Databases Books

Very well written. It showed me exactly what I needed to know to make the Report Writer work for me.

Wonderful book for its stated purpose. If you need help with specific problems it is a great source.

Visual InterDev Database Application Development for the We

Visual InterDev Database Application Development for the We

The VMS file system is one of the most important aspects of that much underrated operating system. While a lot has changed since this book was published - mainly additions and improvements - it still provides the best explanation you are likely to find. As one of Digital's top technical writers, the author follows Einstein's advice in simplifying everything as far as possible, but no further. How authoritative is the book? Well, the software engineers responsible for maintaining the VMS file system used to rely on the author as a source of information when they were in doubt, so you are probably safe to do likewise.

File system design and development has been considered "black magic" in the computer industry and subsequently, there are not many books available on the subject. This one is a classic. Kirby McCoy does a great job of covering the VMS file system structure, its interface and its interaction with the operating system. Microsoft Windows NT(r)(tm) is arcitected very much like VMS. Anyone developing a file system should own this book. Anyone developing kernel-level componentes for Windows NT should own this book; if only for a historical perspective.

This useful guide introduces the latest FoxPro features and is a charming addition to any developer's library.

In 255 pages, the three authors cover all of the new features of Visual FoxPro 7. This is not just a laundry-list of features, but includes explanations of *why* the feature is useful and many include examples to help you "get it." Unlike the glittering tailfins of the cover art, the new features are important. Major features covered include chapters on:
* IntelliSense
* Editor Enhancements
* New and Better Tools
* More IDE Changes
* Data Enhancements
* OOP Enhancements
* Strings (text-merge and parsing)
* Resource Management
* Arrays
* Bits and Pieces
* Building Component-based Software
* Building World-Class COM Servers
* Implementing Interfaces
* Playing in the COM+ Sandbox
* Working with Web Services

This is a great book to help 6.x and earlier VFP developers get up to speed quickly, and a good resource for those new to the language to understand the most recent additions.

I think it is a very good book. It describes several actors in the XML data storage world. It also points out several strategies to deal with XML in relational databases.
It is very easy to read and the language is very clear.
Some experience in XML and how to store it is recommended in order to get the most of it.
I really enjoyed the chapter on eXist as it really goes into details about the index and storage architecture. It is stays quite high level though.
It helps you understand pros and cons of the different products and architectures (client/server as opposed to embedded).
Everyone dealing with XML storage should read it.

At our company, we write Java applications. Soon, we got to the point that we needed a more formal way to read/write data than merely an ad hoc approach. We use XML. The obvious approach is to use a well tested relational database, like those supplied by IBM, Oracle or Microsoft. A problem was getting detailed, objective explanations of what would be involved with each choice. Each vendor is perfectly willing to be our "friend" and supply us with reams of documentation. But still...

The chapters in this book that describe how to hook up XML to those 3 vendors' databases were excellent and clear.

But what we ended up doing was going with something suggested in ANOTHER chapter - building an embedded XML database. You will not see this advocated by a vendor; there is no sale for them here. Other than this book, we found it tough to get lucid explanations of the pros and cons of this route. It will take more work, but we hope it will give better performance - no interprocess communication, for one thing. Plus of course no licence fees, and easier installation and management, since we will have access/own all the source code. This was not our original intention, by any means. But the book's comparative analysis was so persuasive that we ended up taking this road. (Hopefully, it will not be a dead end.)

That one chapter on embedded XML databases was, to us, the most precious thing in the entire book!

The 10 Minute Guide to Lotus Notes 4 is an easy to follow, intuitive book that leads users through easy steps to perform functions that they need to learn NOW. I am a Lotus Notes instructor that has been using this book as my classroom text since it was released. Before version 4, I used the same book for version 3. I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone that wants to jumpstart their knowledge of Lotus Notes.

And just as the book claimed, in just ten minutes, it really helped make difference. One of the best self help books out on the market. I keep it right on my desk for easy access. I'm glad I found it.

Kudos to chris paice for this outstanding book, which had me enthralled from start to finish. I found the parts about the Information Retrieval Colloquium particularly exciting. Chris Paice is incredibly perceptive and his theories about array retrival methods in the 4th dimension are particularly mind-spazzing.

Our company database was updated with all the latest data within one hour of receiving the CD. Now the CD is permanently available on the network as a reference. Underpriced, but let's not tell them...

The best book out in the market for AS400 programmers trying to figure out how to connect to the AS400 from their PC. I like all of the different ways explained in the book.