4 comments about Beginning GTK+ and GNOME.

1. This book is very easy to read thanks mainly to the author but also to a nice font and layout. The examples are very helpful and cover a broad range of areas within GTK and GNOME programming. Bottom line would be the quality of writing and the diverse coverage. I have 5 GTK/GNOME books, and I like this one the best.



2. I like Peter Wright's style of writing for this book. Other big books like this can be boring to read, which can really slow down the learning process in my experience. Wright speaks to the reader in a language that is suitable for beginners. Some C knowledge is expected, but is marginal really. I liked the introduction to glade, as well as the two big examples in the final two chapters. One thing that would have been kind of nice is more material on automake and autoconf. Otherwise I enjoyed this book a lot because he keeps things very simple.



3. This book is well written and on a whole well executed. The two sample projects that he walks you through I thought were excellent additions to the book. The author also gives you a brief background of the GNOME project and how it is different from KDE which uses QT.

   One thing I did not like about this book was the fact he does not give any mention to GTK-- which is the C++ kit or any of the many other languages that can take advantage of GTK beyond acknowledging it's existance. It would have been really nice for this book to have had a chapter on other languages and GTK.

   Also the chapter on the rapid application development (AKA RAD) tool GLADE was rather skimpy.

   However if you are a C programmer looking for a good GTK book, look no further.




4. From the beginning you get a strong sense of being directly in touch with the subject. The authors ideas and his writing style are easy to understand and make for interesting reading if you want to know more about GNOME programming methods. The welcome at the front of the book says it all and it gives a clear explanation of any introductory topics that may be helpful before progressing into the later chapters. Even the Free Software Foundation and Richard Stallman are mentioned in order to help you to understand some basic ideas. The rest of the book goes into some detail about libraries, widgets and other parts of the sophisticated programming language that GNOME really is. Chapter two starts out with thirty pages of introduction to Glib. All of the introductory subjects that you won't see anywhere else are here and can be easily understood. Next is introducing GTK+. This is enormously useful and gives some simple ideas about code and how to use it properly. The next part of the book goes into the subject of controlling the user interface layout. It was at about this point that I was beginning to think something like "I wonder why you can't get visual basic books that are as good as this ?" Also, "It would have cost me thousands of dollars to have done this with MS Windows programming tools". I thought that the last two chapters which are about gIDE and Glade were the best part of the book. There's also the advantage of being able to subscribe to a GNOME internet list to ask the sort of questions that you wouldn't have been able to ask before you read the book. If you haven't done much with GTK+ then do go ahead and buy this book. Your world will change!

No comments about Data Structures: From Recipes to C.

No comments about C/C + + for Expert Systems: "Unleashes the Power of Artificial Intelligence.".

5 comments about Designing Components with the C++ STL: A New Approach to Programming (Revised Edition).

1. This book is a great STL reference. I use it frequently for information on the Standard algorithms. This is its best part. General information on the basic STL containers is weak.



2. Most "STL" books available today are little more than reference manuals. Furthermore, most of them are downright terrible. This one's not bad.

   Breymann offers clear examples of how to use existing elements of the STL, and (more importantly) how to write code that employs the same idioms so you can take advantage of the standard C++ library in your own work. Neither the code nor the writing are top-notch, but they are by no means terrible. You'll want Stroustroup's book handy (and maybe Austern's, too), but this book is a worthwhile read.




3. If you ever wondered why STL is the embodiment of research on generic programming (and what generic programming is anyway for C++ programmers), then this book is for you. It is not yet another STL reference by no means. It is not an introduction text either. This book will unveil the full power of STL and generic programming approach. Your relationship with STL is going to be different after reading this manuscript. Buy it, read it, and you will see why.



4. I think that all of the above reviews summarizes. This book was an decent wealth of knowledge on STL.... too bad it was difficult (at best) to use.

   If you already know the material in the book like the back of your hand, it's really not worth your money, there are better refrence books out there, and chances are you won't learn too much new.

   If you're looking to learn a bit, then you have a choice. Either spend a bit (maybe a lot!) of extra time trying to "translate" the book out of it's unfortunate "halting" gibberish and you may gain a lot (and you may tear your hair out).

   Otherwise you should just spend a bit of time looking for a better book - I agree heartily with the reviewer above: If I could, I'd return it.

   (J)




5. The book proceeds to describe STL like all the other STL books, but doesn't stick to its title, i.e. it doesn't provide any information on extending STL.

   The book is somewhat detailed in its description of STL. It covers contains and algorithms. However, although many of the more esoteric algorithms are listed, the description of them is poor and there is no explanation why they are there at all. I found this frustrating. The truth be known, with some of these you're better off reading the source.

   Most annoying, is there is no help in extending STL. I bought the book specifically for this purpose. It's name implied more than a straight description of the "stuff" in STL. There isn't a clear description of the names your new cool container must support for example, or even sample code. I may as well not have had the book in this regard.

   I did email the author regarding the first point and he was kind enough to reply.

   I think if the book's title implied a straight description of STL then it would be more representative of the content. I think that would be better, because the present name is misleading.

2 comments about Structured Programming (A.P.I.C. Studies in Data Processing, No. 8).

1. This book introduced the key concepts of both structured programming and object-oriented programming nearly 30 years ago. Essays by Dahl, Dijkstra, and Hoare.



2. This book is an essential read for anyone who really wants to understand the foundations of modern computer science and software engineering. The core concepts are still as relevant now as they were when it was first published, and it provides an invaluable baseline against which to measure how far the state of the art has progressed.

1 comments about Fractal Programming in C.

1. This is a real cool book, not really any application for me professionally, but it was fun to try to make the examples. It was a fun exercise in a completely different realm of C than I am used to. Kind of like a cross-word puzzle based on a genre you were totally unfamiliar with, but A fun learning process just the same. Had I seen the picture of the Author prior to purchasing this book I would have clearly known that this was a science text as he just has that "scientist" look about him. I would recommend this to any C programmer that has extra time on their hands, really loves C and wants to try something way out there more on the scientific side of C or if fractal programming does apply to your profession.

5 comments about Java 2 and JavaScript for C and C++ (Programmers, Revised Edition).

1. The index is throughly useless, but otherwise the book is great. I gave it five stars because, for once, the examples really helped. He gives you a practical example of just about everything you could expect from a book of this size. Its easy to read - plus, its organized so you can skip sections you're not interested in and then later go back. I'd really like to see more books like this out there.



2. Read what I wrote about the previous, 1.2 edition here on Amazon. The book has not been changed much - it just has a new cover.

   What is missing from my review (the 1000-word limit has cut out the last 3000 words) is that the book is definitely NOT suited for a beginner. Just an example> check out the I/O and the AWT chapters. No beginner will understand them - even books like Lemay's Teach Yourself Java 2 in 21 Days are much more comprehensible.

   You can buy this book if you already know the language and are eager to discover the differences between C++ and Java (too bad only the first 4 chapters emphasize them, the other chapters spend NO words on C++ at all), you can give it a try. Or just get the previous (and, therefore, cheaper) edition, as it's alsmost the same as this one...




3. Although slightly thought provoking in its tactics, the main theses were misconstrued. There were many instances of erroneous teaching methods which led to unfavorable results. This book does have its bright sides, mainly pertaining to general layout of the book. The relation of Javascript to C++ makes the book very difficult to comprehend. Overall, as a Javascript programmer, I would not recommend this book to anyone.



4. I wanted a book that for an experienced C++ programmer that would not waste time teaching me what a class is, etc. It did that, but unfortunately covers waaaay to much ground to be really practical to learn how to actually write code without additional reference material.

   There are long coding examples presented with little explanation, which the reader is expected to spend hours deciphering and then say "voila, that's how it works."

   Major concepts lacking. For e.g, nowhere could I find an explanation of when you have to use "throws" in a declaration.

   The index is a joke. Try to look up Vector, implements, throws, Set...not there!




5. In the meantime, I've scrutinized the book more thoroughly. I've written the 1st review after comparing moslty the I/O and AWT chapters, the two being the worst of most Java books (and these two chapters are still as worse as they were in the 1998, Java 1.2 edition). As these chapters were similar to the previous edition, I thought the entire book is just a rehash too. However, other chapters are really updated, which I will also write about in the next review to be posted soon.

   Werner Zsolt.

4 comments about Activex Programming With Visual C++ 5.

1. To say that the authors of ActiveX programming with Visual C++ 5.0 have a firm grasp on ActiveX programming would be an understatement. This book is very special because it has side by side examples of ActiveX Automation Servers, ActiveX Controls, and Com Object written in three different styles. The styles that are compared and demonstrated for you are MFC, ATL, and BaseCtl. In other words you can learn how to program ActiveX three different ways with this book. Because of it's scope the book makes for a handy reference when you know how to program in one style and want to learn the other two.

   Besides the introduction there are three sections, ActiveX Automation Servers, ActiveX Controls and COM Object each section is done three times, once for every programming style. Plus, the section on ActiveX Controls has another chapter for advanced programming of each style. To their credit the authors cover every part of ActiveX programming. However, the examples lack depth, and length that would make this an excellent book.

   This book is a must have for the intermediate ActiveX programmer, where one technique is already mastered and others need clarification.

   You can find more book reviews by this reviewer, along with Frequenty Asked Questions about IIS, ISAPI, ASP, ADO, ODBC, ATL, and ActiveX. Included with the FAQ are book reviews, how to articles and related knowledge base links at: http://www.15seconds.com/faq




2. Gotta give it to them, when time is money, having full examples for MFC and ATL implementations of the same COM Servers is very very useful. The BaseCtl versions are very specific to a framework very few people even heard about. Two out of three ain't bad. But reality is that there's a third approach that's only lightly touched upon, and that's straight API calls, straight, that is, with VC++5's help. VC++ is getting to be COM savvier all the time, and here is another flaw in this book: instead of talking about both sides of the C/S COM relationship, and mentioning the latest VC++5 wonders like the client side #import statement, the smart pointers and so on, they talk about "containers", like from the old OCX days. COM is a much cooler and wider world than just a way to create ready-made GUI components. Where this book feels dated is in its focus on the server side of the OCX type COM object. Wish they came out with an addendum in electronic form, 'cause at $50 with no CD, it's a little like those one-of-a-kind GM transmission wrenches, which are inescapable when ya need them, but later earn slightly resentful glances taking up space on the wall. But that's still a solid 8, maybe a 10 if ya got a transmission to work on today.



3. This book tries to show how to 'do ActiveX' without explaining what ActiveX (or COM) is. It gives some 'recipes', but doesn't explain the gotchas. As far as recipes go, some areas that were important for my project were missing (variant and safearray manipulation, threading models) I think anyone whose serious about ActiveX programming (especially the distributed-computing part) should have some understanding of the inner-workings of COM. This book does not touch this issue at all. Another issue not touched is the structure of ATL and the OLE parts of MFC (which is hard to explain without explaining COM first). So I'd say this is book is good for someone who needs to get something out the door tomorrow, assuming that the book's 'recipes' cover all the project's needs (which is not very likely...)



4. well, it should be an excellent book but finally turns out to be a nightmare due to too many mistakes. Few files in the book can be used directly and mistakes could be found every page. Just a waste of time and energy.

No comments about Programming and Problem Solving With C++ / With Laboratory Manual.

No comments about Hackish C++ Games & Demos.