IT programming books related reviews
Product: Book Paperback
Title: The Guru's Guide to SQL Server Stored Procedures, XML, and HTML (With CD-ROM)
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: Ken Henderson
Rating: 5/5
Title: The Guru's Guide to SQL Server Stored Procedures, XML, and HTML (With CD-ROM)
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: Ken Henderson
Rating: 5/5
I haven't even made it all the way through the book, but feel confident giving this book 5 stars just on the strength of the XML coverage. Henderson does an excellent job of taking a simple HTML page and stepping through how you would logically turn it into an XML document, including DTDs, XML Schemas, XSLT and more. Before I bought this book, I had no idea of the relation of all of those separate files, but it's all clear now.He also goes into great detail about the FOR XML clause, and the different options available. The section about using a universal table with FOR XML EXPLICIT to create complex XML documents is great.Beyond XML, the topics are all great -- arrays, unoducmented procedures, functions and tasks, tips on programming style and efficiency, ...the list goes on.All the while the writing style is very personal and to the point. He doesn't waste space with a ton of screen shots or overly-long result sets.Highly recommended.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: SQL Server Developer's Guide to OLAP with Analysis Services
Publisher: Sybex
Authors: Mike Gunderloy, Tim Sneath
Rating: 3/5
Title: SQL Server Developer's Guide to OLAP with Analysis Services
Publisher: Sybex
Authors: Mike Gunderloy, Tim Sneath
Rating: 3/5
This is a fairly good book for some one starting to use Analysis services. If you are a professional and are looking for a reference source then this is not for you. But if you just want something to help you get started... this is a simplified introduction with few useful insights.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: PHP Developer's Cookbook (2nd Edition)
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Sterling Hughes, Andrei Zmievski
Rating: 1/5
Title: PHP Developer's Cookbook (2nd Edition)
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Sterling Hughes, Andrei Zmievski
Rating: 1/5
This is a singularly useless book. I bought it because I liked the concept of a "cookbook," a collection of PHP recipes, which I expected to be common tasks. Instead, it is organized by programming concept.The authors say they assume a basic level of PHP or programming knowledge, but their idea of basic is very uneven. You'll find much better resources for common tasks online.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Beginning Java Databases: JDBC, SQL, J2EE, EJB, JSP, XML
Publisher: Wrox Press
Authors: Kevin Mukhar, Todd Lauinger, John Carnell
Rating: 4/5
Title: Beginning Java Databases: JDBC, SQL, J2EE, EJB, JSP, XML
Publisher: Wrox Press
Authors: Kevin Mukhar, Todd Lauinger, John Carnell
Rating: 4/5
Having read over two-thirds of this huge volume, I am now of the opinion that it probably is not the best place to begin exploring Java database development. The word "Beginning" in the title is a bit misleading: you shouldn't approach this book without a solid grounding in Java and databases in general. True, the introductory chapters cover essential SQL and other database concepts, but there is a steady ramping-up in the difficulty level as the book progresses, and it doesn't ever really level off. For example, Lauinger's treatment of his own Java Layered Frameworks open-source project in Chapter 16 is long-winded and daunting. And the later chapters assume complete familiarity with XML, JavaBeans, Servlets, and other more "advanced" topics. So, all in all, for the JDBC beginner I think that this is not the best book to begin your explorations of JDBC.On the other hand, this is an exceptionally thorough book, very well written and with few typos. The authors are likeable, the price is affordable, the presentation and the coding are laid out well, the printing and binding excellent. So it may be just the book for you if you have the patience to plod through its 900 pages. Certainly, the book makes an excellent reference. However, it only covers the business logic of Java database applications. Most of the examples in the book are console-based programs for testing the business logic. There is no coverage of GUI-related topics, for example how to present data in a grid. As one of the authors remarks somewhere, their purpose in writing the book was not to present "pretty GUI's" but rather to concentrate on the internals, the business logic. While I can understand the importance of business logic, I also would have liked these experts to have given me some good pointers on how to present data in various data-aware controls in a GUI. After 600+ pages, I'm still waiting....
Product: Book Paperback
Title: The Guru's Guide to SQL Server Architecture and Internals
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: Ken Henderson
Rating: 1/5
Title: The Guru's Guide to SQL Server Architecture and Internals
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: Ken Henderson
Rating: 1/5
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Ken's latest Guru's Guide is an important book for SQL Server Professionals who build or manage SQL Server systems. SQL Server is tightly integrated with Windows, so understanding how SQL Server uses Windows services is essential to managing it effectively. This book covers the important Windows / SQL Server topics in significant depth, exploring each one from both a pure Windows perspective and then how it relates to SQL Server. The first half of the book is dedicated to covering technical Windows concepts such as I/O, Memory, Thread scheduling, Synchronisation & Sockets as well as covering how SQL Server uses each of these. The second half of the book explores various SQL Server features in the depth you'd expect one of Ken's Guru's Guides.This is not a beginners' book. It will feel at home on your shelf if you're reading books such as "Inside SQL Server" (another excellent SQL book) or "Inside Windows", both MS Press. These are all technically deep references for SQL people which offer real answers to the problems & issues we face in working with SQL Server & Windows. Many other books simply skim the edges of the technical topics that this book covers in depth.If you're trying to learn how to write simple SQL statements, this is not the book for you. If you need or want to understand how SQL Server works inside & interoperates with the Windows environment, this is an excellent guide & reference.
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
[Reviewing 2nd edition.] This is definitely not a CORE quality book (especially compared to the outstanding CORE Java series).
Section 1, 100 pages of introductory material, tell you what RAM is (sort of), but doesn't tell you what happens when a cookie and a POST variable have the same name.
Section 2, 450 pages of this book, is a function reference, but the online php manual is free, easier to read and has more examples.
Section 3 has some exploratory examples -- I think there are better examples in the online manual and elsewhere on the net.
The book is confused about its audience. Beginning programmers should NOT start with php (or any scripting language) unless they are forced to put up a php web site overnight -- in which case they need a "cookbook", which this is definitely not. Experienced programmers will be terminally frustrated with the book's disorganization, poor layout and lack of crucial information.
Summary: It's not a cookbook, not a usable reference book and has no best practices advice.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 6.5 Unleashed (Unleashed)
Publisher: Sams Pub
Authors: David Solomon, Ray Rankins, David S. Solomon, Jeff Steinmetz
Rating: 1/5
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 6.5 Unleashed (Unleashed)
Publisher: Sams Pub
Authors: David Solomon, Ray Rankins, David S. Solomon, Jeff Steinmetz
Rating: 1/5
I tend to rate technical books on the relative percentage of times that technical problems are solved after referring to the text. Based on that evaluation method, this book fails miserably. I'm astonished at how useless this book has been. It seems to cover subjects JUST ENOUGH TO LEAVE YOU HANGING. I could truly provide example after example however, I have neither the time nor the inclination to do so. Having never posted an Amazon review before, I do this now in hopes of deterring one or two people from buying this book and making the same mistake I made.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Beginning E-Commerce with Visual Basic, ASP, SQL Server 7.0 and MTS
Publisher: Peer Information
Authors: Matthew Reynolds
Rating: 3/5
Title: Beginning E-Commerce with Visual Basic, ASP, SQL Server 7.0 and MTS
Publisher: Peer Information
Authors: Matthew Reynolds
Rating: 3/5
I just completed this book and i have doubts weather the application architecture and object model used in this book is correct. 1) The author does not uses Stored Procedure's, which is the recomended way of creating scalable application's on Microsoft Platfrom. 2) The author does not tells us weather the database will reside on the same machine as the web server or it will reside on a different machine(which is the case in most big installations). If the database is on a different machine a number of issues are to be covered like data marshalling, which is not covered. The business objects in the book open a recordset for entering data and have SQL embeded in them. All this database related functionality could have been deliniated to another component residing on the databse server. 3) I think all the problem in the application lies because the author does not split the Object's in his application into two parts one containing Business functionality and another containing Data Acess related functionality. This is the prescribed architecture by Microsoft and an excellent example on this architecture is the FMSTOCKS sample application available in MSDN. 4) Lastly, the author creates an Interface, so that the presentation tier in his application is not able to acess the database and the presentation tier(ie. asp code) is able to acess the other objects only through Visit object. He could have made only visit object publicily creatable. That would have been an easier solution, especially for a so called Beginer's Book. However this book cover's a lot of topics and is a useful book, to give an insight into E-Commerce application development especially for those who are intermediate VB & ASP programmers. The sample application is good and with few changes could be used in commercial applications. This book does give insight into some new and important topics. There are number of topics which are not clearly explanined especially Chapters3,5 and 6 where the author builds his application iteratively, rest of the book is excellent. I am giving it 3stars only because of the above three chapters and above mentioned faults Otherwise this book would have got 5Stars. Lastly this book can not be classified as a Beginer's book, i would recomend buyers of this book to first read Begining ASP, Begining VB and VB6.0 Business Object before reading this book, otherwise they would not be able to get 100% out of this book.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Beginning E-Commerce with Visual Basic, ASP, SQL Server 7.0 and MTS
Publisher: Peer Information
Authors: Matthew Reynolds
Rating: 5/5
Title: Beginning E-Commerce with Visual Basic, ASP, SQL Server 7.0 and MTS
Publisher: Peer Information
Authors: Matthew Reynolds
Rating: 5/5
This book has covered almost every aspect of development for a good commercial E-commerce site right from planning,design and fills lot of gap . I sujest one should refer this book before building a site
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Professional Apache Tomcat
Publisher: Wrox
Authors: Chanoch Wiggers, Ben Galbraith, Vivek Chopra, Sing Li, Debashish Bhattacharjee, Amit Bakore, Romin Irani, Sandip Bhattacharya, Chad Fowler
Rating: 5/5
Title: Professional Apache Tomcat
Publisher: Wrox
Authors: Chanoch Wiggers, Ben Galbraith, Vivek Chopra, Sing Li, Debashish Bhattacharjee, Amit Bakore, Romin Irani, Sandip Bhattacharya, Chad Fowler
Rating: 5/5
First, the book covers the "old" Tomcat 3.x and the "new" Tomcat 4.x. I used it with 4.1.12 and the 4.1.15 (alpha).I am a software developer that recently changes to the world of XML/XSLT. I am using Apache Cocoon at work. And I can said that this book is a must have to everyone who wants understand how Apache Tomcat works, how to configure and how get the best performance most from it.You can will learn how to test the application load before you deploy it.When you will use this book to solve a problem, you will smile when you will see the picture at front of the book, because your problem will be solved. ;-DI recommend to buy this book.
