5 comments about The Design and Evolution of C++.

1. This is a great book for those who want to understand the history of C++, the details of its implementation and more importantly, this language's spirit.



2. This book is very interesting in that it doesn't tell you how to program in C++ but rather highlights why C++ is the way it is today. It starts with the very roots, an extension to the C language ('C with classes'') Bjarne devised back in 1979, because he faced a software engineering problem at the time where all currently available tools seemed inappropriate. This highly real world oriented design attitude was kept throughout the evolution of C++ - Bjarne specifically didn't want to produce an 'academic' language. This view and the absolute necessity for C compatibility and efficiency explain lots, if not all, of C++s more ugly syntactic and semantic constructs. While the book has chapters dealing with very specific parts of the language, I found the philosophical chapters the most interesting. These explain the author's personal views on programming and design in general and consequently why certain things were accepted or rejected into C++. Bjarne stresses the point that C++ was designed from the beginning to be a 'multiple paradigm' language. Object oriented programming was never meant to be, and is not, the only valid - holy grail - style of programming, that many make it out to be. It's quite frustrating to see features devised ten years ago still not properly supported by the current crop of compilers, templates for example (export anyone?).
   The book is not for the novice programmer, but for the experienced C++ user who wants to know the whys behind the language. While a novice might be interested in that information too, it is not an advisable lecture for those readers, since they might easily get confused with the source code examples showing directions in which C++ did not evolve.
   To quote one of the design goals: 'C++ is a general-purpose language designed to make programming more enjoyable for the serious programmer' - I think it succeeded.



3. In this book, C++ creator Bjarne Stroustrup talks us through the genesis of C++, detailing his design philosophies, the history of the language's development, and the various trade offs that make up C++.
   
   If you're curious about why C++ is how it is, then this is a fine read. Stroustrup writes well and without hyperbole. Along the way, you'll pick up plenty of interesting trivia. Did you know, for instance, that the earliest versions of what became C++ had AOP-style before and after methods, but no-one used them, so Stroustrup removed them? Or that language level support for delegation was once in the offing? You'll also find out why keyword arguments for functions were rejected. Additionally, there's a fascinating (albeit too brief) section on how the behaviour of exceptions came to be specified, with resumable semantics rejected for the termination model we have now.
   
   Due to the year of publication, events encompassing the adoption of the STL is missing. On one hand, that's a bit of a pity. On the other, it keeps the length of this book to a manageable length.
   
   From the title, you probably already know if you want to read this book. Will it reveal amazing new techniques to speed up your C++ programs? No. But if you have any interest at all in language design, this is really accessible and there is no type theory or lambda calculus to wrestle with here. Even a committed C++-hater might come away with a new appreciation for the language, warts and all. Well, maybe not, but they might retire a few of their arguments against it.



4. I have red this book for the first time 4 years ago. What I remember is that, at that time, I got few interesting informations here and there but overall the reading was more tedious than enjoyable. For some reasons, I have reread this book for a second time and perhaps because I could now relate my C++ programming experience with what the book explains, I have found it much more enjoyable to read this time. So my opinion is that to really get the maximum out of this book, you really need intimate knowledge and experience with the C++ programming language. I would not recommend this book for someone that has just started to use C++. Also, you have to know what the book is about. Do not expect to get practical knowledge to improve your C++ skills because you will not get much. The only exception is that this book made me curious about the "intersection" rule from Andrew Koenig about overloaded functions and made me look into the Annotated C++ reference manual to know more about it. This book is more about the C++ history and how and why certain design decisions have been taken about the language. If this is what you are expecting, you will like the book.



5. If one has a learning style of big picture first small details later like I do, this book is the prerequisite for learning C++. One will be benefited from author's explanation on how he designed C++ as well as implementation examples of key C++ features.

5 comments about Cross-Platform GUI Programming with wxWidgets (Bruce Perens' Open Source Series).

1. This is the only wxWidgets book so far so it's not like you have many choices! I read this book twice and then the official documentation and I still use this book as a reference sometimes. This book has a TON of errata though so the next release hopefully they are more careful with editing...
   
   I highly recommend getting this book if you want to learn wxWidgets and cross-platform application writing!



2. Good reference books seem to be hard to come by lately. Good reference books give you insight and a fuller understanding of the inner workings of whatever their subject matter might be. This is not the case of this book.
   
   You need "Cross-Platform GUI Programming with wxWidgets" only because the standard wxWidgets documentation is so very crude (no one to blame there, except each and every one of us for not contributing better documentation) and because its source code (as well as part of the core development team, I dare add) is so unfriendly to tools like Doxygen. Smart's book is what the wxWidgets online documentation would have been in a perfect world. No more and no less. The author has done a good job compiling and explaining with sample code the basic usage of most wxWidgets components, but you will not emerge a wxWidgets guru after reading this book. For example, just half a page is dedicated to explaining the by no means trivial wxObject class.
   
   You will be disappointed if you are expecting a mind-opening book, the likes of Petzold's classic "Programming Windows", or Prosise's "Programming MFC", or Wall's "Programming Perl" (just to name a few excellent books from a time when the pace of technology was slower and authors still had time to put together great tutorial/reference works), but having a book like this is probably better than no book at all and buying it is a way to support the project, after all.



3. The definitive book on wxWindows (now wxWidgets). This can be found online but I do like the printed books better.
   
   Covers mostly everything a novice (to wxWidgets) needs to get started on multi-platform applications.



4. This book is very complete.
   It explains the basics and all the way through the most complex capabilities of the wxWidgets library.
   The CD included contains tons of useful code and additional utilities.
   Very good product - I recommend it.



5. The book itself is the only one on this matter. It is well written with tons of examples. I would consider this book as a must for those who are writing the
   Cross-Platform GUI using open source libs. The book came very fast and in a perfect condition. I would highly recommend buying books from this seller.

5 comments about php|architect's Zend PHP 5 Certification Study Guide.

1. If you have already been using PHP5 on a regular basis, this book is a good source of review material but doesn't necessarily cover very much new material. It is, I suppose, a good foundation to study for the test, but it *most definitely* is not the only book that you're going to want to read before taking the Zend Certification test.
   
   I also noticed a lot of errors in this book, so beware of that. I recommend the book by Mike Zandstra PHP 5 Objects, Patterns, and Practice in addition to this one, especially if you are moving from PHP4 to PHP5.



2. This book provides many perspectives on PHP5 certification. However, as a certification preparing guide, I don't think it is good one to pass the exam just by reading this book.
   
   First, it does not have questions at the end of each chapter to evaluate how well the reader learned from the material, as many other exam preparing guides do. It is hard for me to imagine how does the real exam go without those questions.
   
   Second, it has many errors in this book. Some of them could mis-lead you to get wrong concepts of PHP. I agree with Brian, the previous reviewer, beware of using this book. Once you felt anything confused, check out other books or write some codes to test what is the right concept you should learn.
   
   Finally, it does not mention any information about how to connect / retrieve / update information from / to databases with a PHP script. It does have a chapter called "Database Programming", but all it has are only the introduction of SQL statements. I doubt if we don't need to prepare that part for PHP certification.
   
   However, it provides some chapters for XML, web services, and security, which are valuable to refer to. It brought my attention to find more resources to read for those parts.
   
   If you prefer a book that mentions key points of exam without many details, this book is the one you should read; otherwise, pick another one will be a better idea for you.



3. This books covers a good amount of the topics on the certification, and I would definitely recommend it for the certification and general PHP knowledge. You will probably need more than this to pass the certification. I would recommend taking the online practice tests from the Zend certification site as well.



4. I took the test and passed :) (I think that says it all ;-) )
   
   I studied the book along with the PHP help in order to digg a little more on the functions. I also bought the online practice test to see which areas I needed to focus on.
   
   I liked the book, easy to understand/read.



5. One can easily argue that the certification exam itself is a waste of money, but with this book and its associated practice exams, the case is a little more cut-and-dry.
   
   Want to pass the exam? Know the following things:
   
   1. What can and can't go in a function/variable name.
   
   2. What typehints are, how they work, and where they're applied.
   
   3. What all of the array_*() functions do. The more verbose array_*_*() functions which nobody uses can be safely skipped over.
   
   4. How to use the SimpleXML library in a very general way i.e. access elements, attributes and convert to DOM.
   
   5. Everything about the new object model, including abstract and final classes, the new constructor format, destructors, autoloaders and access specifiers (public, private, protected).
   
   6. How and when to pass by reference.
   
   7. When things go out of scope.
   
   8. What the following php.ini directives do: allow_url_fopen, register_globals, enable_dl, disable_functions.
   
   9. What goes in the superglobals and when ($_SERVER, $_GET, $_POST, $_REQUEST, $_ARGV).
   
   10. What all of the bitwise operators do (you should also be able to convert numbers to and from decimal, octal, hexadecimal and binary notation with nothing but your brain and a piece of scratch paper).
   
   Database topics are covered, but you generally don't have to know any of the nonsense about mysqli or PDO--these things are all too buggy to actually use anyway, so learning about them is doubly pointless. If you can memorize function argument lists, do so with the preg_ and various string functions, because they like to throw some curveballs that use the optional args no one ever thinks about. If you can't, then don't bother because you can usually eliminate at least two of the choices they give you right off the bat and guess your way through the rest.
   
   And please, please, please, leave comments on the questions that have misspelled words. They really need to fix that if they're going to charge $125 for a test.

No comments about MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-502): Microsoft® .NET Framework 3.5 Windows® Presentation Foundation.

5 comments about Foundations of BizTalk Server 2006 (Foundations).

1. When I was between projects I attented a BizTalk 2006 deep dive (a week long) training session. The training session was for intermediate to advanced users. I had no experience with BizTalk. Before the class I got this book on the weekend and did all the exercises in the book. 2 days were enough to go through this book and it gave me a solid understanding of BizTalk. The training session made so much sense to me because I read this book. Had I not read this book I would have not understood any of the training that assumed that everybody in the class know orchestrations well.
   I highly recommend this as the first BizTalk book. This book will make you ready for the advanced level books.



2. Got the book on Monday and was able to read through it and work with the examples and finished the book by Friday (had some down time at work). I had never worked with BizTalk before so this book was very helpful in getting points accross and examples were mostly spot on.
   
   Author had a very easy going writing skills with little humor and did not bore me with lot of technical jargons. Liked the way the book was organized.
   
   I wish there was a chapter on how to debug and monitor your Orchestrations using BizTalk Health and Activity Tracker tool. That would have come in handy when I goofed some of the examples. But I found out about Orchestration debugging from blogs and Microsoft site and was able to work through the examples.
   
   Like other reviewers had mentioned this book is very elementary and will get your feet barely wet with BizTalk. You need to buy an advanced book to compliment this one. I myself have bought the Pro BizTalk 2006 from apress.
   
   If you have already worked with BizTalk before then you may find this book of no use to you. Neverthless a good start and kudos to the author on a job well done.



3. First Day and I read 9 chapters. Looks like will be done with the book tomorrow. This is my first time hands on on Biztalk even though I have read some white papers before but this book rocks!. Samples are easy to understand and implement and very well chosen so you start to get the hang of biztalk.
   
   This is great addition on my shelf and highly recommend to the ones who are venturing into biztalk for first time.



4. I usually never get all the way through a software book for a variety of reasons, but this one I read twice. It has as thorough and step by step set of procedures for getting a new product up and running as I have ever seen. I doubt if the MS installation guide is as thorough. In addition to the step by step instructions for installation it also shows you how to set up the main components of Biztalk as well as giving a helpful overview of the product and its uses and requirements. As someone who resides mostly in the mainframe world this was very beneficial for me; I don't even know XML but was still able to follow along. Even for a web/pc person the detailed level of the instructions is likely to be helpful without being too elementary. And even if you are a dot net c sharp java whatever expert it's likely useful to have this book for the first week or so to help get things up and running, although the author freely and continuously points out that you will probably need to get a more advanced book soon.
   
   The writing style is light without being flippant, most instructions are concise and examples are well thought out. The chapter on Orchestration I found a little difficult to follow- it is where the meat of the logic takes place in a BizTalk process, typically, but this was probably due to my unfamiliarity with dot net terminology more than with a flawed presentation.
   
   A good book, written especially for the beginner, but would probably save anyone time with the helpful step-by-step instructions for installing and setting things up. Very, very highly recommend- although check back in a few weeks after we migrate to the product and see if my review stays this rosy.



5. This is an ok introduction to BizTalk. It does a decent job of introducing you to the different pieces involved. I also like fact that it gives you exercises to practive with.
   
   With that being said, there are some negatives in the book and I am surprised no one else brought them up. The book sometimes ask you to reference Visual Studio projects midstream that were never mentioned in any previous text or chapter. I also ran into a section that involves using expressions and the exercise references properties that do not exist on the message object. Also, steps are sometimes skipped. Finally, there is a lot of steps I was doing in the exercises, but I didn't understand WHY I was doing it.

5 comments about TCP/IP Sockets in C#: Practical Guide for Programmers (The Practical Guides).

1. Did you ever just want a book get to the point and tell you what you need to know? This is that book. If your new to winsock, this book will get you rolling quickly.



2. I think this book is very good because es simple, explain clearly and go directly to the matter.
   
   Juan Ramon Divison



3. This book is a good intermediate to somewhat advanced book on TCP and UDP protocols using Sockets in .Net - all examples of-course as the title suggests are in C#. It does show some interesting examples and was able to get me started using Sockets in .Net - however it didn't go as far as I had hoped. But if you're needing something to show you how to start using Sockets it is a very good book.



4. This book gets very high ratings on both amazon.co.uk and amazon.com. I've given it a slightly lower rating than some, although still four stars, and will explain why...
   
   The subtitle on the cover of the book is "Practical Guide for Programmers" which suggests it is going to be good even for experienced developers. It is only when you read the preface (page X) that you find that the book is aimed "primarily at students", and even then is "intended as a supplement, to be used with a traditional textbook", which seems a bit of a contradiction when it then says that "we have tried to make the book reasonably self-contained".
   
   Anyway, what are the good points of this book? Well, it does mention most of the bits that a developer using sockets will want to consider. It has everything from blocking sockets, through non-blocking sockets and the select model, through to overlapped I/O. It also mentions threading, the use of thread pools, broadcast and multicast. All good stuff. Even includes example code for each.
   
   Where the book falls down is that having skimmed over all of those topics it (a) doesn't provide adequate information about how to choose the model (synch vs. asynch, blocking vs. non-blocking, 1 thread vs. fixed number (> 1) of threads vs. thread pool, etc) to use for a particular project, and (b) falls short of being self-contained, doing the blah-blah is beyond the scope of this book thing.
   
   I have seen many projects developed using the wrong model, resulting in poor performance, lack of responsiveness, inability to shutdown cleanly etc. I'm pretty sure that the authors of the book will have seen projects like that too. Books about using sockets really need to advise on this area.
   
   It is understandable that a book of this size and price will say that some things are outside the scope of the book, but not something as basic as socket options (p52 refers the reader to the MSDN). Again, socket options are an area where well-meaning developers or support staff set values that are little better than guesses, and which sometimes cause adverse effects. If there's going to be a second edition of this book, please include advice on such matters.
   
   So, all in all, good for students or people new to sockets, but not quite great. It tells you the basic techniques, but not how to use them to best advantage. Having said that, I prefer this book to C# Network Programming which rambles, uses language that is ambiguous in places, and contains a significant error (if being very generous, it could be very lazy English causing an unintended meaning) on the very page I opened it on.
   
   It's probably best for people who already know sockets really well, but who are switching from one language to another (e.g. C++ or Java to C#). Those people probably know what model and options to use, just need to see how to do it in C# - something the book does do well.



5. I have a technical book collection that rivals most libraries and this has to be one of the best programming books I've ever purchased. I'm very new to Sockets programming but I am familiar with C#. Therefore, all I needed was a way of familiarizing myself with the fundamentals of sockets programming, not a full-on long-winded lecture of everything-C#. The structure of this book is amazing. It starts each section by providing a brief description of the classes and concepts the authors are about to present. It then presents sample code illustrating the topic followed by an analysis of the code at key points by line number. It then follows up with a detailed summary of each class used in the sample along with its methods, constructors, and properties. Each example gets progressivly more complex which keeps the reader from being overwhelmed with the complexity of the subject matter too quickly.
   
   Quick, concise, and very well written, these authors did a fantastic job!

5 comments about PostgreSQL (2nd Edition) (Developer's Library).

1. This book lives up to it's claims for "the comprehensive guide to building, programming and administering postgresql databases". I'm a MySQL guy, but may have to do a little pgsql to support a third party app, so I was looking for a book that would bring me up to speed.
   
   The quick review is this... I give this book 3 stars, because it's so huge and covers so much territory that, in my opinion, it does a middling job of it. I would have preferred a more focussed book. I think, given it's goal of being so comprehensive, it is about as good as it could be and if you really need to know everything - from sql, to developing extensions, to embedding this in your c/c++ programs and administering things AND want a single book that covers it this is probably the book for you. If you don't need quite that much, or are willing to go to more than one book to get it, I think you would be better served to look elsewhere.
   
   The longer review...
   
   Honestly, I don't know why books on databases almost invariably are terribly dry reads, but this book, following the odds, falls into that category. It's a hefty tome weighing in at about 1000 pages divided into 3 sections.
   
   The first category, about a quarter of the book, is an introduction to sql and postgresql in particular. It does quite a nice job of introducing your standard sql commands, datatypes and basic administrative commands (like creating tables and the like). This part goes from basic to fairly advanced, covering topics like outer joins and creating new datatypes. I suspect it'll be review for those familiar with sql but reasonably usable for those delving into sql, even if they don't immediately understand all of the more advanced concepts.
   
   The section ends with a chapter on performance, something I was particularly interested in given postgresql's reputation. Here the authors talk about standard performancy things like indexes, using various tools to figure out what a particular query is actually doing, all worthwhile. But they never go into any detail about the performance implications of using some of the more advanced postgresql features like composite types and table inheritance. I was quite disappointed to find not even a whisper of this type of information in the book.
   
   The second section, about half the book covers programming with postgresql. This is a very broad chapter - covering many aspects of what it means to program this database. From server side programming using PL/pgSQL to extending the database with custom functions and types. They discuss creating clients in c, c++, java, perl, php, tcl, python and .net. Each one of these languages gets a chapter about 30-50 pages long where they go over the basics of how that language typically connects to the database and then goes through a process of creating a basic client and refining over the course of 4 or 5 iterations to become more and more robust and full featured. This is the bulk of the book and because it's so wide spread, I think most people will only be interested in one or two of these chapters - the rest of which will probably be uninteresting.
   
   The last section is the final quarter of the book where they go over the administrative requirements of the database. They admirably try to direct people to download and compile their own binaries, but cover installation from binary on unix and windows. They have an excellent reference on the things you can tweak to configure the runtime environment. They also cover backing up the database, replication, internationalization and security. Although they mention performance optimization in the intro to the section, they don't actually discuss it anywhere in the section.
   
   So, to sum up. If you really need to know about all aspects of pgsql and are looking for a one stop shop, this book is - I think - as good as you're going to find. But if you're looking into only a particular aspect (developing, administereing, etc..) or don't mind going to more than one, I feel confident that there's other books out there that will cover those topics in better detail.



2. PostgreSQL 2nd Edition is a phenomenal book if you're a programmer, and a great book if you're a non-programming admin. As someone whose programming ability reaches only ever so slightly beyond bash scripting and WSH, the parts of this book that were really worthwhile to me were those devoted to the administration of PostgreSQL. Backing up, recovering, and performance tuning were excellent resources, especially to someone who had never set up or administered a database. Speaking of which, the very beginning of the book, covering what exactly a database is, terminology, and setting up and creating schema were invaluable. To have all the information in PostgreSQL 2nd Edition consolidated in this one book makes it a must-have for any admin's bookshelf. The only reason it didn't get 5 stars from me was because I'm not a programmer, and I couldn't take away every single ounce this great resource had to offer.



3. I'm upset that this book that I've been trusting for the past month or two has such an egregious error in its discussion of regular expressions on page 51. I wish the authors had left out any discussion of regexes if they weren't going to actually test their assumptions about a topic on which I assume they know little. :-(



4. I am a database application developer with MS SQL Server, Oracle, Sybase and many other RDBMSs experience.
   This book allowed me to start working on PostgreSQL immediately.
   Pro: comprehensive, good examples, good supplement to the documentation.
   Cons: is not deep enough for me (does not explain format of a transaction log file or WAL file, for example), but, I guess, I should read the PostgreSQL code for this.
   If you are new to databases you would need to read some other books first.



5. As a developer with many years IT experience in control systems and only a little in databases and none with Postgres, I found this book to be extremely helpful. It covered a huge amount of topics with examples and put them together in a way that made it more efficient than googling!
   
   It helped that I knew what topics I needed in looking for answers but the chapters were self explantory in the topics they covered which I believe would allow a beginner to make quick progress in learning Postgres.
   
   Cavaet: If you are after a book to learn SQL and database design (normal forms) you will be disappointed, this book is not for you.

3 comments about C Pocket Reference.

1. True to its name, this book packs a lot of information in a pocket size package: a solid language description, a quick reference to the C standard library covering C99 and, last but not least, an extensive index. It is well organized and concise, it explains and gives you examples. If you are a newbie to C programming looking for a tutorial, keep your hands off. If you have grasped some basics of C programming, get it and use it!



2. This is a great book, for the size of the book it is packed full of
   C. It also covers alot of C99.



3. I am a computer Science Student and the one book that I take to every class is this book. It is the perfect book for quick lookup I would recomend it to anyone

2 comments about Writing for Multimedia and the Web, Third Edition: A Practical Guide to Content Development for Interactive Media.

1. Timothy Garrand speaks with authority about the many challenges of designing and writing interactive media for the web and other multimedia programs. Writing for Multimedia and the Web serves as a practical guide for writers in the throes of this demanding work. Good writing skills are not enough, as Garrand both shows and tells. His book is packed with writing tips, case studies, and examples of the formats and genres a multimedia writer might tackle, including:
   * Storyboards, flowcharts, and other design documents that can be effective to help clients, marketing, and production teams understand a project
   * Instructional, video, game and story scripts
   * Web sites and kiosks for corporations, marketing, e-learning and museums
   * Blogs, podcasts, portals and more...
   The best part of Garrand's book is that he follows his own advice, with clear titles and subtitles, lots of indexing, chunked information, and clear-cut paths for quickly finding topics. It's amazing how easily you can scan through the nearly 500 pages of text and the jam-packed CD to get to what you need to know. Additional resources are available for those brave enough to attempt teaching this topic.



2. As a broad overview of writing for web sites and interactive media products, this book covers all of the key topics (although briefly) for a student who wants to work in this field. The examples are extensive and well chosen, and often geared to the interests of young adults. But the book doesn't provide exercises or projects for learning specific skills. Readers will want to supplement this book with other resources that present detailed information on specific skills and techniques.

5 comments about Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003 Administrator's Companion: Administrator's Companion (Administrators Companion).

1. As you probably realize there is not a large selection of books that cover SMS 2003. This book is probably an acceptable book for an SMS 2003 beginner or an admin who doesn't typically use all of SMS's functionality. The primary benefit this book provides is that it helps you to more clearly understand the poorly written documentation that Microsoft provides with SMS. It shows the reader in a logical well-ordered way how to setup SMS from the 1st SMS server through configuration of each of the major components of SMS as well as adding additional servers and sites into SMS. It also provides step by steps for each activity and simplified examples of how to use the major components and perform common SMS tasks. While step by steps are provided the authors could really haved used more and different types of examples in many cases.
   
   The areas where this book could use significant improvement are in "real world" troubleshooting, design, and ongoing maintenance activities. It could also use more detailed information on configuring SQL for SMS usage as well important activities such as creating and setting container permissions in Adsiedit or ADUC. It also needs to be updated to include SP2 and the available feature packs that are out for SMS.
   
   Over all this book is probably a tad overpriced for the information it provides since most, if not all, of the book information is in the SMS docs. I think this book should be no more than $40 but since there are so few other books I guess they can get away with the $60 price.



2. I am new to SMS and I must say that I now love it because of its power. This book made it easier for me to understand the ins and outs of the product. It will help you out a lot to know your windows environment well enough as well as your AD, after a couple of service packs SMS gets into deep waters. I would like to see the future editions of the book include chapters regarding free add ons such as the OSD Pack and ITMU, it would make it even better at least for admins looking for implementing it into a windows shop.



3. This book is wriiten with the expectation that you have working experience with SMS.



4. This book has helped me a lot with this horrible product from Microsoft. Needless to say, I've sold the book and I no longer bother with junky SMS. Still, a good book.



5. If you are new to SMS and you want to start working with this technology then this is not the right book. NOT because it is to complicated - more because it is way to detailed. But the book is great as a reference. I think it is even a must for a SMS admin. The topics are explained very clear and so far I found all the information I was looking for.
   
   If you are new to SMS and you want to start working with it I recommend use the SMS 2003 CBT Nugget and work additional with this book to get deeper into specific topics.
   
   But again - as a reference for you daily work this book is great.