5 comments about Mastering Microsoft Exchange Server 2003.

1. I find that the book doesn't agree with the title. It was good for some basic how-to Exchange things, but what I really wanted, was some in-depth instruction on getting the EAS up and running. What I got was VERY VERY basic, and if you run into any problems, you're SOL. It doesn't say anything about working EAS through a firewall, and it kind of blows past it saying that the guy likes using IMAP better. Well I'm sorry, but if I'm supposed to be "mastering" Exchange Server 2003 then I certainly need a bit more than the most rudamentary thing on such a new implement to Ex'03 as EAS.



2. First I support a web site with additions and corrections to the book. There's lots of information there, based mostly on comments and questions from readers. You can find the site at http://bgerber.com/Ex2003AddCorrect.htm. Page past the hot news section for a numbered list of very specific questions followed by answers.

   The comments that have been expressed about my book "Mastering Microsoft Exchange Server 2003" are interesting. They seem to come from two basic types of readers: those that have a hands-on job to do and those focusing on the Exchange Server certification process.

   The book is for those who have a hands-on job to do -- install and run Exchange Server. Comments I receive from readers with that task, especially those starting anew with Exchange Server are almost always complementary. They also ask questions to which I usually respond quickly.

   Hands-on people looking for a more advanced book on Exchange Server 2003, should read Jim McBee's "Exchange Server 2003 24seven," also from Sybex. I was privileged to work with Jim on this edition of his book and am listed as a contributing author on the cover.

   People who are collecting facts for certification tests should turn to the many books on Exchange certification. There isn't time or space in a book the size of mine to deal with every detail of the Exchange system. For example, contrary to a comment by an earlier Amazon reviewer, you can actually upgrade an Exchange 5.5 system to Exchange 2000 or 2003, operate it successfully and ultimately remove 5.5 components without knowing that SRS, the Site Replication Service, participates in Exchange 5.5-Exchange 2000 or 2003 data replication. Certification is valuable, but it can't replace hands-on experience when it comes time to do a real job.

   I have successfully planned, installed and supported Exchange systems for a number of medium and large user-base clients for 10 years. I also do Exchange Server security breach forensics. As one with a set of hands-on jobs to do, I have written a book for that sort of person.




3. Maybe the content of this book is ok, but the writer has constant urge to put useless text lines and useless personal opinions between the technical explenations. This shouldn't be a story book ...

   Things get worse when on page 142 he still needs to explain the difference between FAT and NTFS.

   quote: "Setup displays a little gauge showing formatting progress. Formatting takes quite a
   bit of time."

   in this case, burning a book is ok ;)




4. I would hardly consider this book "Mastering Exchange" but the author does take the time to step you through all the property pages and settings so you at least get a basic idea of what it all means. You will have a solid basic understanding when you are done but you certainly won't be a master by any stretch of the imagination. I found several errors throughout the book specifically related to Windows and networking. The author should stick to Exchange because when the topic shifts to something else, I had my doubts about what I was reading. For instance, I believe the author stated that in an NT 4.0 Domain, if a PDC goes down, the other DC's elect a new one. WHAT!!!! Maybe a browser, but not a PDC. Its been a while since I read the book but I am pretty sure I read that in a side bar. As I said, overall, not bad if you what a basic intro to Exchange 2003. The title should be changed to Exchange 2003 basics.



5. This book has generally good easily digestible explanations for Exchange 2003. I really appreciate the informal down-to-Earth style and discussion of a lot of pieces. I was especially happy to see some good coverage of LDAP, IMAP, and POP configuration, which is seldom adequately covered in other Exchange books.
   
   Despite the excellent overview in many areas, I wish the book was more practical in real world situations. It is great to know about key technologies, which makes the book a worthy of perusal, but still we need to implement and deploy this stuff, which unfortunately involves bizarre tweaks and configurations combined with third party tools and maybe even scripting. I just don't get this practical real-world oriented sense from this book.
   
   One area that irked me quite a bit was coverage of security. There is some coverage of securing open insecure technologies like POP and IMAP, but only on the client. In the security chapter, there's a few paragraphs stating that security is a client issue and should not be covered in the scope of the book. I think it is important both to setup the security on the client and the server, so that the clients can use it, and so that potential hackers don't get passwords for domain accounts. The author does attempt to give a short blurb on how to setup SSL, but I found that the instructions did not work. I was probably missing some other pieces, Certificate Authority?
   
   In conclusion, overall decent coverage of Exchange 2003 with good explanations, but one needs more material, perhaps other books in order to put all the pieces together and get the job done.

5 comments about The Definitive Guide to MySQL 5, Third Edition (Definitive Guide).

1. This book is great for anyone getting started with MySQL. The book does an excellent job of helping the reader learn MySQL on both Windows and Linux systems, with most examples being run in tandem across both platforms. The books review of MySQL administration tools and clients is very in depth, and probably the best single-source coverage I have seen on the topic.
   
   The chapter on integrating MySQL with OpenOffice and MS Office is unique to this book, as far as I know and I think several readers will get their money's worth simply from that. Using MySQL as a productivity tool instead of a programming tool changes the approach for several MySQL users.
   
   The fundamentals section of the book, which includes DB design, security and some of the newer features of MySQL (stored procedures and triggers) is a very nice overview, even for seasoned MySQL users. The administration chapter is probably my favorite, as I am a System Admin. This chapter provides examples and instructions about backups, migrations, performance tuning and replication.
   
   
   The final section on programming was a nice introduction to programming with/against MySQL, but was brief for nearly all topics, but understandably so. There are dozens of books on PHP and MySQL alone, so a few chapters on PHP, Perl, Java and VB are good introductions, but other material should be sought after for an in-depth project.
   
   All in all the book is very thorough, and makes an excellent addition to Apress's Open Source line of books.



2. This is bar-none the best MySQL (all-inclusive) book I've ever used. I've been using MySQL for about 5-6 years (maybe longer I've lost count). In projects from Personal stuff to Commercial and Corporate sites. I feel like I know a lot about MySQL simply by using and Admin'ing it for most of this time. I've learned a great deal from "The Definitive Guide to MySQL 5" and am making immediate use of several things that have made significant improvements to the current project I'm working on...and has given me ideas as to how to improve on a few sites I didn't think I could improve much on.
   
   I would recommend this book for ANYONE interested in MySQL 5. It's well organized, and provides enough information to use virtually anything related to MySQL 5.
   
   Thanks to Michael Kofler for such a well written and organized book!
   
   The only things I would have preferred just a tad more detail on is the use of Cursors in Stored Procedures. Aside from that this is an EXCELLENT resource I highly recommend.



3. This book is indeed a valuable resource for those who wish to have a deep understanding and interoperations of MySQL. However, by no means believe this book is for a MySQL beginner. I am college educated and frequently self-teach on many topics within the technical field. I bought this book with the hopes of getting a foundational understanding of MySQL and have a database up and running in the first few chapters. The first chapter does carefully explain what a relational database is, its features, and limitations, but then gets lost into the murky realm of administrative tools, user interfaces, and database design. The book finally gets around to giving the reader the first command to creating a database on page 268 (chapter 11). By this point the author gives the impression that getting a database started just a formality rather than the start of something fun and exciting. (Am I crazy for thinking databases are fun?)
   
   In general, I found this book a hard read. It's very dry and in my opinion, not well laid out. This book is for someone who already has foundational knowledge in MySQL and some programming. The author seems to have a thorough understanding of the topic, but is not good at teaching to underlings such as myself. I'm not going to toss the book, but keep it on my shelf as a reference. In the mean time I need to find another book on MySQL.



4. 'The Definitive Guide to MySQL 5' by Michael Kofler is in its 3rd Edition for the simple reason that this is a GOOD reference book. Jam packed full of nearly 750 pages worth of excellence, this book isn't just a reference manual, but a learning TOOL as well. The glowing reviews for this book are not without a legit reason, this is a wonderful guide that belongs on the desk of any and all MySQL developers. Pick up this book to learn and excel... you won't be disappointed!!
   
   ***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED



5. The book opens with an introductory database example (Chap 3), an opinion poll. The author spends nearly a page in his attempt to justify why MySQL is more suited to his example than a text file. This justification is not only uneccessary but outright wrong. The sample SQL also contains a glaring error that is likely to confuse the newer MySQL user
   
   "In order to generate a table with the two columns /id/ and /choice/, the following command would suffice: CREATE TABLE votelanguage (id INT, choice TINYINT, ts TIMESTAMP);". If you are new to MySQL, you may be wondering about "ts TIMESTAMP".
   
   At every page I have turned to and begun to read, I have found at least one similarly minor/distracting error: "changes in boldface" followed by lines of code with no boldface, "the following will insert a data record with a value of 4: INSERT into t VALUES (3)", etc, etc, etc...
   
   There are numerous sections of text that are terribly written, almost as though they have been badly translated from another language. Chapter 4, for instance, opens with "The end user should never see MySQL as a program. Instead, a convenient program or several web sites should be used to provide access to the database, assist in the input of new data and execute backups
   "For such tasks, you can use the commands mysql, mysqladmin and mysqldump ...". Presumably he mean't that these commands are not the interface through which the typical user will see MySQL.
   
   I said the book is not definitive - I say this because its focus is incredibly broad. It covers a wide spectrum of MySQL-related topics, primarily dealing with specifics of language interfaces (by sheer volume of pages). It covers nothing in true depth (with several item specific chapters containing the "Tip" that "In this chapter you will learn about /this/ only superficially. However, ... will be described elsewhere in the book ..."
   
   Every time I open this book, I find errors or cryptic paragraphs that I have to deconstruct in order to understand the author's point. Often times, even when the author is quite clear, I find his points to be in error. For example, returning to the initial opinion poll: the author implies that if your result set were merely the vote option and number of votes for that option, it would be simplest to just store that in a single file. But if you wanted to store individual votes or comments or IP addresses, you would need MySQL!
   
   Infact, due to concurrency issues, MySQL would be far better suited to the simple tally counter.

5 comments about UNIX Network Programming, Volume 2: Interprocess Communications (2nd Edition) (The Unix Networking Reference Series , Vol 2).

1. This book is a must own for every serious programmer on the unix platform. It provides an insight on various forms of IPC APIs available on the unix platform. It provides coverage of both System V and POSIX standards, there is no match to it as far as IPC is concerned. The Appendices in the end also provide a performance comparison between pipes, FIFOs, posix message queues, System V message queues, doors and Sun RPC. I have not seen another book provide such a wide and deep coverage of this topic. What more - it all comes from the GURU himself!



2. Since anyone considering buying a technical book always needs to know what it covers, here's the table of contents:

   Part 1. Introduction

   1. Introduction

   2. Posix IPC

   3. System V IPC

   Part 2. Message Passing

   4. Pipes and FIFOs

   5. Posix Message Queues

   6. System V Message Queues

   Part 3. Synchronization

   7. Mutexes and Condition Variables

   8. Read-Write Locks

   9. Record Locking

   10. Posix Semaphores

   11. System V Semaphores

   Part 4. Shared Memory

   12. Shared Memory Introduction

   13. Posix Shared Memory

   14. System V Shared Memory

   Part 5. Remote Procedure Calls

   15. Doors

   16. Sun RPC

   Epilogue

   Appendix A. Performance Measurements

   Appendix B. Threads Primer

   Appendix C. Miscellaneous Source Code

   Appendix D. Solutions to Selected Exercises

   Bibliography

   Index

   This is the third and least of Stevens' three books on UNIX programming (he also coauthored a multi-volume work on TCP). It is the not the least because it is necessarily the worst, but because it has the shortest and has the narrowest application domain.

   Having said it is the least, it remains a work of the highest quality in an industry that is notable for the huge quantity of bad books that it produces. The structure of this book will be familiar to readers of his prior two books: the lowest-level building block around which Stevens structures the book is the individual function call. For each call (or minor variations on a single call), he provides the C prototype, and then, in text, explains what the function does, what it's arguments are for, and then provides a small C program that demonstrates it in action (all of the sample programs can also be downloaded from the web). These function-level building blocks are arranged into related sets, each of which is a chapter in the book. Each chapter has a wrapper that explains the basic concepts behind the functions in that chapter, and some review exercises at the end. The chapters in turn build on each other, with the most basic ones at the beginning and the more difficult ones towards the end.

   In spite of the book's many positive qualities, one thing that this book brings to light, however, is that there is a thread-sized hole in Stevens' UNIX writings. "Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment" had a great deal of information about processes, but nothing about threads. "UNIX Network Programming: Volume 1", discussed multi-threaded socket programs, but didn't go into any depth on threading. This volume, although it discusses thread synchronization, only touches on general threading issues. Thus, the works, taken as a group, go into some of the important issues and uses of threading without giving the reader a solid grounding in the subject. As threading increases in frequency, this deficiency has grown in importance.

   Another difference between this book and its predecessors is that it deals with an area where standards are much weaker than the others; thus, the chapters often have to explain different implementations for accomplishing a task rather than building a basic-to-advanced sequence. This obviously is in no way Stevens' fault, but many readers will find that half the book, which is already the thinnest of Stevens' programming books, is concerned with API's which do not exist on their platform of interest.

   To sum up, while this review clearly shows the reservations I have about this book compared to its predecessors, it must still be stressed that Stevens' is a technical author of the highest level. If you do have a need to understand any of the subjects in this book, you won't find a better teacher from which to learn it, and that is why I am still giving the book five stars.




3. The real power of UNIX or any application for that matter is in interprocess communication. I found early on that to accomplish any large project would require the cooperation of interprocess communication. Now I find that simple administration skills also require knowledge of this interprocess communication.
   
   My first foray into the field was to use semaphores to flag processes to run at the proper time. Later I needed to use pipes for a front-end in communication to SNA. Again I found IPC's could help inform and control processes that were in canned packages and not accessible any other way. The list of useful tools can go on and on. I also had to find the NT equivalent as it became popular.
   
   UNIX is still out there in many forms and if one is to survive in the field an understanding of interprocess communications is imperative.
   
   The Abbreviated Table of Contents:
   Part 1. Introduction
   1. Introduction
   2. POSIX IPC
   3. System V IPC
   Part 2. Message Passing
   4. Pipes and FIFOs
   5. Posix Message Queues
   6. System V Message Queues
   Part 3. Synchronization
   7. Mutexes and Condition Variables
   8. Read-Write Locks
   9. Record Locking
   10. POSIX Semaphores
   11. System V Semaphores
   Part 4. Shared Memory
   12. Shared Memory Introduction
   13. POSIX Shared Memory
   14. System V Shared Memory
   Part 5. Remote Procedure Calls
   15. Doors
   16. Sun RPC
   Epilogue
   Appendix A. Performance Measurements
   Appendix B. Threads Primer
   Appendix C. Miscellaneous Source Code
   Appendix D. Solutions to Selected Exercises
   Bibliography
   Index
   
   One final note is that with systems dispersed globally Remote Procedures Calls are taking precedence in Interprocess communications.



4. I cannot fathom a guess as to how many times the books in this series have saved my in project work over the years. The only drawback with this series is that some publisher should endeavor to keep them up to date. Serious Unix system programmers must have copies of the complete series.



5. Programming UNIX or Linux networks is a piece of cake with these books. You need the set, Vol 1 & 2.
   
   As a professional programmer of 20 years I use the book as a refernce for all my new programs. I have used the books to break into the world of VoIP and audio CODEC network programming.

5 comments about Practical C# Charts and Graphics.

1. Pratical C# Charts and Graphics is an excellent book for those who are interested in learning and using graphic plotting and charting skills. The various problems (examples)introduced require a fair level of mental dexterity and previously learned C# programming skills. Some examples require a good understanding of Trigonometry and Geometry.
   
   I would recommend that it be used both as a learning and reference tool.



2. This is a book very suitable for a c# beginner and it provides a set of code that can be applied in real life. I really learned a lot from it.



3. Hi,
   
   I am learning lot from this book. This is really helpful.
   
   Thank you
   
   Sri



4. This is a great resource. Like other have said, it fills in a blank space in NOT JUST the C# world, but programming in general. 3-D Charts are usually just sold by those who know how to make them - very little exists for those who want to know the best algorithms for making them. This book (and accompanying code) is a fairly comprehensive resource on efficient algorithms in that area.
   
   The accompanying code (Chart3d / 2d lib) is very nice. There are a few dohs! in the Chart3Dlib that I've noticed, that are easily fixed (modifying the original data while performing graphing computations). Comments are present, and the code is well written and understandable.



5. The title says it all: this book is about teaching you how to do charting in C# and it does it very well. From 2D to 3D, most typical charts are covered. The math transforms and data-structures are gradually introduced to give you a fully working charting library that you'll know in and out. Very valuable.
   
   Note: I initially had trouble finding the code for download. An email to the author quickly resolved the issue. Thanks for the support.

5 comments about Beginning ASP.NET 2.0 with C# (Wrox Beginning Guides).

1. Book arrived very quickly and in excellent condition. Would definitely purchase from this seller again. Thanks!



2. Sorry, this book is great if you are a drag and drop type of web programmer. I think it is great that visual studio allows the ability to virtually drag and drop and entire data driven website. But my problem is that if you don't understand the code behind it, when something breaks you can't fix it since I am unaware of any drag and drop tools that do that for you.
   
   
   
   My point being this book should have been titled. "asp.net with c# only using the free visual web developer IDE for people who don't want to know what the c# code really looks like or how to write programs with it."
   
   
   
   The only reason I gave it 2 stars and not 1 is because my gripes aside, they do enforce a lot of Best Practice in the excercises.



3. As hard as I tried, I just couldn't connect with this book. I prefer either a straight ahead reference book or a clear, step-by-step tutorial-style book in which the reader learns by building a complete project. However, this book didn't seem to fill either role.
   
   Though there is a project (the Wrox United web site), the examples at times seem a bit muddy and without context to the complete project. I can't say this is a bad book, as I did glean some useful information from it (good coverage on themes and data controls, but almost no code until chapter 9). But after finishing the book, I didn't really feel that I came away with a good grasp of what I had read as a whole. In comparison, "Build Your Own ASP.NET 2.0 Web Site Using C# & VB" is a book I feel delivers a clearly written step-by-step tutorial.
   
   My overall impression of the book my be due to my learning style not matching the style of the book, or due to the fact that I'm not a "beginning" programmer. In any case, "Beginning ASP.NET 2.0 with C#" might make a good second book, but I'm not sure that I'd recommend it as a starting point.



4. At 700+ pages this text contains way too much fluff and filler to be a useful guide to the beginning ASP developer. It's basically a "Visual Web Developer for Dummies" kind of book, only heavier and more wordy. Its target seems to be the totally clueless "developer" who doesn't even know enough C# syntax to save his life. Now, it's true that Visual Studio will allow you to generate a mediocre web site without having to write a significant amount of code yourself, but does it really makes sense to encourage someone to try ASP web development before he has a decent background in C# or VB? I think that is forming code monkeys, not programmers.
   Anyhow, to be fair this book has some qualities that I liked, apart from a general vagueness the explanations are quite clear, the "try it out" sections detailed enough, and I especially appreciated the fact that the book uses both small standalone examples and a more comprehensive example website developed piecemeal along the book to illustrate the various ASP.NET aspects and features. Finally what really puzzles me is, I know Wrox has an unhealthy love for multiple author's book, but did it really take 4 people to write an ASP.NET intro for dummies?



5. This is a great book for getting started with ASP.Net. Every chapter is filled with codes to try along with the CD to help you out. Does not cover everything but that would be impossible in one book.

5 comments about A is for America.

1. This is a very good book. I purchased it for my daughter's fifth birthday. The illustrations are very well done. The text flows well with an almost sing-song rhythm. There are also explanations on the side for places and ideas mentioned in the main text. But can someone tell me where Mt. Rainier is in the picture? I can't see it. An example of the main text is "V is for Veterans and the valor they displayed in vying for vital victories and the sacrifices they made. V is for Virginia and Vermont and Vikings, too. It seems they got here long before Columbus was able to."



2. This book crams too many bizarre things onto its pages. Also I didn't think the author used the best choices for some of the letters. I was very disappointed when I saw this book since it had gotten good reviews. I advise getting "America is.." (Borden/Schuett) instead.



3. I really like this book. It's been in my 5-year-old's collection for about 2 years now, and it still get pulled down and read every few weeks.

   Devin Scillian has done a fantastic job of using events and facts from just about every imaginable facet of American life, both well-known and obscure. For example, the book mentions the YMCA, Harriet Tubman, "The Twilight Zone", Kellogg's Rice Krispies, Hoover Dam, and egrets. That's on top of many major cities, states, and historical events.

   The book layout features a very interesting two-tiered system. The main flow of the book is carried by a series of 4-line verses, one per letter. This portion is suitable for reading to pre-readers. Along the sides of each page, relevant factoids are given, further illuminating the main verse. This makes the book hold appeal for older readers, probably even up to 4th or 5th graders.

   Pam Carroll's well-drawn illustrations are very "busy", but not in a bad way; my boy enjoys hunting for all the listed items. Adults can get a chuckle noticing the curious juxtapositions, such as Huck Finn reading a Hemingway novel on the "H" page, or, on the "N" page, Norman Rockwell painting Neil Armstrong, while both are on the moon.

   I found this book to be an utter delight. Highly Recommended.




4. We received this as a gift when our son was born. We loved it so much we have started collecting all of the "Discover America State By State. Alphabet Series" books. While our son is way too young to appreciate the artwork and history the rhyming is great and have found these to be great before bed and naptime books. We look forward to expanding our "Alphabet Series" library as our son grows.



5. As an educator I enjoy using this book in my classroom. I have used it with second, third and fifth graders as it also compliments our state standards. It is refreshing to see an ABC book that is great for older children. The illustration are beautiful and the vocabulary used has a wide range of difficulty for English language learners as well. I own one of the other books in this series and will be purchasing many more to get a complete set. I just love them!

5 comments about HTML: A Beginner's Guide, Third Edition.

1. I purchased this book for an Introduction to Web course and found it to be an excellent resource. Some chapters are more detailed than others but overall, it was extremely helpful. There are lots of examples throughout the book as well as excellent chapter reviews. I would highly recommend this book to anyone just starting out learning HTML.



2. Having no knowledge of code, this book was great. I created my whole site with code...rather than having dreamweaver create it for me! I would recommend it to anyone just learning about website creation.



3. this book was a good beginner's html book. if you're coming from a programming background though, you'll be able to tell that it was not written by a programmer (which she herself admits to). but that's okay, since you end up learning the subject material anyway.
   
   i had to subtract a star because there were some misstatements (e.g. writing 'attribute' instead of 'property') and quite a few code mistakes, as another reviewer pointed out.
   
   i don't agree with the 2 star reviews. this book is a lot better than that.



4. I was facing HTML issues like making banners, adding code to pages made on templates and embedding video files in my blog, so I bought this book.
   
   You'd think all those things would be in it, but only the third is. The word "banners" isn't even in the index. Neither is "templates."
   
   These are very "now" issues for people like me. I strongly recommend the next edition be more thorough.
   
   CSS is also invoked more frequently than it is explained. This needs work.
   
   I do not wish to discourage the author. I just think the next volume could improve over this one in key ways.
   
   I also do not care for the use of the author's favorite camp and school for all the examples. I admire her enthusiasm but found it tedious. I suspect most people would not be bothered, however.
   
   Issues pertaining to blogs could be expanded.
   
   For me, a three star book. Useful, but I'll have to buy supplements.



5. it's a very helpful book especially for begginers like me.. it helped me alot excell in what im learning in school.

3 comments about Eclipse Web Tools Platform: Developing Java(TM) Web Applications.

1. Though I have had some experience in Java, Eclipse, and WTP, a recent project required me to get more into depth. This book got me through the whole development process. It explained to me clean coding techniques when writing web apps in Java, how to get my web server up and running for use with WTP, to get my apps to talk to the server, debugging using different tools, and unit testing in a web environment.
   
   This book was an invaluable addition to my collection, and is also a great reference now that I have mastered these concepts.



2. Eclipse Web Tools Platform: Developing Java(TM) Web Applications
   
   This is an excellent book; I specially liked the iterative approach (for example, for presentation tier, iteration 1: HTML, iteration 2: add CSS, iteration 3: add Javascripts, iteration 4: XML and XSLT, iteration 5: DTD)authors have taken. I have used examples from this book, with Eclipse and NetBeans, of course for Eclipse user this book has added value, since it goes through configuration of Eclipse and recommended practices. Please ignore the gripe about errors in the code; there are two minor errors which are detailed in the errata on book's companion site, it doesn't take more than a minute to fix those two issues.
   
   Authors discuss All three tiers in great detail. How about this, by page 85 you would be deploying a simple web service (and you would be amazed how simple it is).



3. To give a brief background about myself. I have been one of the primary contributor and committer of the Web Tools Platform (WTP) eclipse tools project since its inception through WTP 1.5 release. I contributed the Validation Framework component for this project. I read a large portion of this book and can say that this most comprehensive book that explains the complete WTP in a step by step fashion that can be help you easily understand the whole WTP project, its sub projects, its components and features through several real world examples. I strongly recommend this book to all users and contributors of WTP.
   
   Vijay Bhadriraju, IBM

No comments about Practical Prototype and script.aculo.us (Practical Series).

5 comments about Essential Software Architecture.

1. This book attempts to bridge the gap between the needs of professional software architects and the current body of knowledge in software architecture. It aims to convey the essence of architecture thinking, practices and supporting technologies and provides concise discussions about the issues, techniques and methods in architectural practices. It also describes and analyzes the general purpose component and middleware technologies that support many of the fundamental architectural patterns used in applications.
   As an introductory textbook it is very useful for (to be) ICT professionals and students.



2. My Master's project deals with Software Architecture best practices and I turned to this book to help formulate my thoughts. The chapter on Middleware architectures is a valuable read and serves as a unifying framework for thinking about middleware in the architectural sense. The case study used in the book is helpful as well. Overall, you will find this book an excellent introduction to Software Architecture (with a nice dive into middleware and other topics not readily found in other SA books) and a nice read to go along with the other Software Architecture classics from the SEI.



3. Get this book if you're interested in seeing UML 2 applied to software architecture specification. In any case, it gives a good overview of architecting with emerging technologies as well as state-of-the-industry middleware.



4. Simply put, this book is a managerial turd that it truly about nothing important, in idiomatic Java buzzwords, *in the abstract*
   
   His case study is of an application that is discussed abstractly in superficial detail, and has the worst possible architecture for the problem space -- but it utilizes piles of Software Architecture(tm)!
   
   This book is not fit for use in academia, at all. It imparts next to no information, much less knowledge or thesis. It is, however, perfect if you need to be able to talk to the managers below and above you in the org chart at the poorly-run company you've become complacent in.



5. I found the subject matter of the book to be complex in a conceptual manner. Designing large systems is not simple because of the interaction between all of the subsystems that inter-relate to make the system work. I think the information is well worth the read because all good knowledge comes from cognitive work. I personally found that the best way to read this book was to relate that topics that were being discussed with a project that I was working on while using the example case as an added source of cognition.
   
   I feel that this is an incredibly useful resource for those who have to design systems from the "ground up". It has several best practices and examples of where things can go wrong.
   
   I feel this is well worth a read.