No comments about S60 Programming: A Tutorial Guide (Symbian Press).

5 comments about Unix for Programmers and Users: A Complete Guide.

1. This was not the suggested text for a systems programming course I took, but thank god I used it anyway! The book is very well written in clear, easy-to-understand language (unlike the suggested text). The sample source code really clarifies the concepts he covers. I got to grips with UNIX quickly with Mr Glass' book. I would heartily recommend it to students and users.



2. This book teaches you UNIX in a very well organized fashion. Unlike many UNIX books that claim teaching UNIX through a light coverage of the basic commands and concepts, this book makes a balanced coverage between daily normal user needs and advanced system concepts in a very clear and understandable language.The examples are very well written and the coverage of concepts such as shell programming or the different system utilities though not very much detailed but enough to put you on track. As a reference, I keep it always beside when I get stuck in poorly written or overly detailed manpages. I don't know if this book is very well known in the UNIX community but for all whom I recommended this book, it was a great delight.



3. I was one of the guys who thought that UNIX is such an operating systems that's so difficult to understand and work with as a Network OS. I even was disturbed in choosing the NOS that I should work with. Lots of people advised not to use unix because of its difficulties in understanding although its powerfull capabilities. But when I began reading this book, I knew that all of those ideas were rubbish. Although it was writen since 1992, but I guess they replaced 8 by 2 -> 1998 .. GO FOR IT.



4. the book is fine for people in a course studying the Unix OS. For an end user just wanting to get their feet wet it is a little advanced. I found the general information to be helpful but a little more explaination would be needed. Overall it is well laid out but too advanced.



5. I do like this book for all things it show to us.. Especially there are treated in a very good order the way how to be connected in a few days with the most usefull commands of Unix. But, the editing joe command not exist./ however really good book..

5 comments about WAP 2.0 Development (By Example).

1. It is so sad this book ships so late. It is no use for any developer to learn WML anymore, because WAP 2.0 and the future will be XHTML Mobile Profile, not WML.



2. The title of this book is a blatant lie.
   NOWHERE in this book does it cover WAP 2.0.
   In appendix A, it clearly states the book is only about 1.1!
   It covers the 1.1 version, which is now out of date.
   Chris Tull is not to blame - he covered 1.1 wonderfully;
   it's the publishers who were afraid of losing $$ that need to be very ashamed. Black eye for Que on this one!
   Don't be fooled by the 4 star rating; 4 of 6 are duplicates!



3. Not Bad.. but you have many options.
   
   Before you go off start coding a solution, I suggest you look into what might already be available.
   
   Checkout out WapScrape at:
   
   http://wap.webdos.com
   
   
   
   Thanks.
   
   
   Details from their site:
   
   NOW YOU CAN READ ANY WEBSITE FROM YOUR CELL PHONE
   
   Introducing WapScrape Services - Opening the full internet to your cell phone browser
   
   The internet is rich with dynamic information, but unfortunetly the vast majority of web sites are not available for WAP (Wireless Access Protocol) Browsers and cell phones..
   To bridge the WAP gap we've developed an HTML to WAP portal that allows you to pull the exact web site data you are looking for via your cell phone.
   Simply store our WapScrape site with the pre-set search range variables you define on your phone's favorites sites list and gain instant mobile access to previously unavailable WAP data.
   
   html2wap
   html2wml
   html to wap portal
   html sites on your cell phone browser
   html sites on wap
   html sites in wml
   
   
   http://wap.webdos.com



4. I agree with "hking45" about this book. It has good content description about the basic WAP, WML, and WMLScript concepts. It is well structured. Organization of the chapters and subsections in each chapter is appropriate and pleasant to follow. Sentences are succinct and straightforward to the point. Technical books should be written in this style, in my opinion.



5. I used this book to create a web site for WAP devices, during a university project.
   Considering that this was my first WAP site, it looks very professional, and I think that Chris Tull deserve this success.
   WAP 2.0 Development is a great book for its simplicity in explaining the arguments.
   The only problem with this book is that it refers only to Windows systems (like Access DBMS) and it explains interaction between WML and APS instead of PHP, which is a very spread language of scripting server-side.
   I suggest to buy this book if you don't have any programming skill in WML; if you know basic WML try to buy a more complete book on this argument.

No comments about Introduction to PCI Express: A Hardware and Software Developer's Guide.

No comments about Symbian OS Communications Programming (Symbian Press).

5 comments about NS Basic Programming for Palm OS.

1. If you've ever thought about programming your PalmOS device, this book and a copy of NSBasic for PalmOS can get you going in no time at all. This book is very well laid out, features a CD-ROM with many of the example programs already typed in, and it is easy to read. My only beef is that it should have a spiral bound binding like the NSBasic manual so you can lay it out flat in front of your PC.



2. Dr. Verive's efforts in NSBasic Programming for Palm OS are well deserved of praise. The biggest challenges a technical author has is finding the right audience to write to and then maintaining the interest of that audience. Dr. Verive has done probably the *most* difficult thing a technical author can do: He has written a book for *all* levels of programmer *and* has written it to keep the interest of the reader, regardless of their technical level.

   The book is very well organized so that the experienced programmer can quickly learn the features they need to be proficient in NSBasic/Palm. However the book starts by *also* laying down an excellent foundation for the new programmer. Subjects include programming techniques, and instruction on structured programming.

   The accompanying CD is a gold mine with lots of demo code and 'template' applications that you can use as the foundation for your own work.

   If you're new to NSBasic programming or just new to programming, get this book, you'll have it sitting at all times right next to your NSBasic Language Reference. The combination of the two books you will find invaluable.




3. It's worth the asking price. Verive presents the material in a friendly, conversational way. Almost too conversational sometimes, doubling back and changing previous statements. The code provided doesn't exactly match the disc, but you are able to get his intent easily enough. I am a rookie programmer and I ended up forking over the [money] for the full version of NSBasic due to Verive's enthusiasm towards the program. I was able to make a couple semi-complex apps within a few hours of reading the book. Within a couple days I was making some good stuff, using only this book.
   This book is a neccesity if you own NSBAsic because it shows how to use the commands and functions not clearly explained in the manual.



4. I have been programming computers professionally for 20 years. Palm OS is my latest platform. So I willingly became a beginner again. My yearning was to reclaim the old dinosaur days when programming was more fun (at least to me).
   
   So I bought a Palm device, NS Basic, and this book. I was not disappointed. Quite simply, NS Basic Programming for Palm OS (2nd Ed.) is the essential tutorial supplement to the official manual.
   
   To be honest, I believe that this book could help both beginners and veteran re-beginners to make their comfort-zone in the world of Palm OS programming.
   
   The author has a no-stress style that I find appealing being used to the pressures of project deadlines. The examples work well to get more than just the programming language aspects across to the reader. The author helps you along the way with seasonings of un-pretentious humour.
   
   My first "real" Palm project was to write a fun little program to aid one of my children with sums and multiplication. With this book at hand, I had it done in a weekend and the user loves it.
   
   Extra benefit - like the author's style, this book is not a heavy tome. It can be carried and read in the train, bus, in bed etc. without using both hands.
   
   Thumbs-up!



5. If you are like me and you had a Palm OS based project that you had to get done and needed a great resource to get you up to speed, look no further.
   
   Between the content in this book (which is very well written and easy to understand I might add) and the support that the author himself provides on the NS Basic support web forum, you will get the information you need to get your project done.
   
   While I haven't reviewed every book out there on this topic, I can't help but think that you'd be making a critical mistake to pass this one up.

2 comments about Professional Unix Shell Programming.

1. I use this book every day. It is the most complete reference on the Korn shell that I have ( about eleven ) and points out the differences between ksh versions and ksh and bash. There arn't any answers I didn't find in this book; when I looked for an answer or to refresh myself on a subject. A major difference between this and other books is that it also shows things that do not work or should not be used and shows why. There is no fluff in this book, it sticks to the facts and even the utilities that are included (and are more useful than most) are presented in a page, not a chapter. It is no bigger than a lot of other books on the subject, smaller than some, yet it covers subjects that the others don't even begin to touch on like dtksh, the posix shell, and how to extend ksh. It even squeezes in a quick reference showing the syntax of Unix commands that are used with the shell so that you can use them properly.



2. its a nice book to have, but not very easy to understand..atleast its not for me

5 comments about Windows NT Device Driver Development.

1. Dear all,

   We have an plotter printer HP 7550a and we run NT as operating system. There are no drivers for nt for this printer.

   We now are trying to get this printer working under wp 5.1 because there are no printer drivers for NT.

   Who can help me get the driver I am looking for. It does not matter if it is an NT driver or an corel wp5.1 driver.

   Please help me we would realy appriciate this efford !

   with kind regards,

   Jeropen van Mourik

   ING BANK Netherlands




2. This book is VERY well written and VERY readable. I needed other sources to get an actual driver written (see Chris Cant's book) but only because this book gives a much more complete picture and I needed something more specific. That's my point...if you want a good, solid understanding of the system and an excellent reference, get this book. It's not often one finds technical-minded people with such writing skill.



3. I think its a good book and well organized, my only black poing is that I missed a toolkit section like WinDriver-www.jungo.com- or numega that enable easy and quick development.



4. If you are writing Windows Device Drivers, this is one of 3 books you absolutely must have. Buy it.



5. This is an amazing book. It's not a tutorial for a building device driver. For device driver developers, it is an essential reference for understanding NT's kernel system. This book is also great for those who are not building device drivers but want to understand the NT kernel. The chapters on virtual memory, I/O architecture and I/O managers are totally worth the price of the book.

5 comments about The Windows 2000 Device Driver Book: A Guide for Programmers (2nd Edition) (Microsoft Technologies Series).

1. There is absolutely no information about printer drivers in this book. The explanation about the printing process is so skimpy that you can't tell that it is wrong.



2. This book is a more concise, better organized version of the DDK documentation, minus the reference material. It does a good job of painting a picture of driver architecture and gets you familier with the terminology involved. However, it does not provide much insight or real-world tips, and in fact the regurgitation of Microsoft definitions and propoganda gets a little tiresome. This book does not go into much detail and is not a reference book. After you've read most of this book you can easily rely on the DDK documentation and never flip through these pages again.
   
   A couple specific gripes: 1) If the reader has never written a driver before, they've probably never worked in kernel mode before, so more general information on kernel-mode programming issues would have been appreciated. 2) Though this book does not go into much detail, the forward did promise a chapter on USB and IEEE 1394 available on the book's website. I was not able to find any such chapter on the website, and haven't received a response to my email requesting the information (to be fair I've only given him a couple days).



3. Don't waste your money on it like I did.
   The author just bores you with terminology and never gets to where you want to go. AVOID.... YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!!



4. I am pasting this review that i had originally posted in 2001 at other websites.
   
   This is one of the best books i have read. I have several years of experience in C/C++ and some experience in windows programming however I am a 'absolute beginner' with Windows device drivers and kernel mode programming and i was able to grasp almost everything the book spoke about with relative ease and with NO confusions. I would recommend this book to anyone who has absolutely no background in device driver programming but wants to make a career doing just that. I must admit that the books assumes that you are versed with C/C++ and some understanding of programming paradigm for windows, but it is pretty obvious since this is NOT a book to teach a programming language nor it is aimed at teaching regular windows programming. It is a complete 'NO NONSENSE' book that deals with topics right upto the point. The contents of the book flow gracefully explaining each and every step with precise detail. The author seems to have made the best possible effort to explain the basics before jumping directly into details. And that does help an absolute beginner. This book does NOT cover details about device specific drivers but it does help you reach a point where you are confident that 'you will understand' whatever you research on your own. A very good book... have seen very few of these types lately.



5. This book is easy to follow and very informative. A must have for the amateur driver developer.

5 comments about Learning Perl on Win32 Systems.

1. I know this book has been bashed by some of the Amazon reviewers. However, I think the book has a particular audience (no surprise by the title): new Perl developers who are not from a UNIX background. It succeeds for that audience.

   I love the O'Reilly books on Perl, and this book is written by the most influential people in Perl (apart from Larry).

   I come from a UNIX background, I still found this book helpful. In fact, I even bought the book for my brother-in-law, who wanted to learn Perl on Win32.

   The Activestate Win32 Perl distribution was a baby at the time of the release - it would be nice if it could be updated, especially regarding Perl Package Manager. This is nitpicking, though.

   To quote James Taylor, this book is "enough to be on your way". It gets the novice initiated into Perl and hungry for more. After that, there are some great O'Reilly titles (The Camel Book, the DBI book, the Sys Admin book) and Lincoln Stein titles (The CGI.pm book for web development, the socket book), as well as the Internet to move to.

   I really love the O'Reilly Perl for Sys Admins book. It seems like I go back to that book and find something new each time.




2. I found that this book was good, particularly for the Win32 platform, and recommend it to anyone who uses Windows, regardless of their initial interest in programming. The only problems I had with the book are that the CGI (and OOP, which is introduced only in the context of CGI...but it could be so much more) chapter is left in limbo as far as being able to use any of the examples. If it were used on a Unix webserver (which are almost always setup to handle Perl CGI scripts), the examples would work fine. However, this is Perl for Win32, so IIS or PWS (if possible...I don't think it is, however) should be the web platforms targetted, and a "quick and dirty" setup instruction would be good to be able to test those examples.



3. I concur with the bulk of the reviews here: This is a shallow book, especially given Perl's scope. But it WILL help Windows folks understand many of the key Perl concepts that otherwise go unmentioned.

   And that's the major point here. The book may be a trivial intro to Perl, but at least it doesn't assume you're a *NIX weenie. After getting annoyed reading the 3rd edition of the camel book, I bought this book. It was helpful in clearing up all those references to the weird stuff that *NIX dudes apparently are born knowning, and got me quickly into writing simple Perl scripts.

   You want heavy details of the Win32 or NT-specific functions? Go read the POD embedded in those modules. Or get a different book.

   This is "LEARNING Perl on Win32 Systems"... I read it in about 6 hours, total, cover to cover. And in that time it provided just about as good an intro as I could hope for.




4. This book provided a reasonable introduction to the language elements. As a complete novice, I learned enough to read CGI scripts. It was helpful to work on the well-done examples and then to look at the answers. I would have preferred a "log cracking" example rather than "secret words". Although I got the syntax of the hashes, I missed their glory in solving problems. The regular expression examples were good, but I could have used a full-blown example here also. This book sent me searching for CGI/web packages, such as the database package DBI (which may have been more useful than the DBM), the graphics package (GD), and more on writing HTML code from Perl scripts.



5. Very good basic Perl book, helped me out quite a bit, if you are new to Perl like I was this gives you a good basic understanding.