Robert Prentice Books

Years ago I was working on a very complex project. One of the team members convinced the management that we needed CASE tools. After spending $$$ on them and countless hours learning them, we began to use them. I soon became convinced that they provided little to help the process and in the end, they nearly sunk the project. It was yet another pseudo code that did little to aid in the process of generating real code. So when UML came on the scene, knowing it's roots I was very suspicious. After looking more into it, I was pleasantly surprised by UML. I believe that most of my objections to CASE were addressed, but not all. I found that too many had simply replaced one dead weight with another. Again countless hours were spent generating documents that no one ever read or cared about. Yet UML was a valuable tool, why was this so? I shared this with my grown son who directed me to Martin's book, and it became clear that a valuable tool was simply being misused. It is obvious that Martin has been in the real world and knows when to use a tool like UML, how much to use it, and what it is best suited for. Rather than throwing the baby out with the bath water as I was tempted to do, Martin points out that UML is a good communication tool best used at a white board with a small team. Once everyone is on the same page, the team can proceed as a team. Martin doesn't over burden you with a lot of useless diagrams. He poses a problem, shows how UML addresses a design issue, and shows you the resultant design change. I subscribe to many of the XP techniques because I have used them and found them useful with the exception of pair programming which I did for a while and found it to reduce the productivity to the lowest common denominator between the pair. I highly recommend this book.

Oh! Come on. I just got the book today. What is this? Chapter 5, very important part of UML titled "Use cases", has only 3 pages with a single image of "System boundary diagram"!!! Is this that really matters in the Use cases? For haven sake! I run out of words to explain the quality of this book. Book is total disaster. Chapter 6, OOD, 20 pages, 6 subchapters, Single Responsibility Principle, etc. Who cares about RSP, OCP, LSP, DIP, ISP. Why whould this be more important than Activity diagrams explained in details with numerous examples.

What is this book about anyway. Skipping detailed explanation of use cases or of activity diagram or numerous important items in the UML world while providing me chapter about OOD, Iterative Development (3 pages), Planning.

Then again State and FSM diagrams only 7 or 10 pages. Why is this called an UML book?

Average free tutorial on UML is much better than this. Just go to google, IBM developer works, Borland community, wherever and get a decent UML introduction.

Is this some kind of a joke? I wonder who could rate this book so high, 4 stars in average! And what does give this book a "Java" in title? Perhaps several interfaces written in java? Wow! How about making an C++ edition, with cca 240 pages as well.

Oh come on, close this page about this book, go home, go to some other UML book. If only I had a chance to find and see a free preview of this book I would have never bought it.

Look for the free sample of excerpt of the book first somewhere on the web, ed2k, wherever, before buying it. - I would never have bought it.

A book with this title is much needed. Sadly, Uncle Bob's advice to write your UML on a napkin and later throw it away is not what we need. He is so flippant about UML that he comes across as arrogant and having much less credibility than he probably deserves. My advice to Uncle Bob: adopt a more humble attitude that will better serve your readers and write your second edition with a focus on accomplishing what the attractive title promises.

I just led a study group of 15 people reading this book. The book is very down-to-earth with a lot of practical advice for how a group of programmers can effectively use UML to aid in communication of ideas across a team.

It only covers 5 of the 11 or so UML diagram types, but it covers the ones that will really be used by java programmers day-to-day, in design documents, whiteboards, etc. For each it talks about real world, practical approaches on how to use them to communicate ideas.

Bob Martin is an 'Agile' guy, and it really comes across in this book. A lot of his arguments come down to "A lot of the pomp and circumstance surrounding UML is pretty useless, except when it isn't", and while he tries to instill when that will be, that kind of knowledge reaslly only comes with experience. He also advocates that the diagrams should be 'lightweight enough to be thrown away', which is an opinion that can rub a lot of people the wrong way, is a very valid position. While there is nothing inherently 'good' or 'evil' about UML, it is often used to help create a 'documentation glut'. I have seen situations where the documentation falls out of sync with the code, or worse... the code can't change because the documentation cannot be updated (because of some beurocratic red tape). The author seems to have had some bad experiences along these lines, and seems to have a lot of reactionary thoughts.

This is good! while a couple of other reviews here have called such advice 'impractical' (which it can be in a lot of environments), the information in the book is very valuable and the thought provoking nature about 'be as lightweight as you can' and 'avoid the UML police' are useful as long as you can take them with a grain of salt and apply the advice judiciously in your own work environment.

I definitely recommend this book to Java Developers who need to better communicate their ideas to groups of other developers. After reading this, there are other references should you need to 'go down the UML Rabbit Hole' a little deeper. this book is better first though, because it puts the relevant diagrams into practical context.

There are many books that can be used to learn the Unified Modeling Language (UML). However, in most cases, they are not much more than a description of the language. Like the languages that humans use to communicate with each other, you can only learn UML if you use it in contexts that are familiar to you.
Martin starts with the initial assumption that the reader is fluent in Java and uses that as the basis for teaching the fundamentals of UML. If you are in this category, then I can strongly recommend the book. Unfortunately, this means that if you don't know Java, it will not be that much help to you. Early in the book, Martin eschews a lot of Java code, choosing to concentrate on the diagrams. Skeleton code is used, and it is as bare as it could possibly be. In the later sections, large blocks of Java code are used, particularly in the last chapter, which is the case study of a remote service project.
While I considered the combination of Java code and diagrams to be well done in the early chapters, there is a fundamental weakness in the last chapters. Martin made the decision to avoid putting comments in the code. Therefore, there are segments of code multiple pages in length where there is not a single comment explaining what it does. While I concede that it is possible to determine what the code is doing, that understanding does not come easy. In several cases it took me a significant amount of time before I was able to understand the whats, whys and hows of exactly how the parameters of the project were being implemented.
The first part of this book can be used to learn UML in a context that will be familiar to experienced Java programmers. However, while the later chapters can be understood, getting there requires a lot of effort, in my opinion, too much for a book where the goal is to teach UML rather than Java.

This book was more helpful for me than my professors' lectures! It is very helpful for all general chem students, including those who hate chemistry (I do not).

This is not a very good textbook and should not be considered if you desire to learn chemistry. The text is not understandable even though I have a masters in chemistry from CalTech.

The organization is not well structured and it's hard to believe that people actually like this book. The writers of this book try to "cram" as much information as possible in each chapter which is NOT necessary. It could be sucessfuly done if they spread out the information and concepts.

HOWEVER, he book problems are excellent. I'll give them that.

This book is very well written, with helpful diagrams and detailed examples. It is easy to understand and text and with this book it is truly not hard to understand chemistry and do well. I easily got an A in Chemistry I and I believe that everyone who failed the class simply didn't look over the book or their notes after class. It certainly wasn't the fault of the professor or the text- both explained chemistry very well.

This book is a leader in the chemistry field, superior to any I've seen. Its explanations are thorough, yet concise. If you are a student, and you have any doubts about the effectiveness of this book, expel them from your mind. This is a book for autonomous thinkers, as it gives you a strong footing in intermediate Chemistry, allowing you to think for yourself. The media companion is also helpful. It brings the book to life, helping those students who work best with visual stimulus. Perhaps you do not have a computer in your home, but take the time to use this tool at your school. As for the teachers, you may have my assurance that my time spent as a student using this book was made more complete only by my professor's lectures. Please consider this book a valuable addition to your Chemistry library.

I had difficulties solving chemistry problems I also bought many books but when I found this one in My local library I was extremely happy with the simplicity of the text problem examples
THIS IS THE BEST BOOK FOR CHEMISTRY CLASS EVER ....I HAD A D IN MY FIRST CHEMISTRY CLASS NOW I AM GETTING As AND Bs Every household should have one .... The best book by far

Great help to those who want to go into genetics or just want to learn a few new facts. Lots of diagrams and pictures to go along with the information for better understanding. Also the book does a great job on explaining most of the topics, a few i think are just difficult to grasp.

I was very happy with my product. The book was in excellent condition and it was all way cheaper than what I would have paid at the bookstore, even AFTER waiting till the last minute and having to pay extra for next day delivery. I will definately use Amazon more frequently for my test books.

This is extremely well written introducton for undergraduates. I am using it as the backup since my instructor assigned Harwell et al's book, which is not nearly as well written. This book has excellent graphics, the whole book is well organized and well written.

This book covers genetics quite well its concise. It covers all the topics pretty well and also has plenty of genetic problems to make sure you know your stuff. I'd recommend getting the solutions book as well

My class didn't use this text much as part of the course but when i read it i found it helpful - the reviews were well done and outlines helped cover the material.

I didn't like this book. It does not go into the individual concepts enough. I found it to be really unhelpful. And sorry, but my desk already has a paperweight. And I have issues about spending any amount of money for what amounts to a bound version of copied paper. The entire book was a very poor zerox copy.

I just opened up the OOP section and noticed that the diagrams that are in the book appear to be photocopied. One diagram shows an inheritance relationship between some banking objects. There are nine objects in the diagram and you CAN NOT see the lines bordering each object, nor the lines between the objects. Most of the other line diagrams are fuzzy and not solid (imagine taking a faint line drawing and photocopying it). Two big thumbs down on printing quality. As for the material, I have read about 3-4 paragraphs, so I can't comment on it. I am seriously considering returning it since some of the diagrams are unreadable.

OK. I am an experienced C/C++ programmer, so you have to keep in mind that this review will be based on my background. The book is OK. That's why I gave it a 3, but it's nothing more. It is very basic. It has good explanation of the basics, but nothing more. And my opinion is that if you are a C/C++ programmer you really don't need the C# basics. They are just so similar. The thing I hate the most about this book is that it doesn't go into depth at all. Some concepts are not explained very well either. I actually wish that I hadn't bought this book. I am yet to see a good C# book.

Very well written book that will help anyone at any level learn C#. I've read many books on C# and this one is the best - hands down.

A good introductory book - if you already have a good background in C/C++. Otherwise, you'd be struggling and may need some other really basic books to complement your reading.

Most books have erratas and this book is no exception. However, it is minimal and acceptable.

The book is in really good condition, and the vendor was out of town but he sent an email apologizing for the delay. After that I got it right away.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was easy to understand and well organized. I was able to learn a lot about Eastern Religions with this book that I got an 'A' in my Religions class. Yay!

This book is one of the most interesting text book i have come across. It gives enough details of every well known religion. there are also photographs giveen to show you what the tevt is explaining.

An excellent introduction to the world's primary religious and wisdom traditions: their origins, major tenets, peculiarities and similarities across the spectrum, and contemporary manifestations. Along with the companion book, An Anthology of Living Religions, this text offers a solid study in the world's religions.

While Living Religions is a good source of information, it was incredibly difficult to read. It was like reading an encyclopedia. I did not like the authors gender bias.

For the professional programmer only: Clear and concise step-through using Visual C++. *.dsw files are there for the Visual C++ programmer--Click on the .dsw and straight away it launches Visual C++ 6.0. (I have all the ptches as of 2002.10.10.)

Again, step-by-step instructions, useless for a beginner; Gold for the pro, who needs both excellent guidance and the code on CD.

I didn't run the install program. I copied the CD to disk, instead. Then I looked inside the chapter directories, and clicked on *.dsw.

This book gave me an excellent understanding of COM+ and the Windows DNA. It is definitely geared more towards C++ programmers than it is towards VB programmers, however, there is still a lot of good information for any developer trying to learn COM+. I read most of it (even the C++ parts), but, coming from a VB environment, some of it got tough to follow. After reading this book, I had a solid foundation, but I definitely needed to pick up a book that was geared more towards VB programmers to get more of a by example experience. The book I picked up Scot Hillier's book COM+ Programming with Visual Basic (also got Visual Basic and COM+ Programming by Example by Peishu Li). I am about a third of the way through it (I'll write a review on it when I get done with it), and it has been rock solid so far. In a nutshell, this is a good book to understand the architecture and concepts behind COM+ and the Windows DNA, but you may need to supplement it with another book that is more example driven to hammer home the concepts.

Yuck!

I'm an experienced VC++, VB, COM, and MTS programmer for Window NT. I bought this book to help bring me up to speed with the changes for Windows 2000, specifically COM+ transactional services (the new MTS).

First of all, the first 300 pages have little to do with COM+. It's a review of other programming issues, which belong in a different book. It's pure fluff and a waste of paper. Second, its treatment of transactions is very lacking. For example, it doesn't even discuss the importance of stateless development and that's very important to understand.

Don't buy this book. Get "Visual Basic and COM+ Programming by Example" by Peishu Li or "Programming Distributed Applications with COM+..." by Ted Pattison or the golden oldie "Distributed COM..." by Jim Maloney (for NT).

A good author carefully orders what he throws out. He will first explain concept A, B and C which can be directly understood, then he explains concept D using concept A, B, C. It needs a lot of brain power of the author to achieve this concept planning and tracking.

The author of this book does not bother to do that. I bet he never had a clear picture on what he had explained earlier in his book. He would suddenly start to use a new concept D to explain concept E, as if D had been well explained before. Such defects spread over this book.

Well if an author thinks there is no way to explain everything at this stage, at least he should tell the reader that "Don't worry about concept D mentioned here. We will explain it in next chapter". But the author of this book also doesn't bother to do that. So there were many cases that I spent many many hours trying to figure out some concepts just mentioned. I browse earlier chapters again and again, I wrote testing code to try to find answers, ... , but finally gave up and go ahead, and find that it was explained 50 pages later. Even worse, some are never explained.

One example of the poor writing of this book: at the introduction part, the author alternatively uses VC's OLE/COM Object Viewer and Windows regedit to view different entries of the registry, but he never explained why he uses the first to view some and uses the other to view others. In fact some info can only be viewed with one and some are better viewed by the other, and there are some good reasons behind that, which should be understood and will be very helpful. By simply giving 200 words he would have let the reader know that. But he wouldn't bother, leaving reader confused.

When I was reading this book, I made scores of pages of notes just to read the first several chapters - because there were so many things that the book hasn't told me and I have figured out myself. Finally I quitted and bought another book: Developer's Workshop to COM and ATL 3.0. I found that I no longer need to make any notes, because everything I want to know is clearly written on where it should be. The book was organized in such a way that whenever you might have any question, read the next sentense, the answer lies in it. No pains at all. I am amazed that how big a level difference there can be between two books that are both available on the market.

In general, for an absolute new learner of COM who even does not know what "COM run time" means, this Understanding and Programming COM+ is too difficult to understand. For people who knows some basic concepts such as IUnknown, QueryInterface, CoCreateInstance, this book is too limited and primary. There are plenty of better books.

I have read just about every COM related books for C++ out in the market. Unlike many books that focus heavily on COM's technicality, this book focuses on COM's theory at a very high level.

Compared to many other COM books out in the market, this is a very well written book. Very easy to read, quick to the point, and doesnt confuse beginners with heavy technical information.

However, I must admit that it doesn't delve much into the internals of COM nor ATL. I would recommand this book to those who are just starting out COM+ or those who failed to fully grasp 'essensial Com' book.

I needed this book for my class and the owner sent it priority mail even though i didnt have the option on amazon so kudos to her and the book helped me a lot in my course would recommend it to anyone :)

Reviewer John Zabroski hits on some great points and I have a few more to add.
The book definitely contains some useful information. This is why I give it two stars. Still, the amount of fluff, bloat and redundancy is incredible. It is painful to read through page after page where information is repeated.

For concepts that would need a one inch paragraph for their explanation, the authors occupy a page. The nature of business communication is to be short and to the point. The authors completely fail to convey this essential feature. This book should have comprised of 200 pages maximum, not counting the appendices. Instead it turned into an almost 600 page monstrosity. In my opinion the price of paper is too low. This is why there is so much of it wasted.

In some instances, things can turn outright ridiculous. For example, look at page 269. In the fifth line of the first paragraph the authors list objectivity as a trait of credibility. Then they encourage the reader to exceed this by "Being Objective" (the sixth bullet below the paragraph). Give me a break!

The book combines much useful infomation. Various examples and appendixes are helpful in ordinary (but important) questions. It is a straight-to-the-point book.

Well, what can I say, I simply love the book. It has reminded me that when it comes to communication, we are all human beings not machines. We have feelings and different situations at every moment of our lives; we need to remember all this when deciding to play the communication game.

To some, the elements of communication mentioned in the book are taken for granted basics but, for some others, it is a guideline to learn how to communicate better. Simply put, not every one is born with the give of "gap-ping". Let it be face-to-face conversations, emails, letters, blogs, IM and/or all other ways of communications, we must have some guidelines.

This text provides the reader with the guidance of learning basic to professional techniques of communication; not only do we learn how to use clarity, conciseness, etiquette when writing to others, but also teach us to learn to recognize the audience which, in a era of globalization, is of most importance. The authors of the books point out our cultural diversities and remind us to treat each other with respect, patience and understanding.

I could say much more of the text, but as you probably figured out, I am a student and have only read up to Chapter 7. So much to read, so much to learn! I am so thrilled to have come across this book and be able to keep up with the trends of communication and the reminder, that unfortunately, we all need once in a while when it comes to communicate with each other. This book not only applies to professional life but every day life as well. I could go on and on with the thoughts this book has provoked in me but, maybe, I will get back with more to say once I finish reading the book. Do not miss the chance to read it!

I've been teaching this course for 20 years, and I've used various editions of this text for the past 15 years. The book is now in its 9th edition, which is the best edition yet.

The book is beautifully written, concise, and has a strong scholarly foundation. A look at the reference section at the end of the book shows more than a 1,000 sources the authors used in writing the book. In terms of overall length, however, the book is about the same as other texts in the field.

I've reviewed virtually all of the leading business communication texts, and this book is miles ahead of the competition. For example, while other textbooks for this course are still emphasizing paper documents, this book is the only business communication textbook that gives extensive coverage of electronic documents. Students will see actual examples of blogs, instant messages, RSS newsfeeds, wikis, and podcasts (actual podcasts for students to analyze are on the authors' website). Amazingly, examples of these electronic documents aren't contained in any of the competing books.

Semester after semester, my students have rated this book very highly. The authors are to be commended for their outstanding work!

Book to way way way to long to be delivered. Buy from anyone but amazon.

It's an interesting book, very expensive for the edition's year (1981). Like an introduction to soils mechanics is a reliable text book, sometimes the language is difficult for a reader of English as second language.But I know that English is an enforced Grammar ruled dialect, so no problem

This book is a little older, 1981 I believe, but my Geotechnical Engineering teacher still uses it and still believes it is the best textbook about the subject out there. The only section that is outdated is the section about classifying soils according to the USCS system (which has changed).

I have not read any others to compare, but I do know that it has been easy to read so far and the explanations are fairly clear. There are many diagrams and figures and illustrations to help explain the text also.

My version came paperback, which is good price-wise, but I wish now that I had one of the old hardback versions, since the paper cover is curling with use.

I was first introduced to this book as a grad student in the early 80s and I still use it to teach my graduate soil mechanics course today. It is as comprehensive as any soil mechanics text out there. Their treatment of shear strength is magnificent and worth the price of the book alone. There is a tremendous amount of information crammed into this book, but it remains very readable throughout.

Some of the other reviews miss the essential point that Holtz and Kovacs is a pure theoretical soil mechanics text, not an applied soils text. You won't get much use out of it on the PE exam, but I guarantee it will help you to better understand soil behavior.

I hope the reviewer who rated the book one star doesn't consider himself a geotechnical engineer. To state that book is not good because it was not useful on the PE exam is laughable. This text presents essential concepts and methodolgies that are needed in the field of geotechnical engineering. The chapters on the shear strength of cohesionless and cohesive soils as well as stress paths is worth the money alone. The three most important things in geotechnical engineering are shear strength, shear strength, shear strength. A geotechnical engineer needs to have complete understanding of the shear strength soils. If all you want to accomplish is to pass the PE exam, then like the reviewer said, look elsewhere. If you to be a competent geotechnical engineer, purchase this classic text.

I bought it with the objective of having it as a reference for managing data center operations. The ideas and concepts were very interesting, and I totally agree that the starting point should include determining linkages with the core business and getting management support. Most useful to me are the following chapters:

Processes and Procedures - gives a framework on processes such as customer communication, internal communication, and change control.

Resource and cost model - helps determine the types and amount of resources (material, human, etc.) that are needed to efficiently serve requirements.

Measuring Success - discusses service levels and their measurement and coming up with service level agreements (SLAs)

The Appendices on job descriptions and sample SLA is also a great help.

The reason why I'm only giving 3 stars is that the authors could have given more examples as they explain the concepts. A line in the back cover page says "proven results, benchmarks and case studies--not just theory!" Sad to say, except for the sample SLA, this was not really delivered. It would help if the authors came up with even a fictitious company and apply the concepts to it.

Again, the ideas and concepts are great, but the authors could have given more examples to help explain them. So if the authors come up with a new edition or a sequel that addresses this, I'd be most interested in buying it!

This is a book that many IT managers have to read, it's a quick meal though, no details but a balanced dose of good ideas and a window on Service delivery where IT data centers is no longer a "cost center". The only thing I did not like is to center the data center around SUN and Oracle or a brand in general, although it is clear the book reflects the authors experience in SUN/Oracle environment.
I advise anyone who has anything with today's data centers (no matter his or her technical level) to read this book.

This book is very formal approach to IT services. Please don't give it to your customers/clients it will scare them. If you need humor or analogies to make things clear consider another book.The book is very hard to read with wordy sentences. Simplicity is much better, and this book makes some things even more confusing.

a small, concise exploration of the topic; some good ideas and good thoughts on a rare topic. Probably would have benefited from a broader view of its topic. Not a bad book though.

This book is one of, if not the, best guides to developing, implementing and managing a mature production support organization.

The value of this book is that it takes a business-centric approach to service delivery, and augments material on service level management (such as Foundations of Service Level Management - another excellent book).

Specifically, this book contains sorely needed body of knowledge in a profession that has lost its way. What I mean by this bold statement is the production support function in many IS/IT departments has devolved from service delivery to infrastructure management. IT Services brings the focus back to where it belongs: supporting the business.

What I like most about this book is it not only shows what is wrong with most production support organizations, but it provides a clear roadmap to how to restructure production support from an infrastructure management focus to a service delivery paradigm.

I highly recommend this book to anyone in production support, consultants and IT/IS executive management. It would also be useful to ISPs and ASPs because most of the material can be applied to internal or external customers.

Book was in good condition and everything worked out fine with mail, delivery and the like. Nice job to all.

I ordered this text book two weeks before my class even started, and am now three weeks into but still have not received this book. So, I don't know how it is, since I haven't received it yet. But I do know not having it is making my life difficult.

I have read the chapters on the religions of India (including Islam) and Baha'ism as part of a study abroad course on Indian religions. As a survey of world religions, this may well be the best textbook I've seen so far, and I have looked at a few in my day. It is readable, but also thorough. In addition to reviewing the basic information I've learned before, I found myself coming across little details that I'd never known (like that Mahavira's original name was Nataputta Vardhamana, or that the cause of the Buddha's death was a meal of spoiled pork curry).

The best thing about this book, though, are the passages of primary texts both within and at the end of each chapter. Though sometimes challenging to read, as ancient scripture often is, these selections really captured a lot of the basic character of each faith and supported what was being presented in the chapters.

As an introductory text on world religions, I would definitely recommend this book.

This book is a greater starter book for those wishing to study in the field of theology.

While I many not agree on some issues raised, they are not significant in importance. It does walk you through the basics of each religion and to the best of this books ability to give you insight on its foundations.

What I don't like about these books like with most textbooks is that the CD that comes with doesn't work.

This book was my sole source of of study material for a Religions of the World college class I took, and passed with an A. There is a great breakdown and overview of many of the major, and not so major, religions of the world. As well as religions in general. I can't compare it to other books dealing with Religions since I have nothing to compare it to. It is easy to read, and easy to find section you may need. It is clearly laid out and well edited. It worked for me and hopefully will work for you as well.