5 comments about Microsoft Windows XP Professional Administrator's Pocket Consultant, Second Edition (Pro-Administrator's Pocket Consultant).

1. This book is very well written. Stanek does a great job of balancing the need to be consise and yet throurough. This one is definately worth it's cover price.



2. Out of 5 Windows XP Prof. books this is the one I use the most. This book is packed with useful information, well written, excellent details. By the way, contrary to many other publications that claim to be up-to-date with the latest software version, this book was REALLY written about Windows XP Service Pack 2.



3. Windows XP Administrator's Pocket Consultant 2nd edition is a little over 500 pages (504 to be exact). It is well written, easy to understand, and the best I've found. My copy has so many dogears and highlights. This book is worth it and then some.



4. I really found this book to have great content with logical organization. My only complaint is that the quality of the binding on this book is poor.
   This is a shame because it is the type of book you will want to refer to often.



5. This book is essential for XP administrator or user. Simple and Easy to understand. Good to reference for daily job with XP computers.

5 comments about Macromedia Flash 8 for Windows & Macintosh (Visual QuickStart Guide).

1. I bought this book to learn Flash...and I was dissapointed. There are no lessons, it's pretty much a user's manual. "Here is the brush tool and this is how you use it. This is the fill button and how you use it. Now, draw a line as mentioned in section 2." If you like learning a program function by function, then this book is for you. I'm going to exchange this book for sams teach yourself Flash 8 as it has lessons and you learn to use the program as a whole.



2. If you know your way around most toolbars, this book won't teach you much. It has been written for people who haven't used any complex software before. I had to buy the book for a course on Flash, but was disappointed when we covered most of the book in the first day. Easy to understand for a complete beginner. May be useful then.



3. Everyone who uses the Visual Quickstart Guides should be informed: they're lookup books, resources, not step-by-step how-tos.



4. I had to buy this book as it was used for a beginner's course on Flash, but I was very disappointed - not so much with the course but with this book. It tells you how to use this tool and how to use that tool, but never tells you WHY. Like, ok now I can convert to a MovieClip, but why would anyone want to do that, and so on and so on. If you know a bit about Flash, I guess you can easily dig up something in this book if you forgot how to motion tween or something - but then, as a reference guide as well, pretty much any other book on Flash is more thorough. Basically: this book is very superficial - I guess to not overload the novice - but then, it doesn't explain you much either. For the experienced Flash-user looking for a reference guide, look elsewhere.



5. Great book--really helps me understand the concepts in Flash. Just in the first couple of chapters I knew alot more about the tools in flash and why I would use them.

5 comments about Microsoft WSH and VBScript Programming for the Absolute Beginner, Second Edition (For the Absolute Beginner).

1. This book is chok full of learning projects that solidify the concepts presented. The cd that comes with the book includes an editor tool that has proved invaluable. I'm getting a second copy as mine has gone missing.



2. I had done some programming 20+ years ago and wanted an introduction to VBScript. The idea of a review of current programming practice seemed like a good idea, too. There were some interesting errors in the code in a few lessons, as I found. They provided practice in debugging, for what that was worth. The lessons are pretty clear and I found some interesting ways of modifying the scripts as given. It worked for me.



3. Have to admit that I decided to learn VBScript - It seemed to be a powerful language and I've come across it many times in my work with networking and desktop computers. Having programmed mainframe computers for 30+ years, used basic on PCs, and published and supported many web sites for the last 10 years, I decided to purchase as many books as possible to teach myself this language and keep some for reference. I was disappointed. I expected a clear, simplified, and example-driven approach to this subject. Instead I found it confusing, un-engaging, and I lost interest in it after a few pages.
   If you are in the same boat as I am and want to learn the language, try VBScript for the world wide web (visual quickstart guide, about 150 pages) by Paul Thurrott. Of the 7 books that I got, it is the absolute best for a beginner and will teach you what you need in order to get you started.
   I did not give 1 star to the book because I have written two books and I know the effort that sacrifice that goes into writing one.



4. The examples are wrong which is making things harder to understand and the web site for the book doesn't have an amendment section but it does have the scripts which seem to be working, so far anyway.
   
   I know just enough about scripting to steal somebody else's working script and get it to work for my needs but I was looking to get a true understanding of VBSripting.
   
   I have not yet completely finished the book but I feel I have wasted my money.
   
   I'll update when I have finished but want to give others a heads up.



5. This item has served its purpose. It provides insight about the newly release VB Script explaining the features and how to effectively use them.

5 comments about Creating a Web Site in Dreamweaver CS3: Visual QuickProject Guide.

1. I almost gave this 5 stars, but because it's just a small book that's intended as a a 'starter' then 5 seemed too much. Anyway, I think this book is very good at getting you up and around in Dreamweaver CS3. This book is a GREAT start for a beginner (experienced web programmers should skip it.) I'm no expert by any stretch, just an average user who needs to create a website for my small side business.
   
   The book takes you through making a sample website, with easy examples of elements you might want to use in your own site. I think it does a great job of 'learning by doing' but doesn't take you too deep where you'll get lost. Once you go through this book, you'll be able to start work on your own site, doing your own thing - at that point you will probably want a more robust reference book for more advanced stuff.
   
   I've not run across any 'errors', but there could be some, the book's not perfect. However the support site does have a page of corrections and updates, I didn't see any for this edition but there were a few corrections for prior editions.
   
   Final thought- if you want some 'training wheels' to get started and practice building something, this a great choice, and a fair price for what it is.



2. This book is trash. I agree with the writer who said it's a waste of money. The explanations are unclear as were the e-mails from the author himself. Nothing works which is frustrating for a book that pretends to be a basic step by step easy to follow text.
   The download was ponderous and then wouldn't even show when browsing for it in my Documents folder. The photos in the book so far don't match what you're supposed to see and I have lost much time just to get past the first few maddening pages.
   There are other sources out there on this subject. Meanwhile, I wish I could have given it less than one star.



3. Nolan,
   
   I just wanted to tell you that this book was extremely helpful and
   will continue to be helpful to me. I have taught myself dreamweaver
   for the past year and when I picked this book up I just wanted to see
   what I could compare to what I had already learned.
   
   I was surprised to find that your tips and visual lessons were easy to
   learn and greatly improved my ability in a matter of an hour or less
   when I sat down to read your book.
   
   Thank you for your efforts and for writing such a simple and helpful book.
   
   Gabe Arnold



4. While I usually enjoy the Visual Quickstart books in general, I was disappointed in this guide because of gross errors and example data. Perhaps this author didn't have a hand in the editing and error checking but this was painful to use. I paid full price in a bookstore for this book. I should have paid used price on Amazon. It's almost worth $7.00! I gave two stars because of the excellent graphics in the book.



5. The files that accompany the book are terribly organized, and are sometimes wrong. (Example: p 52 is supposed to have a file about an itinerary. Although the name of the file is correct, it is a Food Diary.) I followed the author's instructions to contact him regarding errors, but the e-mail bounced back. I called Peach Pit and only got an answering machine. The book feels thrown together, the author's website is very defensive, and I will not use this book again for classes that I teach.

5 comments about Advanced Compiler Design and Implementation.

1. Ok, let's be fair. This book provides a broad coverage of useful optimizations and it will be useful in case you work writing compilers AND have some experience.
   
   However, for learning the concepts, it is a very bad material. At the end you end up confused under a pile of thousands of lines of pseudocode in a weird notation (invented by the author) called "I CAN" (yes you can write a very bad book Mr. Muchnick) instead of reading useful explanations of the topics. The author also assumes that you already know some concepts and that's why he does not explain them as he should. If you want to really understand this book, first review Chapter 10 of the Dragon Book. I thought that the Dragon book was not so good because you have to re read some things in order to fully understand, but with Muchnick's book that is not always possible.
   
   You can also take a look at Morgan's book (unfortunately, out of print) or just read the papers (as the first reviewer suggested). This book is not enough, and sadly, a lot of "teachers" think of it as a kind of "bible" and as a very bad excuse to teach very poorly. Some of them even don't master all the concepts presented there and have to use other books (their "dirty little secret") but they don't tell you which ones and continue praising this bad piece of work. If you are a CS student who really wants to learn, be warned that this book is not for you (it has at least three erratas and still has errors!)



2. I've seen chapter 14 of this book referenced (by a university professor giving suggestion to his students, not by a random guy) as:
   
   "Another conventional approach to strength reduction. 35 pages of the same kind of confusing crap we've all come to expect from this book."
   
   This could not sum it up better. A confusing book at best, presenting basic material so as to make it look "advanced", and without any covering of even relatively new techniques. A good source of references to papers that you should read, but not at all a valid reference on its own.



3. Compiler development is more of a craft than a science, although there's plenty of science involved. It involves huge numbers of tradeoffs in features, optimizations, and use of the underlying processor. But, as long as people keep coming up with new computing platforms (and not just instruction set processors), new languages, and new performance demands there will always be need for new compiler developers. If you can't apprentice yourself to masters of the craft, or even if you can, this book is a great introduction 2000-era compiler development.
   
   Muchnik does a clear, thorough job of laying out the basics, starting with the intermediate representation used. (If you get that wrong, nothing else is going to work.) He then moves on to the basics of symbol table structure - an issue that can get immensely complicated in systems like Microsoft's CLR. He also discusses run time support briefly. Although that discussion is good as far as it goes, it skips past a lot of the complexities of dynamic loading, debug symbol tables, simulation support, and related issues. They aren't strictly part of the compiled, executable code, but responsibilities of the compiler developer nonetheless. Next comes a brief description of code generation, crucial in normal environments but tangential to my own needs.
   
   That's just the first quarter of the book, though. The rest is the real meat of the topic: code analysis and optimization techniques, over 600 pages of discussion. It's way too much to summarize here, but even that just an introduction to a huge technology. Still, you have to start somewhere.
   
   By this point, you may be asking "But what about tokens, lexemes, and grammars? Isn't that what compilers do?" Well, yes, but it's done. Tool developers have made lexical analysis a commodity. The easily automated tasks are not where modern compiler distinguishes itself. This book addresses the semantic levels, getting the reader into the shallow end of the industry's huge pool of specialized compilation knowledge.
   
   If you have to self-teach compiler development - good luck. Start here, though, and luck will have a lot less to do with the outcome.
   
   //wiredweird



4. It's the bible of compiler data-flow analysis. The author had the experience of building an industrial strength compiler. One tip: skip books authored by those who haven't implemented an industrial strength compiler by themself.



5. This is a very good intermediate/advanced text for codegen & optimization.
   
   Having spent nearly 15 years working on compiler development, with most of it spent on codegen & optimization in compiler backends, I was very happy to see this book published ten years ago when I was relatively new to the field and hungry for more information.
   
   The good: Coverage of many important topics, and a better discussion of the phase ordering issues than I've seen in other texts.
   
   The bad: The writing style is okay, but not great. Little insight is typically given for the problems discussed. A very annoying aspect of the book is that the author sometimes goes into great detail about one technique, and then later mentions another (often superior, IMO) way to solve the problem at hand, without going into much detail. As a working compiler writer, I would have preferred it be the other way around.
   
   The very very bad: The ICAN notation used throughout the book is verbose, unintuitive, and ultimately takes away from the presentation. Compare the complicated detail-filled ICAN listings in this book to the simple, elegant algorithms in the Dragon Book or Cooper/Torczon's text.

1 comments about Beginning XML Databases (Wrox Beginning Guides).

1. I work with a lot of school leavers and people outside IT and often have to advise them on how to empower themselves in IT in the right way. Surely SQL and databases are one of the first topics people should understand. HTML was also high on the list. With this book, the author has combined all of them in one making it a very relevant combination for today's beginner. I will recommend this book to school leavers, financial people and people outside IT wanting to empower themselves quickly. Another great advantage of XML and databases is the platform independence. Very well done to the author for combining these topics at the entry level in such an easiliy understandable way!

5 comments about JavaScript for the World Wide Web, Fifth Edition (Visual QuickStart Guide).

1. Believe it or not, this book is an acutal textbook for a course I am taking in college. I was hoping for a book better than this for a college course.



2. The authors are not very good at explaining things, even relatively simple things such as the prompt() method or the dot syntax. It could be much clearer and they could do it with fewer words. The authors take a rambling tone that doesn't quite give you the information you need. You can't depend on the authors to give you meaningful explanations. You have to experiment and try different things.
   It's possible to learn JavaScript with this book, but it will take much more time than is necessary. In five editions, why couldn't they have improved this book? What are they doing? Other Visual Quickstart Guides are the same way. I hope the Visual Quickstart Guides go out of business and some other company takes over the market share. They've been cavalier toward their customers and don't deserve to be in business much longer.
   Other books like JavaScript: The Definitive Guide by Flanagan, and JavaScript: The Complete Reference by Powell and Schneider are better at explaining the language even though they are considered to be more advanced books.
   The same authors have published JavaScript & AJAX for the Web, which has almost the exact same content only it has a couple of AJAX chapters thrown in. Check out the review by another customer (at this point it is the only review). His critique is very similar to this one.
   On the positive side, the authors manage to get most of the information across and the content is relevant for the majority of users.
   If you choose to buy this book, use it as more of a guide and do not depend on it. Purchase other books to supplement it.



3. This is useful as a reference book or to learn JavaScript. I do not use it often, but when I need it I am very glad to have it on my shelf. Good examples.



4. This book was well packaged for delivery. I like it for the clarity with which the authors present the various lessons.
   
   I hope to derive a lot from it and to add to my skills.
   
   I am still going through it and so far it has been very exciting. Thank you for the good business. A value for the money.



5. It's downloads don't work, and the book requires that they be used.
   the examples will not run as written in the book.
   They do not conform to the w3schools standards.
   it cannot be used outside Microsoft products.
   Like Firefox.

5 comments about Codin' for the Web: A Designer's Guide to Developing Dynamic Web Sites.

1. I'm a big fan of Wyke-Smith's "Stylin' with CSS" so I snapped up this book immediately. I'm not finished with it, just yet, but I think I can still point out one thing. I'm reading Larry Ullman's "PHP for the World Wide Web" (2nd Ed.) at the same time, and I find that the two work really well together. "Codin'" moves very quickly, and he tends to gloss over things a bit, but combined with Ullman's more in-depth book, I'm learning a lot. They reinforce one another, I suppose.



2. If you liked Stylin' w/ CSS and want to make dynamic sites, this is the book for you. It starts very basic, and builds slowly. I enjoyed it.



3. I really think this is a great book for beginners in the php/coding area, It's very clear and with a clean and good practice in mind. As for me is not that useful because of my previous php knowledge, but it's a good point of reference for those familiar with php also. Overall... great book, great explanations.



4. I've spent a lot of time looking for a resource I could use to teach myself php. The biggest problem I've ran into is the book/website either being 1) over my head, or 2) unbearable to read.
   
   Luckily this item was neither of the above. Though I haven't made it though the entire book yet I have found this to be -extremely- helpful and well written. I don't come from a coding background at all so I had to find something that really started from the ground up. I found this to be easily understandable to someone who doesn't get coding. Additionally his website has two extra beginning chapters if you really need to go over the basics (which I did for the coding part).
   
   The language is clear and concise and not confusing or dull. So I would highly, highly recommend this title to anyone from a design background looking to expand their talents. So far it's one of the best I've found.I will definitely look at this other books, the next time I'm in the market for another computer book.



5. Codin' was a good introductory if you already have a solid background in computers (OS, File Systems, file types etc...) and at least an intermediate understanding of html (although to the author's credit he offers some bonus material on html if you don't). It really works well if you are an advanced html person with at least some web design experience but want to dive into scripting and creating interactive websites. He does a good job of introducing php as a language and showing some simple techniques to get you up and running quickly, especially with forms. Not a book for advanced php developers and there is really no javascript which I think would be an important component to show how the two languages can be used in conjunction. Also maybe some explanation as to when php is appropriate vs. say a full OOL (object oriented language) like java or where it might make sense to use javascript instead of php to handle front end stuff. Overall it is a good book. I thought the author could have done a better job of explaining in the form chapter how the form fields can be input into a database but he stopped after explaining the input into a flat file which most people I have found wouldn't find all that useful since a db is the way to go in most instances. He goes into the db in the next chapter and sort of leaves you hangin with the previous form explanations. He circles back around and explains in later chapters but it was a little confusing because you had to infer some stuff to make the connection. Overall I recommend the book though and I have a Master's degree in IT and am very familiar with html, css, and SQL, and now a decent foundation in php.
   
   BTW, I found the code examples offered on his site very useful and helped me get past some of the stuff that I had to infer.

5 comments about Ruby by Example: Concepts and Code.

1. Superb introduction to Ruby and important programming idioms that every Rubyist should know. Shows you a small chunk of code, with significant lines numbered, and follows the code with descriptive paragraphs that show you what the code is doing. In effect, you learn how to read the code as you go through the book, starting with basic material and getting more advanced as you go along. VERY nicely done.



2. 'Ruby by Example: Concepts and Code' is the perfect reference for anyone that wants to learn how to use Ruby, one of the hottest programming languages to come around in some time. With over around 300 pages of content spread across 45 examples, this book will give you all the basis you need to go from a non-Ruby user to someone writing good code immediately!! I think that the No Starch line has some of the most unique layouts you will find from any publishing line. Chapters are usually broken up into small manageable chunks that make it easier for the reader to actually learn and dissect the information they are taking in, fonts are clear and concise, and it's just an enjoyable easy read all around. While this may seem low in importance I don't think that's the case at all. Especially for a book where the user base is someone new to a language, environment or tool, I want a book that is easy to learn from, fun to read and makes me actually want to LEARN and look forward to the next chapter(s). If you want to learn Ruby and build on your development skillset, pick up this book and move to the fast lane!!
   
   ***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED



3. Ruby By Example seeks to teach Ruby by introducing a series of small scripts, explaining how they work, often by showing some examples in irb, Ruby's interactive shell, and reinforcing the explanations with some suggested modifications to the script to highlight the principles just expounded. The closest examples in other languages I'm aware of are Dive Into Python and (to a lesser extent) Wicked Cool Perl Scripts.
   
   This is a very nice idea, and there are some examples that are a cut above the usual fare: chapter 9 includes a Bible Code generator, and an implementation of the 'methinks it is like a weasel' sentence natural selection program from Richard Dawkins' The Blind Watchmaker. There's also mention of memoization, profiling and benchmarking, the Schwartzian transform for sorting, and even Symbol#to_proc. There's also quite a gentle introduction to Rails, which is probably sufficient for someone new to Ruby and Rails to move onto Ruby for Rails.
   
   However, the execution isn't always perfect. Probably the biggest downside to this pedagogical approach is that there's not really one obvious place to describe how a particular feature works in depth, or the focus moves away from its practical use in a script. As a result, many of the explanations are compressed. Chapter 1 provides a 'crash' description of object orientation in 9 lines. Chapter 3 first mentions hashes, but compares them to functions, and not to arrays. Tail recursion is defined in a 4 line footnote in chapter 7. If you already understand these concepts, you'll be fine, but they won't teach you anything. If you don't, they aren't very helpful. At a couple of points the book also insists that everything in Ruby is an object, but code blocks (among other things) aren't until they're wrapped in Procs. For the more functional-esque techniques advocated in the book, this is a subtle point which could trip up a beginner.
   
   Also, some of the examples are weak. Chapter 4 rushes through regular expressions, using them to compress whitespace, but why not also mention String#squeeze? Chapter 5 uses regexes to deal with XML and it gets the job done, but advice on using a real XML parser might have been more useful in the long term. Chapter 6 contains a truly contrived Buffy the Vampire Slayer-related example.
   
   This isn't a bad introduction to Ruby, and it's a very admirable attempt to do something different, but I wanted to like it more than I did. If you already know some object oriented programming, this could make a good companion to a more tutorial-style book, like The Pickaxe.



4. If you want to learn Ruby quickly and you can only afford to buy one book to do it with, this is the one I would buy! It has interesting little projects with well documented code which introduces you gradually to more advanced topics in the language. It is not a cookbook, but rather, a very well picked selection of programmes where new concepts are thoroughly explained and older concepts are reinforced. There are "hacks" to just about every script and I was able to learn more from this than I did from grinding through the Pick Axe. Amazingly, now when I pick up the Pick Axe it seems accessible!
   
   Well worth the investment!



5. The book came very fast in the mail. It was new in quality. I am able to teach myself Ruby from the book.

5 comments about Dynamic Learning Dreamweaver CS3.

1. §
   This book has a lot going for it as a classroom tool. The 13 lessons deal with the basics of using Dreamweaver, customizing it to the way you work, and touches on broad Web coding issues. So beginners, who most need those broader issues as context, will appreciate that something extra they need.
   
   The author does not go into much detail on any subject. Two of those "broad issues" I mentioned before were Cascading Style Sheets and using tables for layout. The book shows the importance of CSS to good design and introduced me to some CSS conveniences in Dreamweaver CS3 I was not aware of. One odd thing: the author warns against using tables for page layout (correct!) but then titles a chapter and video session "Creating Page Layouts with Tables." Yet, the content of the chapter had very little to do with using tables for layout. It stuck closely to some of Dreamweaver's best facilities for handling *data* tables, like the CSV import feature. Lousy title, good content.
   
   The book itself is done up in full color with illustrations tracking each lesson well. I sometimes felt the included videos were a bit padded and neither as valuable or as clear as the text. However, the detailed "zoom ins" were a nice touch and helped a lot. Since many of the screens in the video were chock full of objects, I had trouble following the author's actions in the clutter. It would have been better if his mouse cursor had been larger or a bright color to make that part easier.
   §



2. 'Dynamic Learning Dreamweaver CS3' is a fantastic guide for all those developers who are looking to learn and ramp up on Dreamweaver CS3 asap. Jam-packed with 400+ pages of material with a DVD inside, this wonderful book isn't just pages but full interactive content included!! Chapters are called Lessons in this book and there are 13 here. The transitions from one lesson to the next are smooth and clear with not just great layout (so easy on the eyes) but nice writing as well!!
   
   If you are a new user or want to see what the newest version of Dreamweaver has to offer you will be hard-pressed to not be happy with this book. It's a welcome addition to your web library and a sure fire hit!!
   
   ***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED



3. While not part of the Missing Manual series, the book provides the reader with a step-by-step set of instructions on how to use Dreamweaver CS3. It is aimed at new users of Dreamweaver CS3, but will be of use to more advanced users as well because it covers the upgrades to and changes from the last version.
   
   The book begins with clear and succinct instructions on how to use the video tutorials as well as the lesson files and sets forth the requirements for both Windows and MAC users. The first lesson jumps right into Spry and discussions of integration with various other Adobe products along with an explanation of how web sites work, domains, servers and web hosts, the role of web browsers and an introduction to HTML. The order of the topics is a little weird with the discussion of Spry and Adobe Bridge before the basics of web sites and html. That having been said, it's still a good introduction for the beginner.
   
   Other lessons include creating a web site from scratch with Dreamweaver. There are lots of illustrations and each is accompanied by a clear explanation of each topic discussed. For those interested in adding Flash, videos and sound to pages, there is a chapter devoted to how to do it. It does not show you how to create the Flash content, but Dreamweaver does include functionality to create some Flash content such as buttons and text. Another lesson is on building web forms and at least mentions ways to connect the form data to a database. The scope of the book doesn't permit detailed coverage of the topic, but does include the addition of some behaviors to the form, such as validation. Dreamweaver has a number of built-in javascripts to do validations that are easy to add.
   
   Chapters are followed by a number of assignments for studying to reinforce what has been discussed. There is a set of review questions complete with answers.
   
   One of the best features of the book is that as the lessons progress, there is a great emphasis on the use of CSS to style the pages and it includes discussions of the differences between print and the web when choosing font sizes, how to prepare images for use on the web. Several chapters are devoted to page layout, both with tables (for data mostly) and with CSS.
   
   The first part of the book teaches using the design view in Dreamweaver--the reader doesn't have to deal directly with the HTML, but it does include a lesson on editing in the code view as well.
   
   The final chapter discussions maintenance of the web site, including reports and optimization.



4. I never take the time to write a book review but maybe I'll save you the money and especially the time. I bought this over other books for the instructional DVD included. The very first instruction in Lesson One on the DVD tells you to open "index.html". There is no "index.html" in Lesson One on the DVD. So, I read the beginning of Chapter One for Lesson One and it says to open "SpryWidgets.html". The instructions on the DVD and the book are worlds apart! Upon opening the "SpryWidgets.html" it does not have the text needed to follow the instructions on the DVD. I spent over three hours trying to interpet the two different sets of instructions. The book is very poorly written with no attention to detail. Now I have to drive back to Borders in the morning on my $3.50 per gallon gas to get my money back. I wasted over half a Saturday on this turkey!



5. Files are missing on the dvd which comes with this book, making it very difficult to learn from it.
   Take my advise not to buy this book