5 comments about Beginning Visual Basic .NET Databases.

1. This is a great book, but it is definitely helpful if you already have some VB.NET knowledge as suggested by the publisher prior to starting this book. I did not, and so some of the examples were hard for me to follow (no fault of the authors). I like the hands-on examples in this book. They are basic but relevant to the real-world. I got a lot out of this book despite my inexperience with VB.NET. It gives you a broad intro to several facets of .NET including web services which look very interesting! I think my experience with the book would have been excellent if I would have been more prepared. I have now back-tracked to fill in some of the basic knowledge I needed. I now believe I could forge ahead with some basic database projects in VB.NET using this book as a reference. I would certainly buy it again and I'm sure I'll use it as a reference for some time to come. Get some basic VB.NET knowledge and then buy this book for learning the database specifics.



2. This book had a lack of examples.
   Poor presentation.
   The little snippets of code it used to navigate through
   the book were very dificult to grasp since there are no
   example to demonstrate that they work.
   I have been thru just under a dozen .net books. This is
   one of the worst alongside ithe vb.net unleashed book.
   It was very easy to give up reading this book since you always
   wonder if the code you type is ever going to work or
   is that the reason why some of the the code was not downloadable



3. Since this book has 3 authors, it would be interesting to know who wrote what parts. Some parts are very good, with understandable examples and clear explanations. Other parts I just scratched my head and wondered.

   It's not that I didn't understand what they were doing, it's that I wondered why they were doing it. It seems they went out of their way to make parts of the code complex and confusing.

   The main program developed in the book, the Product Management System, took 4 chapters. It could have been a great example of a simple program that taught the main points of database programming.

   However, parts of the code was poorly designed and written, resulting in the program being overly complex and not functioning like a professional program should.

   I feel that if you are teaching someone, you should show them the right way to do it. As a beginner in VB I am looking at the whole picture. Just because this book is about database programming, the authors should not ignore the quality of the rest of the language in their example code. Is it too much to ask the professional programmers who write books to write professional quality programs?

   I currently don't have a better book to recommend. I've started reading another book I got from the library, but I don't have an opinion yet. To bad the library doesn't have more books on VB so I could try before I buy.




4. For people with some experienced on VB .Net, this book will serve as a very good introduction on the basic skills on database programming. Not only have the authors done a good job on showing how to use ADO .Net, but they have also done a very nice job of showing how to apply the skills of objected-oriented programming techinques. Base forms are developed and then inherited to develop more sophisticated windows forms.I strongly think that this book is worth reading.



5. The book is generally good for a beginning book. The problem is that you can no longer get the Sample Code as the publisher WROK has been sold and is no longer keeping the old sample code on their site.

4 comments about Evaluating Software Architectures: Methods and Case Studies (SEI Series in Software Engineering).

1. The authors provide an in-depth treatment of three methods for
   evaluating software architectures, all of which were developed at the
   Software Engineering Institute with involvement by the authors. The
   methods examined are:
   (1) ATAM (Architecture Tradeoff Analysis
   Method)
   (2) SAAM (Software Architecture Analysis Method)
   (3)
   ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs)

   Each of the above
   address software evaluations in increasing levels of detail, with the
   book's main emphasis on ATAM.

   What makes this book so valuable is
   the fact that you can learn much about developing software
   architectures from the criteria with which they are evaluated. For
   example, the discussion on quality attributes is eye-opening because
   what architects consider to be well formed quality attributes are
   usually too vague to properly evaluate, resulting in ill defined
   architectures in the first place. Knowing how to evaluate the
   architecture will provide the keys for defining a solid architecture.
   More important is the way the authors define the outputs of the
   architecture evaluation, which gives the practicing architect a
   framework for design that fully meets the evaluation criteria. The
   net result is that a defined architecture will unambiguously
   communicate the design to the development team, as well as to the QA
   team.

   I especially like the business oriented approach that
   addresses the costs and benefits of evaluation, the three approaches
   from which to choose that best meets technical and business goals, and
   the case studies that support each of the approaches. Another strong
   point about this book is architecture is also evaluated with
   production in mind. Too many books only consider architecture from
   the development point of view, or in rare cases, from development and
   QA points of view. The evaluation techniques in this book extend to
   support and maintenance. The authors make selection of the best
   technique easy by comparing them in Chapter 9, and provide an approach
   to implement evaluations in Chapter 10.
   

   
   If you're an architect I also recommend augmenting the excellent
   material in this book with Design and Use of Software Architectures by
   Jan Bosch , which gives an alternate method to ATAM that is more
   complete in many respects. Even if you espouse Bosch's approach,
   however, the approach and techniques given in Evaluating Software
   Architectures: Methods and Case Studies are complementary. I personally
   recommend both books and assign equal value to them.




2. What this book does, it does very well. It presents three techniques for reviewing the suitability of a software architecture. The presentation style is clear, complete, and reasonably frank about the problems an architecture evaluator is likely to encounter.

   The oldest of the three techniques presented is SAAM, the Software Architecture Analysis Model. It's primary goal is to determine how well a system's structure addresses the technical requirements of the application, and its probable success at addressing future changes of requirements.

   ATAM, the Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method, descends from SAAM but is far more complete. It starts upstream of the requirements, at the business model behind the application, then moves forward methodically through the top-level design. At each step, reviewers update the list of technical risks and non-risks (relatively safe items). ATAM is open-ended, in the sense that the project's own goals define the specific measures of quality that apply - it doesn't force-fit every project onto one Procrustean axis of measure.

   If ATAM is SAAM grown large, then ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Design) is SAAM scaled down. Where ATAM and SAAM address strategic issues about complete systems, ARID incorporates tactical information about specific design issues. It's not as narrow as standard design review techniques, but not as broad as an architecture review.

   ATAM is the main focus of the book, with more pages than SAAM and ARID combined. All three are described in full detail, however. The authors identify the specific skill sets, roles, and responsibilities that must be involved at each step. They present checklists for eliciting the kinds of information needed, even specifics of meeting agendas and meeting room equipment.

   That creates my second impression of this book: I was very disappointed. This book is for meeting organizers, and deals very little with technical specifics. That is not at all what I hoped for. It is not the fault of the book that it fails to meet my expectations. In my present work, however, the authors present just about nothing to enhance my project's technical content.

   This is a process book. It seems to be a good one. It takes what works in other design review methodologies, then expands that to the highest level of the software project. It gives enough detail that you can tune specifics of the process to specifics of your project. Still, it's just a process book.




3. This book does a great job of diving into specific details on how to run meetings and the checklists of steps to follow for three different architecture review models that go into different depth (ATAM, SAAM, and ARID). I really liked the breadth of issues that the reviews covered as well as the concrete guidelines on how deep to go with the reviews.
   
   I didn't particularly enjoy the checklist feel of the book. I felt like they had a series of meetings to have and attendees, but they didn't do a good job of explaining why which meetings had to happen in which order and what lengths were appropriate. It was hard to understand what was a critical constraint and not to be violated and what was guideline that would vary by project and is open to interpretation.
   
   Additionally, the examples in the book were comprehensive in terms of what happened in the meetings, but weren't quite complete enough in terms of the documents generated. There were excerpts, but I almost would've liked to see larger pieces of them in the appendices. It was hard to get past the details of who was in what room when to what documents were actually generated, what the final results presentation looked like, and what the flavor of follow-up actions was.



4. Like two other reviewers, I also found a lack of substantive technical content. The book does delve into great detail about the ATAM process, down to listing the various roles like timekeeper and questioner, and their responsibilities. Fair enough. And for this, there is indeed plenty of content for setting up and running the process.
   
   But try as I might, I could not get a firm grasp on how to actually choose between two [or more] software architectures. The technical examples cited in the text were invariably too skimpy for serious consideration. Perhaps the book would be enhanced by several solid, detailed examples and how to choose in those examples.

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.)

4 comments about Java Software Solutions: Foundations of Program Design, CodeMate Enhanced Edition (3rd Edition).

1. I hesitated to buy this book due to the high cost. However, as it was required by my first year compsci class, I bit the bullet and purchase a copy. I am quite satisfied with the purchase, this is clearly one of the better java books I have read to date.
   The code examples are to the point and explain the topic at hand fairly well and the technical style of the writing itself lends itself to clear explanation. the textbook includes a section on graphics and Gui in each section yet it is arranged so that you do not need to learn it. there are also a brief introduction to data structures toward the end of the book

   All in all, I highly reccomend this book for those completely new to programming




2. If you are looking for an excellent start in programming or Java this is an excellent choice. I had it for two Fundamentals of Computing classes at Simpson College and I am seriously impressed by its treatment of Computer Science and programming in Java. It has excellent layout and was extrememly easy to grasp the concepts. I like its appraoch to text in how it uses colors and graphics that I think ALL, and I mean ALL, authors and publishers should consider before they are made obsolete by the Interent. Most excellent book!



3. It has a pretty good presentation, with all the colour and everything. However, I seriously think this book is too simple. It is meant for the absolute beginner to programming, with plenty of examples for a good foundation.

   With some programming experience under my belt, I found the first few chapters agonisingly slow. It does a decent job of describing the Java language fundamentals, however, and I especially liked the appendix with the Java class libraries. Other books often lack this and sometimes when a code segment in the text refers to some class, and I desperately want to know more about it, I have to open my browser and read the API specifications, which can be quite annoying.

   All that said, remember that when they say foundations of program design, they mean FOUNDATIONS, as in the very basics.




4. This book is the core textbook for a computer programming class that I am taking and it is definitely one of the best textbooks I have read. The ideas are presented in a very clear, simple and easy to digest way, and the high quality graphics also make the material easy to absorb visually. It seems like the whole focus of the authors is to make sure the reader learns and understands Java.

   I did read two other introduction to Java books that cost less and got strong reviews. However, they were not nearly as effective. If you truly want to learn Java and have some fun in the process, I highly recommend this book.

3 comments about Software Project Management: A Real-World Guide to Success.

1. In reviewing several texts for a project managment class I will be instructing, I found Mr. Henry's the most succinct in addressing "real world" issues. He sets a realistic tone by focusing on a project's culture and its relationship to processes and tools. The text is not loaded down with unproven theory, and each suggested technique or approach is backed up by the author's personal observation, research or solid references. Henry's discussion on process creation is a realistic one, and I like the fact that he doesn't get religious about any particular approach.

   I believe the text provides a good framework to base a course on, but I would have preferred a stronger emphasis on software architecture and its impact on team productivity. The author gives light treatment to this under a section for quality. Also, while testing is discussed and a rudimentary outline of a testing plan is provided, I would have preferred more treatment of techniques in managing followup as well as the considerations in migrating corrections when further work has been done in other areas of development (i.e. regression testing strategy).

   Overall, though, this text provides a good start for experienced software engineers running a project for the first time. While the discussion on hardware and software considerations is brief, it highlights an essential check list that is sufficient for an experienced engineer to consider. The price of the book is competitive, but like many of the books in this subject area, I believe the price is a bit much to ask of students.




2. As I repeatedly tell the students in my software engineering classes, less than twenty percent of the work building a software project involves writing the code. The vast majority of the work is in capturing the requirements, constructing the design, critiquing the requirements and design; getting and incorporating customer feedback; testing the code and verifying that the requirements have been met. In fact, when you add in reasonable time for training and interacting with new tools, the percentage of the effort that is writing code is probably closer to ten percent. If you also add in the time spent organizing all of this effort, then the effort that is actually writing the code is in the area of ten percent and may even be lower.
   At least one week of the year is spent in midweek holidays, leaving at most fifty-one weeks of work. I have never seen a compiler upgrade that didn't take at least a week to iron out all the details. Since most tool update cycles are annual and the wise organization is always evaluating new tools, close to five percent of the effort is probably spent in evaluating and integrating new tools. Henry mentions several different problems in this area, he understands that the seamless change of tools is a fantasy, found only in advertising flyers.
   Whether you see it in the schedule or not, training also takes up a minimum of five percent of the team effort. Developers either learn as they build or learn before they build, but either way the time is spent.
   Choosing the appropriate training is a nontrivial task. With few exceptions, the training needed by any group is different from all others. As Henry points out, when considering training, search out specific details about what is being offered. The training may be excellent, but if it is an overview when you need to know specific details, then it may be of little value to your organization.
   The emphasis in this book is on the organizational features that make a project successful, the critical part that is keeping everything within acceptable bounds, from the original idea to the shipping of the product. High quality managers do not have to know a C program from a sea serpent, but they do have to be able to spot potential failure from the other side of the ocean. Most software developers will not admit to significant problems until forced, and the good manager will be able to read body language, tonal inflections and general appearance to determine if things are going well. This is impossible if you do not know the people well and have some familiarity with how they conduct themselves. There is always some degree of tension between boss and worker, but if the employee knows that honesty is rewarded, then the level is lowered.
   However, this is just on the reactive side. The good managers are proactive, examining the situation on a regular basis, looking at what should have been done and asking the tough questions to determine if things are on the right course. They also must change the course if necessary, and this can only be done right if you have a set of measurements that accurately describe the current situation. Chapter four is a detailed description of how to choose measurements that apply to your project(s).
   Henry explores in detail some of the specific requirements of a software project that are often ignored in other books. In chapter six, the emphasis is on the background requirements, the hardware, software and support needed for the project. The points for hardware are:

   * Specify what the hardware needs to do.
   * Specify what the hardware needs to be functional.
   *Specify who needs what hardware.
   * Specify when the team needs the hardware.

   Simple points, but often overlooked both by authors of software project management books and in practice.
   The author is clearly someone who has learned from experience, much of which is the best kind, negative. A great deal of the activity in a software development project is now organizational. How to examine and organize the requirements, how to make and carry out the assignments of people to tasks and how to track the progress using processes that actually measure what has been done. The author describes all of this in detail, with advice that I have incorporated into my software engineering classes.




3. If I were back in school and knew nothing of what I've learned from working, this would be an excellent book. It's an engaging read, covers a variety of important topics at both an appropriate and realistic level, and also provides some concrete methodology suggestions.
   
   However, without the supplementation of a lecture & exercise format, much of this isn't immediately useful for practicing engineers. To really "get" the lessons, you would likely need either anecdotal stories or real-world case study data presented. Most great software engineering books lean towards the former, since the latter requires help from a Real Human to get the most value you of. This book - geared towards an educational environment - leans towards the case study data.
   
   Also, since it's more of a broad overview than an in-depth study of a particular area of software project management (planning, methodology, people management, political work, etc.), it doesn't even give quite enough of a survey of techniques to dig deeper. At least, it would've been nice to point at a few of the introductory pieces of work or the landscape of available choices. Instead, this book usually paints a broad picture (i.e. "use the appropriate methodology for the team size") and then talks about one specific way of solving the problem (TSP/PSP).
   
   Still, if I were back in school, I would be happy to have this as a textbook - provided I had an instructor who could fill in the gaps.

5 comments about Pro Oracle Spatial.

1. I had a very bad accident back over the Christmas (2004)/New Year (2005) period and while confined to bed, a copy of "Pro Oracle Spatial" arrived in the mail.
   
   Loving a good book, I quickly scanned the Table of Contents (nice to see it has a good Index as well!) and decided this was worth a read.
   
   Well, it is no novel, so it took me a few months to digest; but digest it I did. No "heart burn" here: rather more it "lit the inner fires" of one of my passions: database-based spatial!
   
   I started out in computing nearly 20 years ago on mainframe databases migrating to GIS within 5 years as it was a more interesting field of computing than business computing (and it allowed me to combine my computing science qualifications with my geomatics degree). However, the thing I missed the most was the solidity of the science underlying databases which allowed for logical separation of application from internal implementation: the GIS world was fixated on physical data formats (1960s computing). It took many years before the work of people like Michael Stonebraker and the science and math underlying Abstract Data Types (ADTs) finally hit the work of relational database management (RDBMS) to give us ORDBMS.
   
   And the rest, as they say, is history.
   
   Oracle Spatial has come a long way since the days of Multi-Dimension. The hard working team of dedicated developers up there in New Hampshire have built a rock solid piece of technology and deserve recognitition for it. Books like this go a long way to giving them that recognition and widen the audience for database-based spatial to a group of people who will appreciate what they have done because it is "familiar territory" and mainstream.
   
   As a GIS professional and long standing database expert, I found this book covered much familiar territory, but even I found it gave a fresh perspective on what can be the tedious read of online documentation (no offence to the Oracle documentation team intended). In other words: I learned a few things I didn't know!
   
   The more familar base concepts that are covered in the book are clear and lucid and a great adjunct to the manuals. The will make it easy for non-spatially literate people to "get up to speed".
   
   I particularly liked the Case Studies as it is always enlightening to see how others made the rubber hit the ground.
   
   The Common Mistakes and Errors chapter (14) had me nodding in ascent. I was "tickled pink" to discover that the original Multi-Dimension roots of Oracle Spatial are still there in the HHENCODE function described in "Reorganize the Table Data to Minimise I/O". My only regret was that I have wasted time implementing a version of the PEANO space curve (linear_key) in Java and PL/SQL and deployed it into 8.1.7.4 when I hadn't needed to do it all along! The discovery of the HHENCODE function (page 582) came at a time I was dusting off the old Peano code for the organisation of some Lidar data for my current employer. Thanks Oracle Spatial team for leaving the function in the product even at 10g!
   
   I found the MapViewer and Network Analysis chapters clear and accessible and I particularly liked the Appendix on "Additional Spatial Analysis Functions" as this was an "eye opener" that confirmed for me that the Oracle team really do understand the uses for spatial data. Again, I could see immediate application at my workplace.
   
   If you are their target audience ie [... application developers who are familar with Oracle technolgies and want to enhance their applications with spatial information ... but ... do not know much about spatial data] ("Who Should Read This Book?", page xxx) then this book is for you. If you are from a more traditional GIS background (and want to know what all the fuss is about) then you should get a copy of this book because the sort of technology that is described within it is part of the future of the geospatial data management and processing. For more seasoned Oracle and GIS veterans: even you will find something in it that is worth the price.
   
   Order one today.
   
   Simon Greener
   GIS Manager, Oracle Spatial enthusiast
   Allens Rivulet, Tasmania, Australia.
   Longitude: 147.2048
   Latitude: -43.0141



2. First off this book seems to be excellent for the topic at hand. However I am giving it 1 star since the publisher has put a restriction on it that it can only sell for the full book price. Retailers are not allowed to sell this book for less than the publisher price of $69.99
   
   How do I know this? I tried to purchase it in a Barnes and Noble and was told that the Publisher has put a restriction on retailers for this title.
   
   Therefore buying it at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Bookpool or anywhere else will not get you a discount.
   
   Instead it will have to be read in a Barnes and Noble store over coffee.
   
   Simply because of the publisher not allowing the price to flex I am giving this book a rating of 1 star.
   
   Publishers please pay attention and remove this restriction.



3. Lack of discounts aside, the book is a tremendous value. It's well-written, indexed, and edited and a pleasure to read. It's been great fun for me to work through the examples. I only have 2 significant complaints: (1) there were far too few diagrams (i.e., maps), particularly in chapter 7 where they would have helped greatly and (2) there should have been more discussion about mapping basics including map projections since this is a subject about which most DBA's and developers have little knowledge and an area where mistakes in storing, manipulating, and displaying geographic data are often made. I know there are cartography books dedicated to this sort of thing, but I suspect many Oracle users would not even know enough to bother with them.
   I would recommend the book, Mapping Hacks published by O'Reilly as a nicely complementary addition to your library.
   In short a fantastic book well worth the price.



4. Excellent book. I have been using Oracle Spatial for years but found various useful insights in this book. It is well laid out, accessible and covers pretty much all the bases. Good examples and case studies. Tackles the thorny issues around spatial indexing as well as I have seen.
   
   Why can't Oracle do documentation like this ?!
   
   Only drawback is that I found some errors in the discussion of transportable tablespaces WRT Spatial data.



5. For RIGHT now, this is the definitive guide to Oracle Spatial. There is another book coming out soon (also by Apress) for Oracle 11g. I bought this book as a beginner. It presents the concepts and provides detail very well. Being an Oracle DBA I find that this book is more oriented towards Developers. Nevertheless, I found this book a great starting point and feel that it brought me to the point of being able to understand Oracle Spatial to a point where I can hold an intelligent conversation. The use of example in every chapter brings theory to reality in a tangible manner. I look forward to purchasing Pro Oracle Spatial for Oracle Database 11g (Pro) when released.

1 comments about Integrated Approach to Web Performance Testing: A Practitioner's Guide.

1. This book offers valuable insights and methodologies in the world of performance testing and engineering. Sadly, there aren't many books on the subject in the market. This one fills a much wanted gap.
   
   Author talks about best practices and methodologies and even offers concrete metrics to measure, monitor and tune. A good discussion of all layers (Web -Web Application server and Database) along with all industry leading tools (+some more) is presented. The book is full of tiny bits of useful real-world information that alone are worth the cost. In all, it is a very comprehensive compilation of best practices and methodologies as it relates to the performance testing, engineering and tuning.

5 comments about Programming Embedded Systems in C and C ++.

1. This book is geared towards people who intend to venture into the field of embedded systems and need an overview on the basics. These include the scope of development and most importantly, things that the developer should pay attention to (In the embedded system field, the developer has to pay close attention to the underlying hardware's characteristics such as registers, interrupts and memory address locations, in Java application development on the other hand, the underlying hardware and to some extent the OS is considered an afterthought).
   
   Though the examples are targeted to the Arcom board, the author makes a good effort to extract general principles applicable to any other hardware type. A passing knowledge of C and C++ is required though to understand the code.
   
   Of course, experienced embedded systems programmers would find the text a rehash of what they know however for those new to the field, this serves as a very good foundation.



2. "But keep in mind, it is extremely superficial. In other words, it's a great introduction for people who have no idea whatsoever what embedded development involves." This is a quote from a reviewer that gave it 5 stars. I agree with this reviewer comments but don't buy a book you will outgrow before you finish reading it! For now, I still recommend the David E. Simon book.



3. I am curious for the meaning of "advanced users" and what they would enjoy on a "advanced book" and why they despise this book for its basic content, And perhaps, they are after a title like "do my work". I guess much of the material here is very important to embedded developers, being experienced or not. For ex, start up code, the memory initializations and the excellent introduction to a RTOS. I am an Electrical Engineer, always writting embedded application code ( mostly dealing with API calls when it comes to low level ) and I was looking for clarification of several issues and the book did it well. Have a manual for your processor, your compiler and it will be all that you will need. Tips for embedded applications might be easily found on application notes ( be it ARM based processors or AVRs or Freescales ). This book is about writting the software not about the applications them selves.



4. In agreement with an earlier reviewer who also gave this book 1-star rating, it took me about 10 minutes of going through this relatively thin book to realize that its contents was not substantive (at all). Too much hand-waving, and not nearly enough meat. And there's barely any C or C++ code in the book.



5. I'm new to embedded system programming so I bought this book. I was disappointed because I didn't get much from this book. Buy something else.

3 comments about Designing Quality Databases with IDEF1X Information Models.

1. Whether or not you support or practice IDEF 1X as your data modelling religion (after all, it WAS developed for the military), Tom Bruce's 1991 edition can increase the effectiveness of your data modelling by giving you the opportunity to examine your beliefs and standards.

   This text covers topics from introductory information modelling concepts , normalization, and reverse engineering, to more advanced data modelling issues. Mr. Bruce's text also includes chapters on conducting modelling sessions, John Zachman's Framework, setting up Data Administration functions within your organization, CASE tools and the IBM Repository (this section is obsolete, of course), a case study, and review exercises with answers.

   Best suited for those who have participated in IRM activities and wish to build on that experience. Seasoned IRM practictioners will probably skip the introductory material and head right to the sections on abstractions, resolution of typical data modelling issues, and other advanced topics. Even though "Design" is used in the title, this text is weak on database design topics.

   This text is a good one to have on hand when you're looking for justification of following a specific data modelling approach or technique.




2. This book is the best-written database design book I have come across. It should be part of every database designer and application developer's library.

   This book focuses on information models using the IDEF1X information modeling technique. This text presents a very practical approach for modeling data and relational database design. Although this isn't a database administration book, DBA's would benefit from understanding how the databases they support are designed. This is a book for the masses.




3. IDEF1X is by far the most used DB modeling language today. Books and papers, however, rarely approach it. Bruce's book is a fine piece of work. Excellent on the details of modeling - for instance, his discussion on the adoption of surrogate (artificial) keys is enlightening. Even the less technical stuff is excellent (the text on the ANSI-SPARC architecture is the best I ever read). Great book for someone who wants to develop modeling expertise.

No comments about S60 Programming: A Tutorial Guide (Symbian Press).