5 comments about COM+ Programming: A Practical Guide Using Visual C++ and ATL (HP Professional Series).

1. This book is ideal for beginning to develop applications and for the need for a better understanding of the different COM aspects. The variety of examples is however limited and builds upon previous shown examples. However the author limits the need of useless repeating. Read this book if you want to understand the different tools but for real development the book is not practical enough.



2. I found this book to be an excellent reference from the minute I opened it. I began by paging through the chapters but almost immediately found areas that helped with the project I was currently working on.
   Unlike most books that spend the first several chapters covering basic topics that are covered by every other book, this one actually presented a more concise and in depth look at those topics. The chapter on IDL was well worth the reading.
   This is difinately not a book for the beginner or for those looking to use languages other than C++. I did find some pieces questionable. The authors implementation of a resource sharing mechanism seems unnecessary. Why is it that authors know how to write better code than anyone else?



3. I found this book to be an excellent reference from the minute I opened it. I began by paging through the chapters but almost immediately found areas that helped with the project I was currently working on.
   Unlike most books that spend the first several chapters covering basic topics that are covered by every other book, this one actually presented a more concise and in depth look at those topics. The chapter on IDL was well worth the reading.
   This is difinately not a book for the beginner or for those looking to use languages other than C++. I did find some pieces questionable. The authors implementation of a resource sharing mechanism seems unnecessary. Why is it that authors know how to write better code than anyone else?



4. The book is incredibly difficult to read from cover to cover. Instead of just getting to the point, there is so much verbiage as to make the whole thing unintelligible. The examples, with the VCR/TV analogy in the first chapter, were simply confusing and could have been made more clear IMHO.
   
   Better to try another COM/ATL book



5. The author had a good idea in Chapter 1 for developing the rationale for COM. It was an interesting read, and educational, without hardly even mentioning the term, COM. From there the writing went downhill. I'm an experienced programmer with a fair amount of prior exposure to COM, but the author lost me before the end of his 90-page chapter 2 on designing interfaces. He failed to introduce new terms before using them. He strung dozens of topics together with no apparent connection or organizing framework. Rationale was missing. I labored over this chapter but gained very little understanding. The text was well edited for the most part, but three stars overall is generous.

5 comments about Practical Guide to Structured Systems Design (2nd Edition) (Yourdon Press Computing Series).

1. A real classic like Tom DeMarco's "Structured Analysis and System Specification". One of the top ten favorites in my bookshelf.



2. The Structured Systems Design is a well-established methodology in software design which does not have a comparable counterpart in the OOP world.
   
   ***
   
   This book of Meilir Page-Jones attempts to bring a rigorous presentation of structured design as well as a down-to-earth methodology suitable for direct use.
   
   The book fails to deliver at high level on both counts.
   
   A) As a theoretical presentation of the methodology, even the author admits that the classic in the field is the book by Yourdon and Constantine. Perhaps without this remark the reader can easily see that the rigor and sobriety usually abundant in such works is slim in this book.
   
   For a practical guide, however, the level of rigor is not out of line.
   
   B) As a pratical guide, the book extensively explains *WHAT*, but it fails to teach *HOW*.
   
   For instance, the book spends a great deal in explaining what a good design is (a whole section of the book). But when it comes to how to construct a good design, it spends just a few poorly written pages on transform analysis (the main construction technique).
   
   OBS: The huge advantage of the structured methodologies over OOP is that they are *rigorous*. They have rigorous specification techniques (structured analysis), rigorous methods of transforming the specs into design (transform analysis) and rigorous methods of transforming the design into code (structured programming).
   
   "The Practical Guide to Structured Systems Design" fails to teach soundly these techniques.
   
   The book is well structured. Sections I-III present what (good) structured design is. Section IV deals with a brief presentation of structured analysis.
   
   Section V is the core of the book and, unfortunately, that's where the book is most weak. The section is named emphatically "Design Strategies" but in fact it shows just one "strategy": transaction analysis followed by transform analysis. The presentation is bad, cluttered with poorly chosen examples and misplaced figures (a figure referenced at some point may be placed actually two pages after the reference).
   
   Sections VI and VII are simply mambo-jambo: pages filled with generalities about performance or project management with very little value for the actual performance engineer or project manager.
   
   ***
   
   It is well known that writing a good practical guide in anything is very difficult since it is hard to find the right balance between theory and practice.
   
   But, considering what it really delivers compared to its purpose, this book is grossly overrated and not of very much value for someone interested in the rigorous and systematic characteristics of structured design methodologies.



3. I actually handed out several copies in the early 1990s to co-workers. I first got introduced to this book when it was used as a textbook at NJIT on the undergraduate level. And really, I think in many ways, I think I liked it better. It was considerably more compact. And I think I liked the older terminology better. But good luck finding a copy.



4. After over 20 years of dealing with other people's programming messes, I can't think of a better book for programmers to learn how to write clear programs.
   
   The sections on coupling and cohesion, are fundamental to structured design as well as object-oriented design.
   
   If my comments aren't persuasive then consider those of structured design's creator, Larry Constantine, who said Meilir's book on this topic is better than his.



5. This book is 20+ years old, but is better than 99% of the current OOAD books. Every page is a gold-nugget of practical-real-world-wisdom that is still relevant today. The structured approach detail here is much more valuable and practical than OOAD.

3 comments about Game Design: A Practical Approach (Game Development Series).

1. Computer games have changed dramatically over the past few years. Long gone are simple Pac-Man type games. Today's computer are vastly more powerful than the early PC's and competition has forced the gaming industry into every more sophisticated games. In addition to the powerful computers, extremely sophisticated software has come about to assist game development.
   
   As Mr, Schuytema says, however, the most powerful, the most important piece of software is your mind. The most powerful computers, the most sophisticated software don't have the crativity you have.
   
   All of the rest of this book then is on simply using the tools that are available to take your creativity and make it dance on the screen. It begins with the development of a plan. What is it that the game is supposed to do, what's the setting, the characters, what objects do these characters use: gun, bomb, chocolate bar?
   
   Then it goes into the tools that he recommends the starting designer to use, specifically the scripting language Lua. This is a simple to use, easy way to get started. You can certainly use it through the prototyping stage, at which time you may or may not need to go to something lower level like C++ or C.
   
   He develops a simple game through the book so that he can use Lua to illustrate what he is doing. A CD is included with the book that includes the game and a bunch of Lua software.



2. Paul Schuytema's GAME DESIGN: A PRACTICAL APPROACH is for new game designers as well as serious gamers who want to create their own. From beginning concepts that build a foundation of routines and knowledge to more advanced documentation on delivery systems, application, and using enhanced shareware (included), designers will find everything needed at all levels of the process, under one cover.



3. Gave me a head start on game design...I make cell phone games..Also goes into detail in concol and mmorpgs

3 comments about Digital Systems Design and Prototyping: Using Field Programmable Logic and Hardware Description Languages.

1. This book covers the each and every theory about designing FPLDs using AHDL and VHDL. As an Engineering student, this is a very useful book to read and can learn AHDL and VHDL yourself.



2. This book is a waste of time and money. Three-quarters of this book is spent on AHDL, VHDL, Verilog. If you want to learn HDL then this book is definitely not for you since its not detailed enough to cover all 3 languages. As for learning about FPGAs, there is alot of valuable information out on the internet that you could get without an expensive price tag. Or else there are some other great books on FPGAs that you could purchase. This is one of the few books that I hardly got any use out of.



3. This is a great book for those with Background knowledge in Digital Systems. Good coverage on both Digital Systems Design and FPGAs. If you're a Computer Systems Engineering Student you'll find this book very useful.

5 comments about CVS Pocket Reference, Second Edition.

1. It's an OK book if you have some knowledge of CVS already but as most people would use CVS in an networked environment the online documentation is actually better and up to date.



2. This book fails to be a pocket reference. The book's index is a joke and as a result your topic of interest is not listed or, and that is a major drawback for reference books, discussed somewhere else. And if you find your topic the information presented is often not sufficient to answer your question. Although I keep this book within arm reach on my desk, I always use the web for my CVS questions. My advice for people with basic CVS knowledge and the ability to use CVS from the command line: search the web and pick one of the many CVS related web sites as your starting point for more information on CVS. This books does not keep up with the O'Reilly standards and is therefor best ignored.



3. This pocket reference summarises the basics of CVS. It's enough to get you going, but I wouldn't rely on it for a major project. The explanation of how CVS works is short; the part I've found most useful is the handy table of CVS commands and options in the second half of the book.

   However, there is extensive online documentation for CVS that goes into far greater depth than this book, is more up to date, and is free. Even though I've had the book, I've still needed to refer to this online documentation to learn the finer points of tags, branching, and other CVS features.

   So it's really a matter of whether you want to pay to have some (but not all) useful information in a handy booklet. If that appeals to you, great, this isn't a bad book. But you can certainly live without it by using your computer as a reference tool.




4. A couple of years ago I started using CVS for large projects with lots of files. I bought this book back then, but have used it very little. Everything is in the UNIX man pages, and there is online documents.



5. This book is so inferior to the available on-line documentation you shouldn't waste your money. The book is little more than an incomplete list of the available CVS commands with no helpful explainations.

5 comments about C: A Software Engineering Approach.

1. 15 years ago I came across this book accidentally in a second hand shop primarily selling Springer books.
   I already had K&R because it was best known, but was not really satisfied with it as a transitioner from Fortran.
   This book had all I needed, especially on pointers (see all other reviews).
   I always enjoyed reading it. It's not about becoming a C obsfucation contest winner,
   but about C as a tool for software engineers.
   Combined with Harbison & Steele's "A C Reference Manual" and Hanson's "C Interfaces and Implementations",
   which are my other most referenced C books, you will have a solid basic library to rely on as a C programmer.



2. I have read the second edition and recently bought this third edition that has ANSI standard C in the main body of the work, rather than K&R C. I am using it to brush up on C that I have not used in a while. It is still a great book.
   
   I have read the other reviews from December 1997 through February 2004. I do not have much to add to what has already been said, other than what the others write is true. I wish all technical books were this well written.



3. The perfect balance of complete, useful information on ANSI C. All technical information (data types, operators, declarations, pointers, arrays) is there. It it all explained in sufficient, readable but not wordy detail. It is remarkable in its efficiency.
   
   It's all in there - the preprocessor, railroad diagrams showing the syntax of each statement, code snippets where they useful. Data structures, starting with the bit datatype, then defining and explaining more advanced concepts of unions, structures, and the user-defined types using _typedef_. Then full examples tieing it together with linked lists, then doubly linked lists.
   
   A brief section on software engineering concepts showing the importance of design and test, and finally a complete working C interpreter.
   
   What really sets it apart though is its complete reference of the most-used standard library functions - formatted and file I/O, string and memory manipulation functions. Effective use of the proven library functions is one of the marks of the software professional, and the outer framework of most useful real-life programs is getting data in and out.
   
   The book begins with a very high-level overview of programs to establish its context, but this is NOT a how-to-program book. If you already understand the fundamental concepts (arithmetic and logical operations, looping) and you need a comprehensive book on how to use C, this is the one. There are lots of books in the "this is a reference, not a tutorial" class (e.g. K&R) and lots of wordy tutorials that never get to the difficult parts (like 'how do I pass a pointer to a multidimensional array.'). This is one book that is sufficiently organized to be a reference, with enough clear explanation that you'll learn how and why things work.
   
   I've had my 2nd edition of this book since it was new in 1991 and recently purchased a copy of the reviewed edition for a friend. It's still excellent, with improved coverage of new features and extensions, and removal of the obsolete adjective "new" when referencing the ANSI standard that's been ratified for a good long while now.
   
   There is no mention of C++ - this is a C book. Good ol' ANSI C is still the language of choice for many if not most embedded projects, even new design. I believe a solid foundation in C will serve any C++ programmer well - under the 'object' layer of C++ lie member functions that actually do the work, and those functions look a lot like C...
   
   Like most good technical books, this one's not cheap, but it's a quality Springer-Verlag binding on acid-free paper that will last a career if not a lifetime. And considering the depth, breadth, and clarity of the content, it is a bargain.
   
   A must-have.



4. As some one who took an unguided path into C programming, I can really appreciate how much of a difference this book would have made if I came across it earlier.
   
   This book elegantly lays down the structure and parts of the C language. It presents the reasons behind various features of the language.
   
   This is the book that will teach you to think about programming in an intuitive way.



5. Where the K&R book is terrible for learning C, this book makes it a snap.
   It provides an organized and complete tutorial for the novice C programmer as well as a useful reference for the more experienced C user.

No comments about The Game Localization Handbook (Game Development Series).

1 comments about Systems Bioinformatics: An Engineering Case-Based Approach.

1. I came across this book while I was looking for a resource that showed how one can contribute one's engineering talent in biology. The book starts with a molecular biology section. Then the book looks at biology from engineering perspectives: control theory, network analysis, and signal processing. The book also talks about synthetic biology, and finishes off with topics at the horizon of bioengineering research. I think it is an impressive, cohesive text even though it covers complex topics within the intersection of molecular biology, computer science, and engineering (especially electrical and chemical engineering). Alterovitz and Ramoni appear to have gotten these topics into one book by working with a group of experts from around the world.
   
   Pro: In addition to what I've already said, it comes with a CD so no downloading necessary. Most if not all the figures are on the CD, and I'm thinking of using a few in future presentations for class, research etc.
   
   Con: I had a hard time chasing down a copy in bookstores, and I needed it for my research.

2 comments about Perl/Tk Pocket Reference.

1. While desperately hanging on for Mr O'Reilly's 'Learn Perl/Tk', I needed another fix of Perl and up popped this microscopic manual. For such a fantastic language, possibly the basis of all future non-web GUI development, there is a surprising lack of material out there on Perl/Tk, but this book does sterling work to plug that perldoc gap. As an Oracle DBA on Solaris, I now have more GUI database access tools than you can shake a slider at, and most have arisen from my scavenging of ./demos/widget, 'Advanced Perl' and this tiny reference. Once you get the hang of the foreshortened syntax, it's good to be able to flick from widget to widget without trawling through heavy indexes. I do have two complaints though; one, this pocket reference could've contained far more on 'Tiler', 'Table' and a few of the other more esoteric widgets - you could double the size of this book, and still fit it in an ant's lunchbox; two, if Mr O'Reilly delays the release of 'Learn Perl/Tk' again, I'm going to have to learn super Visual Basic J++ on Windows 98 and to hell with the consequences :-). Seriously though, this pocket reference has saved me hours of tracking down camera-shy Perl/Tk FAQs, and if you don't lose it through a small hole in your trousers, it may do the same for you. Top work.



2. As quick references go, the organization is pretty good. Covers pretty much all you need to remember the syntax and keep you going through those long nights of programming frenzies.

5 comments about Beginning ASP.NET in VB .NET: From Novice to Professional.

1. I bought this book last week, thinking it was a new book because the date is in this year. But, as I started skimming through it, I think now it is really an old book, that has been updated some but not well. How do I think this? Look at many of the screens in chapter 11 (Trace, Log, Error Handling) - they all show dates in 2001 (screen 11-9, 11-10, 11-11)! Same in chapter 17, screen 17-7. Probably many more. If that's when this was really written, .NET 1.0 was still beta then, so this is beta .NET, not even 1.0 even though back of book says 1.1. I haven't found any specific errors yet, but I worry. Only place I see 1.1 mentioned in book so far is in introduction. I see a lot of these old 2001 screens right away but not 1.1. Good thing I got this cheap.



2. This is the first book I have read on ASP. NET and I was very impressed. The language was simple and the style was easy and flowing throughout the book. The author does a competent job in explaining the difference between the different type of Web technologies out there and the advantages and disadvantages of each. There is a vast expanse of topics covered from basic to advanced as is suggested in the title of the book:
   `Novice to Professional'.
   
   There are plenty of examples in the book and also on the website that demonstrate the topics covered in the book. All topics are covered in a clear and concise manner without going into a lot of unnecessary detail especially for readers new to .NET like myself.
   
   The only downside to this book is that, as it does not go into a lot of detail it would probably not appeal to someone who is already a .NET expert.
   
   I would recommend this book to anyone who is making a transformation from Classic ASP to .NET but as I have mentioned earlier it is not recommended for those trying to get an in-depth knowledge of the subject. I know that it has helped me to understand the core functionalities of .NET



3. I knew what was the difference between ASP and ASP.Net and wanted to find a book that deals with writing ASP.net page in an object oriented approach. THIS IS THE BOOK. It takes you slowly from the basics of .Net, architecture, whats new etc and has good amount of examples. My perspective about Asp.Net is changing as I'm reading this book.
   If you have an asp/vb background this book is great for you. Not a reference book for ASP.Net. So ppl who have already read through ASP.Net in detail please refrain or don't complain. I absolutely love this book and so far I've finished 1/3rd of the book. I'm hoping to finish this book this week and continue on to the book by Fritz Onion.



4. Real interesting book tells me what I need to know the only problem is now I dont have an excuse for not doing my home work ...



5. I'm moving up from VB6/ASP and this book gave me a firm grounding in the main subjects without getting bogged down with too much HTML or elaborate samples. I took an asp.net practice exam a few days after reading it and book had covered most areas that came up.