IT programming books related reviews
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Oracle PL/SQL by Example, Third Edition
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
Authors: Benjamin Rosenzweig, Elena Silvestrova
Rating: 5/5
Title: Oracle PL/SQL by Example, Third Edition
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
Authors: Benjamin Rosenzweig, Elena Silvestrova
Rating: 5/5
I'm a developer and DBA who had not written PL/SQL in over a year. I used this book as a refresher.
This is the "Learning Perl" of PL/SQL, meaning: a beginner can learn from it, and an experienced hack can use it as a reference.
I consider lots of good sample code to be important when learning a programming language. Here it is, as a series of labs, with intelligent discussion. It's like having a friend who's an expert act as a personal tutor. It has complete, well-rounded coverage of PL/SQL fundamentals: control structures, stored procedures, packages, and a good chapter on triggers. In rare cases where some keyword is introduced with no explanation, it's usually covered in the following section.
It is nearly the quality of Oracle course materials, but with (a tolerable amount of) typos. Annoyingly, some of the typos are incorrect answers in the appendix; the rest are obvious typos and therefore not too confusing.
Chapter 1 is deceptively basic, explaining what a program is, what a programming language is, etc., but chapter 2 jumps right into PL/SQL with no further ado. The book progresses in baby steps as far as PL/SQL is concerned. Although knowledge of SQL is assumed, some concepts like commit & rollback, savepoints, and sequences are introduced and explained for beginners. It is also assumed that the reader:
- knows what DML, DDL, and the DUAL table are;
- has an account that can create objects (the "Scott" demo account will do); and
- knows how to connect to the database with SQL*Plus or a development tool (IDE).
With an IDE I was able to work through it in about thirty hours. I just read chapters I was already strong in without working those labs, but that time included plenty of puttering and experimenting with the lab material I did work.
I also bought 10g "PL/SQL Programming" by Urman, et. al. but dove into this book first. The Urman book is more of a pure text book and includes advanced (less often used) topics. The two books overlap but I do not regret purchasing both. The freely available "PL/SQL User's Guide and Reference" from Oracle is still a must-have, though.
Densely packed with pertinent information and very little else, it's about 99% useful information. Like the blurb says, "Just the facts." It is a complete Oracle course, so it was worth $2400 in that respect.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Sams Teach Yourself PHP in 24 Hours, Third Edition
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Matt Zandstra
Rating: 4/5
Title: Sams Teach Yourself PHP in 24 Hours, Third Edition
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Matt Zandstra
Rating: 4/5
I've been doing web design for years. I'm fluent with CSS, HTML, Flash, and some ColdFusion & Java.I've attempted to learn ASP, but the complexity overwhelmed me.A friend of mine recommended this book.I think it is GREAT for getting you up and going with PHP. I quickly jumped ahead to the MySQL and XML sections and now i have a database up & working on my site. Piece of cake. One problem: They don't tell you how to create the actual database.But its not hard, just say mysql_query( "CREATE blah blah" ). They give you the create tag to put in. Otherwise, great, concise, simple source. They explain everything they did in the code. I dunno how this isn't meant for beginners, because i didn't know the first thing about PHP.If you're a beginner CODER, atleast get grounded in C and move to some OOP (Object Oriented Programming) language first. PHP is like ColdFusion had a kid with Basic. :) It's really not hard at all. Learn by example, and get this book.
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
If you are looking for a book that gives you a blueprint for building a scalable enterprise database application using the .NET framework and SQL Server 2000 then this book hands it to you on a plate.Don't buy this book if you are looking to learn Visual Basic .NET or SQL Server because this one is all about applying those basic skills taught in other books to produce a "real" application.Most books on this subject fit the 80:20 rule, they take you 80% of the way and then ask you to just finish things off yourself. Anyone who is familiar with the 80:20 rule knows that the remaining 20% needed for completion is as much effort again as the first 80%.This one introduces, designs and builds a real application to completion, consisting of n-Tier architecture with full transaction control, business rules and data access with concurrency control. It doesn't ignore real world requirements such as performance, debugging and testing.The author imparts tips and tricks learned over the years and gives you a working example of one of the most important design patterns in database access, "Batch Command" (sometimes referred to as "Unit of Work"). This pattern minimises multiple trips to the database by compiling separate SQL statements into a single script that is send and executed in a single call. All code examples are in VB.NET and are accompanied by UML diagrams where appropriate.In summary this book fits hand in hand with Microsoft's .NET data access strategy and basically hands you the design, implementation notes and source code of a working, scalable, enterprise class application on a plate.
Well worth it!
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Php Fast & Easy Web Development (Fast & Easy Web Development)
Publisher: Premier Press
Authors: Julie C. Meloni
Rating: 5/5
Title: Php Fast & Easy Web Development (Fast & Easy Web Development)
Publisher: Premier Press
Authors: Julie C. Meloni
Rating: 5/5
This is without a doubt the best book I've ever read for PHP beginners! This books starts you out nice and easy and gets you into writing PHP and using MySQL. The book also teaches you how to create several SIMPLE PHP applications that you can integrate into your SMALL website (or expand to meet your needs). This book is NOT for intermediate/expert PHP programmers expecting to learn how to build large, complex applications! For you, I STRONGLY recommend "PHP and MySQL Web Development" by Luke Welling & Laura Thomson. Yes, this book does have some typos (many technical books do). However, if you have half a brain, you can usually get around such typos and make the code work.
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
Oh wait...maybe it was just me. This is a great book for anyone wanting to learn PHP, or who doesnt feel like scrolling through that boring online manual. The included CD with Apache and Xitami (and examples) is very nice.
This is the kind of book that makes you want to buy more books, and then put them on your shelf and tell people you read all of them! I was so inspired that I took the time to teach my pet monkey, Mojo, to speak rastafarian!
GREAT JOB, LEON!
Product: Book
Title: PHP and MySQL For Dummies, 2nd Edition
Publisher:
Authors: Janet Valade
Rating: 5/5
Title: PHP and MySQL For Dummies, 2nd Edition
Publisher:
Authors: Janet Valade
Rating: 5/5
This is my first foray into PHP and MySQL. As an absolute beginner I spent a lot of time looking at different books and the concept didn't 'click' for me until I read this one. I tried a couple of simple scripts and they worked fine and now I'm ready to incorporate them into a site under construction. I highly recommend it for the beginner.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Practical Microsoft SQL Server 7
Publisher: Que
Authors: Rob Kraft
Rating: 4/5
Title: Practical Microsoft SQL Server 7
Publisher: Que
Authors: Rob Kraft
Rating: 4/5
I thought the book was very good for beginning users. I found especially useful the Introduction to SQL Chapters and the planning chapters. Including a CD with some sample tutorials would be very beneficial. Overall, if feel the book did a good job on SQL.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Core PHP Programming: Using PHP to Build Dynamic Web Sites (2nd Edition)
Publisher: Pearson Education
Authors: Leon Atkinson
Rating: 4/5
Title: Core PHP Programming: Using PHP to Build Dynamic Web Sites (2nd Edition)
Publisher: Pearson Education
Authors: Leon Atkinson
Rating: 4/5
I felt that this book was basically a good way to get going in decent PHP programming. The author assumes that you know a fair bit more about programming than he lets on, so it's good to have a bit of experience (in C would be best). Overall a good read, and the reference section for every php function is very helful to have (better than the online manual).a good buy.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Php Fast & Easy Web Development (Fast & Easy Web Development)
Publisher: Premier Press
Authors: Julie C. Meloni
Rating: 4/5
Title: Php Fast & Easy Web Development (Fast & Easy Web Development)
Publisher: Premier Press
Authors: Julie C. Meloni
Rating: 4/5
I purchased this book to get a feel for PHP, and it did a great job. It is not real in-depth coverage of the language itself, but there are plenty of down and dirty examples of code and how to get things to work quickly. There is a section on installation and configuration, and it assumes that everything installs smoothly (no "what if this didn't work?"). If you have some specific things you want to do with PHP and don't want to learn the whole language right off the bat, this is a great place to start.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Learning Oracle PL/SQL
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Bill Pribyl
Rating: 5/5
Title: Learning Oracle PL/SQL
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Bill Pribyl
Rating: 5/5
This 300+ page book is a gem. It goes straight to the point about how to use PL/SQL. With clear examples and tips to make you a better developer.
