1 comments about Lines and Curves: A Practical Geometry Handbook.

1. If you read *one* mathematics book in you whole life, this should be it. No, it will not help you do your taxes or win the lottery. It may, however, change the way you look at the world and give you a serious appreciation of what mathematics as a creative endeavor is about. "Lines and Curves" is an invitation to Euclidean geometry from a dynamic perspective. It will teach you how to think about points in motion rather than visualizing figures as static entities. The exposition is so clear and the examples so well chosen that the barest background will allow you to follow the entire exposition. If you half-remember the concepts of congruence and similarity of triangles you are well on your way to enjoying the intellectual ride of a lifetime (a very concise appendix summarizes the formal prerequisites). Hundred of exquisite exercises are a pleasure to try, varying in difficulty from easy to moderately difficult.
   
   The style is engaging and entertaining. I invite anyone to read the Introduction (available free from Amazon) to get a taste of the material. To keep my comments concrete, consider Chapter 2, "The Alphabet": no fewer than six different interpretations of a straight line as a geometric locus are explained (and will consistently be used throughout the rest of the book). The same goes for the circle, for which at least four interpretations are given. Other conics (ellipses, parabolas, hyperbolas) are treated similarly in Chapter 6.
   
   A further remarkable feature is the authors' willingness to employ analytic geometry at crucial places where resorting to purely synthetic methods would be cumbersome and not particularly illuminating. The best illustration of this is the "Theorem on the Squares of the Distances" in Chapter 2 (What is the locus of all the points in the plane whose weighted sum of squares of distances to given fixed points is equal to a constant?) Another instance is to be found already in section 0.2 of the Introduction (read it from the links above!) Exercise for the reader of this review: solve 0.2 using no analytic methods, but rather by modifying the argument of 0.1 and using the fact that the compression/dilation by a factor of b/a of a circle of radius a with respect to a diameter is an ellipse of semiaxis lengths a and b. The latter approach will seem natural enough to a reader who has absorbed the main lessons of "Lines and Curves".
   
   I can only assume that readers of this little gem will want to go further. The book does not have a bibliography, but I can offer the following suggestions: "Geometric Transformations" (volumes I-III) by I.M. Yaglom, H.S.M. Coxeter's "Geometry Revisited", and the hard-to-get but delightful monograph "The Kinematic Method in Geometrical Problems" by Lyubich and Shor.
   
   (Note: While my personal favorite is number theory, "Lines and Curves" still holds a special place in my heart fifteen years after reading Mir Publishers' Spanish translation. English readers should feel very fortunate indeed that this 2004 Birkhäuser translation is available.)

2 comments about Client-Side Reporting with Visual Studio in C#.

1. I like this book very much. The author explains the client-side reporting with Visual studio in C# in detail, especially step by step. The topics cover windows form, web form, windows service and web service, which are useful for developers to write the report easily.
   
   Although this book says it covers version VS 2005 and VS 2008, I really hope the author can update this book using VS 2008 version and add some new features such as LINQ to generate the client-side reports easily. I will recommend this book to everyone.



2. I received this book today and have already completed four chapters. It is an easy read and generally thought out. The only complaint so far is the author's over use of the word "Please"! Please see Figure n.n Please give an application name... Enough!
   
   Did the publisher review this book before it went to press? How annoying!
   
   Day two:
   
   In addition, the author writes in broken English: "You should also keep in mind that there is more then one way of getting a report done."
   
   If I had a nickel for every grammatical error I could buy the book which is a shame since the book really is helpful.
   
   This book is rated for intermediate - advanced user but over and over there are instructions for creating a project, creating a dataset, etc.

5 comments about Programming Microsoft .NET (Core Reference).

1. Jeff Prosise has been around the Microsoft world for a long time. If you've been around awhile, you might recognize him as the author of Programming Windows with MFC or from several of his other books. This book, as expected, is very well-written and a technically accurate book. Unfortunately, it only musters a rating of three stars because it tries to cover too much. If you want a broad overview of .NET, then this is an excellent book for you. My problem with the book is that its first three chapters on .NET fundamentals don't cover the basics as deeply as I think developers should know them. The single chapter on Windows Forms that follows next is, frankly, completely useless. The next seven chapters (Part 2 of the book) do a very decent job of covering ASP.NET. If anything, this is a badly named book. It should be called Programming Microsoft ASP.NET. Part 2 is followed by a single chapter on ADO.NET. I recommend Mike Gunderloy's book for ADO.NET. Next are single chapters on XML, multithreading, and remoting. All in all, it's a good overview and a decent ASP.NET book (you'll still need another book or two on the topic).



2. This is much more than an okay book. It's simply the very best "programming" book on .NET. Once you've learned your .NET language of choice, which really should be C#, then you need a book like this one to explore and understand the .NET Framework. Trust me, you will not find a better one. I know, I've tried at least 6 other books of this scope. Yes, it does concentrate much more ASP.NET, so much so that I consider it also the best ASP.NET book out there. It's obviously not an advanced-level book, so you'll need to explore the subject further.

   The main reason I like this book is because the writing is just so crystal clear and well organized. This author knows how to teach. Concepts flow from general to details superfluously. And the examples are so well chosen that it's a pleasure to read.

   After having bought, and read or reviewed a good number of books on .NET, I feel I have a good sense as to which are the very best. The following four books are what I consider to be the creme de la creme of .NET publications:

   1) C# Primer Plus, should be your first read;
   2) This one, should be your second read;
   3) Microsoft .NET for Programmers, read this after you've explored the framework further;
   4) Programming .NET Components, the deepest clearest book on .NET I've seen by far - intermediate-advanced.

   There are other excellent .NET books. I could name at least 8 others that deserve 4 to 5 stars. The above 4 deserve 5 star ratings more any other, or at least I've not found any others that use C#.




3. I was somewhat disappointed with this book. I felt it could have been a bit more in-depth and maybe more focused by removing the section on windows forms and concentrating purely on ASP.Net (and renaming it ASP.Net). One feature that really annoys me and is commonplace in ASP.Net books is how the author states the obvious that codebehind is a great feature and should be utilised, and nesting code in aspx pages avoided if at all possible. Then all the examples are shown as aspx pages containing nested code blocks. Arrgghh!
   On the good side Jeff Prosise has a good clear writing style, his description of 'background info' is good, and the book is really well presented in choice of fonts, layout etc. Also it's good that the examples are in C# only.



4. And this is one of them. There are classic books in every area. This book is the one for .NET. If you are an experienced developer and want to jump start with .NET, this is definitely the book for you. I love it! Thank you Jeff Prosise for your great work.



5. This book is THE book from which I learnt .Net . I worship this book for all its contents, well laid out and concepts explained in developer-to-developer terms. This is the best book I have read so far in .Net . A definite yes on this book. You dont have to think twice to buy this book.It's worth every dollar. A very good book overall.

5 comments about Learn to Program with C#.

1. I am taking a series of classes from "someplace" with the intention of making a carreer change. "Someplace" offered to get me from being a non-programmer to an MCSD in 8 months using Microsoft official curriculum (MOC). An ambitious undertaking to be sure.
   
   I have found the MOC to be of very limited help. Wow, that's an understatement.
   
   Anyway, I have been using other resources to supplement the training and this book has been the best.
   
   The book starts with understanding the requirements of a program. From there the author walks us through the process of building a program and incorporates a lot of very practical and useful concepts. In general, the book has followed the progression of the MOC "Programming with C#". Whether by design or not, this has been very helpful.
   
   The book is written in narrative or as a story unfolding. The reader is included in a small class learning to program. The other students in the class ask questions to the instructor (John Smiley) and in general greatly facilitate the learning process. This narrative makes it a lot easier to follow and the simple program turns out to be full of lots of very useful training opportunities.
   
   At first, I was underwhelmed that the author had chosen to use Notepad and the SDK to create the programs. However, having finished the book and being halfway through the MOC course (which uses Visual Studio) I am glad that he does. Visual Studio tends to be expensive to get your hands on, and while it does have some VERY helpful functionality in terms of writing code, for the beginner, a lot of the stuff it does seems like it is overwhelming for the "newbie" (at least it was to me.)
   
   Many times, I would complete similar exercises using the notpad/SDK method in 1/3rd or 1/4 the time it would take me to do it in Visual Studio. For the most part, this was because of all of the "helpful" stuff that Visual Studio was doing. Don't get me wrong, it is a great IDE, but for a newbie like me, I think Smiley's approach was better.
   
   I have bought many other C# books and I will be doing reviews on them as I read them to supplement the material. I've also been taking video lessons from LearnVisualStudio.net.
   
   I hope John Smiley will create a book on Visual Studio and Intermediate and Advanced C#. I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it HIGHLY to anyone just getting started.



2. This is a great book for C# beginners like me. The book is very well written as it simulates the real class environment and answers every possible question that the beginner might have. I went to a 5-day C# training and I learned less there than I learned after reading this book. The author is a talented instructor, and I wish all computer science professors were like him. I am looking forward to an intermidiate C# book by John Smiley! Thank you, John.



3. This is an excellent book. I have completely read this book. I recommend this book for every student learning C#.



4. Have you ever thought you wanted to learn how to program, and bought a book on programming that didn't teach you anything? Or maybe you took a class that had a required textbook that was worthless? Did you get discouraged, and think programming just wasn't "for you"? That maybe you just didn't "get it" like those other people that seemed to have no problems learning to program? If so, then this book is for you. If more computer programming books were written like this, I KNOW there'd be a lot more programmers in the world. It's not about intelligence, it's about LEARNING STYLES. This book is more narrative than just lines of code to interpret. John Smiley talks TO the reader, not AT him. He puts you in a classroom setting where people ask questions, even DUMB questions that you yourself may have wanted to ask. And guess what? He ANSWERS the questions. If you've been stymied in one way or another from reaching a point of confidence with programming then this book is for you. I give it 5 stars because that's the most that Amazon's system will let me give it. If you don't believe me, hit the library. Then buy the book to put food on this man's table, and have this awesome book in your personal library.



5. This book is the perfect starting point for a beginner. I started with a limited amount of programming experience. By the time I finished, I felt extremely comfortable with all of the concepts presented.
   
   It's important to set realistic goals. You're not going to finish this book and start writing real world applications. Instead, this book builds the foundation needed to tackle more advanced concepts and programs found in other books.

5 comments about Programming Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Exchange 2003, Third Edition (Pro-Developer).

1. After purchasing this book and skimming through all of it while reading the sections I was interested in more thoroughly (VBScript and Custom Forms), and then going through everything a 2nd time, I was extremely disappointed.
   
   I found the Author was not thorough at all when going over the Outlook Library objects, methods, and properties. I was constantly going to the MSDN site to fill in the gaps. The sample code was also quite limited I thought.
   
   In my entire life, this book is the only book I have ever taken back to the store for a refund. I instead purchased the QUE book written by Patricia Cardoza, which I have found to be far more to my liking.



2. This is a good example of a book written by an author who just wanted to "write" and finish a book. I doubt if the author really knows the subject.
   
   For example, in page 745,the section titled "What About Tasks?", the code example does not include task assignement, and he writes "You can attempt to code task recurrence and assignement, but this is much harder and can easily break Outlook if done incorrectly. For this reason, these functions are not shown in the following code because they are complex and prone to breaking Outlook". Funny. The author should attempt to explain how to do it correctly.
   
   Outlook object properties, methods and events. The author enumerates all of them, no explanation. For example, page 170, about UserProperties and UserProperty, I saw a lot of these properties in his sample codes, but there are never any explanation what are these!
   
   When he explained things, most are self-explanatory. For example in page 82 about "Setting the Actions for a Rule", he wrote"
   Return to Sender - This action sends an item e-mailed to a folder back to a sender....
   Delete - This action deletes an item...
   Reply - With This action sends an automatic reply...
   Forward - This action forwards all messages...
   
   He shows how to create custom field (it's easy) but never explained how to access them programmatically.
   
   It will take a whole book as big as this one to comment how disappointing this book is. It is much better to search msdn than read this book.



3. I have to disagree with the reviewer who says there is not a lot of depth in this book. Sure, the author does leave out some topics but he clearly states that they can either really mess up Outlook or that they are not supported by Microsoft which can get you into trouble down the road. Otherwise, this book is the bible for Exchang and Outlook development bar none. I origianlly got it to learn how to integrate our corporate CRM system with Outlook (our sales reps live in Outlook!). The book is well written, has lots of samples and gave me the kick start I needed to get my job done.



4. I have been disappointed by this book. I wanted it mostly to learn how to program Outlook. When I started reading it, I have realized that only a small portion of it was dedicated to Outlook. Perhaps that I am harsh against the book value because I am not part of the intended readers but I guess that even readers interested to programming Exchange would not find much value of this book. I am saying so because the book is huge close to a thousand pages but it sounds like a cut and paste of the Exchange programmer user manual. When I purchase a book like this one, I expect it to be a complement to the product documentation, to give a better insight of how and why a given software works like it does. This book does not deliver up to these expectations. The best Outlook programming book that I have found is: Microsoft Outlook Programming, Jumpstart for Administrators, Developers, and Power Users. Skip this one.



5. I have always been interested in Computer Science and I picked up this book to better understand email -- which these days is Outlook and Exchange.
   
   It is an awesome resource for me to learn about the applications and it actually got me hired on as an unpaid intern to help out my dad's company put out an Outlook/Exchange application

5 comments about Managing Multimedia: Project Management for Interactive Media (2nd Edition).

1. The book does not reflect real life multimedia project planning.

   The authors spend too much time on overly complex forms and proceedures. I wonder if they ever worked with an in-house client or a small business wanting multimedia development. I doubt it.

   If you are working on a very complex project with really stupid clients this might be the book for you.

   If enjoy working with multimedia and you are working with the average clients, who want a web site or interactive CDROM, I'd advise you look for a different book.

   I'm currently teaching a multimedia project planning course. A former instructor recommended we use this book. My students and I have recommended that we don't use this book for future courses.

   The book contains a CDROM which is pretty much extra fluff with no real value.




2. We used this book as textbook for a European course in Multimedia Production: it is clear, up to date and doesn't containt he usual geeky jargon. Written by people who know about production, and how to pass on that knowledge to others. Good practical exercises too.



3. I am a student studying Bachelor of Multimedia and I found this book to be extremely helpful in my course - especially when it came to managing and conducting my student projects at university (with real life clients, external to the uni).

   This book teaches you how to effectively elicit the product requirements from your client; it gives information on contractual issues for proposals and development agreements; it advises how to assemble the most effective team for a project and team management principles; it discusses Intellectual Property and Copyright, important issues for this industry; it covers management of the other phases of a multimedia project - design, production, integration and testing... and gives advice so you don't fall in the traps that so many other projects have like requirements creep, blowing the budget, missing the deadline...

   You really need to plan your multimedia projects if you want to create quality products (whether is be a web site or CD-ROM) - and this book will help you plan and control your projects.

   Project management is -big- money. If you want a book about how to be a professional multimedia project manager, then this book is for you.




4. I teach Multimedia Project Management in a Multimedia Design Masters Program at Laval University, Quebec City, Canada.

   For the two years which I gave the course, I have used Managing Multimedia as the main reference.

   I was pleased to discover the book. Students also find the book very relevant.




5. This book provides an excellent overview into project management of multimedia projects. It covers such topics as general project management strategy, scoping a project, contractual issues, selecting the team, team management, agreeing the content, copyright, and marketing, in each case relating the discussion directly to the special issues that arise in multimedia management. The book also provides an introduction to technical topics such as interface design, audio assets, video assets, graphical assets, and testing. The accompanying CD-ROM is well-done, containing useful supplemental material such as interactive forms for various stages of project management that can be used as is or edited.

   One of the book's authors obviously has a strong connection to audio production, and the chapter on audio assets gives a very in-depth introduction into what kinds of things an audio engineer is capable of doing and is supposed to do. I have been looking for a general introduction to sound editing, and this is the best that I have been able to find so far, but I didn't expect to find it in a book about general multimedia management. The accompanying CD also contains audio samples for listening and editing practice, as noted in the book. I found these samples also quite useful.

5 comments about Essential ASP.NET 2.0.

1. I really like Fritz and Keith's writing style, and found this book an excellent ASP.NET 2.0 read.
   
   Unlike other books, this doesn't attempt to be a huge reference. Instead it offers a relatively quick and concise read that details how to use some of the most important new features in ASP.NET 2.0. The result is a very approachable book that provides a great way to learn ASP.NET 2.0 and how to immediately take advantage of it.



2. This is a good book for somebody who is already quite familiar with ASP.NET and just wants to learn what is new with ASP.NET 2.0. I thought the material was sometimes too technical. For example, there is a lot of information on changing the provider database. You would probably find this book most useful if you needed to dig into the guts of ASP.NET 2.0.
   
   However, "Essential ASP.NET 2.0" isn't a very good introduction to ASP.NET 2.0 because it does not provide simple explanations on how to use the new features in real world situations. I've read "ASP.NET 2.0 For Dummies" but found it went over too much familiar material on ASP.NET and left out many aspects of ASP.NET 2.0. Ideally you need a book that focuses just on the new features of ASP.NET 2.0 with an emphasis on practical usage.
   
   I would most recommend this book if you needed in depth information on how to go beyond the typical use of the new features when you find yourself frustrated by some special considerations. If you need to use a MySQL database then the information on changing the provider database will be very useful.



3. This one is not as solid & thorough as the previous edition on asp.net 1.1, some deficiencies include:
   - page life cycle is rather poorly explained, MSDN documentation does a better job
   - only covers the website model, not the 1.1 style web project model, which is a shame, as many professional sites don't use the web site model (which btw really sucks)
   - page compilation is poorly covered, this actually changed a lot between 1.1 & 2.0, but as the author chose to write this book as an addon to the earlier edition, the explanation of this topic is rather sketchy.
   - web parts: didnt get to bottom of how proxywebpartmanager is different from the normal webpartmanager. again, MSDN online arctles provide a clearer explanation.
   
   all in all, i get the impression this book is somehow rushed to market.



4. This book inherits from the Essential ASP book. If you don't have that book, it's like trying to create an inherited class without any documentation or source for the base class. This book requires the reader to have the Essential ASP book and to do a mental merge (vtable?), where some chapters come from ASP.NET and others come from ASP.NET 2.0. I would have preferred a 2nd edition that merged all of the current content into a single book.



5. This book well complements its predecessor. It is a well written book, which provides you with all the necessary internal details and does not try to be a reference book, as most of the books do. It is always possible to get references on msdn.com, however, the content in this book is far more valuable than that.

5 comments about C# & VB.NET Conversion Pocket Reference.

1. I picked up this book on a fling... but I am amazed at how useful I've found it. Most book authors today are gauged (by the publishing houses) according to the number of pages they turn in. This book on the other hand tries to squeeze a lot of good solid information into a small space without beating the topic to death.

   It goes over some of the core differences of VB.NET and C# making not just a valuable reference in conversion between the two, but amazing for learning both languages if you're coming from a high level language (I'm a very strong VB programmer). Within a few minutes I learned how to build classes in both C# and VB.NET from this book. About 10 minutes later I had basic Overloading and Inheritance down. Granted, this book won't teach you what Inheritance is, but if you already know it your only problem is to learn the syntax and this book gives you the syntax quickly.

   Another cool thing about this book is that it quickly also shows you what's WRONG with the languages at the IL level and will give you a quick bit of info about things that can cause problems (i.e., case sensitivity in C# which allows you to write functions that would result in ambiguous interpretation in VB.NET)

   Remember: this book won't tell you what object oriented design is and won't tell you how to build an n-tier app in .Net, but it will teach you how to write a class in C# and VB.NET in about 1 minute :-) Its just as helpful to learn the basics, such as loops, indexing, calling conventions, etc...

   If you are already good in high level languages and have gotten dropped head first into .NET, get this book and keep it nearby.




2. This book has been a lot of help for me. I came from an all C# programming background and took a job as a VB.NET programmer. With what I already knew, and this book as a reference I was programming VB.NET almost as well as I had programmed C# the very first day.

   This book is a very handy tool for anyone to have especially for the price. My one compliant is that there is no index but you can quickly get use to thumbing though to find what you need in a hurry.




3. This is a great pocket reference for those of us who go back and forth between C# and VB.NET. It is also good for those who do not have to do that, but want to know the differences.
   
   Granted, much of the .NET platform allows almost line-for-line conversion between languages, but there are many syntax differences. This book covers those for these two languages, as well as a special section of significant differences between the languages (in addition to the item-by-item coverage).
   
   This is a handy little book, but because it is little, it sometimes slides to the back of the bookshelf (between two larger books). Still, well worth the price and peace of mind.



4. There are at least two advantages to knowing both languages.
   - Understanding sample code and examples.
   - Flexibility on multi-language projects.
   
   I'm from a C++ background in the bad old days before .NET, but now I'm equally comfortable in either C# or VB.NET, largely due to this book.
   
   Exclusive of conversion between the two langauges, it's also the best quick reference I have for either. Many times I've continued to search for my copy rather than turn to another source. Now I also subscribe to it on Safari, and when my hardcopy falls apart I'll probably buy another one.
   
   It would be nice if it had an index, but I'm still giving it five stars since as far as I know there is no adequate substitute.



5. This is a great book to start programming in C#. I have been programming in VB.NET for over three years and this book has been very helpful while making the transition from VB to C# and every time I am going from one language to the other. It is nicely organized and you can quickly find the information and exmaples you need to start working.I definitely recommend this book. I got it (...)at my local bookstore and it is worth alot more than that.

2 comments about Visual Modeling with Rational Rose 2002 and UML (3rd Edition) (Addison-Wesley Object Technology Series).

1. I found this book disappointing and wondered why I would ever need to use Rational Rose. For a start, the examples in the appendices of code generation are for C++ and Visual Basic. Whatever happened to Java? Second, probably the most important design technique in use today, Design Patterns, hardly gets a mention on p175, with a reference to read the GoF book.

   So what are we left with? Old-fashioned programming languages and techniques. Buy a book on Java design patterns instead, of which Amazon sells several.




2. Rational Rose is a powerful tool, but like most such tools, it can be intimidating. The Unified Modeling Language or UML is also complex, so the combination can pose a problem for even the bravest of developers. Fortunately, this book is available to step you through the initial phases of beginning a project using the combination of UML with Rational Rose.
   The form of the explanations is demonstrated by the example on page 136.

   Creating Start States in Rational Rose
   1. Click to select the Start icon from the toolbar.
   2. Click on the statechart diagram to draw the Start icon.
   3. Click to select the State Transition icon from the toolbar.
   4. Click on the Start icon and drag the arrow to the desired state.

   And there is a diagram following it that is an example of what the result should look like. Since all of the major areas of design are covered, with this book, some knowledge of the UML and a copy of Rational Rose, even the visual modeling beginner can begin creating their designs with almost no preparation.
   There are those who will say that this book is too simplistic in tone. My response is to commend them for their abilities and to recommend another book. However, for all who are just beginning their relationship with Rational Rose, I strongly recommend this one.

3 comments about Pro Apache Tomcat 6 (Pro).

1. I have read this book cover to cover. It contains plenty of useful technical info, I learned a lot, and so I give it 3 stars. Boy, was it tedious reading though! The grammar is broken in many places. The style is rather stiff and tiresome. I do not blame the author though, and I wish the editors and reviewers did better job prior to bringing this work to the public. Yeah, even hackers and software geeks appreciate good writing! In fact, it is quite evident that Chapter 14 "Testing Tomcat's Performance" was written by a different writer than the rest of the book. A breath of fresh air! This chapter reads well, it flows, no grammar problems, no stiff/awkward/stilted style. Nice job on this one. Anyway, the author worked hard. Writing is a tough job, and it is not easy to organize, present and teach technical subjects, I know. But it seems to me that the quality control at Apress is sorely lacking. They might be rushing things to production a little too fast, so it seems. Hope they improve though!



2. I'd wish there would be a way to measurably gauge how far, "for better or worse", books have strayed away from the carelessly lousy online documentation from a purely linguistic point of view.
   ~
   This book has almost no actual examples of anything real in its 300 pages. It just the online docs with some Windows specific stuff thrown in, some of it relatively interesting/esoteric like using IIS front ending TC and some other stuff, which to me does not merit space in a TC book, e.g., Securing file system on a OS level, in which the author states (page 219) "Windows gives you much more flexibility when assigning permissions than Unix does" I am still wondering when, if ever, Windows will be able to achieve the level of security that hardened gentoo sports right from a live CD
   ~
   Matthew Moodie's book, in addition to the very Windows-centric mindset, also contains quite a bit of bluff and insipid content, sections that appear to have no meat whatsoever like "Transactions and Distributed Transactions Support". I wonder why didn't they just leave this section altogether. It also has many little mistakes that at some point I simply started underlining with my comments next to them:
   ~
   page 4: "Tomcat is always the first server to provide the new features of the spex when it is finished" Actually not true, Jetty has been better at that that TC itself
   ~
   page 59: author refers to the "commons" branch in TC directory structure while talking about logging listing 4-7 (TC 6 did away with it)
   ~
   page 161: "Using Tomcat's connectors"/"The Workers" it should be "CATALINA_BASE1", "CATALINA_BASE2", ...
   ~
   Book also seems to be talking more about TC 5.5 than the new features of TC 6.0
   ~



3. I read this book from cover to cover because I am a tomcat administrator and I need to update from version 5 upto 6. What I got after reading the book is very little.
   
   Most of the technical explanations are very shallow, some address -badly- esoteric/complex issues. The contents within each chapter do not mix well, there is no logic flow when reading the book from chapter to chapter.
   
   The book lacks working examples, the chapter 14 is completely useless, how can you test the tomcat if you can not set up it properly ?
   
   The appendix on MySql is unnecesary, that's not the main bulk of the work for Tomcat administrators.
   
   The book seems to be a rush rewriting from a previous book based on Tomcat 5.5.
   
   I will give a try to: The Professional Apache Tomcat 6 by Vivek Chopra, Sing Li, Jeff Genender. I hope this time I won't miss the point.