IT programming books related reviews
Product: Book Paperback
Title: SQL Server 2000 Fast Answers for DBAs and Developers
Publisher: Glasshaus
Authors: Joseph Sack
Rating: 5/5
Title: SQL Server 2000 Fast Answers for DBAs and Developers
Publisher: Glasshaus
Authors: Joseph Sack
Rating: 5/5
I am new to SQL server 2000, and have found this book to be extremely useful. It aids me many times daily in my pursuit of SQL Server 2000 knowledge. It is a great addition to my technical reference collection, and I strongly recommend it to anyone looking for quick answers for everyday problems.
Product: Book
Title: PHP and MySQL For Dummies, 2nd Edition
Publisher:
Authors: Janet Valade
Rating: 4/5
Title: PHP and MySQL For Dummies, 2nd Edition
Publisher:
Authors: Janet Valade
Rating: 4/5
I bought the edition without the CD-ROM, so can't give and detail on the code there.
The book is a great reference for simple stuff, but I was disapointed when I saw it didn't cover some basic PHP stuff, such as the whole file system's subject, POST/GET form variations and creating PHP generated images.
But it's great for begginers, to learn the basis of PHP/MySQL, shows how to create a simple site with PHP/MySQL, but if your after a big site with database's, this is NOT the BOOk for you.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Oracle PL/SQL 101
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Christopher Allen
Rating: 4/5
Title: Oracle PL/SQL 101
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Christopher Allen
Rating: 4/5
I am an OCP and wanted this book to improve upon my PL/SQL skills. I'd say 2/3 of this book is basic SQL for beginners. I already know most of that part so I was kind of disappointed. I guess when I saw the title of the book "Oracle PL/SQL 101" I thought it was for people who wanted to learn the basics of procedures and packages. The last third of the book is devoted to PL/SQL and is a good overview and a good first step, but it is too condensed and only touches on the basics. If you are a beginner studying for your PL/SQL OCP test (which didn't include a lot of PL/SQL at least when I took it) this book may be worth a read. If you are looking to actually do something useful with PL/SQL another book may be for you.
Product: Book Hardcover
Title: Ocp: Oracle8I Dba SQL and Pl/SQL Study Guide : Exam 1Z0-001 (OCP Study Guide)
Publisher: Sybex Inc
Authors: Chip Dawes, Biju Thomas
Rating: 4/5
Title: Ocp: Oracle8I Dba SQL and Pl/SQL Study Guide : Exam 1Z0-001 (OCP Study Guide)
Publisher: Sybex Inc
Authors: Chip Dawes, Biju Thomas
Rating: 4/5
I used this book exclusively to pass the exam (40/57). Ok, it was a minimal passing grade, but I have no Oracle experience. I found the book's practice exams to be very similar to the actual test...The text was clear and the problems had only a few errors that I noticed.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Oracle PL/SQL 101
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Christopher Allen
Rating: 3/5
Title: Oracle PL/SQL 101
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Christopher Allen
Rating: 3/5
This book is indeed a great introductory book for SQL. Unfortunately, it is advertised as an introductory guide to PL/SQL. If you are new to SQL this is a great beginner's guide. However, you already know SQL and would like to dwelve into the world of PL/SQL find another book!
Product:
Title:
Publisher: Rating: 5/5
Title:
Publisher: Rating: 5/5
This is a great book for either learning PL/SQL or as a reference. I went through a little better than half of the book word for word before I gave up. But I still use this book as a reference whenever I need to program in PL/SQL. I would suggest this book to anyone who either wants to learn PL/SQL or just needs to check something really quickly. If you use PL/SQL on a regular to semi-regular basis, then this is a must have.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Advanced Transact-SQL for SQL Server 2000
Publisher: Apress
Authors: Itzik Ben-Gan, Tom Moreau
Rating: 1/5
Title: Advanced Transact-SQL for SQL Server 2000
Publisher: Apress
Authors: Itzik Ben-Gan, Tom Moreau
Rating: 1/5
If this is advanced, I'm going to write my own book. Clearly I'm in the wrong business. This is a mediocre little book with nothing new to add to the body of knowledge out there on Tsql. The book does nothing to distinguish itself from the many other wanna-be's on the market. Theres no deep technical insight and no coding tricks that I haven't seen elsewhere.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Advanced Transact-SQL for SQL Server 2000
Publisher: Apress
Authors: Itzik Ben-Gan, Tom Moreau
Rating: 1/5
Title: Advanced Transact-SQL for SQL Server 2000
Publisher: Apress
Authors: Itzik Ben-Gan, Tom Moreau
Rating: 1/5
I initially skimmed this book looking for highlights. I've referred many developers to a section or chapter in this book when they are trying to perform T-SQL gymnastics like unequal joins, locating missing data, understanding instead of triggers, etc. This isn't a book for beginners. Make sure you have a firm grasp of T-SQL and then give yourself time to read this book in chunks. Yes, I found some errors in the code samples. But, I don't blindly run code from a book. This is a book designed to teach you many finer points of T-SQL and apply them to real world problems. If the code doesn't work, apply what the authors are teaching you and rewrite it. Way too many people just dismiss it as "beneath them", "not advanced", "rehash of BOL", etc. I doubt any of them even put forth the effort required to understand what Tom and Itzik are trying to teach you. This is a book that will require you to think, but at the end of the road you will be miles ahead of your counterparts in your understanding of T-SQL. There isn't enough room for an exhaustive treatment, but the authors present T-SQL in a way that pushes you well beyond "memorize and regugitate" and certainly allows you to apply T-SQL in ways you would have thought were not possible. T-SQL is a simple language, but it is extremely complex in this simplicity. Thank you Itzik and Tom for deepening my understanding.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Apache Server Commentary: Guide to Insider's Knowledge on Apache Server Code
Publisher: Coriolis Group Books
Authors: Greg Holden, Nicholas Wells, Matthew Keller
Rating: 2/5
Title: Apache Server Commentary: Guide to Insider's Knowledge on Apache Server Code
Publisher: Coriolis Group Books
Authors: Greg Holden, Nicholas Wells, Matthew Keller
Rating: 2/5
I am disappointed in the actual code commentary, it does NOT do a good job of explaining the code. Most of the time the commentary does nothing more than tell you what a function does - and it is obvious from the name anyway. Apache has a lot of standard programming conventions and internal libraries. I think those should have been covered first and in depth. It would make the Apache source code much more understandable. I read through the first chapter or so of Linux Core Commentary and it seems much more well written.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: SQL-99 Complete, Really
Publisher: CMP Books
Authors: Peter Gulutzan, Trudy Pelzer
Rating: 5/5
Title: SQL-99 Complete, Really
Publisher: CMP Books
Authors: Peter Gulutzan, Trudy Pelzer
Rating: 5/5
the book is huge and has much useful information in it. However, I was somewhat disappointed in regard to the completeness claim the title (and the size) suggests. Especially the more advanced features (the book marks most of them them as "obscure") are not covered well at all. In particular, the new features for handling inheritance with UDTs are hardly ever mentioned, let alone illustrated with examples.It seems that in places where they lack experience of their own, the authors copy the reference manuals at best, sometimes not even that.
