5 comments about Dreamweaver 8 Bible.

1. An encyclopedia of helpful information but, this will not be helpful to a novice trying to learn the program for the first time.
   For that get Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 Visual Quickstart Guide (Negrino and Smith).



2. this is a good book to get a great background on DW8 and understand creating websites. If you don't have any background in HTML or webpages, the size of the book may overwhelm you but I found it very useful to get a comprehensive understanding of DW. It helped my to get concepts correct. The examples were broken on my CD but after a little playing around, I got them to work.



3. The areas I needed to refer to were in this book. The book has a lot of words that I feel could be omitted without hurting the content or conveying the information. I would give the book a 5 star rating if it has a lot less words.



4. I own the photoshop 7, Dreamweaver 8, Flash 8, and a few others from this series. It may be too in-depth for some novices, but if you really want to learn a lot about the product and are willing to take the time to read it, they do very well.
   
   The sample projects give some good hands-on experience, and a companion CD is always nice.



5. Dreamweaver 8 Bible is an extremely large text that discusses and illustrates all of the latest features of the Dreamweaver 8 web design program. While this book does cover the basics like start up menus, building static web pages, and the drop and drag aspects of this intuitive program which are suitable enough in detail for those new to web site design, this text contains a good deal of information that is more suited to the intermediate to advanced web designer. Such topics includes working with dynamic data, modifying graphics using Fireworks, inserting Flash and Shockwave elements, and enhancing website productivity. Sections include lots of tips, cautions, notes, and illustrations. The step by step instructions and the resulting illustrations in some of the more advanced topics are particularly useful, not only to explain the how tos of these features but also exposing the reader to the potentials uses of these aspects. Dreamweaver 8 Bible comes with a CD containing the trial Dreamweaver 8 program and interactive lessons.

5 comments about Interface Oriented Design: With Patterns (Pragmatic Programmers).

1. Very helpful introduction to Interface design. Examples are in C# but easily understandable by a VB programmer.



2. Are you a developer who has some experience with programming and who has been exposed to object-oriented design? If you are, then this book is for you. Author Ken Pugh, has done an outstanding job of writing a book that explores how developing software with an emphasis on interfaces helps you build robust systems easier and faster.
   
   Pugh, begins by looking at some code and textual interfaces. Then, the author looks at how the Three Laws of Interfaces applies to implementations. Next, he explores how to transform an interface from one facet to another. He also looks at different sets of interfaces to explore the concept of cohesiveness. The author then investigates better ways to organize designs using interfaces and delegation. Then, he looks at the ramifications of using remote interfaces. The author continues by showing you how to develop a mini project. Then, he explores interface cohesiveness and generalization. Next, he develops a service registry to explore how directory services work. Finally, the author divides patterns into two camps: class-based and object-based.
   
   In this most excellent book, you'll find techniques for breaking down solutions into interacting interfaces. Perhaps more importantly, this book is all about determining appropriate implementations to create well-structured programs.



3. One of my big issues with programing, being a SA, is that when I come to a large problem I see the beginning and the end but the middle is just not there. This book showed me a reasonable way to map out that middle. I am not saying it is the only way to do things but if you follow the process you have a good chance at getting to the result you want.



4. Including the appendix, the book is just over 200 pages. This makes it one of the shorter books I have on software design. It's also one of the most readable. The content of the book does a good job covering the subject matter. He compares and contrasts interface-based composition with inheritance, stateful vs stateless interfaces, translation between stateful and stateless interfaces, and a whole host of other relevant topics. Some of the more interesting points in the book were: interfaces as object roles, fluent interfaces, procedural vs document-based interfaces, and a small introduction to some of the commonly used GoF patterns. The topics on document-based interfaces were particularly relevant to my current project and his ability to sneak some SOA material in the appendix (and one of the examples) was also welcome.
   
   [...]



5. This is a lucid explanation of very complex concepts involved in systematic design using interfaces. Chapter 2 on interface contracts was a revelation! We design interfaces and implement them, but what are the expectations between interfaces and their implementation? What covert contracts have to exist between them? As a developer exploring the OOP features of ActionScript 3.0, I really appreciated this book -- don't just use interfaces, figure out why you should use them and how they should be implemented. I had no issues with following the snippets of code, even though there were examples in multiple languages, as the functionality was explained at length. I highly recommend this to any developer, exploring the *why* of OO development irrespective what language they use.

2 comments about Visualizing Information with Microsoft® Office Visio® 2007.

1. I want you to think of the stereo typical college level professor who drones on while writing on the chalk board. Is the professor dumb? Of course not. Does he lack the ability to teach? Yes. This author portrays himself as a user who got tired of depending on IT for meaningful reports. I see this author as a geek's geek. He can quote Visual Basic in his sleep and does so throughout this text. However, this author lacks perspective. He thinks we all just take one look at his VB and a 100 watt light bulb pops-up over our heads. And just like a professor he drones on in his book without approaching a subject from a different perspective. If he's so good at Visio - why didn't he include example diagrams? Just to clarify - I have no problem with Visio books going into VB - my problem is when they don't approach the subject from multiple perspectives to reach more hearts and minds.



2. I enjoyed the author's casual conversational tone through much of the book. It had a lot of good info, some of which was valuable if you were sitting at a keyboard and followed along step-by-step. The author provides a download site for the code within the book, which is a nice alternative to those book CDs that always end up lost.
   
   As a reference, the text wasn't perfect. I think it was really designed to be read rather than thumbed through.

5 comments about MCAD/MCSD Training Guide (70-320): Developing XML Web Services and Server Components with Visual C#(TM) .NET and the .NET Framework (Training Guide).

1. This is the 3rd Amit Kalani book that I have purchased and used to prepare for Microsoft certification exams. Very easy to understand and follow. Good exercises.



2. This book is designed for the intermediate level developer who wants to learn how to develop web services using Microsoft's C# in the .NET framework, and for those who want to pass the 70-320 examination. This is not a 'cram for the test' type book but instead gives you the information you need to do the job, and incidentally pass the test. It is not a complete book on C# or .NET or even the Visual Studio IDE software. It is on how to use these to build real life systems.
   
   Tied in with this, of course is information on passing the test. There is information about the test itself, and practice examinations (one printed in the book, one on the CD included).
   
   If you are just interested in passing the test, there is a shorter book in the Exam Cram2 series. It's written by the same author but is significantly smaller as it is test only oriented.



3. I used just this book to pass the test with a score of 900. My only disppointment with the book is the exam that comes on the CD. The quality of the questions are not very good; although, I think it is only there to entice you to buy the full set of test that they market on the publisher's website. Other than, though, the book does a great job of covering all the relevant topics on the exam and I found the large amount of exercises extremely useful at driving home the material.



4. I'm sure Amit Kalani knows his stuff but there are several issues that I have with this book which make me wish I had bought another one.
   
   Firstly, and this is the most annoying fact, it is hopelessly out of date. I am using Visual Studio 2005 and it is painfully obvious to me that the book was written for an earlier version, which means that following the instructions given is sometimes impossible. This means I miss out on valuable experience that I could have gained through those step by step code examples where the procedures in the book clash with the current reality.
   
   Secondly, there are a number of small niggling typos present throughout which undermine my confidence in the authority of the book as a whole.
   
   Added to this is my suspicion (though I am not sure, given I'm not the expert) that some code examples given contain small mistakes or inconcistencies. Again, this is just a suspicion, as of this moment I have not actually tried to implement those examples where I have noticed such possible errors. Overall though, given the previously outlined gripe I have, my suspicion is very strong.
   
   So you can see, I am not very happy about this book. The fact it is out of date is the major contributing factor to this. I wish I'd checked the publication date before spending my money.



5. This series is for sure the most popular training guide for Microsoft's MCAD/MCSD certification exams. Even after the release of a new generation of certification exams there are still folks (like me) who are still taking the 2003 exam for their own reasons. Let's see the most important pros and cons for this book:
   
   Pros:
   * Text: the text is well written and easy to understand. Very simple and clear vocabulary. It is not a boring reading.
   * Guided Practices, Review Questionsand Exam Questions: there're plenty of exercises on every chapter, including 15 exam-like questions and some other review questions. I like books with exercises. It's a good way for the reader to measure what they've learned.
   * PrepLogic software: gives a good idea of the kind of software you'll have to deal with on the real exam.
   Cons:
   * Code examples: as in most programming books code example tend to leverage for the beginner, sometimes lacking in code design.
   
   All in all, this book is a sure shot if you're going to take the 70-315 exam as well as a good reading for ASP.NET newbies so don't hesitate to buy it.
   
   Exam tips:
   * be confident
   * know your strengths and weaknesses
   * don't rush the exam! there's plenty of time! in my exam there were 43 questions and 150 minutes for me to answer them!
   
   Good luck in your exam!

5 comments about Managing Software Development Projects: Formula for Success, New Edition.

1. It's simply a very easy to use book, it's structure is unique where it gives you what you need to know either by browsing the most common mistakes in software development process in every phase of the development cycle, or by reading the to-the-point lessons you should follow in each phase..I recommend it to new managers who need to be on the right track in a short time and also as a quick reference for every manager.



2. Very good book to read once and refer to it again and again. Practical scenarios make this book different from others. I have attended workshop by Neal Whitten. It was worth attending and surely he has enough number of issues with project management.



3. A good book about project managing, it's a knowledge that should be shared with all of IT managers and engineers.



4. I have read many books on the subject of Project Management. Most fail , either because they try to treat PM as a science, or because they go completely the other way and lack any real substance. This book is different. It combines good sound PM methodology with common sense. This is complemented by practical examples of real life situations that I'm sure every PM can relate to. I would recommend every PM browse the chapter relevant to the phase of the project they are about to start on. It's amazing how much common sense we forget. This books demystifies PM and cuts out all the Jargon. It is a real asset to any PM who is serious about delivering software projects on time, within budget, to customer AND team satisfaction.



5. I am continuously using this book to improve the productivity and quality in my company.
   
   As a manager in the software area, this book is a must.
   Every time I read the book, I find something new to change in the company.

5 comments about Programming & Customizing PICmicro Microcontrollers.

1. Lots of basic information as well as advanced techniques. If you are just getting into PIC's, this is a great text to start with. If you are already PIC fluent, it makes a great desk reference. The free PCB is a bonus!



2. This book is by far the most confusing, rambling, badly-written, and unedited programming manual I have ever seen. The information is just thrown together haphazardly and without logic. The author jumps randomly between subjects and there are no readable threads. Finding anything in this book is impossible. I took forty minutes trying to find out how to declare a variable, and finally threw the book in the trash. Don't waste money on it, period!



3. I bought this book without hesitation because I'd had contact with the author in the past, had other books by him, etc.,, The book depends on the CD, but the CD is not there, and can't even be downloaded as far as I can tell.
   
   Myke says he's proud that they've included the PCB - why? Does anybody really want to gather up the parts to build this thing? The parts kits is not that great a deal either, if you can find it. Give me the **** CD which I need, not some stupid PCB I don't need - I can easily come up with a programmer, but I have no way to create the CD! In all the years I have been buying technical books, this is the stupidest move I've ever seen.
   
   This book is a complete waste of money. Run away and boycott the publisher until they correct this rip-off.
   
   From Myke Predko's web site:
   (so where is it?)
   
   "The CD-ROM that comes with this book is designed to be an integral part of the book. In the introduction I suggest that the reader load the CD-ROM into their computer before starting to read through the text as there is some unique information as well as code that is not present in the book due to space concerns. Along with the source (and executable) code for all the applications presented in the book, the CD-ROM also contains:
   
   * HTML Interface to the contents of the CD-ROM including a page for each experiment and application
   * HTML "appendices" for code "snippets" along with 16 Bit arithmetic and interfacing code examples and macros that can be "cut and "pasted" into your own applications.
   * Two pdf appendices, "Introduction to Electronics" and "Introduction to Programming" for new developers
   * Microchip MPLAB version 5.11, UMPS demonstration version 1.76 and gpsim/gpasm to give people different options in developing their own PICmicro MCU applications
   * pdf data sheets for all the PICmicro MCU parts used in the book
   
   The two pdf appendices, "Introduction to Electronics" and "Introduction to Programming" were written to help someone new to microcontrollers gain the background necessary to understand the concepts presented in the book. These appendices (which total over 250 pages) are virtually a stand-alone book on their own and provide reference information that experienced developers will probably find useful. "Introduction to Electronics" starts with basic electrical theory and explain the concepts behind digital logic, Analog to Digital Conversion, low-current power supplies, prototyping and basic test equipment. "Introduction to Programming" explains basic programming concepts and goes on to discuss structured programming and provides references to the "BASIC" (including PICmicro MCU varients) and "C" languages. "



4. Ordered this with two other books, and i never recieved. Tracking info just says i should have recieved 2 weeks ago. How do you call Amazon???



5. I purchase the book intending to learn how to program a micro controller and the massive amount of information that don't tell you anything is amazing at the en you will not learn how to program.

5 comments about Use Case Modeling (Addison-Wesley Object Technology Series).

1. Here is the scenario... you're a business analyst that is attempt to show business clients the value of writing use cases. Many books exist with various ways to format the use case. You take all those books and write the same use case in all the different formats. Guess which one the business looked at and understood? You got it. The really fine work of Bittner and Spence. If you use a table driven methodology, your clients won't be happy. The use case structure that is recommended in this book has been used in many projects where I currently work, and they have been very successful in forming a dialog with the clients as to how they need to the use the system and what true value they get out of it. The key part of this book is the concept of maturity of the use case. This is something that you can schedule in a project plan and demonstrate to the customers. Great job guys.



2. The book may seem boring at first and also repetitive, but its worth reading for the IBM 636 & IBM 637 exams on requirements gathering using UML.



3. The Appendix section which contains the Example states that "All completed artifacts are available from www.usecasemodeling.com" however this website does not have any artifact. It just directs us to IBM website. Please correct this in your next revision.
   
   The book is good.



4. I recently had to do the use case modeling for a new system and found this book. I also looked at a book by Alistar (I believe that's the name of the author) but it looked to overwhelming compared to this book. This book is easy to read and you can start creating your model right away and add more complexity as you read.
   It includes partial examples of use cases for a system in the appendix but have full ones in their website.
   One thing I wished they had gone deeper into is the use case 'extensions'. They do mention them but in a very limited way.
   The appendix has a partial example of a use case model and states that the full example is online at www.usecasemodeling.com but it does not seem to be there, however.



5. This is the gold standard, period. Yes, there are dozens of good books about use cases, but if you had to pick one, just one, then I would strongly recommend this over any other book.
   
   I bought this book in 2004 and have continuously used it as a reference. I have used this book to mentor new Business Analysts and those that new to use cases.
   
   If must choose a second book, then I'd recommend Writing Effective Use Cases, by Alistair Cockburn.
   
   Most other books

1 comments about Software Quality Engineering: Testing, Quality Assurance, and Quantifiable Improvement.

1. Takes a while to get used to the book. Not the easiest to understand
   Lots of good information and concepts. Strongly recommended if you are willing to do the brain work

No comments about Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2005: An Object-Oriented Approach.

5 comments about Pragmatic Version Control Using CVS.

1. I had already started trying to use CVS (on OpenBSD) and had run into problems. Reading this book flattened out the CVS learning curve. It showed me how to perform CVS-related tasks that come up frequently, and helped me comprehend why I had previously been having trouble. I read most of the book in one day. Definitely a keeper!



2. I bought this book to come up to speed on CVS for a new project and I had a mixed experience with it.
   
   I like the author's simple examples. For example, using a short text list of colors as sample files instead of source code. These made it easy to focus on the author's intent without getting confused by the example.
   
   However, I had a problem in that the book never really compared CVS to other tools. I have always used source control tools that locked other users out of a file when you edited it: RCS, Clearcase, etc. So I found myself flipping through the book trying to figure out how to do a "get" command. I wish there had been a section describing the CVS philosophy of letting everyone edit and only fixing the merges.
   
   I found the author's chatty style to be distracting. But, on the other hand, I am now successfully using CVS from using this book. So 3 stars.



3. I've been grappling with the Concurrent Versioning System (CVS) for years. Moreover, I've been misusing it. Baffled and intimidated by its cryptic syntax and concepts, I've missed out on the power of branching and tagging, and the way these tools can be used to clearly demarcate project releases and versions. Using CVS as little more than a safer place to keep code than a local hard drive and an easier way to pass code around than FTP, I and my teams have failed to benefit from version control's true purpose. Checking code into the mainline only, we've found ourselves holding off on writing or checking in new code while a release is underway, and being forced to add new, untested code to a stable past release in order to fix a bug.
   
   CVS's documentation has never helped matters. The free online manuals (aka "The Fish Book", "The Cederqvist", etc.) are classics and miss no detail documenting CVS's complex and option-laden commands, but say little about what exactly to do with the commands in order to run a successful software project. Other commercial CVS books essentially have been longer-form rewrites of the original manuals. And through it all, CVS's syntax has remained complex and intimidating.
   
   Along comes Pragmatic Version Control Using CVS. With clarity, brevity, and humor, its authors show that version control can and must be the centerpiece of any development process, and they show how to make the humble, aging CVS work as that centerpiece. Taking the successful 80/20 approach, they cover only the features necessary to support the important things in software project execution: maintaining separate versions, marking releases and bug fixes, merging fixes to an old release into the latest version, and even bonus topics like managing third-party code. They take an Occam's Razor to CVS's syntax, leaving you with a small, essential slice that's easy to remember and use. Alongside this syntax, the authors suggest idioms, naming conventions, and techniques. What you end up with is the bare bones of how to run a software project. You start to feel like you're not even using CVS - that you could be using any version control system. The syntax becomes secondary and the process takes center stage.
   
   Here is a summary of their approach: (1) Develop on the mainline; (2) Branch only from the mainline, and only when you're ready to put out a release (or experiment with some great departure from the current codebase); (3) Tag the branch when the release is done; (4) Return to the branch to fix a post-release bug; (5) Tag the branch before and after the bug fix; (6) Merge the bug fix back into the mainline; (7) Get back to work on the mainline; (8) Go home at a reasonable hour. In between all these steps, part of your team can work on the latest version while others launch or patch a release. Old work will not impede new work; new work will not pollute old work. The authors put the "concurrent" back into "CVS."
   
   That's the undergirding of a solid development process. All you need is a tiny subset of CVS's baffling syntax to do it. The book describes the subset.
   
   Please understand that this is not a definitive CVS reference. The authors don't document anything unrelated to the process. Armed with the common sense gained from the Pragmatic book, you can go to the original docs and find what you want.
   
   I read this book over a year ago, and have waited until now to review it. In that time, I've successfully implemented most of its practices in the team that I lead. We can pull down the code tree of any of our past releases in an instant, fix a bug, and redeploy, all without affecting current development efforts - or having those development efforts affect the old release. There's never a question as to which version of the code we're working on. We're safer, smarter, and faster. All it took was a 175 page book, a free version control system, and a bit of open-mindedness. If you're not already doing what this book shows you how to do, start now.



4. With this book at my side I still ended up frequently hunting for information out on the web. CVS looks at the entire concept quite a bit differently than the other SCMs I've used and the command line interface is archaic. This book fails to provide a good conceptual model of what is going on in CVS (as opposed to SCMs in general) which might be able to allow using CVS without resorting to a purely cookbook approach.
   
   The book only briefly deals with the GUI interfaces that might be an improvement over the command-line approach. Those that they do mention are Windows only.



5. If you are new to a particular topic and there is a Pragmatic Bookshelf edition for it, then I wholeheartedly recommend buying a copy before you buy any alternate version. They are generally well written, up-to-date and tell you just the stuff that you really need to know. This book is exactly that. There is a lot of information and books around on CVS version control tool but this is the one that well get you going the quickest.