5 comments about Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Programmer's Guide.

1. If you are a programmer and looking for a good guide and/or reference, do not buy this book! The examples are few and not very good. The book does not go beyond VB in explainations, or lead you to additional reference material. Don't waste your money.



2. I started doing VB back on Win 3.1 and had lost touch with it after severals years. I had to begin to relearn the new improved versions of VB now for a summer job i had received. I picked up this book, and for the most part the information was very good. However the main problem i have with this book, is that if you are ever looking for more indepth information into it, the book refers you to "the Language Reference" or one of the other reference library books. I understand that you cannot have all the info in this book, but being refered to another MS book just bugged me. I mean the knowledge being online, they could have given the exact URL to find the info, instead of trying to get you to buy a 70dollar reference manual.

   THe information in this book is more of an overview of all the different components, and have helped me out of a lot of binds over the time. This book is not for someone new to VB or to programming in general, there are plenty of books and online refs for those.

   I have since bought the reference library, and without that as an accompanment to this book, it would have been very difficult to get most of the knowledge I have needed for my programs.

   If you are looking for a good standalone VB book, look elsewhere, if you are looking for a good reference book for a outside assistance, this could be your answer.




3. This is a good step-by-step book for learning Visual Basic 6.0 Professional Edition. There are some minor mistakes in this book but overall it is a very good book. If you follow along, you should not have a lot of problems. Please note, this book is geared toward the "Professional Edition", you will need to have a strong understanding of the features of "Enterprise Edition" in order to pass the certification exams. Subjects such as the Visual Component Manager, Visual SourceSafe, MTS/COM+ are not covered or bearly covered. You will need other books in order to get a more thorough knowledge of these subjects. Visual Basic Professional Edition and/or Visual Studio Professional Edition are excellent for SOHO (Small office, home office). I have Visual Studio 6.0 Professional Edition installed on my home PC and I use this book to solve some of the issues that arrises.



4. If your a newbie to Visual Basic do not buy this book! This book in geared towards the intermediate to advanced programmer I have been using VB for several years and take it from me, don't buy it. Even for the intermediate programmers this book makes numerous references to the Library Reference, If your serious on vb then get it too otherwise don't bother, try a website.



5. For 90% of the VB questions that I have I can find the answer in this book. It is a great programmers reference. Of course it is just about the Visual Basic language itself and really doesn't delve to far into using VB to program databases or anything like that. Just a good solid reference to the basics of the core language itself.

5 comments about Unix System Programming Using C++.

1. All the information this book contains you can find in man pages, total waste of money and time. Stick with W.Richard Stevens books.



2. Dr. Terrence Chan, Professor of the University of California Berkeley and Santa Cruz extension programs teaching Advanced UNIX Programming with C and C++.

   This book is a good reference source for threads and UNIX system calls. When a novice C++ programmer and starting to delve into Solaris system calls, this book gives out a lot of the examples and explanations a reader need to develop her or his applications. It also saves her or him from creating utilities that may be not known but already in its existence. I especially like the format. It gives a simple explanation, an example of each of the major parts, an example of the code that compiled under a real world environment, and a display of the program in action.

   This book helps C programmers on UNIX in advanced C++ programming techniques in the UNIX/POSIX environment, so that they will understand the advanced features of the ANSI-C language, become familiar with C library functions and the UNIX system calls, and become familiar with the ANSI-C and POSIX standards.

   This book is also a good reference for UNIX. When the OOP/C++ was not as mature as now and still in progress a few years ago while the book was written, it may cover more on the Objected Oriented Programming if it were written today. I have worked for a few leading large-scale high-performance trading engine systems for stock exchanges, such as Pacific Exchange, the national third largest, NASDAQ Stock Market, the national second largest, commodities exchanges, and Internet auction engine, and global company rating search engines. I still found the part about threads in UNIX system programming a useful reference.

   Mr. Terrence Chan's book will help readers: If you're an experienced UNIX system programmer working in C++, UNIX System Programming Using C++ brings together all the advanced techniques you need to build more effective software, to write more powerful C++ programs more quickly.

   This book tried to focus on the real-life challenges you face developing network and client/server applications, databases, compilers, operating systems, and CAD systems. You can learn new ways to develop C++ programs that are strongly type-checked, compact, and easy to maintain.

   You will find the author also tried to cover:

   1. Advanced ANSI C and some advanced C++ programming techniques, including function pointers and functions that accept variable numbers of arguments 2. How to use ANSI C library functions and C++ standard classes to reduce development time and maximize portability 3. The UNIX kernel structure and API -- and how to use them to manipulate system resources UNIX processes and signals 4. UNIX sockets and TLI, the network transport protocols that allow you to create multi-tasking distributed client/server applications 5. UNIX multithreaded programming, including thread APIs, synchronization and thread-specific data

   The book includes extensive example programs that demonstrate how C++ classes, library functions and system APIs are used. To help you build more portable applications, there's also coverage of the POSIX.1 and POSIX.1b standards.

   Today's distributed, networked applications require you to understand and utilize advanced UNIX system programming techniques. With UNIX System Programming Using C++, you will learn those techniques and become comfortable using them.

   If you will be programming in C with C++ encapsulation, this book is useful. As we all know, no book is perfect. The typos in code lists are especially annoying for software developers. Some statistics suggested that 80% of debugging time be spent on misspellings or naming errors. If you can see through the typographic errors and extract the essence from this book, this book is still worth of reading and a place on her or his bookshelf.




3. Professor Terrence Chan of the University of California Berkeley and Santa Cruz extension programs teaching Advanced UNIX Programming with C and C++.

   Reviewed By Qi Luo

   This book is a good reference source for threads and UNIX system calls. When a novice C++ programmer and starting to delve into Solaris system calls, this book gives out a lot of the examples and explanations a reader need to develop her or his applications. It also saves her or him from creating utilities that may be not known but already in its existence. I especially like the format. It gives a simple explanation, an example of each of the major parts, an example of the code that compiled under a real world environment, and a display of the program in action.

   This book helps C programmers on UNIX in advanced C++ programming techniques in the UNIX/POSIX environment, so that they will understand the advanced features of the ANSI-C language, become familiar with C library functions and the UNIX system calls, and become familiar with the ANSI-C and POSIX standards.

   This book is also a good reference for UNIX. When the OOP/C++ was not as mature as now and still in progress a few years ago while the book was written, it may cover more on the Objected Oriented Programming if it were written today. I have worked for a few leading large-scale high-performance trading engine systems for stock exchanges, such as Pacific Exchange, the national third largest, NASDAQ Stock Market, the national second largest, commodities exchanges, and Internet auction engine, and global company rating search engines. I still found the part about threads in UNIX system programming a useful reference.

   Mr. Terrence Chan's book will help readers: If you're an experienced UNIX system programmer working in C++, UNIX System Programming Using C++ brings together all the advanced techniques you need to build more effective software, to write more powerful C++ programs more quickly.

   This book tried to focus on the real-life challenges you face developing network and client/server applications, databases, compilers, operating systems, and CAD systems. You can learn new ways to develop C++ programs that are strongly type-checked, compact, and easy to maintain.

   You will find the author also tried to cover:

   1. Advanced ANSI C and some advanced C++ programming techniques, including function pointers and functions that accept variable numbers of arguments 2. How to use ANSI C library functions and C++ standard classes to reduce development time and maximize portability 3. The UNIX kernel structure and API -- and how to use them to manipulate system resources UNIX processes and signals 4. UNIX sockets and TLI, the network transport protocols that allow you to create multi-tasking distributed client/server applications 5. UNIX multithreaded programming, including thread APIs, synchronization and thread-specific data

   The book includes extensive example programs that demonstrate how C++ classes, library functions and system APIs are used. To help you build more portable applications, there's also coverage of the POSIX.1 and POSIX.1b standards.

   Today's distributed, networked applications require you to understand and utilize advanced UNIX system programming techniques. With UNIX System Programming Using C++, you will learn those techniques and become comfortable using them.

   If you will be programming in C with C++ encapsulation, this book is useful. As we all know, no book is perfect. The typos in code lists are especially annoying for software developers. Some statistics suggested that 80% of debugging time be spent on misspellings or naming errors. If you can see through the typographic errors and extract the essence from this book, this book is still worth of reading and a place on her or his bookshelf.




4. From other reader's reviews, I came to a conclusion that this is not something that I need. I wanted to get some information on how experts objectify sockets, IPC's etc. In other words, how other people implements classes on top of raw UNIX system calls wrapping all the low level details. Is there anyone out there who has already done this? Help.



5. I looked at lot of Unix system programming books, none of them explain how it is implemented in the system and how to use it. If someone is new to Unix Systems programming, this book gives qute a boost. It is easy to read book.
   
   I had to change 4 jobs in past 8 years and each time this book has been a quick review of the Unix concepts & system programming.
   
   Example: About Posix threads, I searched on internet and looked at many books including Stevens(2nd ed), but got good confidence about it after going thru the 4 pages in here than anywhere else.

5 comments about Sams Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days (4th Edition) (Sams Teach Yourself...in 21 Days).

1. I'm not overstating my opinion of this book, but the "REAL GENIUS" of it is, the logical Output flow. With plently of whitespace which surrounds each line of code in all the chapters, the reader can visual see and compare what the compiler does with each line of code from all the illustrations given. The summaries are generally short, stating only the key modifications for each code illustrated. The code has been well groomed, almost perfect, except it's the level of difficulty which uncovers the C++ language. The authors have made this clear, but the "REAL GENIUS" of it still remains. The book is one of the best C++ titles I've read so far, I can't empathize this enough, try it out, it's worth a look!!



2. This book is a good starting point for people wanting to learn how to program. The book is neatly organize, but the File I/O section lacks examples and detail. Engineers wanting to program using this book might find this book lacking more information on the math library and functions (hardly any description on that at all).



3. Being an introductory book on such a big programming language as C++, it would be naive to expect an in-depth coverage within its scope. And yes, it has little flaws here and there like most academic books. I used a different text written for beginners but at the end of it I didn't feel quite as confident in pursuing more challenging reading as when I finished this one. This text offers a clear and easy-to-understand exposure of the language's basic topics, which are exemplified by the use of short code in order that the student can quickly grasp the concept and move on.
   If you are a novice to C++ and looking for a solid basis for further and more in-depth reading on this rather challenging language, I strongly recommend this text as your first contact with it, always keeping in mind though that there is always more to be learnt from other sources. It did work for me and I bet it will work for you!!



4. This is a book that begins FROM BEGINNING and continues with simple examples. Maybe some will say level is low, but if you know C, try this after C if you want to add obj oriented programming to your skills.



5. I really liked the first half of the book but then the last half was like a completely different book. He jumps right into pretty advanced stuff and it got confusing :/
   
   you will definitely need to take this one slow or read more books after this one to truly understand it.

No comments about An Invitation to Computer Science: Laboratory Manual C++ Edition.

1 comments about Essential C: An Introduction for Scientists and Engineers.

1. This is, by far, the best book for the beginning programmer. The prose is clear and intelligent. The example problems and the exercise problems are interesting.

   If you are looking for a programming book for the first time, or if you wish you had picked up a good programming book the first time around, then this book is for you.

No comments about C++ BASICS (Begin and Succeed in Computer Science) : Book w/ Data CD Pkg.

5 comments about Sams Teach Yourself C++ for Linux in 21 Days (Sams Teach Yourself).

1. I'll start of with the positive, this book definately give lots of explanations of the concepts used, and lots of background for those not familiar with GNU/Linux or C++. I did find the example code supplied extremely buggy, and required lots of modifications to compile. Also, in the sections of system calls (threads and pipes), the example code only shows wrappers around the actual calls needed, and they only show the definition of that wrapper class, not the implementation. I guess if I want to find out exactly how to create a thread or named pipe, i'll have to dig elsewhere.



2. I bought "Teach Yourself C++ for Linux in 21 Days" to broaden my understanding beyond my school's course material. I was interested in the exposition on analysis and design, including UML concepts. What an interesting book this turned out to be!

   There is plenty here for the beginning programmer. The authors lead the newbie right up from "what is a program," "what is a variable," and "what is a function" to the most advanced concepts of the language.

   The section on object oriented design was both clear and well-illustrated. I enjoyed the authors' sense of humor and professional perspective. I also enjoyed the simple (but rare) illustration of how to use ctags with vi. That bonus was worth the price of the book right there! The tips on coding style and inclusion guards were other gems.

   There is plenty more in this book to keep me growing. Sections covering namespaces, "catch," "throw," exceptions, and the Standard Template Library will keep me reading. These authors are truly the gurus' gurus.




3. TEACH YOURSELF C++ FOR LINUX IN 21 DAYS, while it may seem the ideal book to the budding Linux programmer because of its size, is a poor book for the beginner, and indeed for most programmers hoping to use C++. The book is a so-so introduction to C++ the language, but doesn't offer any useful Linux-specific information (if you want to program in Linux, you probably already know what vi and emacs are, and how to open a command-line). The CD-ROM, containing a distribution of Mandrake Linux, is three years old and thus already ancient compared to today's Linux scene.

   The book is not really a "21 day" course, but rather a course made up of 21 units. Some units are too big to tackle in one day, such as the chapters on references and error-handling, unless one has 8 hours to dedicate to this. I'd say three months is a reasonable amount of time to complete this book.

   When this book came out, in 1999, the K Desktop Environment (KDE), programmed in C++, was the most popular desktop and thus budding programmers could find plenty of code to work with and improve. In the years since, however, the GNOME desktop, programmed in C, has gained ascendency among power users, and is now the default in many distributions. So, learning C++ on Linux nowadays as a first step in programming gives one very little to work with, as C is the primary language. While in many operating systems one doesn't have to learn C before C++, in Linux it is almost essential because the kernel, most if not all GNU software, and GNOME programs are all in C. So, for the beginning Linux programmer I'd advise first going through Sam's C FOR LINUX PROGRAMMING IN 21 DAYS. Afterward, one could use this book, or ideally a more Linux-centric book, to reap the object-oriented benefits of C++.

   Unfortunately, it is quickly apparent that TEACH YOURSELF C++ FOR LINUX IN 21 DAYS is actually just Sam's TEACH YOURSELF C++ in 21 DAYS with a couple of token references to the GNU Compiler Collection, and a very out-of-date "bonus week" added. This becomes particulary obvious as every chapter has talks about how to compile each example on, of all things, DOS. Another problem stemming from the fact the most of the authors aren't Linux programmers, one that consistently shows throughout the book, is the authors' lack of familiarity with free software and the GPL. As a result, the chapter on software design shows a process best suited to the programming department of a corporation, where everyone can get together every morning to discuss the project, and this would not be very efficient in the Linux world of international contribution over distance. A glance at the authors' experience shows they may not be dedicated to ideals of the GNU Public License and open-source software, for example Jesse Libery is now consulting on the .NET project. I would urge anyone wishing to program on Linux to use resources written by actual Linux programmers.

   Bottom line, get Sam's C FOR LINUX PROGRAMMING IN 21 DAYS first if you're a beginner. If you're an experience programmer who already knows C, this book may be helpful, but it has its problems.




4. This book is full of mistakes. It also begins by teaching you to program one way, and then tells you that this is wrong. I picked up this book as a refresher, because I have not done any C++ or UNIX in 10 years, but even I could pick out the mistakes in the book. It does not explain the important aspects of C++ very well, skipping over most things with just a cursory description of what is going on. Do not get this book..



5. The book is well written in clear language and the example scripts are written in a special font making it easy to understand. I just cannot get the CD containing the compiler to work and it's vital to the lessons.
   The CD loads the files but the install log shows an error on one item. Problem is some 'merge' file that's missing in the windows folder of the CD download. Does anyone else have a problem?
   
   The CD is the important part of the purchase.

3 comments about C++ Standard Library Practical Tips (Programming Series).

1. The C++ Standard Library is a series of routines that comes with the official version of the language. They are well written, carefully defined routines that accomplish many tasks that turn out to be common to many programs. The routines in the library are efficient enough that they are probably better than the average programmer can write. They are reasonably convenient and safe. Unfortunately, clarity, consistency, and ease of use were not part of the design goals.
   
   The library can be divided into classifications:
   
   The Standard Template Library:
   Algorithms Iterators
   Containers
   Numerics
   
   The C++ Standard Library:
   Language Support
   C Library
   Input/Output
   Locales
   Strings
   Utilities
   Diagnostics.
   
   This book is a guide to the hundred routines in the library. There is some general overall information about each class of library routine, then there is a two to four page description of each routine. The routines will make it easier and faster to write good programs.



2. Both beginning and advanced programmers receive a standard collection of tips on using C++'s Standard Library feature and its Standard Template Library in common programming routines with the powerful book by Greg Reese C++ Standard Library Practical Tips. A CD-ROM accompanies a reference offering over a hundred solutions for programs from handling different values to getting a C-style array from a vector and finding medians and modes. Tips on algorithms, containers, numerical processing and more hold plenty of examples and usage insights. A recommended, standard pick for any working regularly in C++.



3. This volume is definitely worth a read or two, if you want to open your eyes to a variety of applications of STL containers and algorithms. For people already into the practice and way of using STL on a regular basis, it gives you reinforcement and validation that you did good and right in your previous work. Even if you are good already, you may still learn a trick or two here and there through the pages. One of the things I wasn't aware is that a member function must be a const one (calling it won't change the state of the object) if used with a binder (bind1st or bind2nd).
   
   IMHO, the set of books in the "C++ In Depth" series, edited by Bjarne Stroustrup and published by Addison-Wesley, belong to the first tier, high quality, and highly intellectual. A number of others in the "Professional Computing" series under the aegis of Brian Kernighan, such those by Scott Meyers, belong to the 1st tier, too. There are surely others as well.
   
   One characteristic of the 1st tier works is that they don't spell out all the gory details; they stop short, rightfully, at elaborating on too practical side of things. That is where books such as this particular one come in to fill the void. In terms of quality and content of writing, they may be (and in many cases, in fact) not as rigorous as those in the 1st tier, but they help you see things about which beans are spilled. BTW, an example of 1st tier books about STL in particular is certainly Josuttis' "The C++ Standard Library: A Tutorial and Reference."

5 comments about C++: Effective Object-Oriented Software Construction: Concepts, Practices, Industrial Strategies and Practices (2nd Edition).

1. I read most of the 1st edition.
   A very insightful look into C++ programming with
   detailed but simple examples to explain the fundamental
   and yet powerful concepts and intricacies with the language!



2. this is *the* C++ book that got me thru my programming assignments. from concepts to code, from design to implementation, the author detailed everything very clearly and thoroughly, excellent job! this book is evenly-paced and highly readable with golden nuggets everywhere. before getting this book, i used to be lost in lectures and assignments, confused about concepts of pointers etc, but after carefully studying this gem, i could truly understand the essence of C++ and write solid, high quality code. to sum it up, i have three words for you: GO BUY IT!!



3. This is am amazing book that very clearly explains the 'how' and 'why' of each feature in Object Oriented Design.My design skills certainly got a lot better with this book.I loved the chapter on Inheritance.Inheritance is one of the most powerful features of any object oriented language and the most effective form of code reuse.This book does a very good job at giving the reader a good idea of how to exploit this feature effectively.



4. This text is definitely classroom quality, covering almost all aspects of the language, both theoretically and practically, and the books size reflects this. It doesn't cover the STL at all, but to do so would have made the text too large. The best thing I liked about the book is that it discusses object oriented design concepts (as pertaining to C++) very well.



5. This is the best C++ book i've ever read (and i've read many good authors). It explains the concepts in depth with plenty of sample-code and drawings. The author seems to be aware which concepts could be misunderstood and repeatedly clarifies them in his examples.You cannot become a serious C++ programmer, if you don't understand these concepts correctly. Most of the object-oriented concepts are illustrated with real-world examples, so u learn how the language can be applied practically. I wish i'd gotten this book during my school days.

No comments about C++ Lab Manual for Computer Science: An Overview.