5 comments about Digital Signal Processing with Field Programmable Gate Arrays (Signals and Communication Technology).

1. This book is well written and covers many of the aspects of DSP with FPGAs. I run a business that specializes exclusively in high performance DSP designs using FPGAs. This book pretty much covers it all, in fact it closely parallels the material we present in our DSP for FPGAs seminar. I very highly recommend this book.

   The following are the contents of the book, which are not otherwise listed on Amazon:
   1. Intro, which goes over FPGA architectures, 25 pages

   2. Computer arithmetic. Covers computer arithmetic from the slant of hardware. Includes distributed arithmetic and cordic discussion, 46 pages,

   3. FIR filters 34 pages

   4. IIR filters 24 pages

   5. Multirate signal processing -- decimation &interpolation, polyphase decompositin, CIC filters, Multistage decimators, Frequency sampling, filterbanks, wavelets. 59 pages

   6. Fourier Transforms -- 42 pages

   7. Advanced topics -- Rectangular and number theoretic transforms, error control and cryptography, modulation & demodulation --76 pages

   8 . references and source code 76 pages

   -Ray Andraka, P.E.
   President, Andraka Consulting Group, Inc




2. "Digital Signal Processing with Field Programmable Gate Arrays" covers most of the popular DSP applications in good detail.
   Before you buy this book I would highly recommend reading "Understanding DSP" by Rick Lyons.

   Once you understand the fundamentals of DSP this book will help you decide on the best implementation
   of each algorithm using a step by step approach. The author also weighs up the pros and cons of each algorithm.




3. In this book Dr Meyer-Baese brings in his industrial/proffessional experience from the field of DSP using FPGAS. Lots of other FPGA/Hardware books just talk about the theoretical/concetual/abstract level DSP. Here the main focus is the practical implementation of the different DSP Components
   everything from Multipliers to the Discrete Wavelet Trasform.
   Each of these components are seperately discussed chapter-wise and is supplemented by applications and also source code in both VHDL and Verilog (mostly in the accompanying CD)
   If you just want to know what an FFT is then this book is NOT for you,but if you want to implement this in hardware then this is THE book.



4. I was so disappointed after I read the book. I had expected to get some practical examples about implementing DSP in FPGA.I regret I was attracted by the name of the book and some reviews definitely not from sillicon valley . Except in chapter1"introduction" there lists some basic FPGA concepts, I hardly say how this book was named as "DSP with FPGA".
   It does provide lots of mathemetical models, graphs for each DSP component, I believe it will be much more helpful to writing a PhD thesis rather than using as reference book in industry.
   If you are expecting to get some practical examples about implementing DSP in FPGA, this book might not be a choice.



5. Comes from the DSP hardware Stars. Actually the only book on DSP hardware design in the market as of 2007. So there isnt much of choice, if you are into this businees. Good value for money, a hefty, detailed treatment.

5 comments about Beginning Perl, Second Edition.

1. Beginning Perl is a great introduction and resource. It does assume the reader has some basic prior programming experience, but either way it is very logical and easy to follow. The book is well-organized so that you can easily find what you need. There are tips and shortcuts strategically placed throughout the book to help you along the way.
   
   I bought this book very recently, having no prior experience with Perl. I had seen a couple of scripts that other people had written, but since I have minimal programming experience I could only somewhat figure out what they were intended for.
   
   I read the first chapter of Beginning Perl (11 pages), and read bits and pieces of the second chapter (37 pages). Then I began writing my first Perl scripts, using the book primarily for reference. It makes a great reference tool because the index is very thorough and the examples are easy to understand without necessarily reading the entire book in order. About 3 hours ago I couldn't have told you what a subroutine was or how to create a hash, but now I have completed my first interactive program using subroutines, hashes, various types of loops, error-checking, etc. That would have taken me weeks to learn if I had not discovered this book.
   
   I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning Perl.



2. I read Beginning Perl, 2nd Ed (BP2E) to gain some familiarity with Perl 5. I do not plan to really write anything in Perl, but I find myself using other people's code quite a bit! In those situations I would like to know how the code works. I also enjoy being able to make small changes if the code does not work as expected. Perl is basically everywhere, so it pays to understand it to some degree.
   
   James Lee's book is excellent from start to finish. I found his explanations very clear and his writing style lively. He covered just about everything I hoped to read in a book of roughly 400 pages. The book is ideal for the self-educated since it contains exercises with answers in the back. I personally enjoyed learning more about regular expressions in Ch 7, since PCRE is an important part of several network security tools.
   
   It is easy to take a good programming book for granted. I have started and stopped reading several other books written to teach programming because their style is terrible and the assumptions they make confuse the beginner. BP2E is always conscious of what the reader has already seen. The author makes it clear when a briefly mentioned topic will be more thoroughly explained later in the book. Plenty of technical authors could learn from this example.
   
   Even if you plan to read the author's new book -- Beginning Perl 6 (or BP3E) -- you may want to read BP2E. Perl 5 will be with us for many more years, so it pays to understand the material in BP2E. (It's possible that BP3E could demonstrate Perl 5 and 6 syntax, but I doubt it.)



3. This is the first and from what I found "ONLY" book for a novice. I have read numerous titles on Perl and was always left with basic questions. If you want to understand Perl, read this book.



4. I know several programming languages and wanted to use Perl on my website. Within days I was able to take existing scripts and modify them to use on my site. I was able to generate several program to help maintain the site within weeks. Great book!



5. Like my title of the review reads, if you have computer science background and just starting with PERL, this is the book for you. It teaches PERL the way computer science people are taught programming languages like C, FORTRAN etc. Starts with basics and proceeds in systematic and logical way. It is an easy read and will get you up and running in less than 2 days.

5 comments about The Elements of UML(TM) 2.0 Style.

1. I must confess, I love little books. In the inimitable style of the White and Strunk book, this one provides well-grounded and practical prescriptions for language usage. It is not complete as a learning tool, but it provides an excellent adjunct to the Booch et al 'User Guide' or Fowler's 'Distilled'. When I first opened the book I thought some of the style guidelines appeared trivial. But digesting it as required reading in a UML intro class not only gave me the confidence to complete my assignments; I found additional insight into UML as-tool. I suspect I will be vetting every UML diagram I create through this book's precepts for a long time.



2. This book is written in a clear, concise style and offers sensible guidelines for the contruction and layout of the major UML diagrams. For a bit more in-depth explanation of the application of the diagrams, read Fowler's "UML Distilled". I think the two work very well together as companion references.



3. Anyone who wants to improve the way they model systems will want to read this short and concise guide to the correct use of UML.



4. Like the book "The Elements of Style" that I was given to use in High School to improve my writing, this book seeks to do the same for your UML diagrams. The author states that the purpose of this book is to "describe a collection of standards, conventions, and guidelines for creating effective UML diagrams". This book succeeds in its goal. I really like the fact that at the beginning of each chapter, each chapter covers one diagram type, a short description of what the diagram is used for is presented. As a designer, I see these rules not being followed or ignored much of the time. Rule 15 (Prefer Well-Known Notation over Esoteric Notation) is what I see as one of the most violated rules. Most people seem to diagram what they think is appropriate and ignore the UML rules. Hmmm, sounds like most people that write as well.



5. This book is awesome for everyone including first time UML readers..A must have as a reference book!

5 comments about TextMate: Power Editing for the Mac (Pragmatic Programmers).

1. Books on editors are tricky things... I'm (still) a big fan and user of vi, but textmate is my tool of choice for more project level work for its capabilties. This book has brought me closer to to the keyboard level of productivity that vi allows for with its two modes.



2. For anyone that tells you that you can't so solid code and script development on a Mac, they haven't been introduced to the application TextMate. There are several good options for doing power editing on the Macintosh and TextMate is one of those POWER options.
   
   'TextMate: Power Editing for the Mac' by James Gray is a perfect companion manual for all TextMate users that want to lift the hood off of this power app and get to the nuts and bolts. If you develop on a Macintosh on a daily basis for work or fun and want to learn more about what you can do to make your life easier, pick up this book and you won't be disappointed. Written well and coming in at ~200 pages, there are 12 chapters which will teach you goodies in TextMate like how to create and use Macros, using Find & Replace to quickly edit text, and much, much more!!
   
   The Mac is a great tool for developing code and TextMate is a great app for writing it, make yourself a more efficient coder today!!
   
   ***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED



3. This book is the perfect primer for what I have found to be one of the most indispensible Mac OS X applications - TextMate. If you are a software developer or web designer or anyone else that edits text on a frequent basis and you have not already discovered TextMate, stop right now and visit http://www.macromates.com.
   
   The Pragmatic Programmers' book, TextMate Power Editing for the Mac is a thorough introduction to TextMate. Edward Gray II has written a very accessible book, that covers the product very well.
   
   The first third of the book is devoted to the basics - things you do every day in your text editor. The second third of the book dives into the details of some really sweet features of TextMate that you'll find yourself using all the time: bundles, snippets, macros and UNIX shell commands.
   
   TextMate ships with over thirty 'bundles'. Each bundle is a directory of related files that provide additional functionality to TextMate. Let's say you're working on an HTML file. The HTML bundle will help you with loads of things related to your document: validate the syntax of the document, open the document in the default browser, refresh the document in the current browser session, insert open/close tags for the current word, strip all HTML tags from the document - just to name a few. Each bundle provides functionality that applies not only to the syntax of the language you're currently working with, but repetitive tasks that would apply as well.
   
   As I mentioned, a couple dozen bundles ship with TextMate and many more are available for free download from various websites. You can even create your own bundles to extend the product in ways that only you can imagine. Here are a few of the bundles that ship with TextMate: Blogging, CSS, HTML, Java, Markdown, Objective-C, Python, Rails, Ruby, SQL, Subversion, Text, Textile, Xcode and XML. Bundles provide you with lots of help editing files and performing related tasks.
   
   Snippets are a smart completion mechanism that go way beyond the simple concept of 'finish this word'. For example, if you are editing a Ruby file and you type array_object.ea followed by the TAB key (where 'array_object' is an arbitrary Array object), the snippet feature will automatically fill in the skeleton of the 'each' iterator, including the opening and closing curly braces, the text '|e|' with the letter 'e' highlighted. You simply type the name of the variable you want to represent the next element (or simply leave it as it is), hit the TAB key again and the cursor will be placed between the closing '|' character and the closing '}' character, ready for you to type in an expression. Very cool. This same trick works for dozens of different scenarios in your Ruby code. And that's just the snippets that apply to Ruby code. There are snippets that apply to a large number of file types.
   
   You've probably seen macros in other editors and TextMate's macro facility works as you might expect: you start recording a macro, perform some actions and save the macro. TextMate saves the macros as XML files, so it's a snap to edit a macro after recording if you need to tweak it a bit.
   
   The ability to fire off UNIX shell commands from within TextMate gives you another powerful tool to use while editing files. You can fire off one-liner shell commands by simply pressing the ^R key on a line containing a shell command. You can also use shell commands to act on all or part of the current document.
   
   For the advanced TextMate user, the tail end of the book shows you how to create your own language syntax for use in TextMate, including how to describe the grammar of the language in terms TextMate will understand. So, if you program in some far out funky language that TextMate doesn't support out of the box, you can add the language grammar to TextMate and program away!
   
   Overall, I found this book extremely useful and easy to read. TextMate ships with an excellent help system that will answer many of your questions. The TextMate Power Editing for the Mac book will take you beyond the built-in help and give you an in-depth guide for this great Mac application.



4. "TextMate is actually a thin shell over a personalized team of robot ninjas ready to do your bidding."
   
   The funny thing is, to people who have never used TextMate for more than a few minutes the above phrase sounds like an exaggeration. It's not. (As long as you can accept the analogy of "really awesome code running on a Mac" = "robot ninjas"...)
   
   Anyway, this book targets a pretty specific market: 1) Humans, 2) who own Macs, 3) and use TextMate. I'm here to tell you that, if you're human you should have a Mac; and if you have a Mac you should buy TextMate; and if you have TextMate you should buy this book. So there, now it covers everyone.
   
   As with all of the Pragmatic Programmer books, I found this book to be concise without missing anything important. You may be thinking, "200 pages about a text editor!? That's crazy talk!" But you would be wrong, my friend. The amount of functionality built into TextMate is incredible, but I didn't even know the half of it until I started reading this book!
   
   I don't want to give away the ending, but:
   
   Three of my favorite simple features I didn't know about until I read this book:
   - Pressing [ESC] to complete the word you're typing.
   - The built in TODO list functionality (so crucial!!)
   - [Cmd-Enter] to add a new line below this one and go to the beginning of it.
   
   Things I wouldn't have been able to do without TextMate and this book:
   - Edit some of my Bundles to make TextMate work even more how *I* like
   - Complete an after-hours Web Site project *way* under time and budget
   
   Seriously. TextMate is the One True Editor for Mac (it makes me loath using any other editor on any platform) and this is a great book for learning how to *really* take hold of its power.



5. Visuals:
   The font size in the Pragmatic Programmers books is a little larger than say the O'Reilly books, which I personally like. Easy on the eyes. Screenshots are clearly printed.
   
   Readability:
   I found the reading style conversational and easy to follow. Of course, with this type of book which includes many keyboard short-cuts you really need to be at your computer and using them to commit them to memory. Even a reading of the book will give you insights into the power available at your finger tips with Textmate.
   
   Practicality:
   If you spend any amount of time in Textmate, this is really a no-brainer. This book will help you be more productive and get more out of your chosen text editing tool.
   
   Audience:
   The book does not list an intended target audience, but if you use Textmate at all I would say you have a bulls-eye right on you.
   
   Overall:
   If you use Textmate get this book.

1 comments about Professional Microsoft Search: SharePoint 2007 and Search Server 2008 (Wrox Professional Guides).

1. But not sure my thoughts count since I was one of the authors. ;)

5 comments about Applying Domain-Driven Design and Patterns: With Examples in C# and .NET.

1. The book provides a massive detailed walk through the construction of the domain-driven framework creation. It is in Jimmy Nilsson's conversational tone and that makes the book very interesting.
   
   I do wish there were a few diagrams to tie each chapter together, but that is for the reader to do.



2. I like the author's modesty (very ofter his sentences start with "I think"), his rational thinking and his quoting the relevant big guys. He uses a very nice and simple language throughout the book which makes it an easy read. But sometimes, he is dragging on a subject for too long, for that I have to give it 4.5 stars.



3. I have come back to this book after first digging into it when it first came out. At that time, I got bogged down and never really made it very far into the book. Here's why: A reader needs a basic conceptual familiarity with DDD before tackling this book. I'd suggest Domain-Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software and Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture (Addison-Wesley Signature Series). You might be able to get a running start by reading the free e-book "Domain Driven Design Quickly" (http://www.infoq.com/minibooks/domain-driven-design-quickly), but the Fowler book is particularly helpful, since it catalogs and explains a number of the patterns used in Nilsson's book.
   
   Don't assume this book is outdated because it uses NHibernate instead of LINQ or the ADO Entity Framework. If you are a true DDD developer, neither product is quite 'there' yet, and NHibernate remains the best ORM framework available. And if the Entity Framework does become a viable ORM product in Version 2, the skills taught in this book should transfer easily.
   
   In short, this book presents a really good nuts-and-bolts approach to explaining how to do DDD, but it assumes you already have a pretty good understanding of what DDD is all about.



4. I really cannot figure out how this text has received so many good reviews. The writing style feels like a stream of consciousness from an old colleague after he's been through a really heavy working day, and as for the contents.. well it's a boring mix and rehash of concepts that I hope are familiar even to any decently experienced .NET developer. Like: since you are using a Object Oriented language after all, do model the business you are trying to help with your software with classes, use design patterns when appropriate, test your model and possibly write your test as a means to develop your domain model more clearly, use an Object Relational Mapper like NHibernate to save yourself most of the trouble in solving the Object-Oriented/Relational mismatch etc etc.. All these ideas have been knows to Java developers for ages. True, .NET is behind in test/patterns/model driven design.. but guess what, why is that so? Because if this is the most introductory , detailed, applied, hands on text dedicated to these subjects, well you .NET guys are in big trouble ... And surely no book can introduce them all like this one aims to do, especially if its teaching style is teaching NHibernate saying: "You will find lots of examples of .config files to copy and paste from the NHibernate site so I won't go into detail here, but I 'll just take it for granted that you have a suitable .config file in place". Well, Jimmy, I can find all the documentation I need on that site, but then why on earth did I spend 50 bucks on your tome? As a door stopper? Next time you write a book instead of filling it with unfocused, "high level", vague rambling give some solid, concrete, practical tech help and tutorial. What pisses me off is that the author of this book is a competent developer and a smart guy, but still can come up with such a fluffy, boring, vague, bs-oriented text, and as a final touch cannot resist the temptation to throw in his N(ilsson)Workspace nth level of indirection when we already have a repository, an ORM ... And I always thought that squeezing one own name into a piece of software was the sure signature of a beginner...



5. I really enjoyed reading this book. Jimmy has a very conversational writing style. He will show some code, talk about the pros and cons, make a change, talk about that change and repeat until he has something he is satisfied with. This was very helpful to me as it demonstrated that he has gone through the same growing process that we all need to take as software developers. He is not lecturing from a tower; he is a common programmer who has be able to develop some excellent techniques through research and experience working with others who also seek to be the best they can. His examples are clear and meaningful. He shows how you can actually use TDD to grow a domain model, which is something that has certainly been lacking from other resources I have used in the past. I read the book because I feel like my dev team needs a better focus and I am now more convinced that DDD and TDD will help us focus on creating maintainable code for our enterprise.

5 comments about Pro EJB 3: Java Persistence API (Pro).

1. This book is very well written. Everything is explained in a simple manner. It gives you a good understanding of JPA.



2. Anything that requires getting a bunch of jars on the server classpath was deemed unsuitable for automated deployments. I wonder how people manage automated deployments and configurations, especially in a multi-server clustered environment.



3. Pro EJB3 is a great book. Having been using it for over last 6 month on my recent project, I can definitely say that this book is invaluable.
   
   Have been worked on EJB 2.x for many years and on several projects with different application servers (Weblogic, JBoss, WebSphere), I understand the basics of EJB. So I want not only understand the basic how-to in EJB3 and JPA, but also want to understand the in depth explanations on transaction, persistence context and different behavior in the new system.
   
   The book explain all these topics very well. I had brought other book (hibernate in action with JPA pdf version), but found that book was too focused on hibernate (even I was a fan of the previous edition of hibernate in action book). This book is well focused on JPA,and I really likes JPA APIs.
   
   The book author is really nice and accessible. I have emailed Mike questions and he consistently replied promptly.
   
   This book worth the money !!!
   
   Chester



4. This is the best book out there that explains in detail how JPA works with some good examples. I found the book to be well structured and easy to read.
   
   I would recommend this book for anybody who is looking to work with JPA.



5. This book is a joy to read. Object relational mapping is explained in a very simple manner. What I like about this book is that it explains a certain concept and then immediately talk about the specific use-cases when that concept/design may not be the best choice. The authors then give excellent suggestions and alternatives.
   
   Very good reading material, simple examples used to explain complicated concepts. Writing style of the authors is also very engaging.
   
   A very good buy.

5 comments about Foundation PHP for Dreamweaver 8.

1. This is a good book. It teaches many useful techniques and how lots of "how to" ideas. However, the faux site that is created isn't goal oriented which left me feeling like the book was just a collection of random things to do. It seemed disorganized at times when you would or wouldn't create another page from scratch vs. revamping one you had already made. It was not always clear why you would be better to take one approach vs. the other. Setting up the localhost environment was somewhat confusing, though not too bad.
   
   I will definitely use it frequently. Good information, good book, good deal.



2. This man makes a promise of a written format that can be followed. The writtng is NOT CLEAR and leaves much to the readers imagination of to what exactly the format should be. There is no CD so that you can see how the step by step process works. He names his files but does not show the real differences between how he is set up and how you can set up to fit your needs. I waisted my money. He claims in the book there is support which at best is terrible.
   
   The worst book I have ever bought on coding. If I were you try another writter.



3. This is a very good book for learning PHP, and surprisingly, most of the examples work right out of the book as he's written them, which seems rare for a programming book these days. The projects that he has you complete are highly relevant to what you'd actually be doing with PHP, and that makes it even better.
   
   The only trouble I had with this book was that he sure packed a lot of information into each chapter, and he didn't use the sidebars as much as I would have hoped. It's easy enough to follow along with the examples the first time, but if you want to go back again and figure out how he programmed a small detail, you'll never find it unless you reread the whole chapter again. All it would have taken was a few little bullets here and there in the margins to point out some of the off-topic stuff that was going on in the examples, and the book would be much more functional as a reference. As it stands, I probably will have to get a whole new book for that purpose.
   
   Also, the support on this book is phenomenal. I missed a small detail in Chapter 6 that caused my script to fail, and when I posted on the book's message board, I had a reply from the author in less than a day. That's a really cool added bonus.



4. I am a frontpage user that has set up static pages in a web site. I needed to move from static pages to dynamic pages using a database. I couldn't use PHP with FrontPage so I switched to Dreamweaver and needed a book that covered both dynamic pages and Dreamwaver. This book walked me through setting up the environment to have Dreamweaver work with Apache, PHP, MySQL and phpMyAdmin. I am completely non-technical so these areas were beyond my comfort zone but the book walked me through it very successfully. It then took me through CSS styles, setting up an online feedback form, setting up my first database and tying it into Dreamweaver. It also showed how to insert, delete and maintain records in order to keep the database up to date. This was an excellent book for a non-techie as it didn't take any knowledge for granted.



5. This book is written very clearly and is really easy to follow. I've learned a lot of other really useful stuff than just the PHP content, things that I now realise I should have been taught by the official Dreamweaver 8 book, but weren't. The PHP content for which I bought this book is fantastic - much better than another generic PHP/MySQL I have read, as this is tailored to the Dreamweaver 8 environment which takes a lot of the guessing out of the equation. This book is written by and for people who use Dreamweaver 8 in a practical situation. I'm still less than half way through my book and already feel like I've learned much more than I expected. Highly recommended. I'll be checking out Mr Powers' other books when I finish this one. Thanks David Powers, you're a genius!

4 comments about Managing Software Requirements: A Use Case Approach (2nd Edition) (Addison-Wesley Object Technology Series).

1. I'm quite surprised to be the first reviewer of the second edition of this book since it ia a reference in requirements management.
   
   After, but even during, reading this book you perceive that it's a sum up of their vast, deep and long experience. The authors are the implementors of RequisitePro the tool, now part of the Rational Suite, for requirements management, but this book is not a promo. Instead the whole process of gathering, organizing, and connecting (to following steps in the process) requirements is presented. It's clear to them that basically you have to collect the clouded needs of the stakeholders and formalize them in a set of documents that you have to give to the development team. And the entire process should effectively work, managing change.
   
   After introductory chapters, you are presented with six skills a requisite team shoud have to effectively manage requrements and each skill is expressed, through different chapters, with what needs to be done and what needs to be produced.
   
   I especially reccommend team skill 6 'Building the Right System' because in those chapters you find how to connect use cases to design (chapter 25), how to generate test cases from use cases (chapter 26), traceability techniques and tool from user needs to code (chapter 27). Besides this, team skill 4 'Managing scope'.
   
   Don't forget to read chapter 30 that illustrates and compares extreme, agile, and roubust requirements gathering methodologies, and chapter 31 that sums up all the steps illustrated in the book, suggesting a methodology for requirements gathering based on the kind of project.
   
   In the appendix you find chapters with the whole results of the case study (HOLIS), the detailed template of basic and fundamental documents for software requirements management, and, above all, two chapters one that is a brief presentation of RUP and another that is an indication on how to link the process so far developed to SEI-CMM and ISO 9000:2000.
   
   Another useful feature is the fact that every concept is illustrated with a simple,visual example (in visual modeling philosophy) that allows you to impress the concept in mind. At the end you come out with all the concepts you found (even from different sources, but unrelated) with the big picture.
   This is my first book on software requirements but it has many pros and only one con. It's a recent book that is aware of the state-of-the-art in managing software requirements (see bibliography), and I'm sure that other books in this field can't be overwhelmingly better. The only con, that is easily resolvable, is that the documents illustrated could have been included in a CD with the book.



2. Being in the software industry for about 10 years, I had known that our teams often did a poor job of managing, gathering, and understanding requirements. Our projects suffered because of this, and despite my gut instincts we were going the wrong direction, I often felt that I didn't have statistics and the insight to counter some of the more experienced staff or management. This book greatly has changed that as now I can come in armed with info and present better ways to improve our requirements management. I now feel that we'll deliver the right product or system instead of breaking the hearts of our customer and our own team members (because we won't be failing!). The authors also write in a very clear manner and provide excellent examples. I can't believe I am writing this about a requirements book, but I found myself actually _looking forward_ to reading each chapter. I am now confident I have the tools we need to sucessfully manage requirements. Thanks for a great book!



3. I had the pleasure of speaking with the author (Don Widrig) over the phone prior to a job interview and he helped close the loop on some of the concepts presented in the book. I went into this book not knowing that use cases are used in the requirements analysis phase because honestly, I never did that phase properly and even my masters level courses didn't provide this information.
   
   The book outlines the proper steps to gathering requirements from a use case perspective and provides numerous examples that you can actually apply in the real world. I would definitely recommend this book to any systems engineer, business analyst and even people interested in understanding process mapping more.



4. I haven't finished reading this book yet, but so far it is pretty good. I recommend this book for someone is interested in learning about Managing Software Requirements.

2 comments about An Introduction to Programming Using Alice.

1. For non-programmers who want to learn an object oriented language, Alice is a nice choice. At least as a pedagogic vehicle. As far as I know, there are no actual [or few] actual jobs for Alice programmers. But at the primary or secondary school level, Alice gets the main concepts common to many commercial OO languages across to students.
   
   Herbert introduces these concepts at a deliberately slow pace. Suitable for most of the targeted audience. The screen captures of the user interface are quite pretty, and help to hold the reader's attention. As compared with learning C++, say, where there is no intrinsic GUI. Plus, the mapping of conceptual objects to graphical objects in Alice is its main attraction. Very intuitive.



2. Not only did I save money from buying from Amazon, it also arrived in time for my first class. Excellenct service.