5 comments about Programming Windows®, Fifth Edition (Microsoft Programming Series).

1. This is truly a great reference book for all 'real' programmers that are capable of coding in c /c++, as it is assumed that you already know how to do so. There is no VB crap and other such slow and useless languages mentioned. The shear simplicity and power of low-level programming is demonstrated with clear concise examples that compile to 32k executables that are NOT dependant on 3rd-party dll and VB runtimes etc. Only assembly can produce tighter code. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who is serious about programming on the Windows platform. If you want a point and click solution - go use VB like the rest of the fools only to be disappointed in the end when you want to do anything outside of the box.



2. I have to say I was dissapointed in this book; not because of *how* the material was presented, but because of the *type* of material presented. It says "the definitive guide to the Win32 API" printed right on the cover, but the selection of topics seems limited only to those which deal with output and presentation (text, fonts, graphics, bitmaps, sounds, etc). Personally, i was looking almost exclusivly for the more "under-the-hood" API functions, which almost no mention is made of.
   For example, there is no mention of memory management, manipulating files on the hard disk, serial and parallel ports usage, processes, debugging/kernel, and console-mode functions, just to name a few. Multi-threading, DLL files, and TCP/IP are included at the end, seemlingly only as an afterthought. To give you an idea, the chapter about the "Palette Manager" is over 170 pages long; the chapter on DLL's is only 30.
   Also slightly annoying was the large amount of printed code in the book (my personal pet peeve). Many times, you'll find complete programs that span ten or more pages, with little explanation to accompany them. This seems completly unnecessary, especially considering the stout size of the book to begin with (1500 pages!), and the fact that all the code is included on the CD anyway.
   So if you're looking for a in-depth book about the more 'visual' aspects of Windows, then this could be your book. But if you're looking for more low-level stuff going on behind the scenes, not even one page of this will be worth the shipping you'll pay.



3. This is by far the best book on the windows API, even today is really worth it.



4. I bought this book because MS keeps trying to hide information about how to make basic Windows apps in favor of pushing flavor of the day technologies like MFC and .Net. I remembered that this is the huge tome that all the Windows programmers from the 90s used to lug around so I bought one. I didn't want a book that would allow me to write "hello world" and then leave me stranded. I wanted to be able to port games (or applications) from other platforms in a way that will work across the entire Windows family. I also wanted to be able to make Windows code that could compile with GCC.
   
   If you want to make a simple Windows app, or port a basic app from Linux or Mac to Windows, this book is a key component to doing it quickly, with a minimum of fuss. If you want to make a Windows app using Dev C++ or another open source development kit for Windows, this book is a must have!



5. This book is very well written and the author does a great job explaining every topic that he covers thoroughly. His answers are full of relevant content and he leaves no room for ambiguity. Do take note that this book is dated, but you will not likely find its equal anywhere in its own class of books. If you want to learn about, or become really familiar with the Windows 32 API, this will give you a good reference provided that you refer to msdn for the updated changes to the API which have taken effect since the publication of this book. I won't detail all the helpful topics which are covered as they are already mentioned in other reviews. I had no real problem compiling and running most of the example programs that were contained on the CD included with this book. I used Microsoft Express Visual C++ 2005 and 2008 versions IDE. These IDE's have an option that will convert the syntax for you when applicable. I was not able to compile any of the program examples for chapter 22, Sound and Music. If you are learning to write programs using the Microsoft foundation class library then this book is probably not much help to you. There are other great books available to consider for learning MFC's.

5 comments about Web Sites Do-It-Yourself For Dummies (Do-It-Yourself for Dummies).

1. I am a photographer who has put off building a website because I simply didn't know where to start and I can't afford to hire consultants to set one up for me. I finally got a basic website up and running using the free Jalbum templates until I can build a fully custom and comprehensive website of my own. I bought this book because it looked like it would be useful in helping me achieve that goal but it has turned out to be a disappointment. Although Janine Warner explains things very well so that even a newbie can understand what she is saying, the book itself will not give you the information that you need to build your own website unless you have Dreamweaver. This book should really be called "A Basic Introduction to Dreamweaver for Dummies" because the heart of the book assumes that you have that application program. I don't have it and I don't know if I will ever get it or even want it. But even if I had Dreamweaver, there's a problem because the author tells you that the book is not intended to give comprehensive information about Dreamweaver either and that you should buy her book on Dreamweaver for that.
   
   HTML? It mentions HTML in passing but, again, it tells you to get an HTML book if you need to know more about that subject. Same with CSS, etc. So this book is really just a overview of website building for people who have Dreamweaver but if someone had Dreamweaver, they would be better off buying a much more comprehensive book on that subject.
   
   The book does have some useful general information about getting a domain name, hosting service, etc., but even that is very limited and and you can find even better information for free with a simple Internet search. In short, this book has very little information about actually building a website without Dreamweaver and it doesn't have much information about building one WITH Dreamweaver.
   
   For some reason, it also has a chapter on building Podcasts. I didn't read that chapter because I bought this book to help me build a website, not a Podcast. As far as I'm concerned, that's an entirely different topic and it wastes more space in this book that could be used to go into HTML and other more relevant subjects. If I wanted a book on building Podcasts, I would buy one. I have no idea why the author included a chapter on building Podcasts in a book supposedly about building websites unless she also sells an expensive DVD course or book on that subject as well. It almost seems like the author made an effort to avoid offering solid and useful information about actually building a website and that she got side-tracked onto unrelated subjects.
   
   This book also goes into editing pictures with Photoshop Elements. In my opinion, that's just wasting even more space on off-topic information because picture editing is another totally different topic. And, like Dreamweaver, the information she gives about PS Elements is very minimal so one would have to buy another book about PS Elements if they want to know more. Janine may sell a book or DVD course on Elements too. I use Photoshop CS myself so I just ignored her PS Elements stuff but that meant yet another chunk of the book was wasted. I would have liked to see more information on HTML in its place. Of course, you do have to know how to edit and optimize pictures for most websites but, again, that is another topic for another book. A book on building websites should ideally stick with building websites, not basic picture editing using a program that most people probably don't even have.
   
   If you go to the author's website, you begin understand what the real purpose of this book may be. She sells many expensive DVD courses that, supposedly, actually teach you what this book should have taught you but doesn't. It almost seems like the purpose of this book is to get you to buy Janine's other books and DVD courses, not teach you how to do what the title suggests it should do.
   
   I also noticed numerous errors in the text, which seems odd because in the beginning of the book, Janine mentions several times how important it is to edit and proof-read things. Here's just one example: On page 56 in the paragraph numbered "4," when discussing image optimization, Janine writes, "Notice that the size is reduced from 1.59MB to 407MB." She meant to write 407KB, of course. Errors like this are not a big deal but they could potentially confuse someone who didn't know any better and was trying to follow along. I noticed quite a few of that type of error and there were probably some that I didn't notice. But this type of book is short-lived and readers can generally expect rather poor editing and proof-reading so this can be excused. However, with a technical subject, it could cause problems for the reader. If Janine herself had simply taken an hour or two and proof-read the book, she would have caught those errors.
   
   One other thing: At the beginning of the book, the author strongly advises the reader to NOT try to build a website alone. She goes on to talk about building task lists and time-lines for your team. She suggests that your team include various experts and consultants in different aspects of website building. But if you have a team of experts and consultants, you would have no need for this book. Most people who would buy this book are probably working alone and trying to build their first website. So one of the very first premises of this book is flawed and that may help to explain some of its other shortcomings. It's as if the author wasn't clear about what her own goals were with this book or whom she was writing it for, which is ironic since she makes a big point about the importance defining your goals and targeting the audience you want to reach. Clearly, the author didn't take her own advice with this book. The book gives you a small amount of information on many topics but not enough to really get you going and the reader may not be able to use much of it anyway unless they have Dreamweaver.
   
   That said, I did learn a little from the introductory chapters about various things that one needs to know to plan a website but most of that was common sense information and readily available for free. The book functioned for me as a kind of primer but it definitely does not give me the information I need to get my website up and running. Now I have to resume my search to find a book that actually does teach one how to build a website and which makes no assumptions about what software applications one has.



2. What a beautiful book. I love the colorful web designs -- and the templates made it so easy to create my own site. It was so helpful to have a book that covered everything from planning my site to building the pages to uploading it to an ISP. You even helped me find the perfect domain name.



3. I've always loved Janine Warner's books, because she has made web design easy, fun, and clearly understandable.
   
   What I like about this book is that it's designed for people like me - who want to get going NOW - but don't want to learn all of the technical details of Web design. It uses Dreamweaver but it doesn't reiterate everything I learned in Janine's Dreamweaver for Dummies book. Instead, you download templates from the companion web site she kindly supplies (you find the address in the book). From there I was able to get just enough instructions to use Dreamweaver to customize the templates for my own site, changing the design as much or little as I liked.
   
   Cool huh?
   
   The book also covers how to edit and create images in Photoshop Elements, and includes images for banners and buttons and stuff in the templates, as well as instructions on how to edit those for your own designs. All in all - very useful stuff.
   
   It also includes something I never thought I'd use - how to create a Podcast, plus a chapter on blogging.
   
   I also love Janine's books because they covers things many web design books don't cover, like how to register a domain name and choose a service provider, as well as how to plan and organize a Web site before you even get started. She even gives a few tips about marketing a site after it's published.
   
   Thanks and keep 'em coming, Janine!



4. I found the book quite helpful for a novice like me. The templates made it easy to create my website. Keeping the navigation elements consistent was a pain until I learned about templates, and I was able to change the colors and fonts in the templates to make the design more my own. I appreciated the help with editing and creating images in Photoshop Elements, which felt way beyond me but actually wasn't when I followed the instructions in the book. Also, the author explained some things that many books assumed I already knew, such as how to register a domain name and choose a service provider.



5. This was a great resource. I had no experience creating a website and this book walked me through it. My web site is now up and running and I am working on my second site. I highly recommend this book to anyone starting a business website or any website for that matter.

5 comments about Oracle PL/SQL For Dummies.

1. This book has a lot of good technical data, but it's not well organized for learning, more of a reference. Also, it assumes you are already an experienced SQL programmer.



2. I am very pleased w/ the purchase of the book. If your goal is to learn PL/SQL quickly and comprehensively, this is the book to buy. It covers all the fundamentals you need to know about PL/SQL and it is excellently written. I have been a developer for 20 years in many languages. Learning new languages from overly technical books and writters, I find, often times make your learning process slow and ineffective. I took this class at Oracle, but there were topics that the training manual and the instructor did not do a good job presenting. This book clarified many of the topics I that were presented in class in a simpler, clearer, and more effective manner. I highly recommend it.



3. Fantastic text for beginners in PL/SQL. Clearly laid out concepts and samples, and hints at naming conventions and other standards to be used. A very solid introduction to the language.



4. This is absolutely, hands-down, the worst computer-related book I've ever had the misfortune to read. It's also the first "For Dummies" book I've read, so it may be the fault of the series rather than the book.
   
   The book is poorly written and poorly edited. There are errors in the code examples and numerous inconsistencies in the text. The book doesn't really say anything except, to paraphrase, "There are many things that you should know, but they're beyond the scope of this book. Check somewhere else."
   
   I bought this book based on the recommendations on this page-- my mistake. I'll never buy a "For Dummies" book again.



5. Easily one of the best programming books I've ever bought, in my life. I can't tell you how many strange programming assignments I have been able to pull off because of this book. From cursors to clobs and whatnot. Everyone in the office thinks I'm a wizard because of this book. It is also a very good reference book with great examples anyone can pick up easily. I agree, with one of the reviewers, not really really a beginners book, but if you write PL/SQL for about 3 months this should be an indispensable resource.

5 comments about Python Essential Reference (3rd Edition) (Developer's Library).

1. This book is a highly detailed reference to the Python language. The introductory chapters build on one another and give the reader a decent introduction to the language. The later chapters need not be read sequentially as they are a reference on more advanced features.
   
   The book has superb coverage of distutils, C extensions, network I/O, and introspection. The index is well organized so you can find text on obscure, subtle concepts easily. Need to know how to raise an IOError in C? Not a problem, it's in there. Need to know how to quickly generate a tuple from C? Not a problem, it's in there. Need to know how to split apart or join paths and filenames in a platform-independent way? It's in there too. How about creating a memory mapped file? Or parsing a date? Or resolving the IP address of a hostname? Parsing a python string? Running a python expression as a string? Grabbing the caller's call stack? All of these nifty and possibly dangerous features are all covered in this wonderful book.
   
   Normally, I'm a fan of O'Reilly books but O'Reilly's Programming Python (OPP) is disappointingly basic, and you'll quickly outgrow it. I found OPP very unhelpful as a reference for writing large, scientific simulations in Python. In such situations, the data sets are often large, and thus, one must be careful not to gratuitously waste memory with range() when looping over several arrays in the same loop. For example, there is no mention of the xrange construct, which creates a generator object used for incrementally generating numbers over a range. However, it is extremely rare I find an omission in Beazley's Python, and the omission always involves an extremely obscure and uncommon feature.



2. Very concise and precise information. I would recommend for anyone who wants advance book on python for reference and learning.



3. This little book isn't missing a thing! It's extremely well organized; I find it faster to get answers from this book than from the Internet. Can't say that too often!



4. I say Outstanding Reference, because that's what this book is. While there are examples, they are short and concise - this is not a "how to" book (though the introduction provides an excellent overview). Rather, this is a text to keep alongside a book like Learning Python. It's dimensions are smaller than your typical computer book, so it fits nicely on my desk. Also, the index is the best you'll find (Dave actually generated it from a Python script). It's faster than looking stuff up online.



5. I love the book. Use it with Python in a Nutshell. Use the Nutshell as a more comprehensive reference and this book to get exactly what I need when I have a general idea of what is needed. I see Python Essentials as more of a 'nutshell book' than the actual nutshell book. It is clear and concise and I find the print size to be very acceptable. The book is a maverick when it comes to being able to compare different approaches/elements. It will not do it for you, but since it is so precisely laid out, it is easy to think in terms of: "If I used this then I could do this; If I used that then I could do that, but not this, etc." If you have a basic background in python or other language, you will likely be able to frame up your ideas/knowledge into specifics and start coding to learn more or if you are already an accomplished programmer you can check and refine code in progress or established code projects.

5 comments about ActionScript 3.0 for Adobe Flash CS3 Professional Hands-On Training.

1. I had a really tough time with this book. The explanations are inadequate and often very confusing. I found Learning ActionScript 3.0 by Rich Shupe much easier to understand. This book might be a nice reference for people who have some AS3 under their belt, I haven't tried using it for that purpose, but if you need a way into AS3, this book will frustrate you. Perkins may be good at programming, but a teacher he is not. He's completely out of touch with what it's like to be a creative person trying to learn programming and he has no idea how to bridge that gap. He's a computer geek, not a communicator. Shupe is better.



2. I am a regular user of Flash, however ActionScript (other than the really basic stuff) has always been a mystery to me. This book helped me to understand it in a way I never thought possible. I highly recommend it.



3. The author takes you step-by-step through useful examples that make the learning flow very easily from basic to intermediate. The style is crisp, with just the right amount of humor. Perfect to get your grounding if you are just getting into ActionScript 3.0



4. If you are an animator looking to enter the world of actionscript, or you just don't have much development experience, then this book may be appropriate, but for anyone else the useful content could be compressed to the size of a pamphlet.
   
   As for the accompanying CD, I found the content on this to be totally useless, there are much better video tutorials available on-line for free.



5. What this book does, it does very well. It illustrates the new syntax and methods of AS3, and shows you exactly how to use them. It is illustrated and organized so efficiently that it can function as a "cookbook" reference.
   
   It's a deceptively compact book, very handsomely bound and thoroughly illustrated with color screenshot examples. It is much better printed than earlier lynda-dot-com H-O-T Flash books (cleaner typography, opaque paper for color printing), though inside there's a superficial family resemblance. You get a series of step-by-step, read-and-type exercises, as well as a few supporting video tutorials. It even uses the old "snowboarder" example that the H-O-T books have used for the last three versions of Flash.
   
   As I say, the resemblance is only superficial. The tutorials are much more concentrated than is usual. The chapters and subsections are short--a key concept may be covered and demonstrated in just two or three pages--but this concentration of material can make it very slow-going, requiring two or three re-reads. The few videos provided seem to be there merely for tradition's sake and add little to the tutorials.
   
   I recommend this book but do not recommend attempting to learn AS3 from this book alone. Its virtue is its limitation: the author covers all the basics, seldom digressing from his lessons, so you may feel cramped and distracted if you try to cover more than one chapter at time. What you're missing is commentary and elbow room, a sense of overall context and practical application. For this you should get the Shupe/Rosser book (Learning ActionScript 3.0) and two or three others.
   
   You might also get Todd Perkins's follow-on to this book, '...Beyond the Basics,' also from lynda. Though more advanced, it recaps this book's material very well, and being a series of short video tutorials is easier to follow. Put both Todd Perkins efforts together, and you get one fine five-star tutorial on how to code ActionScript 3.0.

3 comments about Lattice: Multivariate Data Visualization with R (Use R).

1. Deepayan Sarkar won a prize for programming Lattice. He deserves another for writing this book. The usual style of help files in R (including Lattice) is terse; this is a deliberate choice by the developers. Presumably, a lot of people like this terseness - but I am not one of them, and there are many others I know of who share my confusion at some of the help files.
   
   Now, there's a whole book on Lattice, and it's written in an accessible style that will let me use Lattice much more creatively and with many fewer errors.
   
   I think even experts on Lattice may find new things here; but for newcomers to Lattice, it's an indispensable guide.



2. I learned far more from a few hours of reading this book than I did from countless hours tinkering with Lattice graphs. I would recommend it without hesitation to any novice or intermediate user of R.
   
   Furthermore, while both are helpful, this book is probably a better first purchase than R Graphics (Computer Science and Data Analysis).



3. I share the views of the previous reviewers: this book is great. I have been using R for several years now, and found the help pages for Lattice much too terse to really grasp the potential of the system. This books is loaded with examples, ranging from easy to quite involved, and the explanations given are clear and to the point.
   
   A book like this deserved a production effort from Springer, and about three times as many color plates as it has, but even as it is seems to me quite good.
   
   Aside from the description of the Lattice package, that Deepayan Sarkar obviously knows as only its designer can, there is a wealth of comments on graphics design and pointers to the classics of the subject --Tufte, Cleveland, etc.
   
   A book not to miss by any seriously interested in statistical graphics, or indeed by anyone willing to add a powerful tool to his/her graphics toolbox. May I only add that those willing to make a further investment of time to obtain the most of this book, might consider Murrell's "R Graphics" (Chapman & Hall), also a masterpiece of expository writing, discussing (in its chapter 4) Lattice graphics within the context of grid ---grid being the underlying graphics model on which Lattice is built.

No comments about Programming the Microsoftî ADO.NET Entity Framework (PRO-Developer) (PRO-Developer) (PRO-Developer).

5 comments about Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great.

1. I refer to the activities in the book all the time. It really gives a fresh look at the retrospective and keeps the team engaged. It's very easy to come out with some actions to carry forward which the team is committed to doing.



2. This year, I found myself leading an agile development team. While I've been in the software industry for several decades, I'm new to agile. I was lucky enough to attend the Agile 2007 conference, where I participated in a session with Esther Derby and Diana Larsen. That's where I first learned about retrospectives - from the co-authors of this book.
   
   First, the idea of retrospectives, as opposed to post-mortems (are our projects really dead?), as an ongoing process is challenging and exciting. Rather than waiting until the end, reviewing not just progress but the state of the team makes great sense.
   
   Then, the way that they put it all together - stating the value of the process, giving an outline for how to conduct a retrospective - makes it something you can indeed do right from the book.
   
   But as much as anything, the exercises/activities that make up a large part of this book are a tremendous value. Rather than trying to figure out "what should we do/say in a retrospective?", we are guided through combinations of activities to help us achieve the most effective results.
   
   And it's not just about agile. While the concept has developed through the growth of agile development practices, this is a tool that can benefit any organization of any type doing anything.
   
   It's a quick read with benefits that far outweigh the time it takes to read it. Ready to change the life of your organization? Introduce retrospectives.



3. This is a really useful book. Most practical. Being into scrum (sort of) for 3 months, we've tried to change our retrospective meeting agenda applying methods from this book. We did this just once as yet, and applied only a single combination of methods from virtually countless variants possible. The result is great: retrospective meetings became more meaningful and fun.
   
   Every scrum master (and anyone leading retrospective meeetings) should read this book.



4. I have read at least 10 books of the Pragmatic Series and this is the first one I couldn't finish because it was so terrible (I actually threw it out). This book is exactly what is wrong with corporate culture. Placating overly sensitive employees who need emotional coddling instead of trying to improve the process of software development. I prefer to work with adults, that have the maturity to get their emotional needs fulfilled outside of work, so time at work can be spent being productive. This book should have been titled "Cloy Retrospectives" or "Agile Dianetics". If you are looking for a worthwhile, and even entertaining, book on software management see Managing Humans by Michael Lopp.



5. This is one of those "common sense" books. It's full of really obvious practical advice. The difference I found however is in the multitude of simple and practical exercises it contains.
   
   The book is a really quick and easy read. It's now constantly on my desk as a reference. I plan to use a few of the exercises in our next retrospective in a week.
   
   Whilst this is an agile/scrum focused book, many of the exercises could be easily adapted to other "review" type situations in business and teaching.

2 comments about Beginning Microsoft Visual C# 2008 (Wrox Beginning Guides).

1. It is a good book for beginner. But Don't expect much from it, It may not go into greater details and will leave you at mercy of MSDN.



2. This is a super book for those of us who have never programmed, or who started programming using another language like Visual Basic. It has helpful articles, and lots of hints if one gets stuck. It's easy to read, and lacks the boreing quality of many text books.

5 comments about Inside Microsoft SQL Server(TM) 2005: The Storage Engine (Solid Quality Learning).

1. Most SQL Server DBA's I know who have been working on SQL Server 7 or 2000 for any length of time usually have a copy of Kalen Delaney's "Inside SQL Server" sitting on their desk. For SQL Server 2005, that book has been split into four different books and it looks like all them are going to be must-have's occupying large swaths of book-shelf space across the planet. Because, the fact of the matter is, if you want to know the internals of the new database engine, this is your source.
   
   Comparisons between this new book and the previous books in the series seem inevitable. From that type of comparison, I think that this book comes off very well. Removing the TSQL processing and other aspects of development from the book allows Delaney to drill down into every aspect of how the server works. She takes a very structured approach, showing how to install SQL Server before moving on to the Server Architecture and Configuration chapters. She covers database and database files, logging and recovery, tables, indexes, and locking, each in separate chapters, each in a great degree of detail. She takes the time between explaining how things work to suggest best practices for configuration and usage along the way. Scattered throughout are also Tip's & Notes that suggest alternatives to the topic under discussion or implications of the usage of a particular topic.
   
   This is not a book from which you can easily learn basic SQL Server skills. So much time is spent on so much detail, invaluable detail for the experienced user, that the novice might get stuck in the mire. I personally don't find that to be an actual detraction from the book. In fact, I'd recommend that if you're just learning SQL Server 2005, you pick this book up in addition to some other, more general, tome, because from here you can learn the why's and wherefore's of what you're trying to do.
   
   The Forward to the book says one of the most important things about this book and it bears repeating, "This is not a revision of the previous book. So much has changed and there are so many new features that Kalen had to write a brand new book." Reading through this book, that becomes clear on every single page. Nothing appears to have been regurgitated from the previous books, but each and every screen shot, description and code example is written for 2005.



2. Great book. Very informative and in depth, especially if you are looking for not only logical database structure but actual physical information. This book covers exactly what it's title states, the sql server 2005 storage engine.



3. I've been following this series since the days of Ron Soukup, and Delaney once again does not fail to deliver and impress in this latest edition.
   
   This book is part of a four part volume set (the 4th still awaiting publication at the time of this review), which previous to this release was contained in one volume. This shows how much more information is being published on SQL Server 2005, and gives Delaney the opportunity to focus on select topics and go into far more detail when covering them.
   
   This book contains a perfect balance of material appropriate for the topics being discussed: (configuring SQL Server, logical table and log structures, internal file structures and management, the many available locking mechanisms). For topics not relevant to content of this book, Delaney frequently refers to the other books within this series and in particular the book on query tuning and optimization she is still working on.
   
   Having now read a few volumes on SQL 2005, I can confidently state that Delaney does not waste pages regurgitating material that's either unrelated or unnecessary to the topic being discussed, but instead I found her insights and knowledge transfer unique to this book and worth the time learning.
   
   Overall, I would highly recommend this book to anyone seriously wanting to learn SQL Server 2005 at a higher than basic level. You will not be disappointed.
   
   NB. My only negative on this book is that it begins with 3 pages of acknowledgements listing technical colleagues, editors, friends etc that helped refine the book to what it is, but just within the first few pages there is an "xxx" placeholder in the text that hasn't been updated, a reference to a companion CD that was dropped from publication plus other technically incorrect statements. In fact, there are so many editorial errors throughout the book that there is a significant page on www.insidesqlserver.com dedicated to documenting the corrections. All books contain errors, but it was just painful to see so many after reading through the myriad of people that helped "perfect" this book. On a positive note, kudos to the author for acknowledging the problems and publishing the corrections.



4. This book is perhaps the best book out there for understanding SQL 2005 architecture. I know of no other book which offers such advanced understanding of how SQL 2005 stores, retrives, and manages data.
   
   Indeed, the author is a MS SQL MVP and has written with collaboration of those who have wrote the code for MS SQL 2005 at Microsoft.
   
   The author's explaination, however, could be a lot better. For example, here is an exerpt on the author's explaination of IAM (Index Allocation Map):
   
   "An IAM page contains a page header; an IAM page header, which contains eight page pointer slots; and a set of bits that map a range of extents on a file, which doesn't neccessarily have to be the same file that IAM page is in. The header has address of first extent in the range mapped by the IAM. The eight page pointer slots might contain pointers to pages belonging to the relevant object contained in mixed extents; only the first IAM for an object has values in these pointers."
   
   Now, I have worked with databases for over a decade and have good understanding of Indexes and its structure, and I still did not understand what the author was talking about on some sentences.
   
   Pros:
   1)Explains data and index storage structures (Page, extents, B-Tree, Keys etc) and how they are managed in transactions (update, delete, insert) better than any book I know.
   2)Relatively short book (400 pages) which does not waste words or sentences to make it a thicker book (common practice to write a thicker book for a higher price).
   
   Cons:
   1)Tries to combine MS SQL 101 topics (What is Master, MSDB, TEMP, and MODEL db?) with expert subject matter (What is IAM, Cluster Keys, RID, etc).
   2)Writing is sometimes indecipherable.
   3)Mostly not for the beginners (despite its rudimentrary coverage of the basics).



5. Okay, reviewing this book is going to be quite difficult. I have mixed feelings however everything that I have to say about this book is positive. For one, this is not for the faint of heart of casual reading. This book is there for those who want to learn the gory details of how SQL 2005 works.
   
   I would describe the book like this:
   You have a car and it is nice and pretty on the outside, and you can do all sorts of cool things with the buttons on the console and you can play music and other nifty things, such as GPS. Well, on the inside of the car you have no clue how it all ties together and what is going on when you push that button.
   
   Well, imagine this book as a blueprint of how your car's innards work, down to the very last oil spot on the engine.
   
   This book is the best down right down to the memory block detailed book I have seen on SQL 2005. Now, the hard part about this book is that it can be difficult to read, and follow, at times. There are several sections you may have to read over and over again just to start to understand what it even means.
   
   If you are looking for a good hard core book on the SQL engine, this is it for you. I give this book a 5 star rating for content, author knowledge and sheer impressive information.