5 comments about Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 Step by Step.

1. I am new to Visual Basic.
   I've taken a couple of programming classes, but still have had a hard time grasping all of the little nuances.
   
   I recently started as an intern working with developers in the medical field. I found myself completely overwhelmed and started buying and reading every programming book I could get my hands on, specifically Visual Basic.
   
   This book is great! I'm half way through the book and haven't gotten lost yet! Halvorson walks the reader through each and every process and does it in the correct order. The order in which he presents the materal and the way engages the reader is critical to success! For the first time, I feel like I can jump in and get programming.
   
   This is the best book if you are trying to learn Visual Basic!



2. Michael H. is now an old hand at producing VB Step by Step books, and it shows. His treatment of the subject is thorough and to-the-point, as you can see by looking inside the book at the Table of Contents (above). His style is easy to follow, and your confidence level at the end will be high if you carefully follow his lead through this book. If his "Database and Web Programming" section at the end of the book doesn't pique your interest, nothing will. By inserting this section he shows you where VB 2008 is headed.
   
   My biggest complaints are minor: 1) he wasted too much ink telling us how things were done back in the days of VB 6.0. Programmers have had about four years to get over that, Michael, but thanks for an otherwise very useful book, and 2) a few menu calls were to menu functions that don't exist. (That's inevitable when a book is based on pre-release software. None of the errors were difficult to overcome.)



3. It's a excellent book. The very good idea is to include a copy of the book (PDF file) in in the CD of exercises that accompanies the book. Better idea should be a copy of the book for the the Microsoft ebook reader. Or both.



4. I am almost finished with this book. I am working my way through this and one of the "dummies" guides at the same time. I am getting much more out of this book. The examples are clear. Everything has worked (so far!) and I like the general pace. A side note: make sure to check out all the (free) help on the web if you are learing a new language! Before I beat my head against the wall too long, normally a quick google will help point me the right direction.



5. This book is great for starters and pro alike. But you need to keep your mind open as you do the exercises. For instance i encountered this problem while i was doing MyCheckBox exercise. The author gave the code in the book as
   
   If CheckBox1.Checkstate = 1 Then
   PictureBox1.Image = System.Drawing.Image.FromFile _
   ("c:\vb08sbs\chap03\calcultr")
   PictureBox1.Visible =True
   Else
   PictureBox1.Visible = False
   End IF
   
   and
   
   If CheckBox2.Checkstate = 1 Then
   PictureBox2.Image = System.Drawing.Image.FromFile _
   ("c:\vb08sbs\chap03\copymach")
   PictureBox2.Visible =True
   Else
   PictureBox2.Visible = False
   End IF
   
   I got this kind of message while trying to debug the program
   "A first chance exception of type 'System.IO.FileNotFoundException' occurred in System.Drawing.dll"
   
   the code should have been given as
   
   
   If CheckBox1.Checkstate = 1 Then
   PictureBox1.Image = System.Drawing.Image.FromFile _
   ("c:\vb08sbs\chap03\calcultr.bmp")
   PictureBox1.Visible =True
   Else
   PictureBox1.Visible = False
   End IF
   and
   
   If CheckBox2.Checkstate = 1 Then
   PictureBox2.Image = System.Drawing.Image.FromFile _
   ("c:\vb08sbs\chap03\copymach.bmp")
   PictureBox2.Visible =True
   Else
   PictureBox2.Visible = False
   End IF
   
   instead.I could not figure out the problem at first until i compared the code i wrote with that of the completed exercise the author gave.
   Another minor problem i encountered was in chapter 4 pg 116. The author assumes that we all are using a Microsoft Office suite that has Microsoft publishers file,but it was not the case for me as I am using Microsoft Office student and home edition which does not have Microsoft publishers files, so i was not able to complete this exercise as i was supposed to.
   Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 Step by Step

5 comments about Mastering Regular Expressions.

1. An incredible book. Absolutely incredible. It will take 200 lines of your code and reduce it to 1 or 2 lines. It will open your mind to search and replace possibilities. Your life will change (just kidding). It's a great deep book.
   
   However, I agree with the comment that one should not begin learning regex with this book. it's a little too advanced. Go on the internet, get an introduction. Or else, buy one of the introductory books on the subject first. But definitely get around to buying this book!



2. How deep down the rabbit hole do you really NEED to go? I had a serious need to get on top of regular expressions to solve one particular problem. I looked at several online tutorials which didn't take me where I needed to go, so I ordered Mastering Regular Expressions after reading the Amazon reviews. I always look at the negative reviews first. In spite of the negative reviews I ordered the book with an open mind.
   When the book arrived I began reading it with enthusiasm. In the preface there is a small section on "How to Read This Book". I bought into the author's suggestion to read the book's first six chapters first. I was captivated through the first three chapters, and then somewhere in chapter 4 I began to get very weary with information overload. After putting the book down for a couple of days I decided to skip the rest and use what I needed to write the one regular expression I had need of. The book did successfully help me accomplish this, so I gave it 3 stars. Not only did it give me the information I needed that the online tutorials didn't, it also gave me the confidence I needed. For that, which I am grateful, I would have liked to have given it more stars. I think many of those in need of learning about regular expression could be well served by a "lite-edition" of this book. Perhaps someday when I have the time and the need I may try to wade through the rest of the book, but as it is now Mastering Regular Expressions took me far farther down the rabbit hole than I really needed or wanted to go.
   If you need to get on top of Regular Expressions, I would recommend this book, however just be ready to be taken far deeper than the average coder probably needs to go.



3. Quite a comprehensive guide to regular expressions. Gets very detailed in the areas that it covers. However, definitely not a 'beginner's guide'. I highly recommend that you are already comfortable with the basis of regular expressions before picking up this book. You will get way more out of it if this is not your first introduction to it. Comfort and proficiency with Perl would also be a big help. Title is correct though, this is a guide to 'mastering' regular expressions, not learning them from the beginning.



4. I went through several books and online tutorials and never found anything that did a good comprehensive job of explaining regular expressions. This book does. If you are having trouble "getting it", I highly encourage reading this book. You will be extremely enlightened even after the first few chapters.



5. The book is robust and goes into alot detail. I liked the comparing and contrasting between the various RegEx implementations. I had a difficult time digesting some of the detail. In particular, the analogies confused me and I felt the author went overboard with them. Many times, I had to backtrack to understand what was being discussed. However, regular expressions is a complex topic and the author did a good job easing into the concepts. An additional plus was with inline page citation - this helped to find the page corresponding to the topic being discussed.
   I would have liked shorter chapters with chapter summaries and more diagrams in place of analogies. Ultimately, Mastering Regular Expressions is a good book referencing a complex topic.

3 comments about Practical Django Projects (Pratical Projects).

1. This book certainly doesn't disappoint. The examples are excellent, and can easily be abstracted and applied to just about any Django project. I found the TemplateTag examples to be particularly helpful.
   
   The book is an easy read, and is a great companion to The Deinfitive Guide to Django. Two thumbs way up.



2. The final, and best, section of this book covers a few topics that have personally revolutionized my understanding and how I think about developing my Django applications. James goes to great lengths to explain the philosophy behind Django's concept of reusable applications.
   
   The idea here is that one should strive to develop small, tightly-focused, and loosely coupled applications (or modules) that can be plugged into any application to add instant functionality. In fact, a large portion of what makes Django such an attractive framework--it's auto-generated admin interface, and copious add-on library--are developed in this exact same fashion. It's one of the reason's Django is so powerful and easy to adopt.
   
   With few Django books on the market at this point, I would recommend Practical Django Projects to anyone who has at least cursory experience with web development or web frameworks. By going through the two substantial projects in this book, a competent developer can hone their Django skills to a level that some have reached only after months or years. This book is short for the amount of useful information it will impart on you; at a thin 256 pages, you'll be speeding through chapters at a nice brisk pace that satisfied my scatterbrained personality.
   
   [...]



3. If you found that you have worked through the tutorial on the official Django website and are still wanting more, this is the book to get. I started working with Django about 2 months ago and first purchased The Definitive Guide to Django. I am not to familiar with any type of web or other programming and definitely not familiar with web frameworks. After working through the guide and reading some of the online documentation, I found that I was still confused in some areas.
   
   Make sure you work through some of the basics of Django before reading this book. While it does take you step by step through making different projects, you may be confused if you have never seen Django before. There are a ton of great applications out there already developed with Django and this book takes you in to a few examples of them.
   
   In my eyes, James Bennett is the leading authority on Django tutorials. I find myself finding more and more great examples on his personal blog every day. I would highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn more about Django.

5 comments about Pro WPF in C# 2008: Windows Presentation Foundation with .NET 3.5, Second Edition (Books for Professionals by Professionals).

1. Please buy this book if you haven't explored Windows Presentation Foundation. The separation of the UI (with XAML) and the code-behind page controller (C# or VB.NET) will revolutionize .NET development. If you don't have a designer you must learn Microsoft Expression Blend, but a UI designer will push your view (from Model-View-Controller) to the extreme.
   
   The browser-based XBAP works like a Winform app, but it can be viewed in Internet Explorer. If you've ever tried to create a dirty flag to denote changes in form data in ASP.NET, you know how superior Winforms are for this purpose. XBAPs give you the ability to access the textbox text changed event like Winforms. This takes a ton of JavaScript to accomplish the same programming task in ASP.NET forms.
   
   The update of the application to the client machine (the XBAP runs on the client) can be done with new technolgy called ClickOnce. What a technology!
   
   I've even tried to learn the XAML markup from a very good chapter on this.
   
   This book is really well done. Kudos to the author.



2. I've bought three books about WPF, including Windows Presentation Foundation Foundation Unleashed and Silverlight 1.0 Unleashed. Matthew MacDonald's book is for developers and is what I needed. It uses Visual Studio 2008 and is up to date with current development tools. I've also read his books on ASP.NET and this is one top-notch author. I fully recommend this book.



3. The book is good so far. Only about 150 pages into the book, but so far easy to read, examples range from simple to more advanced. I will post another review upon completion.



4. I generally like Matthew's writing, but this one really fell short of my expectations, esp considering it's a 2nd edition (I've never read the first edition, though).
   
   Pros:
   - it gave a good overview of what WPF is all about(the underlying DirectX etc), and why we need yet another Windows GUI technology.
   
   Cons:
   - it lacks substance, each chapter mostly contains a shallow description of a "feature" of WPF, with some code snippets. The content feels more like a showoff of what WPF can do + some tips & tricks.
   
   - there is no central theme in the book, ie. the author doesn't hold your hand and build a non-trivial app using the key features of WPF. So at the end of the book, i'm still at a loss as to how to re-write some of my Windows Forms apps in WPF.
   
   - it's completely focused on the WPF technology, with hardly any information on the fundamentals of Computer Graphics theory and how it's related to WPF. I guess for most folks who just want to cobble togther a form with a few data bound controls in it, this prob isn't a problem. But to create commercial apps in WPF, this book is just not enough.



5. I love the Petzold book Applications = Code + Markup, but it covers a subset of WPF and is out of date now. Pro WPF in C# 2008 is up-to-date, covers a much larger subset, and doesn't shy away from the hard stuff. Almost every time I turn to this book, I find either an answer or a new pointer that leads to the answer on-line. Yesterday, I found a method called TemplatedParent that is ill-covered in my other books. Today, I found IScrollInfo. Highly recommended as a well-written, comprehensive, up-to-date WPF reference for intermediate to advanced developers. For starting out, I still recommend the Petzold book, which really tries hard to build understanding.

5 comments about Processing: A Programming Handbook for Visual Designers and Artists.

1. Este libro es un compendio básico de las herramientas de procesing, lo interesante de este texto es que las herramientas vienen contextualizadas con entrevistas o ejemplos de trabajos realizados por artistas.Recomiendo este libro a aquellos que se estén iniciando en la programación con fines artísticos.
   
   Marcos Chilet.
   Diseño, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile



2. Processing is a great language for anybody who wants to create graphical applications or visualizations without messing with complex graphics libraries. This is the definitive reference to the language, with much more detail than you get from the web documentation. It'll help you get up and running writing visual apps in no time.



3. As a high school physics teacher with a lot of advanced students, I've been trying to work a bit of computer programming into the course over the last few years. I always wanted to do graphics programming with the students in order to help them visualize and simulate systems, because the pictures produced are a lot prettier and more rewarding than just the formulas on their own, but the languages I tried were just too difficult to teach from scratch in the time we had. Processing seems to be just what I'm looking for: it's free so the kids can download it themselves, and it really doesn't take much to produce stunning graphics. Now I would NOT recommend the book to someone with no programming experience at all - the emphasis of the book is clearly (and rightly) on how to get up to speed making images, not on what a variable is. That said, this book is a terrific resource for me; anyone with a basic programming course under their belt ought to have no trouble making sense of Processing's syntax, and the power of the language is phenomenal. The authors have done a fine job of both explaining the use of the Processing language, and showing off what it can do with all the examples. Processing is letting me do what I always wanted to do with a computer - make stunning graphics from mathematical information - at a level high school students can understand. If you are at all interested in Processing, download the free software and go here next.



4. I have been watching the development of processing and the processing community for a few years but until now haven't explored it much.
   I create live visuals for musical performances - mostly within the chiptunes music scene (people using game console hardware to create new music). Originally I did all of my work with PureData, GEM and other libraries but then decided to move to performing with handhelds, writing code for the GP2X and Gameboy Advance (because unlike newer machines, the GBA has video out).
   
   For an upcoming project, I decided that I wanted to create a web "playable" version of the software that I have created for the gp2x (where the visuals react to the joystick, button presses, etc) - enter Processing!
   I decided that Processing would be the best tool for this job because it is easy to deliver on the web, has functions for interactivity (key presses, mouse actions, etc), and is open source which is important to me.
   
   After looking at the Processing.org website, I decided that while there is a good reference there, a book might be nice. I was pleased to find the book "Processing: A Programming Handbook for Visual Designers and Artists" written by the creators of Processing, Casey Reas and Ben Fry and thought that no matter how useful it would be, it was good to support the developers of the project.
   
   The pleasant surprise was that book is great!
   I was expecting something like an extended reference book but it is much more than that. For one, this is a book that teaches programming concepts regardless of the language used to implement them. Although I have previous programming experience, I know that I could give this book to someone with no previous experience and they would be able to follow along and not only learn Processing, but learn programming. Sure, you can learn programming by reading C (or name your favorite language here) tutorials, writing text to the screen, reading and writing to files, etc. but ... I think that for some people it's much more exciting and motivating to see cool things happen, shapes moving, colors changing, etc. when they type in commands, learn about functions, conditionals, objects and so on. This book does that.
   
   Another interesting thing about the book is that periodically there are interviews with visual artists who create with software - and not all with processing but with various types of software. I liked these and could imagine seeing more (or just new ones) in future editions of the book or online. I'll admit that I only use open source software so I am biased, but could imagine seeing more mention of Pd (Pure Data) as alternative to Max/Jitter.
   
   [...]
   
   Overall, the book is very well written and enjoyable to read even when you aren't in front of a computer (I read much while traveling) - the authors make reference to many pioneers of computing, visualization, motion graphics, film, etc. and I had fun looking up those whose works I wasn't familiar with. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in creating visuals with computers.



5. So far (hey!, its a big book, and dense material) this is an excellent book covering the basics of processing. I plan on spending some quality time with this on my vacation.
   
   I hope to post some video on it later, as well as some examples of programs I make on my blog.
   
   Tim

3 comments about Dojo: The Definitive Guide.

1. I'm up against a deadline for a web application. The going is slow when you
   have to hand-carve the HTML, JavaScript, CSS and PHP. Dojo saves you at least
   two-thirds of the work, so I'm very grateful for it. But it takes some getting
   used to, and the on-line documentation is, well, succinct.
   
   Russell's book came along just in time. It's a lifesaver.
   
   The Introduction alone is worth the price. I found out about
   some invaluable Web development debugging tools that I'd never seen before.
   Russell provides a clear, concise explanation of some very important JavaScript
   notions: Closures, Context, and Anonymous Functions. And all of this before
   we even get to the toolkit!
   
   The book makes the Dojo easy to use and easy to understand. There's a wealth
   of coding examples, as well as complete lists of objects, methods, and so forth.



2. Dojo is a comprehensive JavaScript toolkit that provides a layer of insulation between you and browser inconsistencies by leveraging JavaScript and other web technologies. Dojo is very good in situations where YUI is already being used. Dojo has a standard JavaScript library with a collection of drop-in replacements for customized HTML controls and CSS layout hacks, build tools, and unit tests.
   
   Part 1 of this book is a standard library reference that exposes you to the various nooks and crannies of Base and Core, the parts of the toolkit that comprise a JavaScript standard library. Base contains rich functionality as diverse as AJAX calls, DOM querying based on CSS selector syntax, standardized event propagation, and functional programming utilities like map and filter. Core includes lots of additional features for operations like animations and drag-and-drop. While this can be incredibly useful, these features just aren't as common to all use cases as the features in Base.
   
   Part 2 explores the rest of the toolkit, including complete coverage of Dijit, the rich layer of drop-in replacements for customized HTML controls. Dijit is designed so that it can be used in the markup with little to no programming required, and makes it possible to build attractive web pages that already look and behave much like user interface controls from desktop applications.
   
   Part 2 concludes with a discussion of the build system and unit testing framework provided by Util. The build system includes a highly configurable entry point to ShrinkSafe, a tool that leverages the Rhino JavaScript engine to compress code by as a third or more. DOH stands for the Dojo Objective Harness, and provides a standalone system for unit testing your JavaScript code. This is also discussed here.
   
   This book assumes that you've done some web development with client-side technologies such as HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. You by no means, however, need to be an expert in any of these skills and you really don't need to know anything at all about what happens on a web server because Dojo is a client-side technology. Just knowing what they are and how they are used is more than enough. As in most O'Reilly applied programming technology books, there are plenty of code examples. The book just doesn't talk about all of this stuff, it actually shows you the technology in action.
   
   If you are an existing web developer or even a hobbyist who is able to construct a very simple web page and apply a little JavaScript and CSS to brighten things up a bit, then you are qualiified to read this book. If you haven't even heard of HTML, JavaScript, or CSS, and have never written any code that works with any of these languages and technologies, then you might want to consider picking up a good introduction on web development before tackling this book.
   
   The following is a detailed table of contents:
   
   Part 1: Base and Core
   Chapter 1. Toolkit Overview
   Chapter 2. Language and Browser Utilities
   Chapter 3. Event Listeners and Pub/Sub Communication
   Chapter 4. AJAX and Server Communication
   Chapter 5. Node Manipulation
   Chapter 6. Internationalization
   Chapter 7. Drag-and-Drop
   Chapter 8. Animation and Special Effects
   Chapter 9. Data Abstraction
   Chapter 10. Simulated Classes and Inheritance
   Chapter 11. Dijit Overview
   Chapter 12. Dijit Anatomy and Lifecycle
   Chapter 13. Form Widgets
   Chapter 14. Layout Widgets
   Chapter 15. Application Widgets
   Chapter 16. Build Tools, Testing, and Production Considerations
   Appendix A. A Firebug Primer
   Appendix B. A Brief Survey of DojoX



3. Matthew Russell has captured what makes Dojo the "magic sauce" of the Ajax world. As he indicates in the book's dedication, Dojo can be your friend in combating browser idiosyncrasies. Since Russell has been an active participant in the Dojo development community for a long time, he's in an excellent position to write from an expert's viewpoint. Another Amazon reviewer has covered the book's contents thoroughly. "Dojo: The Definitive Guide" is very well-organized and covers lots of ground. I appreciate the fact that the author doesn't simply rehash online documentation; instead he provides real insight and coherent explanations. Like most O'Reilly books, the table of contents and index are invaluable in rapidly honing in on a particular subtopic.
   
   To get the most out of this book, you do need to have some web development background (JavaScript, CSS, HTML), but then who else would be purchasing this book? While the book might have benefited from a discussion of Dojo use with YUI, Google Gear, or other toolkits, the author points out this is out of scope. I imagine this saved more than a few trees. (Check out the ongoing efforts of the OpenAjax Alliance if you need to combine multiple frameworks.) I would have preferred access to the code examples packaged in a convenient zip file; perhaps the author will add that to his O'Reilly catalog page (URL given in the preface or just search for "Dojo" at oreilly.com). However, these points do not detract from the thoroughness in which Russell has covered a difficult and rapidly changing topic.
   
   This book is certainly worthy of the fine O'Reilly imprint. The fact that it is edited by the always discerning Simon St. Laurent is definitely a plus. If you are a web developer who needs cross-browser support, you need this book in your library.

5 comments about Professional C# 2008 (Wrox Professional Guides).

1. If you are looking for one book which covers the ENTIRE applications of C# Language, then this is the only book you need to buy. Covers every different type of application that can be developed with C#. good examples all the way. As the title says, it is real PROFESSIONAL Book. 5 stars for sure. Worth every cent.



2. Although I am an advance C# programmer. I found this book excellent in the way it presents staff. It is well written and organized.



3. I'm a VB.NET developer expanding my skill set. This book was great in not only covering C# but the .NET framework 3.5 as a whole. They even included some of the differences in the language features. This was all I needed!



4. Recieved book in excellent condition! The book is very organized and very constructive in teaching me what I need to learn in a step-by-step manner. I very much recommend this book!



5. The content of this book is very good, but sentence structures are often confusing and vital information is sometimes missing. The quality varies greatly from one chapter to another, however, and some chapters are very well written. In combination with other books, this is a good resource, but on its own it can be frustrating at times.

5 comments about Programming WCF Services (Programming).

1. WCF is one of the four major application programming interfaces introduced as part of .NET Framework 3.0. With its enormous power and flexibility, WCF has a very complex and multilayered architecture. After reading some nice overviews on WCF and even writing some simple code with out-of-box facilities provided by WCF, one may get a misleading impression of it being simple and straightforward. Once to delve into real world programming, you would be exposed to huge number of issues and complexities that in most cases may not be overcome without thorough understanding of the subject.
   Juval Lowy's book does an outstanding job ob systematically and thoroughly uncovering practically all aspects of WCF programming. Not only it presents a simple to understand architectural picture of WCF in general and various architectural and functional subsystems, but also abandons with practical and thorough explanations of the details of virtually all aspects of WCF.
   This book is not a beginner book. For starting with WCF I would recommend Michele Bustamante's book "Learning WCF". Lowy's book is a thorough reference on WCF that soon becomes your primary source of information.
   I would like also to note that it does not seem to be the intent of the book to reflect on all internal plumbing of WCF, which realistically needs lot of experimentation. You may find Justin Smith's book as a good supplement to Lowy's book on custom channels and behaviors.



2. This book was actually my first exposure to WCF. Many people describe it as a more advanced WCF book than the other more basic ones out there. Although I tend to agree that it is more advanced than other books, I disagree with the implicit suggestion that you shouldn't start with this book if your a beginner. I generally gain better command over a subject by going deep enough to understand what's going on, and what capabilities I have at my disposal.
   
   "Programming WCF Services" does just that. It starts with the simple basics which is important for the novice. But as soon as you understand the basics, you yearn for much more deeper content, which follows in the chapters to come. Although I wish the book would have had a chapter devoted completely to Channels, the overall depth of the book is enough for most use cases that WCF developers will encounter.
   
   Something i really like about Juval Lowy's writing specifically is that he walks you through the thought process of the underlying problem. He shows you the different options that are possible, and then gives his final opinion, thus leaving you satisfied as to why a particular methodology is better than another.
   
   If Juval would consider a 2nd edition, I would recommend a chapter on custom Channel development, and RESTful web services.
   
   All in all, a great book for beginning and intermediate WCF service developers.



3. Absolutely the best book I've read on Windows Communication Foundation. A must have book. Juwal explain every single WCF detail in a very well simple form but this don't break the value of this excellent book. A book written for beginners, intermediate and professional WCF developers.
   
   Well done, Juwal.



4. I have previously read Juval Lowy's Programming .NET Components and it was one of few excellent books which gave deeper explanation about .NET. This book is as great as that one and only one of the few books giving a good explanation about WCF and its internals.



5. I've been a fan of Juval ever since I took an al-day seminar with him at DevConnections a few years ago. He's a great teach and a great writer. However, he is not for beginners.

5 comments about The Little SAS Book: A Primer, Third Edition.

1. This book is wonderful for those of us who are just learning how to use SAS!



2. This book is very useful for quick reference. Good for beginners or for experienced sas user who want a quick reference guide.



3. This book is concise and has many of the key ideas that beginning SAS programmers need. It is a good reference even for advanced SAS programmers but does not go far beyond the basics. If you use SAS regularly this will not have enough information for you. However, it is the quickest way to find out how to do something basic that you either have never done or forgot how to do. I only have the 2nd edition, so I can't comment on any changes that may be incorporated in the third edition.



4. The book is very complete and easy to work with SAS, it isn't for starters, you can use it a lot. It is very helpfull.



5. During my first week on the job as an actuarial analyst, I got handed a copy of this book and told to teach myself SAS from it. I read every page of it and worked through every example, and by the end of the week I understood the basics of using SAS, but not much else. This is an excellent book for someone who has never seen SAS before in their life; it assumes no prior knowledge and teaches everything from scratch. However, your average SAS user isn't going to be using this program to simply calculate means and variances, and this is where this book fails. The most complex statistics this book covers are simple things, like means and variances, and it is necessary to purchase further manuals if you are interested in learning more advanced techniques. By all means, buy this book, but be aware that it is likely that you will need to buy other books to accompany it.

5 comments about jQuery in Action.

1. I found this book to be a great resource for learning about jQuery. I was able to apply what I learned right away.



2. This is just an excellent book all around. It's well-written. No BS to wade through (just the stuff you need to get going with jQuery). It has excellent online tools to download so you can really get into jQuery and how it works (they call it a Lab page -- it's a set of HTML pages that you download and use to test tasks or theories in jQuery).
   
   I haven't read too many books solely on Ajax frameworks but I cannot recommend this one enough. You'll be up and running with jQuery faster than you can imagine.



3. I have solid JavaScript skills and plenty of experience, but at first I wasn't feeling 100% comfortable using jQuery; I was able to be productive very quickly, but failed to feel at home using it. This book was exactly what I was looking for. jQuery has its own way to approach many problems and, in my case, I almost had to "unlearn" certain habits and embrace the idiomatic alternatives offered by the library. jQuery in Action helped me a lot in the process, saved me some time and made the whole learning process much more enjoyable. I wish there was more space dedicated to ui.jQuery, but I understand that's a topic worth a dedicated book.



4. I rarely write reviews for the books I read, but with this one a review isn't that hard. First and foremost, this book assumes that you already have some solid knowledge on web design (CSS, HTML, and Javascript). There is a quick chapter on javascript in the appendix that helps but it's more of a friendly reminder of javascript concepts that anything else. It's also good to have an understanding of some of the more advanced CSS selectors that are in the CSS3 specification. This isn't a requirement but you'll get a bit more out of it if you do. jQuery has some very powerful ways of selecting elements and you can use some of the CSS3 selector statements even if the browser doesn't support it. Very cool stuff! The authors do a great job of explaining things with detailed code and real-world examples (which you can download and run yourself if you wish to follow along). They also do a good job of breaking everything down into a linear fashion that is easy to absorb and don't get ahead of themselves all that often. All in all, this is probably one of the best web development/design related books I've read in a while. I haven't quite finished yet but the half I have read is reqlly well written. I already feel like I have a firm grasp of the basic concepts of jQuery and could probably start using it a bit. Bravo to the authors for writing a solid book on jQuery!



5. My brief research before the purchase of this book lead me to believe, that this is currently (July 2008) the best book on jQuery. After getting started with the book, I still think that's the case. Except if I consider online docs and tutorials as well. Online tutorials benefit jQuery from the fact that you can really try out and see what's happening. Sure you could download the code or type it down from the book, but the fact is that I ended up learning more about jQuery following interactive online tutorials than from reading the book.
   Usually, I prefer reading a book on the couch instead of on a computer screen, but that's not how you learn jQuery. You have to try it. You have to play with it. And if you have to sit in front of your PC or Mac anyway, you might as well just follow an online tutorial.