have on hand (It's just assumed that you have these laying around handy). During this discussion, we get bounced off of other Apache::xyz modules that apparently popped into the author's head in a moment of "As long as we're at it, why don't we throw this in too" inspiration. Wonderful information ... presented at the wrong time.To give an example: A logical place to start learning Oracle SQL (or any other SQL) would be with the SELECT statement. However, the authors of this book would begin with a detailed discussion of PL/SQL exception handling, a listing of most of the built-in PL/SQL exceptions, and a listing of a number of the built-in Oracle packages. (Recall we were just starting with SQL. But what the heck! PL/SQL is cool, so why not talk about it now? We're going to use it eventually anyway.) Then for your first select statement, you would write something that used a complex join, a correlated subquery, and a few built-in functions. Well, obviously, we can't just throw this extra stuff in there and not talk about it. So we go whirling off into a discussion of complex joins, correlated subqueries and any other tangents that happen to pop into our head. And when it is all said and done, we still don't know how to display the entire contents of the EMP table.This is a classic of case of making it difficult to see the forrest because of all the trees. The authors of this book have made no attempt to devise a progressive model for building knowledge. Instead, information is dumped on the reader apparently in the order it came to mind. Maybe this is a problem with having multiple authors. Perhaps the parts were written independently, then slung together. That's what it looks like.I suppose this book will get you to where you are going ... eventually. But I suspect you will spend considerable time flipping back and forth between chapters re-reading and re-re-reading sections in order to re-assemble the information in a somewhat logical pattern; hence the comparison to a 5,000 piece puzzle.For those who might be wondering: This book assumes you already know the Perl language. If you don't, the "Learning Perl" book is a good starting point (you do NOT want "Programming Perl" at this point). You will probably also want to get some knowledge of HTML and building web documents. And you will probably want to get at least a basic knowledge of custom configuring an Apache installation.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Web Application Development with PHP 4.0 (with CD-ROM)
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Tobias Ratschiller, Till Gerken
Rating: 2/5
Title: Web Application Development with PHP 4.0 (with CD-ROM)
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Tobias Ratschiller, Till Gerken
Rating: 2/5
This book is a big disappointment. They give all kinds of content on unrelated and unnecessary subjects with virtually no fundamentals or syntax explanations. This was a waste of time and money.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: SQL Server 2000 Stored Procedure Programming
Publisher: Osborne/McGraw-Hill
Authors: Dejan Sunderic, Tom Woodhead
Rating: 4/5
Title: SQL Server 2000 Stored Procedure Programming
Publisher: Osborne/McGraw-Hill
Authors: Dejan Sunderic, Tom Woodhead
Rating: 4/5
This is one of the clearest, most useful programming books I have ever run across in 18 years of programming! If you are doing anything more than writing simple queries, get this book. Highly useful for those developing ADO.NET SQL Server applications, because it covers all the nuances of SQL stored procedures and triggers that you'll want behind your ADO.NET apps. Also covers the differences between SQL 7 and 2000 clearly, and goes into automating administrative tasks via T-SQL, including the Windows registry. Has a good introduction to SQL XML.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Beginning PHP 5 and MySQL: From Novice to Professional
Publisher: Apress
Authors: W. J. Gilmore
Rating: 5/5
Title: Beginning PHP 5 and MySQL: From Novice to Professional
Publisher: Apress
Authors: W. J. Gilmore
Rating: 5/5
I spent several hours in my local bookstore and selected this as the most readable and comprehensive of the selections on these subjects available.
I encountered a problem with the testing of the enviornment after having installed Apache and PHP. On a Sunday evening I sent off an e-mail to the author and had a response before I went to bed. I was amazed.
I am experienced mainframe person with little WEB development experience. This book is serving as a valuable tool to get me moving into the web environment.
I would like more examples but the book is quite lengthy as it is. Perhaps a book on developing a sample application in this envrionment would be useful to those of us trying to get started.
Product: Book Unknown Binding
Title: Special Edition Using Microsoft SQL Server 7.0
Publisher: Que
Authors: Stephen Wynkoop
Rating: 5/5
Title: Special Edition Using Microsoft SQL Server 7.0
Publisher: Que
Authors: Stephen Wynkoop
Rating: 5/5
Having some previous SQL knowledge (Oracle) I find this book annoying, insulting and worthless. My head is full of questions as I learn this new database and this book answers none of them. For example, during the installation process, where you can set some database parameters which are very hard to change back, instead of giving you any information to help you make your choice, the book simply tells you to "Make sure you choose carefully". Thanks a ton.Additionally, the page layouts are quite bad and they don't use any subsections which makes skimming for information very difficult.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Oracle PL/SQL 101
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Christopher Allen
Rating: 5/5
Title: Oracle PL/SQL 101
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Christopher Allen
Rating: 5/5
I cannot say enough about this book. Gives you plain english explanations, step by step practice exercises. Doesn't leave any room for doubt. Great book to learn and/or reinforce forgotten concepts. Emailed author on a Sunday, received a response within 24 hours! A definite asset to keep on hand.
Product: Book Hardcover
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 7 Administrator's Guide
Publisher: Muska & Lipman/Premier-Trade
Authors: Ron Talmage
Rating: 1/5
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 7 Administrator's Guide
Publisher: Muska & Lipman/Premier-Trade
Authors: Ron Talmage
Rating: 1/5
My big problem with this book is the redundancy between it and the Microsoft documentation, particularly the BOL. Anything of value in this book is also in the BOL. The rest -- glib comments and generally poor writing -- you can do without. I'm a SQL Server trainer, and our books committee recently rejected this one for all the reasons above. Suggest that you do the same.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Oracle PL/SQL 101
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Christopher Allen
Rating: 5/5
Title: Oracle PL/SQL 101
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Christopher Allen
Rating: 5/5
The book is a masterpiece to every novice in the field of database administration. The author really planned the work and after reading it I bet you your confidence will soar and the advance books in the field would be a joy to read.Go for it you will get your moneys worth and with other advance books you can face the IZO-001 exams and the rest with confidence.
Well done Chris.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Oracle PL/SQL Programming: Guide to Oracle8i Features
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Steven Feuerstein
Rating: 2/5
Title: Oracle PL/SQL Programming: Guide to Oracle8i Features
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Steven Feuerstein
Rating: 2/5
would gave this book 4 stars if it wasn't for the bad political jokes and awkward plaements of them such as 'in code'. I recommend Oracle PL/SQL by Benjamin Rozenweig(it even features an actual database to perform against.) Please keep in mind this recommendation is for beginners.
