Software Books

This is the best "How to" book on Oracle. I have read around 20 books on Oracle (I reviewed most of them on Amazon) and this one is the most practical Oracle book for intermediate to advance Oracle DBAs.

The book skips most of the architecture and goes directly on how to configure and use some of the most salient features of Oracle 10g.

Some of the examples are:

1)How to manually install RAC instance
2)How to migrate Non-ASM to ASM disks and vice versa.
3)How to collect AWR reports using builtin scripts.
4)How to install CRS
5)How to Flashback Database and Flashback Table.
6)How to Patch Dataguard Instances
7)How to use flashback in Dataguard Standby.
8)How to manually remove Oracle Instances.
9)How to upgrade RMAN Catalog.
10)How to use Wait statistics to measure and improve performance.

Not all the topics are advanced. But it still helps to get down to the fundamentals, even for the advanced DBA with decade or more of experience.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to expand/improve their Oracle 10G skillset.

This is a really good book to have by an Oracle DBA for Oracle 10g reference. This book will help the Oracle DBA to identify and implement Oracle 10g new features. It has good tips for performance and tuning and setting up ASM. I give this book 5 star rating.

Highly recommended reference book for DBA's that are familiar with previous version of Oracle and wants to find out the new features of 10g.

This book covers Release 2 of Oracle 10G. Concepts are presented in a clear manner. Each chapter can read in an hour or so. This is a great place to start for new DBAs. For experience DBAs, this a great book to get to know the New Features. Book is very easily read. Best book to learn Oracle 10g R2.

This book is easy to follow and drives straight into chapters essential for 10g. It does a wonderful job and covers installations on various platforms, new features and approach for identifying the performance issues. It provides practical advice using practical approach, tips and examples. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is learning or working with 10g.

A great read. Much more practical and easier reading than some of the classics in the code inspection theme.

Practical is a key element of this book. Like Wiegers' other books, this one is well written and researched; it provides a concise guide to peer reviews along with a set of useful tools for the practitioner, or "assets" -- documents, procedures, and spreadsheets that you can implement right away to put reviews into practice.

It's amazing, but peer reviews are not a regular practice in many software organizations. Peer reviews are proven to save time, money and promote learning and understanding among project team members. Perhaps one reason for their lack of practice is that there has been, up until now, little in the literature that we can read and put into practice right away. Well, here it is!

One of the nice things about this book is that the author shows you how you can tweak peer reviews to make them work for your team or organization. He give due diligence, the psychological aspects of peer reviews. Wiegers explains all the roles involved, target work products to review, how to prepare for a review, what to record, what to measure, and even how to train on peer reviews.

The book includes a useful glossary, a set of troubleshooting review problems with symptoms and possible solutions, and those very useful assets on the author's web site(...). Example assets include: peer review process description, inspection checklist, spreadsheets for code and document inspection and a set of defect checklists.

Used in the context of careful reading of this book, teams can really do a lot to improve their products and relationships. This is a book to be read by analysts, developers, architects, project leaders and managers who care about the quality and cost of software.

I have attempted over the years to get various organizations to buy into peer reviews. We have lots of evidence why these reviews are highly worthwhile, but their implementation has not been anything to write home about. There's always many reasons why organizations don't buy in or give peer reviews half-hearted support.

In my opinion, this book is an important contribution to the field. I'm sufficiently impressed that I've passed copies of the book to a few busy software development managers, software engineers and business managers so far. They've taken the time to look at it, and they find the book talks to them -- it is clear, addresses their issues, offers practical solutions which they may not have considered before, and is persuasive. I believe the book will have a postive influence in their organizations.

I hope to see copies in lots more people's bookshelves.

Excellent up to date survey of the literature, excellent survey of the many methods and analysis of their differences. A rich insight into the area of peer reviews in general, including Inspections and their variations. Practical for the industrial user. Highly recommended.

Every developer I have known has experienced the phenomena of spending an inordinate amount of time searching for a bug only to have a colleague look at the code and find it almost immediately. Study after study has indicated that the worst review process for software is self-criticism and the best is to have other coders take a good look at it. Therefore, it is logical that a formal process for developers reviewing each others code be implemented. The problem is that the former is informal, making it "off the books" and not subject to review by decision makers. Being human, developers react differently when their livelihood is potentially at stake, which can cause problems and prevent adequate reviews of the code.
Creating a stable, scalable and structured peer review system is not something that can be done by fiat or in a short time. It requires clear managerial direction that inspires confidence and builds a sense of security for both the evaluator and evaluated. Creating such an environment is the key and that is the main point of value in this book.
Wiegers lays out in great detail how to create a culture where all involved are peers in the real sense. It is absolutely necessary that everyone in the review process understand that creating quality software is the only thing that matters. Therefore, posturing, ego tripping, ego inflating, ego protection and all related activities must be suppressed. These are the most difficult tasks for professional humans to engage in, and it requires a combination of carrying a big stick to move the process as well as a soft pillow for the necessary falls from perfection. Wiegers shows you how to do this with the skill of a counselor.
In my reading of the trade press, the recent rise in the concern for computer security has led to a great deal of coverage about errors in software. Responding to this pressure, Bill Gates has sent out a public memo noting that quality is now the number one priority at Microsoft. The best way to achieve this quality is to have an effective peer review process and in this book you can learn how to do that. In the new world order of software, your very survival may be at stake, so your plan of action should include a rendezvous with this book.

This is one of the best "how-to" books on computer imaging that I ever read. Each example is complete in itself -- they can really hold my interet throughout. The steps cross-reference accompanying pictures precisely. Everything is Thoroughly and methodically laid out -- no missing pieces or glibbed over details to stump readers.

This book really allowed me to learn masking in Photoshop. The step-by-step instructions allow you to follow the descriptions on your computer and see the results. It is rare to find a great book in Photoshop that teaches you so much. I would recommend this book to anyone who seeks to understand how to do collages using the mask technology in Photoshop. You won't regret buying this book at all. I can only wish there is the same kind of book in Illustrator and Painter and all the other graphics programs I use so that I can have a better understanding of the full special functions that are embedded in each of those applications.

Greg Haun is a master of Photoshop special effects techniques.
I was fortunate enough to take several of his classes at the Pacific Northwest College of Art here in Portland
back in '94 and '95 when 3.0 Photoshop was just out!
Greg always showed personal interest in what you were doing.
Greg is a professional among professionals, yet you would never know his level of expertise unless you asked him point blank! He was a very humble guy and believed you could learn techniques from even a novice.

Because of those early years of study, I recently achieved my expert certification in Photoshop. I doubt that I could have done it had I not had the advantage of Greg's tutelage.
He made a difference in my life. I can't thank him enough...

This book is a must for the professional Photoshop user.

I was fortunate to take several classes from Greg during the early 90s when he still taught at the Pacific NW College of Art. He was very patient, very knowledgeable and a great guy. He always made time for you and always had an answer. This book is invaluable for Photoshop students of all levels! Buy it!

Mark Simon, Graphic Artist - Dex Media Yellow Pages - Portland, Or

As a certificate program graphic design student, I found this to be one of the best books on Photoshop, even though it was written prior to the new software versions. It is well-edited, and explains masking, layering, and blending images clearly and concisely with very helpful screenshots of what you need to do.

As all the collection of this books it is good to have this in your personal library to check out how filters work with different kind of pictures, of coarse these books are directed to professional photos, but you can maybe experiment with your personal as well, I just wanted to point that out because in the book the examples given are for applying filters to pictures you maybe wanna show or give to a client.

But as a reference book is just great, I mean someone took the time to write and visually show you all the filters in photoshop and as its name it is a real encyclopedia, where you can look every filter how is going to look like and then decide.

Buy this it will always be useful

Of all the things that Photoshop can do, the Filters option certainly is one of the coolest options available to users. Taking a digital picture or just a standard graphics file, you can use the power of Photoshop Filters to create unique art for whatever purpose you want. From a colored pencil effect to blurring images to one of the newest filters "Vanishing Point", this book is an absolute gem.

If you use Filters on a daily basis and want to see what can be done to take a normal image and make it stand out from the "blah" that is out there in the world, this book is for you. If you are a heavy Photoshop user but want to go beyond the basics of just resizing images and cropping pictures, you will also heavily enjoy this book. Of the 4 books in this Photoshop line I love each one of them and feel that all readers should rush out and pick them all up for their reference.

The only downside of this book really isn't a fair one at all, and that's that I wish there were more pages and examples dedicated to all of the filters covered here. Obviously this isn't a realistic gripe so it's barely even worth mentioning.

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

For anyone who uses Photoshop in graphic design and or to correct or edit their precious photos, this book is a must have in your library of reference materials. It takes the mystery out of all those scary, misused, underused and never used filters in Photoshop by clearly showing and explaining how to use them and when to use them. This is one fantastic book.

The O'Reilly Studio put their thinking caps on for all ages and levels of expertise at Photoshop. The step by step instructions with options made this, as well as all their other Cookbooks, a delight to learn from and practice with, in an easy-to-understand format. I would love to see them come out with CD's for their books included.

To be frank, I bought this book because to get free shipping, I had to add one more book to my order of "Photoshop Cosmetic Surgery, by Barry Huggins. It was one of many that I could have chosen for this purpose, but I chose it because it appeared that it could illuminate in detail an area of Photoshop that I was interested in exploring in greater depth than I had previously been able to do. In general, I am satisfied with my choice, although there were some areas where I would have liked greater detail and explanation. This book is not for a newbie to Photoshop. It assumes a reasonable degree of familiarity with the program, and simply proceeds, without fanfare, to describe how to use the many filters and their settings. I recommend this book for a reasonably competent Photoshop user who wants to continue to increase his/her mastery over this wonderful and hugely flexible program.

Excellent, well-organized manual for users -- takes the guesswork out of learning how to use this program.

Having the program for awhile there were certain parts I found a bit hard to use.This book has overcome these problems.Diane Koers explains it all in a easy to follow manner. This a wonderful text book to have for users of the Corel program.

Found this book to be extremely helpful to this novice.
It is well written and doesn't make any assumptions that you have any previous experience with this type of software.

It's hard for me to review this book without also discussing the book's topic, which is Corel's Paint Shop Pro Photo X2. Fortunately, I like them both. PSP Photo X2 is an admirable substitute for Adobe's Photoshop (at a fraction of the price). As such, the array of options and terms and icons and toolbars and palettes is potentially overwhelming, even for someone who may otherwise be technically astute. Diane Koers's book has just enough theory and background thrown in with the practical "how to" aspects to strike a perfect balance, and to help make sense of PSP Photo X2.

The book is well organized, and it has a fair index and a very good table of contents, so it can either be read from cover to cover, or used effectively as a reference. As is fitting for a book about graphic images, the book itself is of the highest quality, attractively laid out, with pages of coated paper that faithfully reproduce the many illustrations. It is well edited and essentially free of typos and grammatical errors (which is to be expected from a book published by Course Technology). In short, I highly recommend both the software and the book about the software. My only suggestion would be that Ms. Koers write a separate companion volume consisting of a series of tutorials. I find that nothing completes a learning experience better than a set of case studies and some directed hands-on practice.

I should probably add, just in case the point isn't obvious from the comparison to Photoshop, that in addition to photo editing, PSP Photo X2 has also has a robust set of web-centric features. Support for layers, which are essential for creating and maintaining computer graphics, and for GIF, PNG, and BMP formats is part of the core functionality of the software. Both the RGB (for computer graphics) and CMYK (for printing) color models are supported (the index of the book refers to CMYK as "CMTK", which is the only typo I've found in the book thus far). Ms. Koers's book gives this web-centric functionality a fair amount of coverage. I would recommend this book (and PSP Photo X2) to web developers and designers as well as to photography buffs. Paint Shop Pro Photo X2

If your looking for something that rivals Elements at a great price you just found it. And it works with Vista. Great editing tools. Easy to work with. You will love this product.

A must-have for anybody working 6.5, 7, and 2000 MSSQL. Very well scoped-out in its depth of coverage. Explains aspects of the RDBMS that will be required knowledge for any DBA coming from a non-MSSQL background. Covers differences from SQL 6.5 through SQL 2000. Sure, there is a lot that is not in here, but it is impressive how much is covered (from basics of physical design, to ACID transactions, to replication-related stored procedures). The smaller form factor makes it easy to carry around, which is an absolute bonus. The material in this book (and the "for Experienced DBAs" book in the Osborne series) must be distilled from a vast amount of real-world experience-- sadly, not out there yet for SQL 2005.

This is an essential book for anyone who works with, or is curious about SQL. This book covers all aspects of SQL from installation to Back Up and restoration scenarios. Covering all flavors of SQL from version 6.5 to current this book is compact and contains an unbelievable amount of knowledge into less than 500 Pages. I could not get over how detailed and clear this book is. After having read many other books on these topics it was truly refreshing to read a technical book that succinctly touched on all aspects of administrating a SQL box.

It was unfortunate to discover that some of what I had thought was good techniques were proved to be flawed, and when after implementing the suggestions in this book I was thrilled to see an increase in efficiency of Data Calls, and Network Load.

It is clear to see that the authors of this book have carefully and clearly defined all that could be needed in a small easy to reference book. This book is a necessity for any desk where SQL Server is running. It is a small cost to pay for so much knowledge, well worth every cent.

If there is one book that you are considering for SQL Server Administration, this is the one to buy. Covering all the major topics of administration, this book goes above and beyond other SQL Server books for several reasons. Not only does it live up to the promise of an easy to find guide for everyday tasks, it offers the ability to read up quickly on several advanced topics and gain knowledge rapidly. Taken into consideration, are the three latest versions; SQL Server 2000, 7.0 and 6.5, detailing out differences between versions where applicable. Everything is explained clearly. The authors have done an excellent job of providing a wealth of information in short and concise content. It is very refreshing to see a book that was obviously written to be as brief possible without skimping on important details...clearly no fluff here!!!! This has two benefits to the reader, 1; information is easy to find, no time is wasted reading through frivolous content, 2; the cost is lower than those 1,000 page volumes that contain less valuable information. Hopefully this is the start of a new trend in technical books.

In just a few minutes after flipping through, and reading up on backups, I realized that I'm not backing up my production data properly, and can substantially decrease data loss risk by backing up my transaction logs regularly with the data. Also, some security concepts I had a bit of difficulty fully comprehending became clear to me as well.

Reading through this book, it is obvious the authors have extensive experience with SQL Server, as this book has many insider tips that only experts would know through practice. It is also apparent that the authors worked well together as this book reads as though one person wrote it. Definitely a must buy and well worth the cost. I wish I could give this book more than 5 stars.

This was a great read! Very concise and packed with useful information that no DBA should be without. Whether you are a SQL specialist already or new to SQL altogether, this book is packed with great information in one, small and manageable format and an easy read. Kudos to Steve and Damir!

Even though I have read only the first two chapters so far, I can still say this book is definately worth owning. The amount of information in the introductory chapters alone make this book a worthwhile purchase, especially given its relatively low price. The author's writing style is conversational without being condescending or idiotically simplistic. Reading the book, I feel I have an experienced friend giving me many worthwhile tips and suggestions. I really think you will find this book to be a worthwhile purchase.

Although this book is over 10 years old, it could have been written this year. The concepts are still relevant.
The author concludes that there are 2 primary reasons to undertake a metrics program for software development -- 1) tracking progress and 2) identifying improvements. The book is divided into 2 parts, with the first part discussing project management metrics and the second part metrics to improve your software development processes. I particularly liked the goal/question/metric approach to validate the metrics you are collecting. The text is loaded with examples from the author's experience at HP. There are several charts and diagrams. This is not an academic read, but as the title says -- practical. The author also covers people issues, such as selling your metrics program to management and staff. It is a quick read and a very useful reference book.

This is Grady's first book and it sets the tone for his later two books, Successful Software Process Improvement and Software Metrics: Establishing a Company-wide Program. What makes this book so important is that it is one of the first to integrate software metrics with project management metrics.

What I particularly like about this book includes:

(1) Complete view of metrics that matter, and the chronicle of how these metrics evolved in a large company (Hewlett-Packard).
(2) Recognition that any software metrics initiative extends beyond the project that delivers the software - Grady examines post-production metrics and ties them back to not only the development life cycle, but the product life cycle as well. Ten years after this book was published there are still large organizations that are struggling with doing this, yet Grady's book provides a clear roadmap to achieving this elusive goal.
(3) Continuous improvement is the central theme in this book. Grady does not stop with collecting and analyzing metrics, but how to effectively employ them to spot improvement opportunities and develop a strategy to effect those improvements.

The book is written as both a story of how a successful metrics program evolved, complete with anecdotes that will prove helpful, and as a collection of data that illustrates what is and is not important to a comprehensive metrics program.

Among all of Grady's books I like this one the best; however, I recommend that his other two also be carefully read if software process improvement is your goal. He has much to say and backs it up with data and a chronicle of his experiences from real projects.

I bought this book about 5 years ago after getting certified as a project manager. This book give me a holistic view of how to intepret data collected from tracking the entire software lifecycle and manage and integrate best practices into a software business.

The author's vast experience in HP helps to provide good assurance that his concepts used were tried and robustly tested. Therefore, software failures, internal flags and customer feedbacks can immediately give you a fairly visible prognosis to the robustness of a release and flashes early warning signs of how you should manage that product to reduce damage to your business, etc.. Practical for technical managers having to manage the business operations.

Whether you're a fledgling company trying to design quality software with no guidelines to go by or a well-developed organization with processes in place, this book offers up many ways that you can improve your software quality.

I was introduced to Mr. Grady's work when I borrowed a copy of Software Metrics: Establishing a Company-Wide Program. Where that book interwove a storyline into metrics and how they support mature process improvement, this book is more like a desk reference. Mr. Grady has divided this book into two parts: tactical metrics, which are project-oriented, and strategic metrics which address process improvement.

The first part starts with a collection of practical rules of thumb for software managers. This collection of heuristics covers every phase of the development life cycle and are backed up with data gathered during 125 software projects at Hewlett-Packard. An example of one of these rules of thumb is that you will find 1 defect after software has been released into production for every 10 defects caught during testing. This, of course, is purely empirical, but is an interesting rule that I mentally filed away. Some highlights of the first part are: a good introduction to the goal-question-metric approach to determining what to measure based on your objectives, and a focus on project goals of maximizing customer satisfaction while minimizing project schedule and costs, and product defects. This is followed by chapters that address each of these goals. One of the best chapters in the first part of this book is work analysis. While I am more focused on the service delivery side of metrics (after the project has produced something that has been released into production), some of the metrics were very valuable to me - especially the ones that revolved around testing and QA.

Part 2 is squarely in my domain - production and application support, and service delivery. The best chapter, Dissecting Software Failures, was one of the most insightful descriptions of the defect life cycle I have ever read. It fully addresses defect data collection and analysis, and how to use this data to effect process and product improvement. Even better is the chapter on investing in process improvement. Here Mr. Grady gives a workable approach to using the defect data to developing a business case for process improvement. He guides you through developing a plan, selecting from among an array of solutions, and case studies.

This book is a quick read. It's main value lies in the many tables and facts provided on nearly every page. I use it as a desk reference, especially the appendices that summarize defect origins, types and modes, and metrics definitions. It spans both project and production metrics, and is as valuable to project managers as it is to application support professionals.

Pro Ajax and the .NET 2.0 Platform gets high marks from me because it is concise, informative and easy to follow. After reading the first three chapters I had a clear understanding of what Ajax really is. Author Dan Woolston has extensive experience with AJAX and he seemed to share it all here without overwhelming this reader.

Woolston did not waste my time in getting me up to speed. In the first three chapters I learned how to write my own reusable (cross browser) JavaScript functions that will work together to execute an Ajax call.

Of course I might rely on one of the various existing frameworks to do this for me. However, now I know what's going on under the covers and I can make an informed decision about what Ajax to use and when. I know exactly what is happening when Ajax is implemented and why.The book also does a nice job of covering CSS and the DOM (document object model). As you know (or will know after reading), these combine with JavaScript to create the foundation of Ajax! Once you understand how they work together you'll know more about Ajax than 90% of your developer friends.

Excellent Feature #1: The overview of JavaScript, CSS and the DOM is fantastic. I really appreciated the fact that it was concise and dead-on accurate in addressing the specific elements that a .NET developer needs to understand in order to code Ajax.

Continuing on, after the book had me up to speed with Ajax, it went into n-tier design. This is important because, in theory, a programmer can go hog wild on Ajax and break tons of rules regarding sound application architecture. So I was impressed that Woolston transitioned directly into best-practices for how and when to use Ajax.

The first third of the book covers Ajax theory and best-practices. With Ajax, one size does not fit all. Therefore, chapter seven includes overviews of many popular Ajax frameworks including non .NET frameworks such as Ruby on Rails, WebORB, xajax (PHP) and Direct Web Remoting (Java). It also covers .NET frameworks including Ajax.NET, Anthem and Atlas.

The other two thirds of the book are devoted to Ajax programming concepts. The author uses the Anthem framework for most of this coding. Anthem is an open-source, .NET framework in C# that is compatible with ASP.NET 1.1 and 2.0. It is extremely lightweight, requiring only one class file for core functionality.

Excellent Feature #2: The book's code walkthroughs are based on a fully functional n-tier sample application that you can download free. The sample application uses the AdventureWorks database which is also a free download from Microsoft if you don't already have access to it.

You might think that some .NET features and topics lend themselves to Ajax technology and therefore should be covered in more detail. You'd be right. Woolston sets aside complete chapters on Web services, Custom Controls, ASP.NET Security and Web Parts.

Excellent Feature #3: When you're done learning how to build your own Ajax, there are two chapters devoted to debugging and testing Ajax.

One of the last chapters was my favorite. Chapter 19 is all about usability. As you may know, Ajax solves many usability problems. But can also create new ones. Woolston addresses the good, the bad and the ugly.

The book provides ideas and examples of good Ajax. The author has test-driven many Ajax controls and shares his trials and tribulations. This feedback no doubt will save developers valuable time.

The book also discusses potential pitfalls of using Ajax. Woolston tackles cross-browser compatibility issues and how to best overcome them. He also talks about how to deal with the browser's back button. How to handle browsers with disabled JavaScript and how to work past the problem of pageshifting.

Some of the other usability topics covered in Chapter 19 include Ajax menus, bookmarking, type-aheads, connected controls, code visibility and page paradigms.

Suffices to say this book packs a big Ajax punch. I highly recommend it to any of my peers who are interested in building Ajax functionality into their web applications. This book is applicable to .NET developers who are working with ASP.NET 1.1 or 2.0. In my opinion, web developers of any skill level will find it helpful.

About 3/4 done with this book. Today I just built my 1st Ajax feature in a few hours at work with the suff I learned. This books is a quick read with great examples works in both 1.1 and 2.0. Buy it!

i didnot think that i would like this book because for me apress is famous with their books having lacking style of examples. Normally you find yourself lost in the examples eventough the topic is covered very well.
This book is different than others absolutely; it starts with what is ajax; and why ajax and with simple examples.
if you dont know javascript; it is still ok because one of the chapters covers javascript; so you can learn enough javascript to handle the simple ajax pages.
Before diving into ajax; it tells you about different ajax libraries; so i like this part too; you will have an idea about other ajax libraries too.
I could not run the first example which is the easiest one and i struggle a lot to solve it;but most of the codes in the book is easy to implement.
And guess what; as you can see from the title; the book is for .NET developers; so if you are a .NET developer; this is right book to buy.
It is not like other apress books that have coding examples problem. the sequence for the chapter makes the book easy to follow.
After reading this book; i start reading some tutorials about Atlas ( which is basically Microsoft's Ajax ) and it really helps you to understand atlas too;
If you like google maps; or virtual maps; this books has a suprise for you :)
i read 4-5 different books from apress and this one is the best; i will highly recommend this book to all .net developers who want to learn ajax with .net

I hardly ever review books and probably wouldn't have bothered this time if it were not for an email from Amazon seeking one. I decided to go ahead with a review because this book really filled a need I had for working with AJAX for the first time. It had me up and running in very short order. Did it go over a couple things along the way that I already knew? Yes. But I didn't mind it in that it treated all topics in an intelligent manner and helped explain where AJAX fit into the broader world of web development. Definitely geared for .NET. That's what I wanted. If that's what you're looking for, you won't be disappointed.

I had done some little test applications utilizing Ajax and/or Atlas prior to reading this book, and I wanted this book to really give a solid base from which to move forward with.

Mr. Woolston's writing style is personable but not too over the top. One thing I did not like about the writing style is the manner in which code is laid out at times. For instance, with many of the sample applications, Mr. Woolston will dump about 5-6 pages of code into the book and then work towards restating it in part afterwards with some explanation. I can see where it would be useful if not in front of the sample code/a PC, but in reality this book will not be useful if not in front of a computer working on the examples.

There are other times where some of the content is not really useful in furthering education about Ajax and certain examples it feels are stretched to make the chapters longer. I think there was likely a challenge in filling out a reasonable sized book because simply put - the fundamental elements of Ajax aren't that complex. I found myself done with the book in a period of less than a week.

Those things said, after reading the book I can certainly say the overall content has an excellent "perspective of the landscape". From a history of Ajax to a little primer on Javascript, CSS/DOM, and the XmlHttpRequest, he moves forward to examples of Ajax demonstrating the technology with an Ajax framework named Anthem. The main meat of the book are really these examples, where practice implements the ideas from the prior chapters.

Lastly, the book closes with a few chapters covering security, testing, usability, performance, and a token chapter on Atlas.

One other element that I appreciated in this book was the identification of a few free tools out there to aid in Ajax development. Those tools in their own right would have definitely contributed to some time savings a week or two ago when I was struggling with a couple DOM/CSS issues prior to reading this book!

In summary, perhaps a book stretched to fit it's cover but nevertheless a very useful read to me and I would certainly recommend it.

This particular book provides the reader with a comprehensive view of PHP development. I was pleased with the vast amount of topics covered. This book is a very useful tool for developers.

This is a great book in that the author provides comprehensive coverage of a complicated subject, and does it in clear, concise and understandable language. The book should be a promary resource for programmers. I look forward to more contributions from this author.

'Pro PHP XML and Web Services' by Robert Richards is a great book to help you learn your way around these technologies. Packing in over 900+ pages, this book gives a broad overview of the subject matter which is outlined here:

01. Introduction to XML and Web Services
02. XML Structure
03. Validation
04. XPath, XPointer, XInclude
05. PHP and XML
06. Document Object Model
07. SimpleXML
08. Simple API for XML
09. XMLReader
10. Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations
11. Effective and Efficient Processing
12. XML Security
13. PEAR and XML
14. Content Syndication: RSS and Atom
15. Web Distributed Data Exchange
16. XML-RPC
17. Representational State Transfer
18. SOAP
19. Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI)
20. PEAR and Web Services
21. Other XML Technologies and Extensions

If you need a book that dives into the XML technology and doesn't look back, this is a nice pickup that gets the job done. Lots of other Apress books I feel are a bit too long, but this book at over 900 pages I have less complaints about. It's solidly written and a nice companion book to have on your bookshelf for anyone that programs with XML.

**** RECOMMENDED

This book is amazingly well written. The content is organized in an intuitive and logical fashion. The author explains base concepts and progresses into advanced topics, providing consistent depth of coverage along the way. The author's writing and concise examples get the message across on the first reading - unlike some texts that require multiple passes. It's also noteworthy that the Technical Reviewers, Christian Stocker and Adam Trachtenberg, are renowned PHP experts and authors. If you plan to study or work with PHP and XML, this book is a MUST HAVE.

This is first and foremost an XML reference. The author takes the reader through over 100 pages XML background in the first three chapters, then an overview of a few utilities like XPath and XPointer before he touches on PHP. Having provided some grounding in the basics, he then proceeds to develop the use of XML in PHP from the basic topics of DOM (Document Object Model) and XSLT (Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations) to the more advanced topics of SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) and web services.

Along the way Richards introduces the reader to utility classes like SimpleXML, SAX (Simple API for XML), XMLReader. He also touches on PEAR (PHP Extension and Application Repository) utility classes and topics like security, RSS (Really Simple Syndication) and UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery and Integration). The author's examples are reasonably concise and readable; making the necessary points without getting carried away.

The bottom line is that this is a highly effective reference (that means fairly comprehensive, but dry reading; I read cover to cover, but it was relatively tedious) on XML and its varied uses in association with PHP. This is not a book for the newcomer to programming, nor is it a cookbook for examples for the casual programmer/web developer, although the author does provide PEAR examples for connecting with major web services like Amazon, Google and Yahoo (among others). My suggestion for readers is to review what you need of the first 11-12 chapters to ensure a firm grounding in XML, and then hop to the chapters specific to the problem being faced.
P-)

Professional BizTalk Server 2006 is one of those books which really goes over and above what you can find on online documentation . There are only few BizTalk books and thank god we have one like this . The books has a lot of hidden gems that will make you go 'aha '.

Absolute Must read if you love the Product. A great Chapter on Testing which I have not seen in any other BizTalk book .

Great book for all who want to know HOW BT really works and WHY it works like that. Very valuable purchase.

It took a long time for decent BizTalk Server books to start appearing, and those of us who have been committed to the product for some time know the pain (and fun) of having to work out, for ourselves, how this product works, how best to apply it to real-life scenarios and how to exploit its rich functionality.

I was really impressed with this book. It has two characteristics which I think are particularly noteworthy. The first is that it offers a huge breadth of coverage, but also manages to combine this with reasonable depth. This is hard to achieve when writing about BizTalk Server because it is such a rich an extensive product. The second characteristic is that it reads like a book written by practitioners - people with real-life experience of using the product, and the scars to prove it. Indeed, that it very much the case, and it means that the book provides far more than just rehashed information. It provides guidance, advice and best practice which is rooted in reality.

I like to think I know a thing or two about BizTalk Server (though it still manages to spring surprises on me quite regularly). I am not greatly addicted to computer books, because so many fail to be of any very practical use. However, I can report that this is the first BizTalk book (and one of very few books, generally) that I've carried with me into engagements to use as a reference. Warmly commended and highly recommended, especially for those who have done enough with BizTalk Server to realise the extent of the mountain they must climb.

I've been on a couple of BizTalk projects, all of them for Fortune 50 clients. We did a lot of things wrong, hence a lot of lessons learned. This book is good...REALLY good. How good? Well, let's just say that I never, repeat NEVER write book reviews, even if a book was the greatest thing since the bread slicer. (I guess because I'm too busy building Orchestrations and Custom Pipeline Components.) That alone should convince you that this book is a must-have for anyone wanting to know anything about BizTalk.

DISCLAIMER: Allow me to contradict that last statement... This isn't for everyone, however. It is really in-depth and explains more than the minimum required. The book also targets those of use that continue to ask the question "Why?" and it quenches our curious thirst. If I were to pick this book up when I was first learning BizTalk, I would throw it down and stomp on it. But now that I've been around the block a few times and I know the difference between a best practice and a "you're on your own" practice, I am able to get a lot from reading this material.

With BizTalk, there's so many ways to skin the proverbial cat. This books explains all of them (from what I've read), but then it points out the preferred approaches that one should take when implementing an integration solution via BizTalk Server...lots of Notes & Caveats sections, things that I crave.

This book will give you very objective insights into BizTalk. And you don't need to worry about reading it with your rose-colored glasses, either. It's neither half-empty nor half-full, it just is, you know?

This book has information in it that you simply will not find anywhere else. Its written by people who have worked with the product on some of the largest and most important projects where BizTalk has been the platform of choice, and the knowledge that thay pass on is exceptional.