No comments about MCTS: Windows Server 2008 Applications Infrastructure Configuration Study Guide (Exam 70-643, with CD).

5 comments about C++: Effective Object-Oriented Software Construction: Concepts, Practices, Industrial Strategies and Practices (2nd Edition).

1. I read most of the 1st edition.
   A very insightful look into C++ programming with
   detailed but simple examples to explain the fundamental
   and yet powerful concepts and intricacies with the language!



2. this is *the* C++ book that got me thru my programming assignments. from concepts to code, from design to implementation, the author detailed everything very clearly and thoroughly, excellent job! this book is evenly-paced and highly readable with golden nuggets everywhere. before getting this book, i used to be lost in lectures and assignments, confused about concepts of pointers etc, but after carefully studying this gem, i could truly understand the essence of C++ and write solid, high quality code. to sum it up, i have three words for you: GO BUY IT!!



3. This is am amazing book that very clearly explains the 'how' and 'why' of each feature in Object Oriented Design.My design skills certainly got a lot better with this book.I loved the chapter on Inheritance.Inheritance is one of the most powerful features of any object oriented language and the most effective form of code reuse.This book does a very good job at giving the reader a good idea of how to exploit this feature effectively.



4. This text is definitely classroom quality, covering almost all aspects of the language, both theoretically and practically, and the books size reflects this. It doesn't cover the STL at all, but to do so would have made the text too large. The best thing I liked about the book is that it discusses object oriented design concepts (as pertaining to C++) very well.



5. This is the best C++ book i've ever read (and i've read many good authors). It explains the concepts in depth with plenty of sample-code and drawings. The author seems to be aware which concepts could be misunderstood and repeatedly clarifies them in his examples.You cannot become a serious C++ programmer, if you don't understand these concepts correctly. Most of the object-oriented concepts are illustrated with real-world examples, so u learn how the language can be applied practically. I wish i'd gotten this book during my school days.

5 comments about Essential Mathematics for Games and Interactive Applications: A Programmer's Guide (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Interactive 3d Technology) (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Interactive 3d Technology).

1. See my other review. I bought this book and the other. I got stuck in that other book. I am learning linear algebra for the first time. This book is doing it! Although it gets quite abstract at times, and seems to be presenting the subject as if it is not related to 3D programming (like solving equations for an n-dimensional space), and it explains something and then says it is not used in 3D programming, it explains the concepts extremely well, and although it may take a while for a new concept to sink in for me, I do not find myself having to go elsewhere for help.
   
   One note though, I tried to email one of the authors to find out about errata for the book and never got a response. I did eventually find it though. Don't expect the authors to be available. They do not have a message board.



2. The book presentation is very good but the presentation of the material 'jumps right in there' with a good review and is very technical and a bit difficult to follow. It is an excellent book for someone that remembers their basic math, if your rusty, take a refresher course first.



3. Do you know the history of quaternions? About a century ago, they were investigated, as an exercise in pure, abstract maths. Yet in recent years, people in computer graphics found this very useful in defining certain types of rotations. Interested? Well, this book has a good, clear section that explains how they are used. That requires only some basic knowledge of trigonometry and complex numbers.
   
   Much of the book is like this. Though perhaps with concepts more readily apparent than quaternions. Ideas drawn from three dimensional analysis. But with topics that are not typically in maths courses, relating specifically to graphical displays. Like different types of tesselations, different shaders and texture maps.
   
   Some physics also shows up in the book. Often related to ray tracing and approximating the effects of light on a surface.
   
   Nothing too hard, despite some remarks by other reviewers. The really advanced and specialised material, like applying Monte Carlo methods, has been omitted. This is essentially a basic text. You should have mastery of this material to do useful contributions in graphics.



4. I'm a computer science and digital arts student. I've found this book to be an excellent primer on the math that I haven't gone in-depths with for some time. The first few chapters provide excellent background materials to the actual mathematical basis for the following chapters.



5. I am an avid tech book reader, especially about any technology related to game programming.
   
   I found this book to be an outstanding reference for math related to game programming.
   
   I think the authors are very good at explaining and focus on the core concepts instead of getting mired in the details.
   
   I particularly liked the sections on rigid Body Dynamics - I needed a good overview to conceptually understand the implementation.

2 comments about Object-Oriented Programming with Visual Basic .NET.

1. As the name indicates, the contents of this book are truly object-oriented.
   It has all the lessons that learners would need in order to comprehend the various options and applications that Visual Basic .NET offers. This book provided exemplary guides, which would encourage learners to endure some self-tests. It anticipates problems and helps provide solutions that programmers can count on. Almost everything about it is positive.
   However, its information are not as detailed as some experts would like them to be. Again, anybody who has poor knowledge of Visual Basic 6.0 will not find this book easy. Its writer assumed that its readers are already familiar with VB 6.0.



2. I purchased this book in order to help me migrate from Visual Foxpro to Visual Basic 2005. Overall, I am very pleased with it. The examples are clear-cut and touch on real-world scenarios. The chapters on object oriented and interface programming are almost worth the price of the book. The remaining chapters are more geared towards objects specific to the .NET framework, not object-oriented programming per se. I would recommend this book to people who already have a fairly good knowledge of VB/VBA or another OO language such as Java.

5 comments about Microsoft SharePoint: Building Office 2003 Solutions, Second Edition (Expert's Voice in Sharepoint).

1. Here ares ome of the bugs i had encountered with this book
   
   Missing hardware configuration on chapter 2 to start the 1.excersises in the book
   2.Some steps on installing and running web parts past security poorly stated.
   3.At time there was no data on the web page to demonstrate web part capabilities and other SPS features
   4. Documents do not move on chapter 8
   5. Cannot get testing Secure Access to work on chapter 10
   6. Could not get the accelerartors to work on chapter 11
   
   
   This book is a very good introduction to SPS and the reader does learn alot on the subject. However some of the interesting features do not work from the book due to poor description or bad writeup. however the author was very thorough in his coverage.



2. Microsoft SharePoint performs two things for Microsoft. Firstly, as explained by Hillier at length, it offers more value to Microsoft Office users. By enabling relatively easy ad hoc collaborations, that can access data stored in various Office documents and SQL Server's database. Where that access crucially includes the ability to search the data. And then, of course, to modify any such desired data, if you have the necessary permissions.
   
   As Hillier discusses, SharePoint is another unifying glue over MS Office and SQL Server. The book is mostly aimed at programmers. Showing them how to make the WebParts using C# or VB under .NET. You can then use SharePoint to combine these parts into a simple application.
   
   But SharePoint does something else for Microsoft, which the book doesn't seem to discuss. In Chapter 1, Hillier says it is the rare company that "can afford to jettison Microsoft Office and Windows operating system for a new infrastructure." Actually, it is not that rare. Linux and open source applications can increasingly offer much functionality that is equivalent and cheaper. In this context, SharePoint can be seen as an effort by Microsoft to incorporate higher valued abilities in Office, as a further lock-in.
   
   Also, the searching described in the book should remind some of you of increasing competition in the search space. Google offers a search appliance for a corporate network. SharePoint gives that appliance competition.



3. "Microsoft Sharepoint: Building Office 2003 Solutions" by Scott Hiller is a introductory book on Sharepoint technology for developers
   
   Starting 4 chapters are on Introducing Sharepoint Portal server, Installation and on content creation (nothing for developer there). Next 3 chapters provide good understanding of web part development. There is chapter on Integration with office 2003 Smart document stuff. Next Chapter discusses the programming to Sharepoint object model. Next chapter provides some information on the Sharepoint Portal server administration and at the end it discusses the 2 office solution Accelerators (for Proposals and for Recruiting).
   
   This book contains good amount of sample code for the web parts development, and 2 Solution Accelerators chapters. Other chapters are of introductory knowledge on Sharepoint usage and administration. Depending on your need only few chapters might be useful. If you have knowledge of .NET development and want to understand web part development, web part chapters of this book along with the Microsoft Sharepoint SDK might be good place to start.



4. The chapter in this book on Web Parts is well explained and laid out with one huge fundamental flaw; the author can't decide whether he wants to illustrate examples with C# or VB.Net. He'll begin explaining a concept in C# and suddenly switch to VB and vice versa. Regardless of how proficient a programmer you are, this is awkward and confusing. Examples should be done in C#, VB, or both.
   
   I understand the desire to cover both VB and C# in a single book, but this awkward attempt to do so effectively produces an inadequate implementation of each rather than a decent implementation of both.
   
   Developers seeking to use this book to learn more about building Web Parts for Sharepoint should steer clear. It may be an inadequately documented field, but this book does not contribute positively towards it.



5. im moving over from vb to c#, so naturally I would like to see examples written in c# so I can get the semantics down.
   
   This book does not do that. Half in c#, half in vb, fully useless.
   
   Next time release 2 versions of the book. Or better yet, write some of it in vb, some in c#, some in python, some in perl....

5 comments about The Art of Software Testing.

1. This book is expensive, however it is well worth its price. A top 10 book for IT professionnals.



2. It's hard to give the appropriate number of stars to this edition. On the one hand, this is one of the classics of the field, and deservedly so. In it's first edition, this may have been the first great book on testing, and there is something about the "first great book" on any topic that makes it a lasting value decades later: DeMarco on Structured Analysis, Brooks on the wicked complexity of software project management, Booch on object-oriented design, K&R on C. And so I think it goes with The Art of Software Testing. It's a short book, and full of good ideas that will stay with you.
   
   But.
   
   This revised edition is simply a terrible value. At the full list price, you'd be paying something like fifty cents a page...and, let me tell you, a book had better revolutionize my life for that kind of money. I'm a dedicated capitalist sell-out software developer, but this kind of pricing arouses even _my_ hacker sensibilities. Also, the value of the revision is questionable: there may be a chapter on Extreme Programming, but it seems to me that the best material in this book is still the classic text that survives from the 1st ed. So, my recommendation is that you simply _buy_ the first edition, new or used, at a fraction of the price. Then, you get nearly all of the benefit, plus the cachet of having the "classic" on your shelf. You can put it right next to "The C Programming Language" and "The Mythical Man-Month." Then, your visitors will know you're a serious software developer...and, you know what? They'll probably be right.
   
   I also like and recommend Kaner, Falk and Nguyen, "Testing Computer Software," for a more in-depth and up-to-date treatment of testing issues.



3. This book is very interesting to learn or to progress (I have 10 years of experience in software developpement) in Art of Testing. The only tedious point is that the author are not really integrate the new principales of Test Driven Development in its book. So, I advise to read a book on this subject before or after.
   
   Benoit, a French Programmer ;-)



4. I read about a dozen of books about testing, and I put this one into a reference for my workers. This is short and very robust. My highest rank.



5. The Art of Software Testing provides the novice with the essentials for developing and implementing a comprehensive testing approach. It's also a valuable resource for those with experience. I dive into this book constantly.
   
   The premise is simple enough: How can you write effective test cases that adequately exercise your system requirements? Myers suggests that good software testing depends on the answer. Testing what the program is supposed to do is only part of the battle. However, in my experience, this is usually where we plant our flag. This can be difficult enough, depending on the quality of the criteria. Bad or vague requirements necessarily lead to insufficient and flawed testing.
   
   As a result negative testing, boundary testing, testing for unexpected conditions, and so forth will often go by the wayside.
   
   In addition, testing is often presented as a gateway to production, and can be cursory as a result. The creativity and time that adequate test cases demand are simply not within project scope. This is often exacerbated by intent to pass systems without finding errors.
   
   Myers addresses these issues as he explores test planning and creation. Hence this book really belongs on the shelves, not only of software testers, but project management as well. The methodology of requirements-based testing is not new. However the profession is growing and more sectors are discovering the need for testing their systems. Art of Software Testing is still relevant and should be promulgated.

5 comments about Squeak: Learn Programming with Robots (Technology in Action).

1. The use of an Integrated Development Environment [IDE] for a user to learn a language in, and to then program within, is well known. Microsoft has made powerful IDEs for its languages. And the open source Eclipse can be used for Java. Along these lines, Ducasse offers his book. It teaches Smalltalk using the Squeak IDE.
   
   The twist is that Squeak uses the visual metaphors of robots and robot factory, to convey the crucial concepts of objects/classes. As Ducasse explains, Squeak can be directed at an audience that is perhaps of high school age or even younger. So a clear visual feedback between example code and what the student sees then happen is vital, given her limited background and possibly limited attention span.
   
   Squeak uses Smalltalk in part because that is a very minimalist language. If you come from C++, Java or C#, you may be struck by its simplicity, compared to the oodles of classes and notational intricacies of those languages. Which of course also makes it easier for a young student to learn Smalltalk or Squeak itself.
   
   I wonder a little about the book itself, though. A motivated high school student could easily use it. But for some younger students? In that situation, it may well be that the book could be best directed at a teacher, who can then instruct from it.



2. I whole-heartedly recommend this book for introducing the novice to the nature of computing. I am giving a copy to my 14 year old grandson to introduce him to the fascinating world of programming. He lives 500 km away from me, so he will largely be on his own. I do not expect this to be a problem because the book is perfect for self study.
   
   I want my grandson to learn the essence of computing without spending time on things that he will have to unlearn later or that prove to be blind alleys on his road to computer proficiency . This book is ideal for this purpose. It will let him experience the basic notions of computing in carefully graded steps. Each step tells him how to do fun experiments in the provided environment where he directs a robot/turtle to draw interesting patterns on the screen. The 22 steps take him from a simple sequence of commands to the creation of elaborate simulations; ending at the point where my grandson should start creating his own classes and subclasses.
   
   The experiments are all done in Squeak, a dialect of Smalltalk. It could be argued that my grandson had better learn Java or some other mainstream language. I believe Smalltalk is a better choice because it is simpler, cleaner, and more immediate. The basic concepts are universal and my grandson can easily switch to some other language after he has mastered the fundamentals.
   
   The book is written in a fluent, idiomatic English. It is written in the first person; the writer speaks directly to the reader. This writing style combined with the examples being concrete makes for the smooth communication of what are really abstract ideas.
   
   Anybody wanting to understand more than e-mail and text processing could not do better than to install the free robotic environment on their computer and work through the book’s text and examples.



3. I've used this book and the BotsInc environment to show my 12-yr old daughter how much fun writing software can be and it's been a wild success!
   
   In fact, it all fits together so well that I'm planning to use it as the basis of an introductory series of classes on software writing as craftwork, to be offered through a local craft organization.
   
   Help train the next generation of software writers! Buy this book!



4. This book actually teaching computer programming, rather than teaching a computer programming language. It has to use something, and Smalltalk (Squeak) is gentle enough that it doesn't get in the way of the topic.
   
   Stéphane Ducasse, a prolific writer about object-oriented programming, says in his preface: "The material for this book was originally developed by my wife, who is a physics and mathematics teacher in a French school where the students are between eleven and fifteen years old". Indeed, the pains taken to make object-oriented programming understandable to someone with no background are quite apparent, and they certainly pay off. The author has more than met his goal "to teach you object-oriented programming, because this paradigm provides an excellent metaphor for teaching programming".
   
   Instead of teaching Smalltalk, the computer language he uses, he's actually teaching programming. Smalltalk, originally designed as a teaching language, has minimal syntatic issues and it very simple once the student knows a few basic rules. The reader of this book doesn't have to know much to start workign though, since the author distributes a working Squeak environment that's ready to use. He's already provided a "Bot factory" and a working (virtual) robot to which the reader can send commands, much like the LOGO language and its turtle. Without getting caught in the details of object or class design, the readers start out simply by interacting with objects and sending them messages to control their behavior.
   
   As the reader learns more about what the robot knows how to do, the author devises trickier problems for the reader to solve. These usually involve causing the robot to move in such a way as to draw out a pattern. In doing so, the reader is actually writing programs that control the robots behavior to accomplish the goal. Although the language is really SmallTalk, the author effectively hides most of that through the use of the robot's little language.
   
   The Squeak environment the author distributes is easy to use for anyone with a basic idea of computers (i.e. mouse and keyboard, click here, and so on). It's easy to install because you only need to download it and click on the file. From there, you see the Squeak environment and a ready-to-use robot. Move the mouse near the robot and a speech bubble with a blinking cursor appears. Type a command and the robot responds. Easy peasy.
   
   If you are already a computer programmer, or have some experience with computer programming and want to learn Smalltalk, this book is probably too basic for you. However, if you go to the authors web page (Amazon tends to edit links from reviews, so google the author's name) you'll find links to many free Smalltalk books that you can download as PDFs.



5. This book uses Smalltalk to teach the basics of object oriented programming on Mac or PC. Before getting my hands on this book I have to say I was having trouble grasping the basics.
   
   I personally bought the book as I want to learn Smalltalk. For some reason the "with Robots" in the title had me skip over this book for almost a year. Most, if not all the other Smalltalk books I got, although great, usually assume differing levels of pre-existing programming knowledge and experience and approach the teaching of Smalltalk skimming over the stuff that is a required foundation to *understand* it. Stephane Ducasse does an excellent job of explaining that missing foundational stuff. And he does it without getting too deep into Smalltalk or Squeak itself.
   
   As others have pointed out this book is not really focussed on teaching Smalltalk - Smalltalk is the tool used to teach basic O-O programming. However, he's done an excellent job of doing both!!!
   
   Having finished this book I'm writing basic programs - and finally understanding better the programs of others.

3 comments about Practical Software Maintenance: Best Practices for Managing Your Software Investment.

1. I bought this book when I was promoted to project leader of a 500 KLOC system which was in its 10th year of maintenance. There was no formal maintenance program in place.

   This book gave me the information I needed to get started. It was well written, with many real world examples. I did not have any trouble following it. It starts from the very beginning of the process and builds up. Starting with a description of the three classes of modification request. And ending with suggested modifications for your metrics program due to Object Oriented Technology.

   I'd recommend this textbook to anyone who is just starting out in the Software Maintenance field. It has helped me considerably. It would probably be too general for someone already experienced with Software Configuration Management programs and Software Maintainability Metrics.

   My only complaint is that it could have used more checklists and a web site.




2. This book has a lot of valuable insights in the Maintenance process for the software made with the traditional third-generation programming tools and languages. The book gives especially good practical advises for the transition activities. The chapter that deals with the Maintainability disappointed me. It contains just links to another sources of information without mentioning a single rule about how to evaluate the maintainability of software. The part of the book that concerns the Object Oriented software maintenance is also very poor.

   The book shares the common problem with the majority of technical books : redundant inflated text.




3. What sets this book apart is the fact that is one of the few still in print that addresses software maintenance (the other one of which I am familiar is more focused on maintenance programming as opposed to maintenance as a process and discipline).

   The main value is the maintenance-oriented framework that the author provides, which encompasses planning activities, a set of processes and organizational and cost considerations. These are valuable guidelines and will help to clearly define the transition between application delivery and maintenance and support operations within IT. Much of this material is also applicable to product-based organizations that produce commercial software.

   I would have liked more information about maintenance metrics that I could have compared to resources I already have, and also would have liked more emphasis on reliability and quality metrics. However, the book is more focused on processes and support, and it shines in those areas. If you are interested in software maintenance from developer's and software engineering viewpoints I recommend "Designing Maintainable Software" by Dennis D. Smith (ISBN 0387987835). For metrics I strongly recommend "Software Metrics: Establishing a Company-wide Program" by Robert B. Grady ISBN 0138218447).

2 comments about Pro SMS 2003 (Field Guide).

1. Although there have been several SMS 2003 related books released lately (and long overdue in my opinion), each one has something additional to offer to the SMS Admin. SMS 2003 is a complex thing to understand and administrate, and I found "Pro SMS 2003" to be another useful addition to the books available. The emphasis placed in the first few chapters on understanding your network topology *before* starting to deploy important. Hopefully if a company is considering SMS they take to heart the planning stages as the critical step they are for a successful SMS deployment. The book also takes one through step-by-step setting up the agents, inventorying options, and some of the addons (like patch management and Feature Packs). To quote Rod himself "This is the book I wish someone had written for me when I first started working with the product."



2. This is a great book, and the author has kept it current. (It includes references to SMS SP2). Probably not for SMS beginners trying to learn the software, but it's loaded with great information. I keep it with me at work as a quick reference. Definitely worth buying!

5 comments about Teach Yourself Visually HTML.

1. Although I consider myself fairly computer savvy, I know absolutely nothing about webpage development. Until now. With this book, I was able to create professional looking webpages in literally, minutes. This is my first and only book I've purchased about creating webpages. I can't say that other books aren't as useful, but I can say, that this step-by-step approach, is fool-proof. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in creating webpages, with little or no prior knowledge of webpage development.



2. Following the advice of the others on this page I duly purchased this book. I can now safely say it will be my LAST time following the general concensus! What is WITH you people?
   A photographer/grafik designer by trade, specialising in print-based media I have never done web-based work (other than actually designing pages and buttons in Illustrator - and then having someone else doing the converting, assembly etc.) so I decided to buy a book and have a go. To get straight to the point this book is a piece of crap for the following reasons. 1) (despite professing otherwise) It is totally incoherent, and follows a very illogical progression pattern. 2) The grafiks are so sadly outdated and amateur-ish I cringed every time I opened the book. 3) It fails to empower the reader to move freely and thus visualise their own ideas. 4) It is VERY incomprehensive. 5) It is very hard to navigate, has no real index, no thumb tags etc.
   It is like a 'Big Mac' - it looks yummy and filling and when you take a bite it SEEMS to fill you up, but soon you are hungry for more REAL FOOD. My advice? Go for a less disturbingly 'visual' format that provides you with the building blocks to build your own house.



3. Great for beginners to intermediate users. Clear instructions, great color graphics, simple but fundamental instructions, powerful in its simplicity. Mouth-wateringly good! Grab this.



4. Started recently with showing interest in the HTML language. It became clear that in the huge amount of books covering this subject, I was keen on getting something simple, easy to understand and a very handy reference guide. I belive that with this book, it cannot be made any simpler!! Even for non IT minded persons.
   
   The book covers all, from starting a web page, building CCS, what and how JavaScript is working (did not had a clue what it was) up to special features that can make your web-site just that more interesting.
   Even now, as a reference guide, it is just what I needed.
   
   The visually part of it - if somebody is not known with the "Teach yourself visually" series - is so clear, the results are showing.
   Later I have bought the Dreamweaver MX 2004 from the same series. Even though Dreamweaver is pretty clear in itself, I still come back to this book for some handy tips and how to do.
   
   Worthwile? I do think so!



5. This book is so great - I bought this a long time ago, back when I was first learning HTML. I can't tell you what a great resource it was for me. I learned so much, so fast from this book. It really is a simple, straightforward guide to HTML and it actually teaches you a lot about what you are doing so that you can learn and apply these concepts to your own projects. It's a guide that beginners should definitely turn to, but is great for people who aren't just beginners as well because it has tons of cool stuff that you can learn even if you do know a bit about HTML. Plus it would be a great reference guide while building a website for yourself or for someone else. And another great highlight of this book is that its not skimpy or condescending like some of those 'for dummies' books.