No comments about A. B. C.'s of MUMPS: An Introduction for Novice and Intermediate Programmers.

5 comments about C++ Standard Library From Scratch (From Scratch).

1. After returning every STL book I've purchased I caught this book here on Amazon. Pablo Halpern does a great deed to the STL community by putting out a great book on STL topped off by the use of UML to help students understand the full cycle of developing an application. If you're new to the programming world this is a MUST have to quide you along analysis, design, and implementation with a concrete example. If you're a seasoned pro but are missing STL from your life ( much like I was til I read this book ) this book will get you going. Halpern does a great job of keeping the example on an open architecture, so for those of us who want more than in-memory persistence and a command line UI implement a database and our choice of UI for the example. I myself turned this into a great COM+ web application using ASP for presentation and an added layer of COM+ data objects from my collection to hit a SQL Server 2000 database...



2. Great intermediate explanation of the C++ Standard Library complete with a project from beginning to end. I especially liked the approach the book took by equating its premise to learning a foreign language by interacting with native speakers rather then memorizing the vocabulary.



3. This is a very good approach to teaching the standard library. The author has a style very similar to mine, so perhaps I'm biased... but I don't think so. He writes clearly and with a purpose in mind: to help the reader understand the material as thoroughly as possible. And he accomplishes his goal, with only a few typos along the way as minor distractions.

   One point I should clarify, though: as far as I can tell, Jesse Liberty's contribution to this book consists of having his name on the cover. While this is unfortunate for the actual author, whose real accomplishments are undermined by that association, it is much better for the reader than if Mr. Liberty had actually had anything to do with the writing of the book. In that case, I would have expected to see much less clarity in the explanations and hundreds of errors, as those are his trademarks.

   Kudos to Mr. Halpern! Keep writing... but under your own recognizance. You shouldn't have any trouble finding a publisher who will take you on without any "sponsorship". Good, clear technical writing is hard to find.




4. I am half way through this book and thoroughly enjoying it. The STL is incredibly powerful. I have read Josuttis' book, which is also a great book, but once I finished it, I felt that I had a obtained a great appreciation for the STL, but was still a little uncomfortable using it. With this book I feel that I am getting a better feel for the library because I'm actually using it in the context of a real application and am able to experience first hand the usage and trade offs of the different containers/algorithms contained within the STL. Between the two books, I think that I will be well on my way to becoming STL proficient. Simply by working through this book, you will gain many months worth of valuable programming experience.



5. I salute this author with his kind of patience to walk through the implementation of the tiny PIM with the STL and with very detail and clear explanation. He has started his plan well with the class diagrams. I have learnt and pickup a number of good programming techniques (as simple as the various way of string manipulation) from this book and going to try as many STL as possible in my project development using Borland Kylix 3 Professional (C++), GNU g++/gcc, Visual C++ Professional 6, Borland C++ 5.02 and Borland C++ Builder.

4 comments about Learn Java by Association with C Cobol Fortran Pascal Visual Basic.

1. I am a VB programmer who wants to learn Java. This book is nothing it claims to be. One can't learn Java using it. Basically book is just a series of code examples with almost no comments and no clear and full explanations. It might be used as a quick reference but many examples of incorrect VB code I found in the book prevent me from trusting Java code examples. I wouldn't recommend to by this book: in my opinion it's a waste of money.



2. A good reference for programming languages. Also, helped me learn Java from my Pascal familiarity. I found the tools on the CD also very useful. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Java.



3. This is a good reference book. I know several of these languages and I can quickly look up the syntax in the book. In my opinion, the book is more useful as a dictionary than for learning Java as the title suggests.



4. I found this book an interesting attempt to teach the Java language to those developers who know C, COBOL, Fortran, Pascal, and Visual Basic.

   With little text to explain anything, what you find is a guide that shows how to do 50 things in six different languages. So, if you are trying to go from say COBOL or FORTRAN to Java, 80% of the book is of no use, as that percent of the book shows you how to do things in the "other" languages.

   While I can't vouch for the code in the languages other than Java, the Java code looks to be well written and correct. You'll find examples of doing things like getting the date, working with math functions, or dealing with arrays.

   The way I see the book is if you are trying to translate code from another language, this book would help as a guide. If you don't know Java, you'll pick up some syntax but you'll need to get another book if your overall goal is to learn how to program in Java.

   The CD is full of some nice things, but you can pick them up for free off the web. Its funny that if you want to learn Java, you're better off with the free copy of Thinking in Java from the CD.

2 comments about Real Time Systems and Programming Languages: Ada 95, Real-Time Java and Real-Time C/POSIX (3rd Edition).

1. This book is no good for students, as it has exercises with answers only available to lecturers though a password system.
   The examples are ok but do not help for the exercises so it makes the book imcomplete and very dissappointing, If you need help for real time systems then this is not the book for you, If you just want to read a book this might be ok, but learning is not going to be done.
   (...)



2. This book is great because it covers all the important concepts quite well. I think it is a must for those into real-time programming.

3 comments about Power Graphics Using Turbo C®++.

1. The book itself is ok, it is the bad checking of code that concerns me.

   Within one day of lightly flipping through the book I found numerous errors with the functions that should have been picked up by whoever checked the code before going to print.

   Also, not having a companion disk is a real hassle - we shouldn't have to pay extra for a disk to be shipped to us!!




2. If you are a C developer who want to learn about graphic library, so it's the book. The bad thing is that it's not updated what I think it should and so it's a little arcaic.
   But it teaches a lot because there are too few books about this theme.



3. In a summary, this is one book you will not regret buying. By the last chapter you will be amazed at how good the turbo c compiler was. The only con for this is that if you are lazy or too excited to see the workings of the CAD program there is no disk included for the book and it does have some long listings. They are very well worth typing. The chapter on 3d grahics is very helpful and informative and can be easily converted to other recent programming languages like java.Yes it does cover antiquated BGI graphics but if you are fortunate to have the turbo c compiler this book will show you how to really apply your knowledge. BTW the older borland compilers are a free download from Borland's site.

No comments about Digital Filter Designer's Handbook: Featuring C Routines/Book and Disk.

No comments about C Primer Plus.

1 comments about Simulating Ecological and Evolutionary Systems in C.

1. This is a unique book, in that it is heavy on the practical aspects of implementing ecological simulation theory. I'm tired of picking up academic books which just re-hash the usual theory and only vaguely describe how one may implement it. The basis of simulation is experimentation. How one implements the model in programming code is as important as the underlying model itself (garbage in/garbage out) - the author clearly guides the reader through implementation, AND also provides an very clear description of the theory behind the equations.

   The coding style is clear. It is not cluttered with unecessary programming structures (no OOP here) - it just gets the job done.

   One suggestion for future editions would be: information on large-scale implementations of ecological simulations i.e. the technical and coding issues one encounters in real-life research projects (e.g. parallel implementations, speed issues etc.)

1 comments about All on C.

1. With the grace of "elements of style" Ken Pugh (well known for his column in the C users Journal and less well known for his ultra marathoning exploits) has produced an intuitive book in an over filled genre.

   Beginning with chapters on Datatypes and Operations, Control Flow, Functions,
   I/O, Arrays, Structures and Unions, he then introduces Pointers. He then revisits Datatypes and Operations building on time and, hopefully, some experience.

   He continues to build on old concepts and gently introducing new ones in a uniquely friendly and clear manner that is reinforced by code examples and self tests.

No comments about Embedded Systems Programming in C and Assembly/Book and Disk (Computer Science).