5 comments about Learn Ole Db Development With Visual C++ 6.0.

1. The most important section of 'OLE DB Development with Visual C++' is the Table of Contents - it provides the only notion of structure in an otherwise rambling stream of poorly formatted text. The best part of the book is its cover.

   Chapters 1 to 5 are Primers, on COM, ATL, MFC, OLE BD and ADO (323 pages in total). If only these chapters were primers, then the book might have succeeded. Only the COM chapter comes even close to a primer. The chapters on ATL and MFC merely step you through the VisualStudio wizards (and haven't we been through this enough?). The OLE DB and ADO primers are so poorly disguised rewrites of the online MSDN documentation, that Microsoft might be warranted to consider action. Do yourself a favor and compare these chapters with the corresponding MSDN entries -- it is scary!

   Chapters 6 to 9 provide examples on creating OLE DB providers and consumers in ATL and MFC. These examples follow the rote formula of providing a few pages of wizard steps, followed by many pages of source code. The source listings highlight Wallace's code to indicate which code you should add to the wizard's code. The highlighted code is poorly commented, with further cryptic notes like : "Lines 193-239: This code opens the database specified in the Open dialog. It takes care of closing open Recordsets and deleting existing OLE DB consumers first. Notice that it always starts in table display mode." (p490). That's it. That is all you get in this book.

   The CD supplied with the book contains the examples contained in Chapters 6 to 9 (no examples in the other chapters). A web interface, including all the (unnecessary) FrontPage files, provides a simple user interface to the example files. The CD also contains VisiBroker (in a COM book?) and a directory filled with various zip files and installation executable files. There is no readme or any other form of explanation on these files.

   There is not a single diagram of any kind in the entire book. Figures are all screen captured wizard dialog boxes. The total number of pages devoted to explanation is probably less than fifty. Clearly, this book was put together in great haste and with little thought about exposition, explaining or teaching. The rear cover reads "OLE DB is the ODBC-compliant standard ....", typical of the poor attention to detail evident in the design and presentation of this book.

   Only buy this book if you cannot get the ADO and OLE DB reference information from Microsoft MSDN. Don't expect to actually learn anything about OLE DB here, rather visit MSDN for a more detailed and accessible coverage. I have learned my lesson, stick with the well-known authors and major publishers.




2. Before buying this book, I was a little angry about the lack ofquality documentation on using OLE DB and ADO in C++. After buyingthis book, I am STILL angry about the lack of quality documentation on using OLE DB and ADO in C++, AND I'm angry about being out the bucks I spent on it. This book misses the mark on (what I took to be) it's intended audience, badly. Hardly a book for a beginner to learn the subject, it's just a rehash of reference material available elsewhere. Why, oh why, does Amazon not have a rating of 0 stars for these reviews? END



3. I just wish I had returned it in time to get my money back.



4. I can't think of a single positive about this book. Not only does it fail to teach anything about OLE DB development, the code presented simply does not work. (The author, however, claims that it will.) It actually gets worse, though. If you attempt to try to find any sort of updates, as mentioned by website in the book's introduction, you'll find that the relevant webpages don't exist!

   So, what you get is:
   -Reference information you can somewhere else (and more cheaply),
   -Nothing to learn,
   -Buggy code, and
   -No way to update it

   Do NOT buy this book for ANY reason, as the other reviewers have indicated.




5. In the book's prerequisite chapter, we receive our Com "hard hat" by understanding that dynamic-link libraries are "the long-desired binary compatibility for applications!" Given that the goal of the book is to teach OleDb, such fortune-cookie interjection probably does not suit the reader. An OleDb and Ado "Primer" consumes two thirds of the book, and is an alphabetically organized incomplete subset of the MS documentation. Incomplete because it was edited, and even that was done poorly; Something useful like a description of IDBSchemaRowset is not included, while the interfaces that are chosen retain Microsoft verbiage that would be useful only to an OleDb provider developer.
   
   New developers should avoid this book because they will need to unlearn what is presented, or simply find the material impassible. Moderately experienced developers will recognize that they are more qualified than the author.
   
   I would recommend studying the MS rowset viewer sample for OleDb. For conceptual preparation I recommend an academic SQL book and early chapters of Rogerson's Inside COM. OleDb is the marriage of the two, and I have yet to find a good book that described the pair as opposed to the two individuals.

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.

1 comments about Practical Image Processing in C: Acquisition, Manipulation, Storage (Wiley Professional Computing).

1. Source code isn't complete in a book. TIFF.H and TIFFIO.H are missing, then I can't compile the programs. Please sendme errata if possible.

5 comments about Professional C# (Beta 2 Edition).

1. The writing of this book is too verbose. Some sentences contain more than 5 commas and I thought I was getting lost. It's very difficult to know what the author is trying to explain with those extremly long sentences.
   Many examples are not adequate at all. Some of the logics in the examples are so bad, I couldn't see why the author added these to the book. They rather confuse you than helps you understanding the concepts behind C#.

   I am sorry but it does look like a rough draft rather than a finished book.




2. The writing of this book is too verbose. Some sentences contain more than 5 commas and I thought I was getting lost. It's very difficult to know what the author is trying to explain with those extremly long sentences.
   Many examples are not adequate at all. Some of the logics in the examples are so bad, I couldn't see why the author added these to the book. They rather confuse you than helps you understanding the concepts behind C#.

   I am sorry but it does look like a rough draft rather than a finished book.




3. It's one of the best C# and .NET Framework introductions, but the problem is that, due to the extent of the subject, all the books that try to cover the whole .NET Framework in a single (even if big) volume are missing the point from a professional programmer point of view.
   To have all you need to fully understand the .NET Framework it's absolutely essential to have a collection of books that cover every single topic in detail and they are appearing now.
   If you want to save money and buy a good introduction especially about C# or you are an experienced programmer that ventures out to .NET and C# for the first time then it could be a good purchase, otherwise it's better to focus on the topics you are looking for and buy more specialized publications. A professional programmer could find it a little superficial in some parts and due to the usual hurry of Wrox Press to be first on target a little disjointed in others.



4. It's one of the best C# and .NET Framework introductions, but the problem is that, due to the extent of the subject, all the books that try to cover the whole .NET Framework in a single (even if big) volume are missing the point from a professional programmer point of view.
   To have all you need to fully understand the .NET Framework it's absolutely essential to have a collection of books that cover every single topic in detail and they are appearing now.
   If you want to save money and buy a good introduction especially about C# or you are an experienced programmer that ventures out to .NET and C# for the first time then it could be a good purchase, otherwise it's better to focus on the topics you are looking for and buy more specialized publications. A professional programmer could find it a little superficial in some parts and due to the usual hurry of Wrox Press to be first on target a little disjointed in others.



5. The worst-written and most repetitive technical book I've read. Reads like the first rough draft: did anyone edit this book?
   
   This book mentions twice in four pages how amazing it is that C# lets you use "goto" to get around its strict "switch" statements. Both times, the concept is introduced as if to a newbie, and both times, the authors praise Microsoft's infinite wisdom in allowing this. Twice in four pages! Other things repeated over and over at the beginning of the book include the concept that C# is managed code, how .NET saves the world, that C# is like Java, and that C# is not like Java.
   
   Also, consider the following example method:
   // This function takes an int array (a reference type)
   // and an int (a value type).
   static void SomeFunction (int[] Ints, int i)
   {
   Ints[0] = 100;
   i = 100;
   }
   
   Amazing, huh? The cleverly named "SomeFunction" takes two arguments and inexplicably sets one and part of the other equal to 100. I imagine they left figuring out _why_ "as an exercise for the reader."
   
   I'm not trying to whine. Some technical books -- The PickAxe, an introduction to Ruby, comes to mind -- have meaningful examples and concise, clear text and are a pleasure to read. _Professional C#_ is just the opposite.
   
   For a book that supposedly requires previous programming knowledge, it sure drags you through the basics of computer science over and over. (That said, do NOT start programming for the first time with this book as your guide. Quite a few times, I remember thinking, "Wow, I'm glad I'm already familiar with the concept of ______ because this is a horrible explanation!")
   
   Someone said this book was long, and that meant it was complete. No, that just means it's wordy and repetitive. You've been warned.

5 comments about Using C++ (Using).

1. With a first glance I could capture atleast 3 errors from the pg #312 to #314 in the chapter Beyond the basic. But I found very simple explainations of concepts like template and namespaces. Good book to understand concepts, may need little tweak in for the example code.



2. Very easy to read. Easy to understand explanations of difficult concepts in most situations. Quite comprehensive. Nice big margin to scribble notes in. Useful codes samples. Good price. A good starting text or support text.



3. This book is a good one for people who has never before programmed in C++. For those who has done that, I would not recommend this book. Then you should read C++: The Complete Reference instead! The explanations of templates, namespaces, exception handling and operator overloading are a little too simple for me. Also, the last part of the book, The Standard C++ Library, breaks the tutorial form of the book into a pure reference form!!! One of the programs has a very nast bug in it that should have been checked. It completely crashed my system, and I spent the rest of the day figuring out what went wrong!



4. Lots of typos and code errors make this book more difficult to follow than it should be. If you've got some programming background, then you'll catch them easily, so they'll be a nuisance rather than a serious source of frustration. The code examples are also rather trivial. It's not so helpful to see a fully coded and commented example of assigning a pointer, when it's already been presented in the text. Better to see a program that does something useful. The book could have been shortened by 200 pages by omitting excess whitespace and useless code examples. Straightfoward prose explanation seemed to suffer in places. Overall, a pretty good intro to OOP; not a terrible book, but you could probably find a better one.



5. It's hard to find a good c++ book for beginner programmers. Most C++ books assume that you are fimilar with c but this book doesn't required you to know c, it guide to step by step from gound up. I'm teaching myself VC++ using this book. Recommended to all beginner C++ programmers! Ivor Horton's "Beginning Visual C++ 6" is all highly recommended.

5 comments about Serial Communications Developer's Guide.

1. This book has lots and lots and lots of good information.

   I read a few of the beginning chapters on serial port communications, and then skimmed stuff about the history of RS232, including BIOS interfaces, etc...

   The thing that i found amazing was the variety of information. The author, for example, actually includes a home-brew windowing system. you can tell that this guy loves to do what he does, and he likes to think about *every* part of the system, from the O/S, to the user interface, to the software design.

   I went to the Win32 section, since I wanted to use the windows communications API. I was able to write my application in less than 7 days!, so its better than a "in 21 days book!" however, i have been using Win32 for quite some time.

   i also got, and will probably return, Serial Port Complete because I have Parallel Port Complete (a gem) and the content seems to overlap.

   the Serial Communications Developer's Guide, IMO, will awe you with both minute technical detail as well as a good dose of pratical system level insights!




2. First of all, I have to say that this book provides you with a lot of details about serial communications. It even provides you with a complete library so that you can write the serial communication programming in half an hour.

   The bad part is that I found later that Microsoft had included a MSComm control with VB and VC and it makes the library provided by this book useless. I used the library to write my project and it worked. Then I tried MSComm control and found that MSComm control was better than the library provided by this book. MSComm class gives you more control and it's much easier to use. eg: you don't have to worry about the multithreading because MSComm control has done that for you.

   So, IMHO, if you are a VC or VB programer and you only want to write some simple Win32 serial port program, you'd better use MSComm control instead of turning to this book.




3. Although the book requires a lot of reading, it describes the use of the CD's source code in great detail. Included source code is for both DOS applications, DOS programs running as "Terminal" applications under Windows as well as for Windows applications.

   Microsoft's MSComm Active X is ok where dialog based Windows applications are desired. But in a Windows 98 application that rapidly sends, receives and checks incoming data without user input, this software is an absolute MUST to have.




4. I bought this book to learn how to program Win32 serial communications. It's obvious that the author knows his stuff. Chapters 3 thru 9 apply to MS-DOS and are not really relevant anymore. Otherwsie the source code is a excellent study in how to write a class library in C++ in addition to multithreading which, by themselves, make the book worth the price.

   I used the libraries to write an ActiveX control that has an interface that only a FoxPro programmer would love. My money was well spent.




5. I recently purchased this book for my Meng Project, involving
   controlling a vision head focus,zoom through a pic serial port connected to a pc with vision modelling.
   I am surprised, that the code is written in a fashion which is
   totally unbearable, hard to understand and just reflects the authors perception and imagination rather than discussing the
   important communication building blocks and instructions.
   Its totally ambigious to distinguish the original c++ routines and the invented commands written in form of classes.
   I think if i read through all that material in header files i will lag so behind completing my original project.....
   The paper quality is poor and not very pleasant to read.

1 comments about From C to C: An Introduction to ANSI Standard C with Reference Manual.

1. The book teaches C and programming without insulting the reader's intelligence. Every important construct and nuance of the language is clearly explained. The sample problems are no more complex then necessary to reinforce the lesson. The chapter quizzes include a cumulative project to give a practical perspective.

   Nine years ago I left mainframes for client/server. I needed C. This book gave me all the C I needed. It even helped me understand Kernigan and Ritchie's "C Programming Language."

1 comments about Molecular Structure Model: C Set for Organic Chemistry.

1. These models and their extensive, sumptuous curves will keep students and professors captivated. They are very helpful in visualizing the many different conformations of organic compounds, and help students understand isomerism on a personal level.

5 comments about C & C++ Code Capsules: A Guide for Practitioners (Prentice Hall Series on Programming Tools and Methodologies).

1. I had high hopes for this book. Great author, great recommendations. Unfortunately I was dissapointed in his treatment of the subject matter. I think this book should have gotten rid of all pretense of discussing C, which I believe it does a bad job at.

   Getting rid of the C code would have made many of the examples irrelevant and/or clearer. For example, Mr Allison tells C++ programmers that to include old Standard C headers you now have to prefix a c to the filename and remove the .h ( would become ). This is great information, but confusing because in the next example he uses again.

   Something that was very annoying was the page layout. The examples and tables were all over the place. The text would often get cut up by several pages of code, which looks much like the text (similar font and size). The tables were also too far away from the discussion to be useful. I found I would just take his word on what he claimed and would skip the tables when I eventually found them. That is a great shame because that has nothing to do with his writing.

   I waded through the bad page layout and what I consider to be inconsistent usage of C and C++ because on the whole the book provides up-to-date information (real Std C++), but I would not say that this is a book for practitioning programmers, more like for people who want to start using their C++ compilers for more than simply a C compiler.




2. After all of the wonderful reviews, I expected more from this book. The page layout was VERY difficult to work with, bouncing through source code, then reading about it, then having to flip the page to see the implementation file for the struct.

   Three chapters are devoted to the C standard library, so if you are a traditional C coder, this will be familiar. However, if you are trying to learn practical C++, there are better books: Effective C++, More Effective C++, C++ Gems...

   Many of his examples of `practical' code are written in C, with the C-style comments as the give away. The section on casting does not include any of the new standard safe casting operators, although they are included in the appendix. Several of the examples shown near the end of the book are many pages long, and if you want to use it, you get to type it in manually.

   Also, although this may or may not affect your decision to purchase this book, I found the glossy pages VERY DIFFICULT to read under a halogen desk lamp.

   If you are looking for a transition from C to C++, or want code samples for bitmasking (2 out of twenty chapters devoted to this), this book may be for you. However, if you want a great C++ book, look elsewhere.




3. nnn



4. making review of this book is a great experience for me looking in to the book we find the nachural way of getting in every thing is wonderfull



5. I bought this book a few years ago upon recommendations, I was using C++ then. Now I need C rather than C++. I have only recently opened the book. I am afraid to say I am mostly disappointed. I think I would prefer to see a C++ Code Capsules book and a separate C Code Capsules book. I plan to sell my copy as I don't find it useful. Every time I need a useful bit of code I have failed to find it in this book; but other books have been useful.

No comments about C Programming Language: An Applied Perspective.