5 comments about Bundle of Algorithms in Java, Third Edition, Parts 1-5: Fundamentals, Data Structures, Sorting, Searching, and Graph Algorithms (3rd Edition).

1. First is Knuth, second is Corman that brings the art of algorithms closer to earth. Then is Sedgewick. This book provides very good balance between theory and practice and lets the practitioners know that programming is a bit more than just writing "if" and "for" and that the art of algorithms is not only art but also science. This book evolved from early editions (Algorithms in C, 1990) and keeps the standard. These two volumes is the must for every serious programmer.
   
   Cons: Java code is a bit "C-ish" and makes it clear that it is easy to write C program in Java. In addition, section Geometric Algorithms from 1990 edition and other material following this section is missing in newer editions. Maybe this material will be included in Volume 3, that as rumor says, is in preparation.



2. This series is a treasure to keep. The book is filled with great diagrams and very easy to understand language.



3. These text(s) do for the software engineer what Cormen's book does for the scientist. To be knowledgable with algorithms will greatly seperate you from a novice.
   
   Very good examples and using Java is very smart because most OO programmers can easily understand the language (C# is practically identical).
   
   For those who struggle with the Cormen book, (Like I did) it would do you well to get this book. You will refer to it time and time again in your career as a software developer while the Cormen book collects dust on the shelf.



4. This book is a total mess, I don't know if it's the author or the publisher but is written in a style that got me really frustrated.
   
   The author has the bad habit of start explaining a thing a little bit (not enough to fully understand it) then say something like "we will cover this topic in depth in chapter 7", and you are in chapter 2. This sort of jump back and forth is completely frustrating, the book doesn't seem to have any kind of flow. The same technique is used inside a chapter too, you start reading about something then the author start diverging in the middle of the topic to come back after few pages.
   
   The code samples are a total mess, it's just really bad. I mean common, read any introductory book in software development and you get warned in the first chapter not to name your variables i,j,v i1...just give them a meaningful name.
   Every time I read sample code in this book I had to spent at least 20 minutes deciphering what the variables are suppose to be, why the author define variables that are not used at all or they don't have any kind of effect on the end result (yes, I did found a whole bunch of these). If you don't know Java or don't care to follow any of Java standards fine, write C code or something, at least I will be prepared to read obfuscated code.
   
   I give this book 2 stars, it has after all a lot of information in it, even if it is scattered all over the place



5. Great book on Datastructures. Much verbose than the other books. But the java example in this book are horrible, particularly the variables used. Just letters are used as variables, instead of appropriate names, making it very hard to follow the example.
   
   So overall, I would suggest buying Adam Drozdek's algorithm book.

5 comments about SCJP Exam for J2SE 5: A Concise and Comprehensive Study Guide for The Sun Certified Java Programmer Exam.

1. This certification study-resource from Author: Paul Sanghera is a great tool for quickly getting up to speed in java with a view to taking the java programmer exam! As someone who recently succeeded at the SCJP 1.5 exam, i can vouch for this book. The following review is thus for those interested in preparing for the exam and not quite sure whether this book is the right tool for the job.
   
   As a green-horn in Java, I found the following 2 exam-study resources very useful in learning how to program in java, and taking the Sun Certified Java Programmer for J2SE5 certification:
   (Book 1.) SCJP Exam for J2SE 5. - (SCJP E5)
   (Book 2.) SCJP Study Guide. - (SCJP SG)
   
   Note: (due to review real-estate constraints, i shall limit this review to (Book 1) ie: [SCJP E5 (Sanghera)] -( the current book in question). you'll find a (Book 2) review on the customer review page for : SCJP SG
   
   Like most new-comers to java, I wanted to get-up to speed in java rather quickly. Therefore, the (SCJP E5) book from Sanghera was chosen as the first reading-reference, as it seemed concise, compact & condensed. However, if i had to do things-over, and choose which one book to use in order to scale the SCJP 1.5 exam -(whilst learning the Java language as well), I'd pick the [SCJP SG] from Sierra & Bates.
   
   Here's why...
   
   About the (SCJP E5) book : this book is great for beginners. i found that it brought me up to speed quickly Re: java, as well as preparing for the exam. However, unless you have previous knowledge & experience coding in java, you might need another book for deeper clarity and more rigor regarding 5 SCJP1.5 exam-objective related areas, viz:
   (1.) - Generics
   (2.) - Threading
   (3.) - I/O + Regular Expressions + Parsing
   (4.) - Packages + Jar Files & Static Imports
   (5.) - Exceptions
   
   Note that: while the 5 exam-objectives above are quite well treated in the (SCJP E5) Sanghera book, I found that the (SCJP SG) Sierra & Bates book, provided the finer level of details that i believe a beginner might further require in order to have a better grasp Re: these 5 exam-objectives cited above (AND) (the questions in the real exam do require this further finesse with those details).
   
   Otherwise, with the material in this book alone and without any hands-on experience, i reckon, a beginner might struggle a bit to pass the real exam by a comfortable margin.
   
   and this is why i cant give the book alone all 5 points of credit. (I would however award 4.5 points!)
   
   Upon completing the book, any access to good exam-revision practise material would be very useful in order to pass at the exam-level. while the (SCJP E5) book features useful questions and answers at the end of every chapter, as well as a further round of 73 questions in Appendix-D of the book; I believe people preparing for the exam would find it useful to seek out further resources for exam-question practise & revision purposes .
   
   As review-space is short, i shall include below only 2 of the exam-revision resources which really helped prepare for the actual exam (for details Re: The other key resource used, u might want to refer to the customer review posting for (Book 1): SCJP SG
   
   u might want to check these out:
   (1.) "Tiger notes" on JavaRanch. look under the SCJP FAQ section for : [Mikalai Zaikin's SCJP Tiger notes ]. You can get a paperback copy of notes similar to these on Amazon if you prefer. lookup: Java 1.5 Tiger. However, i'd advise that you use it only as a prep-extra, just to cross-check certain topical-details you may need to clarify ie: (java: "Exceptions"). I wouldn't recommend it as your sole & unique study guide.[ kittybooboo's notes ] on JavaRanch are also quite good.
   
   (2.) Turn to a SCJP Group for advice on the forums. They represent people in the same boat as those trying to prepare for and pass the SCJP exam. here are 2 such groups you can join.(Yahoogroups): Google: [" tech groups yahoo + scjp5" ]; (Another is): Google:[ "jchq + net" ] (-OR-) if you are preparing for the SCJP 1.4:( scjp 1.4 groups ) : Google:[ "uk groups yahoo + java_balk" ] ps: a good book for SCJP 1.4 is :A Programmer's Guide to Java Cert
   
   (3:) refer to my customer review posting for (Book 1) ie: SCJP Study Guide
   
   Schedule, Sit and Ace the exam in 2hrs:55mins, when you've finished with these various exam-practise questions and study-guides.
   The exam is comprised of 72 questions of which several are fashioned as drag & drop coding-scenario questions. Although, the pass mark is 59%, I think most people -(myself included!), view the exam as tough, because of its code intensive nature. I think reading, tackling & spotting possible coding errors in code-samples 6-30 lines long is tough under such time-constrained exam conditions, Plus, No credit is given for partial answers. However, on the up-side, it is do-able with the appropriate revision preparation regime.
   
   Curiously, in comparison, the previous SCJP exam ie: the SCJP 1.4 exam, is comprised of 61 questions , for which one has 2hrs to complete. Plus, the pass mark is 52%. That exam, is generally deemed to be an easier exam compared with the SCJP 1.5 exam; at least so attests certain in the user-community on JavaRanch.
   
   for those wondering, i took the SCJP 1.5 exam on March 19th 2007. the passing-score achieved was: 98% ie: (71 out of 72 questions ). The pass-mark is 59%.
   
   Good Luck!
   
   next stops: SCBCD, SCWCD, SCEA, SCJWSD.
   
   Cheers :-)



2. I have just passed the SCJP for J2SE 5 exam largely after preparing from this book. However, to be on the safe side it might be good idea to consider using more than one resource to prepare for this exam, because the exam is certainly not a walk in the park. I have read all the three SCJP for Java 5 study guides from cover to cover. So I would like to share my experience with these study guides in the context of both the exam and learning Java:
   
   "SCJP Exam for J2SE 5" (this book) by Paul Sanghera.
   I found this Study Guide the best among all, especially for the beginners. As another reviewer said the author has the unique approach of saying only what is necessary. He also has the skill of making difficult concepts easy to understand without compromising accuracy. The material is organized in such a manner that we also learn Java while preparing for the Exam. Because everything is explained from scratch, and there is no hopping from topic to topic, this book is especially suitable for the beginners. Here are some features in the book that I especially liked:
   
   * All concepts are clearly defined and explained by using visuals where necessary. It makes this book self-contained.
   *Tons of code examples explained in the book, which I downloaded from the book website and experimented with them to build confidence.
   * The Exam Quick Prep appendix. I went through this just before the exam to refresh all the important points quickly.
   * Exam's Eye View, Caution, and Notes throughout all chapters, which re-enforced important points.
   * An appendix that provides useful information and analysis for those who are considering updating the J2SE 1.4 certification to J2SE 5.
   If you are a beginner, this is your book. If you are an advanced Java programmer, this book will still take you through the exam without boring you.
   Bottom line: I agree with another reviewer that books like these are hard to find.
   
   "SCJP for Java 5" by Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates.
   This is a good book for advanced Java programmers, but rather over-hyped. If you are planning to buy two books to prepare for the SCJP exam, this is the second book I will recommend. However, this is NOT the book for the beginners. If you do not have intensive Java programming experience, do not use this book as your first book. If you want to use this book, first study Sanghera's book.
   
   "Complete Java 2 Certification" by Phil Heller and Simon Roberts.
   If you want to buy three SCJP for Java 5 study guides, this is the third one I will recommend. It does not do justice with some of the exam objectives. Overall exam coverage is not that great, but you will learn some Java topics.



3. This was the only book I bought and I passed the cert. I found the book to be generally good. I felt a couple of the examples were poor. For instance on page 141 the finding the area of different shapes, a classic example of where one should use polymorphism, the book provides an example of overloading operators. Yes, in the sense the code is "correct" but I find the misuse to be confusing. There are a number of items including some questions in the review exam that are just wrong. That is if you type the code in and run it you don't get what the book claims that you should. These do not seem numerous and I have not found any certification material that is without this sort of problem. The reality of preparing for the test is that if someones answer doesn't make sense you have to test it for yourself. It would be nice if publishers would hire someone to go cut and paste all of the code into a compiler and find this stuff.
   
   More importantly there is not enough material on generics and there is only ONE practice exam.
   
   Having complained I should and that the text is readable and helpful in preparing for the cert. I found it to be a good starting point for my preparations.



4. In the beginning of the year, Java equals "null" to me ( I know C/C++). I decided to learn the language and take the SCJP as a measure of my learning. I tried the Deitel book but didn't like it. Then I started to read the Kathy Sierra book, but they assume you know the basics (not my case). Due to the comments of one of the reviewers, I bought this book and liked it very much. I read it twice, tried all examples, fragments and tests and then went back to the Sierra book, which is more comprehensive (it is a much bigger book), has better explanations of generics and threads and has more tricky questions. I was able to pass the SCJP exam this month thanks to these two very good books.
   I do not give 5 stars due to the presence of several typos and some other minor errors in the text. These errata are not yet in the book site, but as you are studying for the exam, you will spot then when you compile or cross-check with the SUN Java documentation. But these are a small nuisance considering the overall value of the book.



5. your reading this based on my rating '1' stars.
   
   The book starts off good and explains OOP (abit) but the ending chapters which is the important stuff is like a "quick cram", you know, if your buying this book to get your SCJP - well, you need to know java, because in the interview you will be asked questions and your general knowledge of java will only do.
   
   if you know java GREAT - buy it, read it and after a few weeks of 'reading' - take the exam. CONGRATS
   
   BUT -- Please save yr/self the time which is the most important, to click the 'back' button on IE7 and search for a more complete title.
   
   just my input

1 comments about Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007: Comprehensive Concepts and Techniques (Shelly Cashman).

1. My product was just as described and forwarded quickly. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this seller!

5 comments about Sams Teach Yourself ASP.NET 2.0 in 24 Hours, Complete Starter Kit (Sams Teach Yourself).

1. Scott Mitchell is a very good author and has a great deal of ASP knowledge. This book took me from knowing absolutely nothing and a few days later I was creating a Web application for my company (and it actually works). The data explanations are very good.
   
   The book does not detail ALL the web server controls, but a good majority of them. The details that it does lack you can easily pick up from the author's web site.
   
   I also have the ASP for dummies book, but it does not compare to this one.



2. shipped and arrived really fast and the other 2 books i had ordered, it turned out i didn't need them and amazon took them back without any problems and i got my refund. this book is great!! thanks amazon!



3. I don't often review books but I felt I had to on this one. Coming from a classic ASP background I think this book really helped me get my feet wet in ASP.Net 2.0. It had easy to understand examples on using the IDE to accomplish a lot of the common things you would normally do while developing.
   
   Granted, the book does not get deep into best development practices or higher level concepts such as Data Access Layers and different types of databases and methods for accessing them. What it does do, is give you a very good starting point if you've never done any .Net development.
   
   After you absorb this book and understand what you can do, you can move onto a more full featured ASP.Net book that covers a lot more.
   
   I actually emailed the author and asked what book he would recommend next and he pointed me in the right direction. Overall a good book to start with.



4. This is as close as I ever hope to come to a perfect how to do it book.
   If you know anything about programming with almost any GUI IDE, this book (alone)will teach you how to build complete, functional, real-life, non-trivial, database, web sites and applications.
   
   It requires no extra purchase. It does have examples for Access mdb files, Microsoft SQL databases and MySQL. Except for Access, the other databases are no-cost free downloads.
   
   It uses and includes the Microsoft Visual Web 2005 Developer IDE.
   
   If you are not familiar with SQL it will get you off to a useful start but you will soon need some additional help there. I recommend Beginning ASP.NET 2.0 Databases by Damien Foggon.
   
   It will not teach a non-programmer anything useful.
   It is NOT a "You can" book that tells you what can be done but not how to do it.
   It is NOT copied from the help files.
   It will not teach you HTML, XML, or any other *ML. It will show them and explain what they are.
   
   Unfortunately ( Its only failing in my opinion. ) it does not show you how to publish the web sites you create. The author would argue that that is a topic for another book and I can't really argue with that opinion.
   
   It does start at the beginning with how to use the IDE. It provides examples of every step required to create complete web based sites/applications with database support. including how to use and customize all the commonly used windows controls. It also includes user access control.
   
   It is especially good for a VB programmer who wants to move from client side applications to web based browser/dot.net applications.
   
   Way to go, Scott!



5. I'm only about 1/3 of the way through this book (I just finished hour 8) and am already frustrated with it. It seems to be a book all about how to use Visual Web Developer, not about how to program for ASP.NET. It relies completely on the tool to generate all your code, and rarely shows you the resulting VB.NET code, only the HTML that gets generated once you execute it. If you want to learn how to program in the ASP.NET world, you're better off with a book on VB.NET or C#.NET, as this book doesn't cover it well.

5 comments about Fortran 90/95 for Scientists and Engineers.

1. I have found this book to be an excellent, outstanding reference. My only complaint is that the index was occasionally not detailed enough to allow me to easily locate a specific topic for which I was looking; on occasion I've had to page through a section to find what I'm looking for. (This review refers to the first edition, although the second edition is now out so this may have been corrected.) Otherwise, I've found it far superior to the two other Fortran books I've used. It contains many examples. In my view it's excellent as both a F77 and F90/95 reference.



2. This is probably one of the worst programming books I have ever used. The index is terrible, which turns finding any random info into a page by page scavenger hunt. There are very few tables which give nice breakdown of parameters and what not, as the author prefered to scatter information about a single function call through two or three chapters. The "scientific and engineering" aspect of programming is so spoon fed it really does nothing to enhance understanding of the subject.
   
   Further if you are new to programming this book will do more harm than good. In trying to explain the concept of a loop, showing how to count to 10 is a much better example than calculating sin( x) by series expansion. After all, if you have the math background to do such a thing, and even a small amount of programming know how ( gathered from GOOD reference books ) you can do this kind of stuff without the author pretty much telling you what algorythm to use. The extra effort to code the sin(x) example, therefore, just gets in the way and muddies up the original point of the example ( to demonstrate a loop in this case. )
   
   I was introduced to this book in a college physics programming course and was amazed at how horrible this book was for teaching the subject. Students with little to no programming experience ( but plenty of physics experience )were lost and confused because the examples do a poor job of showing you what they are suposed to, and those with already good programming skills in other languages about died from paper cuts searching through the book by hand to find the syntax of the print function. A poor book all the way around. After some searching it appears that a good "Teach yourself Fortran 90 in 21 days," type book is hard to come by, but that ( imo ) is what fortran really needs to make it accessible to potential new users of the language, since meshing the actual 'language' and the 'for scientists and engineers' stuff just makes everything more complicated than it needs to be for a reference book. The only scientific/math/programming book I ever actually sold back to the college when the course was over.



3. It is outrightly silly to rate this excellent book one star and insinuate that it is a terrible write-up. Is it the thin index that makes it so bad, or the explanation of do loops using sin(x) series expansion, according to the first reviewer? If you are a scientist or an engineer (the target audience of the book) you'll probably see the wisdom of such an example instead of counting from 1 to 10 as if we are inside a grocery store.
   
   This is an excellent book not just for sake of learning the fortran language but also for writing modern and easily maintanable codes and algorithms. Whether you are a "pure" or "hybrid" programmer, you couldn't ever ask for something more.
   I am sure the author will subsequently improve the indexing since most people seem to take an offence in that but the contents are just right.Of course Metcalf/Reid (Fortran 90/95 Explained) is also a very good text but is largely for reference purposes. Metcalf/Reid DOES NOT and will not teach you the nitty-gritty of fortran programming. In Metcalf/Reid, you must already have been there in programming, but Chapman will gradually take you to whatever level you deisre, depending on what you need. Very importantly, Chapman sprinkles throughout the text, several scientific and engineering examples and I guess it is why the text was so named in the first place - Fortran 90/95 for Scientists and Engineers.
   
   It doesn't matter if you figure that you are way too cerebral and that Chapman is too simplistic for you. If you ever want to venture into programming, chances are that you are not an imbecile and any additional little knowledge gained is always an eternal treasure. This is an excellent text for programming in Fortran 90/95 and you'll be grateful that you did own a copy. Period.



4. Despite some of the negative comments on this book, I bought it anyway. The remarks that this is not a reference manual is unjust. Chapman never claims that the book is supposed to be a reference manual, so don't expect one. The book is written for those who begin to learn Fortran 95 or want to upgrade their skills to make the transition from Fortran 77.
   
   The build-up of the book is excellent. After every Chapter I had the feeling I learned something new, and understood how the Fortran 95 features would help me code more efficiently than in Fortran 77 (which I have done for about 20 years). The exercises and examples help a lot in that direction and I really appreciate the way in which Chapman uses real-life problems, like sorting names or phone numbers, or small physics problems.
   
   It has been said in reviews that the index is marginal, but that is clearly fixed in the Second Edition (the index is 20 pages long). Another suggestion that the examples are too simple is also unjust. I've learned quite a bit from them. Don't forget that it is no use to make the examples and exercises so difficult that they become untractable.
   
   On the critical side I can add a few items of discontent:
   - There are quite a few typos and errors in the book and despite the reference to the publishers website where errata should be found, that website doesn't even seem to know that the Second Edition exists. All the material there is for the first edition.
   - I do not see the use for providing flowcharts AND pseudo code next to the actual Fortran 95 code. The pseudo code is so much like the real code that it is just a waste of space. Flowcharts would suffice.
   - Chapman gets a bit repetitive at times. At the end of each Chapter it repeats the "Good practices" and the newly introduced commands and statements basically verbatim from earlier in that Chapter. Also each Quiz quite annoyingly starts with the sentence "This quiz provides a quick check to see if you understand the concepts introduced in this section......"
   
   Overall "Fortran 90/95 for Scientists and Engineers" lives up to its title. Assuming that Fortran 95 is mostly used by scientists and engineers this is a really good book to start learning Fortran 95. At the end of it you will be able to write efficient and correct Fortran 95 code.



5. I am currently enrolled in a course called high performance computing and this was the recommended text. I basically do not anything about computers let alone programming itself. This course was a 3rd yr maths subject. I found this book really easy to read, I could pick up the concepts and logic behind it all pretty easily and be right into the discussion within seconds. Lots of examples and test cases with concepts explained pretty clearly, even questions that you are likely to ask are all answered. If you never learnt to program, or new to fortran, this is the THE book to read. I pretty much just read this book and teach myself, I find it alot more use of my time than going lectures when I can just read fortran in my time. just for the record, look up fortan in wikipedia, this text is the first reference.

5 comments about Teach Yourself VISUALLY Photoshop Elements 4 (Teach Yourself VISUALLY (Tech)).

1. It was hard to use and understand.



2. This book containes lots of pretty pictures but not a lot of helpful information on the "how to" details for someone new to the process.



3. Easy to read and understand. Just what I was looking for.



4. I use to take lots of photos and like to edit them.
   So, lear to edit was my objective last months.
   And this book help me to do this in a very easy way.
   With lots os images and tips, and with a superior text, it was a pleasure to learn using it!



5. I really like the "Teach Yourself Visually" computer books. I have a collection which includes a selection of all the popular "For Dummies" and similar computer guides, and the "Teach Yourself Visually" is by far the easiest for me to understand. The digital photography programs are very hard for me to learn, and this book helped a lot.

1 comments about Schaum's Outline of Computer Architecture.

1. Quite frankly, I was surprised at the usefulness of this Schaum's outline. I didn't think that the Schaum's outline format would work for a subject like computer architecture, but it does. All aspects of computer architecture are covered from computer arithmetic to processor design to memory systems to the advanced topic of multiprocessing. The format of the outline is a little different from the Schaum's usual formula. Each chapter consists of an "Objectives" section, followed by an introduction, followed by the various subsections of that chapter. There are examples and exercises on instruction set design, program design, block diagrams, and quite a few mathematical problems. This book is probably best suited to the advanced undergraduate or for self-study of the subject. If you are a graduate student that is using Hennessy's "Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach" the level of difficulty of the mathematical problems in that book is not matched by this one, and you should look for another source. Otherwise I recommend this guide for most students of computer architecture.

5 comments about Joe Celko's SQL for Smarties: Advanced SQL Programming Third Edition (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Data Management Systems).

1. As a DBA not doing so much with SQL this book is and has already been a great help for me creating complex queries.



2. Some of the concepts are a little lofty for the casual SQL programmer, but it is SQL for Smarties not dummies. He gives a lot of SQL code in his examples, but does not show the results of the code in a screen shot that I believe would be most helpful.
   
   Overall, I like the book and would buy it again given the opportunity.



3. I've seen various versions of this book sitting on DBA bookshelves for years. The concept is a good one - advanced sql for those of us who already have significant experience.
   
   This book is NOT an advanced SQL textbook. Another reviewer, Tim Boyes, describes it as "SQL 201", and he's exactly right. Most of the content in this book is just barely above basic SQL knowledge, and half the time I felt like I was reading a re-hash of SQL BOL.
   
   Another thing that I noticed (how could I miss it?) was the almost incomprehensible arrogance of the author, particularly when he compares the use of IDENTITY to drug abuse. Come on, Joe. That's just insulting.
   
   This one's going back to Amazon.



4. This is one of those books that are perhaps nice to have IN ADDITION to something better. Btw, do NOT overestimate the "for smarties" part in the title: the book is not all that advanced: it's more like an extensive cookbook with a lot of personal opinion thrown in (not always consistent; for example, in one place he inveighs against the evils of using sequential-number sequences as primary keys -- 'cause a table is not a sequence, you see, we're talking about sets here, who, by definition, are unordered -- OK, fine. Ten pages later he blasts the GUID type -- why? Because it's not inherently sequential and it's hard to spot the gaps in the sequences. But hey, why do we care about gaps? All we care about is that the field values be unique, which they are, gaps or no gaps. Seems like GUIDs should be perfect from the set-theoretical point of view, but no, he doesn't like them -- precisely because of the presence of those aspects, the lack of which he bemoaned one chapter back in the IDENTITY type. It's like he wrote these two chapters one ten years after the other, and forgot what he was talking about in one when writing the other.
   
   The content (or rather the intent behind it) is very good. There's a logical progression from the overall-schema things, to tables, and so on, including such esoterica as hierarchies and graphs (which is good not only, or even not so much because of the topics themselves, but because nice recent SQL features like CTEs are used a lot in the sample code thus demonstrating their non-trivial use).
   
   The downsides: the main flaw in Celko's writing is that whatever he writes reads like a two-page journal article, by which I mean it's all a perfunctorily dashed-off collection of tidbits; the overall structure is very tenuous (for example, he starts the hierarchies' chapter by saying they're a sort of graphs -- but the graphs proper chapter comes afterwards: wouldn't it make more sense to switch their order in the book then?) Some chapters are borrowed from other writers: for example, the chapter on temporal databases is taken, or rather squeezed out of Snodgrass's book (which I happened to be reading in parallel and thus was able to notice that). I'm not hinting at plagiarism here: I'm sure Snodgrass was aware of this borrowing and had OK'ed it, but first it would be nice to mention the fact of borrowing (I think), and second, and most important, when you compress a book into a chapter, you gotta do it very carefully so as to keep the material connected, coherent, and clear. This is not the case here (go for the original: it's good, and can be downloaded for free; google on the name).
   
   In general, Celko's writing, while not abhorrent, is mostly (though not everywhere) very sloppy; everything reads like a first draft never touched again by either the author or an editor. A fair amount of typos, and a lot of unclear, careless pages that make you struggle for meaning (not always successfully). Mangled French again: Joseph, if there's an accent over the last 'e' in a masculine form of a participle, it's gotta be an accent aigu, not accent grave (feminine simply adds an extra 'e' w/o changing anything else); thus it's 'née' not 'nèe'. Maybe it's a typo, but it's consistently repeated thoughout the book (and actually present in his other books!). While we're here: "Borland (née Inprise)" is actually the other way around: Inprise (née Borland).
   
   There's no question that the author is a smart guy, but writing isn't his forte and he should be less casual about it -- and then, he should also insist that his publisher provide good editorial oversight. I think MK is a good publisher, and I think they ought to be able to do a better job helping their writers achieve readability.
   
   Bottom line: I don't regret having this book; it's friendly and chatty (in a good sense); the inherently dry material is livened up a bit by a sprinkling of curious trivia; it's been somewhat enlightening on the first read, and repeatedly useful as a reference afterwards. Otoh, it's written sloppily and I feel that, inasmuch as I benefitted from it, I did only because I happen to have enough foundation to compensate for its flaws on my own. But I'm not looking for this kind of effort when reading technical books though, so three stars. Could be more, but for that the book needs to be aggressively edited and restructured. It's the third edition, btw: it would seem that there's been plenty of time to do just that.
   
   All in all, I recommend it, but only half-heartedly: as long as the prospective reader understands that this is not a terribly advanced book, as well that the reading won't be easy. The book's OK, but not on par with what you get from writers like Gray or Date.



5. As a DBA, I use this book often. It's been helpful and I recommend it to others.
   
   My issue with this book is not its content, it's the terrible typesetting throughout. The text is the raggedest of ragged right, sample SQL code wraps in odd places, diagrams are sloppy (redraw the diagrams by hand if you need to, it was done tastefully in Kernighan and Richie), title pages are covered in large and unnecessary gradient images. The base font is big, which wastes space and makes the book inconveniently thick, thick enough to pass for another "Teach Yourself C in 24 hours" doorstop. Overall, I'm surprised by the cheap appearance of this book, given its well deserved popularity.
   
   Celko comes across as a bare bones purist. He knows when to use straight SQL to solve a problem (as often as possible). It's time for him ---or his publisher--- to use straight LaTeX to solve the typesetting problem.

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