Software Books

The book provides an excellent introduction to logic and then shows how by using the language of logic and mathematics to specify pre-conditions and post-conditions one can develop provably correct programs from these pre-conditions and post-conditions.

I have used the methods in this book to develop advanced algorithms in Computer Graphics which could not have been developed in any other way.

The book is both a tutorial and reference. It is clearly written and organized.

When I first read this book, it was as though a bolt of lightning had struck me. Applying its methods, I became a much better programmer. I went from someone who struggled to get the code right to someone who always got the code right. For the first time I understood what programming was all about. I read the book on vacation while my wife and I were staying at my father's home in Sag Harbor New York and it was one of the most incredible intellectual adventures of my life. I'll never forget the smell of the sea and the sand and the logic going off like lightning flashes inside my brain.

This book makes my top-ten list of best computing books of the decade of the eighties. It certainly changed my outlook on how to write programs. The incorporation of logic into the code to mathematically prove that it works correctly was an ideal in the eighties and to some extent it remains an ideal. Nevertheless, that is not a reflection of the value of program correctness, but a consequence of the slow changes that sometimes take place in computing. Programmers may change their languages easily, but often not their styles.
At the time this book came out, I was in the process of designing and adding a course in computation theory with an emphasis on program correctness at Mount Mercy College. Before I encountered this book, I was having a difficult time pressing my case. However, after this book came out and I could use some of the comments regarding the significance of its' content, the course was easily approved. I also used the book in the class and the student comments were overwhelmingly positive. Ten years later, the book is still used in the class, something that is rare in computing.
The quality of the writing and explanations of the examples in the book are outstanding. Most of the students had no experience in formal logic, and yet they had little difficulty understanding and applying the concepts. The examples of proving the code correct were well chosen and I rarely heard any of the traditional complaints from math students regarding their frustrations over having to work through proofs.
The quality of programs would be dramatically increased if the principles of program correctness in this book were widely adopted. I continue to push for it every chance I get, and this review is one part of that push.

If you want to make a good programmer,you should study it. Many programmers just like programming , but they ignore how to verify their program is whether good enough or not.

The book deals with the way of development of programs using mathematical principles. This line of observation ( mentioned in the preface) " One can not learn to write large programs effectively until one has learned to write small ones effectively" captures the motivation of the book. There are three parts; part I introduces predicate logic; it includes natural deduction system; Part II builds the mathematical treatment of the programming constructs like assignment, alternative, iterative command and procedure call. Part III shows how programs are developed and proved correct using the mathematical principles discussed earlier. Given the nature of the area, the book is written with a lot of attention to instructional impact. The best recommendation for the book is by Dijkstra: The topic deserves no less author... To get the message across requires a scientist that combines his scientific involvement in the subject with the precious gifts of a devoted teacher".

Simply put, a book that re-introduces the idea of program correctness over all else. An excellent source on program design & analysis, checking for correctness using a logic-based approach. A book that builds from the fundamentals. Not for those who are looking for quick fixes.

This book was a welcome break from the manual that comes with version 7.0. Very easy to understand the basics and it also contains alot of other stuff. I needed to create some reports quickly and this book really helped.

The best on the market you will find. The book is very easy to follow and chapters are very nicely arranged. Good work.

My company purchased Crystal Reports as the main utility for pulling data from our large relational database. I had never seen Crystal before much less used it. I got my hands on this book today at 12:30 p.m. By 1:17, I was pulling data and manipulating reports like a pro. I would recommend this book to anybody who has to learn Crystal in a hurry.

The company i work for purchased Crystal Reports for a report conversion proyect and i had never used this software before and in couple of hours i was creating some basic to complicated reports. I recomend this book for anyne who need to get hands on fast.

This book was an excellent start for Crystal. I can actually read the huge technical Crystal Report books and understand what they are reffering to. It helped open the door to a whole new world.

A comprehensive survey which will be useful for Exchange admins, but also allows others (CIO's, CSO's, business folk) to understand the issues and solutions available for Exchange security.

I'm NOT an Exchange admin, I focus more on compliance and security, and found the chapters on this the best summary I've seen. Very valuable to anyone dealing with compliance issues for corporate email.

If you've read the 'Security Operations for Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server' guide from Microsoft, what value can this book possibly add? That's the question I asked myself before digging into this book. Answer: A LOT!

For starters, it's a very well-written book - starts with some great explanations of Security Fundamentals - the buzzwords, the protocols & algorithms, threats, risks, and vulnerabilities. I've read many security books, but seldom have I found just the right balance - as technical as it needs to be, but still interesting enough for the non-techies.

The section on Installing Exchange With Security in Mind is particularly interesting. Everything you want to know about messaging/Exchange security is covered - SMTP Relays, spam, content filtering, antivirus, SSL, MAPI/RPC security, et al. Great coverage of email encryption and Public Key cryptography, Outlook client security, POP/IMAP security. Can never get tired of readng about securing Outlook Web Access.

Overall, a must-read for Exchange admins. The only thing I would've liked to see is: i) this book to be released at least a year ago.. this one's at the tail end of the Exchange 2000 lifecycle - too close to the Titanium (Exchange 2003) release. ii) Perhaps some more coverage of specific vulnerabilities of SMTP and Exchange, and how secure Exchange is compared to other messaging systems - Notes, Sendmail, etc. THE TRADEOFF (or benefit rather) is we have a book that can still be carried with one hand... still under 400 pages without the index. Remarkable! (A round of applause for Paul Robichaux..)

Bharat Suneja
MCT

If you maintain or administer Exchange servers, this book is a must for you. It covers a borad set of security topics specific to Exchange server, secure messaging and even secure IM. Very valuable guide for IT. Does not dive at too low a level for practical use.

This book has enough information about security, both of the messages and the messaging environment, for a good Exchange administrator to build and maintain a rock solid secure messaging environment.

Paul wrote the book, but the people who helped review the book contributed much of their real-world experience to the content. A number of the reviewers are heavy hitters in the Exchange and security fields. What you get is "This works in the real world" solutions to security problems.

I own an IT service business. This book is literally on the money. The author discusses essential financial concepts that are applicable to all IT services companies. If you own an IT business I highly recommend buying this book and using it as a reference.

This is a valuable "how to" book. Do yourself a favor and have this book recently read before you start the process.

Bob has done a masterful job of presenting a step by step approach to selling a business. As usual, he brings twenty years of real world experience to the process, demystifing a difficult process. An invaluable addition to your library.

In "Selling Your IT Business" Mr. Chalfin has a rare accomplishment for a book of this kind; knowledgable, informative and a "good read". Jacob Weingarten

I have had the pleasure of getting to know Bob and had him as a professor at Wharton. He applies the same level of energy and enthusiasm that he brings in the classroom to this very practical book. I have had many people come up to me and tell me if they had only known Bob or read his book before they sold their business, they would be in a much different and better situation. His knowledge of the topic is unbelievable and he brings so much practical experience to his latest book. I hope everyone gets to experience the wonderful work Bob does by reading his new book.

I know I will share this book with many of my clients who are contemplating selling their businesses. Bob's work makes all of us more educated and provides yet another resource that will add value to our clients.

Ahh, sibling rivalry! The little boy in this story (about ten years old) has asked God to help him sell his innocently energetic, pig-tailed, little sister, Ally Grace. He tells how annoying and mean she can be, then assures others she will be nice to them. He's ready to bargain with anyone interested in buying her.

As he mentions all of the bad things Ally Grace is capable of, he begins to wonder what it would be like not having her around. After some thought, he begins to see the good she is capable of and changes his mind.

God is mentioned twice in this book. Once, in the beginning, and then at the end. At first, it appears the young boy is asking God for help. Later, it's clear he is asking God to help him do a terrible thing. The little boy doesn't turn to God for good.
I think the author should have taken the opportunity to create a good relationship between God and the little boy. Maybe there should have been an adult in the picture helping the older brother understand he needs to ask God to help him cope with his sister. It's cute, comical, and even made me laugh, but I would not consider it to be a children's Christian book.

This is a really great book! I bought this book for my son when he was having a hard time loving his sister. It went over really well and he loves this book!

Great fun for me to share with my grandchildren as well as my own sister and brother. For Christmas I put old pictures of my brother, sister and I in a book for each of them. I then responded to the thoughts on each page with little quips of my own, remembering our own childhood memories. I put a brother or sister poem on the back inside cover and because we were all lucky enough to share the Christmas holiday with each other, I put one in each of their stockings for Christmas morning. What a special memory for all of us about being sisters and brothers growing up and what a special way to teach my grandchildren about the value of having a sibling. Humor is a grand way to get a message across!

This book is a fun way to be able to address the issue of sibling rivalry. Michelle writes in a way that makes it enjoyable to read with your children. You will definitely laugh when you read how a big brother comes up with a creative way to get rid of his pesky little sister. This would make a great gift for an older sibling when a new baby arrives!

Michelle Adams made me laugh. Then she made me laugh again and again as I moved quickly through this delightful story about a loving brother and his "bothersome" little sister.

With four brothers, I've been there. Most likely so has everyone else who grew up in a house with one or more siblings. That's what makes "Sister for Sale" such a special little tale. It's true, it's real, and it's funny.

Michelle writes in a simple, rhythmic fashion that helps you glide through this story and never miss a beat. The facial expressions in the illustrations are priceless!

I loved this little book. So did my wife, and 13-year-old son.

Sister for sale. How about a brother for free?

It's the best atlas I've ever seen, it has clear images (sometimes, I think I'm seeing a photo, not a drawing), its "boxes" with information about muscles, etc. are very well done. And its "naming" of the organs, bones, etc. it's not as confusing as Netter's. I own Sobotta and Netter and, Sobotta, for me, simply defeats Netter in every single detail. A must have if you're a medical student.

It is an almost flawless book. I love it... If you are really passioante about medicine and are planning or actually are studying medicine you must have it... It's a real help

I am prenursing student and I love this book.The pictures are great, explanations are wonderful. This is a bible in anatomy. I have a chance to see the other anatomy books in my class but this is the best. You donot need to work on the actual bone, the book is wonderful.

With this CD-Rom you can easily learn the most important concepts of human anatomy without having to read much, it's all a visual process. Then you test yourself on the same picture. It takes no time at all to learn anatomy with Sobotta's. It's a "must have" for every "student" of any age.

Awesome!! I highly recommend Sobotta (Book/CD-ROM) whether used alone or as a supplement to Netter's Atlas of Human Anatomy. I am a physician assistant graduate student at Marquette University and I find the illustrations & references to be very useful when studying for my gross anatomy lecture & lab. Sobotta provides modern imaging diagnostics, endoscopic images, color photographs of surgical views, etc. not found in Netter's. The CD-ROM has all the plates found in the book, but gives you the option to quiz yourself which is very useful. It also allows you to display/hide markers on illustrations, also useful for study purposes. Indexs, tables etc are cross-referenced. If you are looking for a tool to help you maximize your anatomy study/review & you have easy access to a computer/laptop with a CD-ROM, get the Sobotta CD-ROM. You'll find it a great resource!!!

I purchased the Bible for handout at the local prison. I, myself, do not speak or read Spanish but those who received the Bibles were happy with them. It allows them to join in with the Bible study.

Spanish Bible: Reina-Valera

Extremely useful for comparing meaning from another language.

This is an awesome Bible! I sent it to an inmate in jail and he was so happy! Now he is able to participate in Bible studies and Church. What a blessing!

Read the Bible everyday for incredible heroes (JESUS, SAMSON, MOSES, KING DAVID), incredible miracles (parting of the Red Sea, creation of the earth, the resurrection) and powerful testimonies (from the disciples, Lazarus, those who were once blind). Start off with the PSALMS and PROVERBS, then go to the New Testament and finally the Old Testament. GOD BLESS YOU!!!

This book is in a simple language, easy to understand with wonderful little line illustrations throughout! Esta version de la Biblia es muy facil de entender y tiene muchos dibujitos echo con linias simples por todo el libro que le da vida!

This book is one of many I have read on SQL Server 6.5. It is clear& very well written. It highlights key points and goes into the right amount of detail. It is a must-read for anyone designing, deploying, or administering a SQL SERVER 6.5 database.

Had response problems with current database setup and SQL statements. The chapters on Indexing and Optimizing really work. Ex. A simple query on two tables took 2.5 minutes. After applying some of the suggestions, the query took a little over 2 seconds...

The techniques described in this book are effective and well thought out. Even if performance optimization is not your main goal, this book is well worth reading. The book delivers in-depth information on indexing, locking, the optimizer and many other topics in a very readable format. Ideal for those with some knowledge of SQL Server who want to dig deeper.

This book completely demystifies a number of SQL tuning concepts. This book provides a superb overview of the various performance topics, and then drills down deep enough into the concepts to give you the insights necessary to tackle thorny performance problems with multiple causes. This is still a very valuable book for SQL 7.0--the majority of the concepts are still with us.

After you have spent 8-80 hours trying random combo's on the Server Configuration panel trying to guess what you should do, buy this book and score a direct hit! Microsoft should bundle this book with SQL Server. If a little more detail were provided on the internal data structures of SQL Server one could write a bulk loader that bypassed SQL Server entirely (I know its been done by others) and load 10 X as fast. (hint-hint) This is the closest thing to a K&R for MS SQL Server I've ever seen. I really like the brevity of this book. Every word counts! Very, very good job Ken!

This book is easy to follow and understand. It uses real world examples and is somewhat interesting. For being my introduction to statistics, this book has made it oh so easy. Recommend it for beginners.

This is THE BEST elementary statistics book I have read. Covers all concepts in a very easy to understand manner. The examples and solved problems show you eaxctly how a problem can be approached. For non-statiscians who want to use statistics to analyze their data, this is an excellent starting point. Wont boggle you with extensive formulae and derivations. But will tell you how and why the tests were developed and why and where you should use a particular test. Excellent ready reference for any data analyst.

easy steps approaching to statistics and good examples to practice the text.

I have read many statistics books but never one I understand on the first read. This book is for the true beginner. Excellent.

This is by far the best stats book I've found. I actually used this book instead of the one assigned for my graduate course. Everything is explained very clearly from step 1 and on. The book assumes you have very little or no stats knowledge. There are plenty of examples to further clarify each concept, and full explanations are provided. The book is very well-written and the chapters are well connected.

I also found the pictures/graphics extremely helpful, especially in the sections on probability. I can finally make sense of combinations and permutations and other probability concepts.

Also extremely helpful is the way the book explains which formulas to use when, and why they should be used in that instance. This helps to pull everything together and see how many of the concepts relate to one another. I think this is key to understanding stats.

I've gone from fearing stats to actually enjoying it, all because it now makes sense thanks in large part to this book.

Writing baby interpreters using OCaml for the funny languages (include lambda calculus!) used in the theoretic chapters is a pretty cool idea and I really like it.

Elementary discrete mathematics and first-order logic are required for grokking the maths materials through out the book though. If you don't have enough patience to deal with math symbols, theorems, and formal proving, then this is not the right book for you ;)

IHMO, this is a highly comprehensible book for introducing lambda-calculus and type theory to readers without much background knowledge in either abstract algebra or theoretic computer science (like me ;)). I've been looking for such a book for long, in fact :)

Besides, this was the very book which directly inspired the birth of Pugs (a Perl 6 interpreter/compiler in Haskell) according to Audrey, the Pugs project's leader.

Highly recommended!

This is a textbook about programming language theory, somewhat mathematical-- but it's must-read material for anyone who wants to gripe about programming languages cluefully, much less design them.

For me, this book strikes exactly the right balance between theory and practicality. Chapters on the mathematical properties of various tiny programming languages are interleaved with chapters that provide annotated implementations of those languages.

The book will also give you the background (notation and terminology) you'll need to read cutting-edge research papers on programming language theory.

This book contains all the information I was missing. Excellent presentation of the material, well written, great exercises, doesn't go off into lala-land. Highly recommended. Some math background very helpful (you need to know what a mathematical proof is).

This text is perhaps the most accessible yet thorough introduction to type systems I've encountered.

On the one hand, it offers excellent grounding: practical motivation is provided, numerous examples illustrate the concepts, and implementations are provided which can be used to typecheck and evaluate these examples. At various points, extended demonstrations of the type systems under consideration are given (e.g. showing how objects may be encoded). The exercises are well constructed and in many cases, accompanied with answers and detailed explanations in the appendix.

On the other hand, it offers an excellent exposition of the material: Pierce provides a lucid account of the static and dynamic semantics (primarily small-step operational) for various lambda calculi. He proceeds in a stepwise fashion via the gradual accretion of features: from first order (simply typed) systems to higher order systems incorporating bounded subtyping and recursion. He also gives attention to the metatheory of these systems (focusing on proofs of progress and preservation, and for systems with subtyping, of decideability). Internally, the text is well organized, with clear dependencies among the chapters, and the bibliography is extensive.

It should be noted that, while reasonably comprehensive, the text is necessarily limited in scope. For example, aside from the discussion on Featherweight Java, systems other than typed lambda calculus variants are not considered. In my opinion, the focus on these (in some sense "low-level") calculi makes foundational issues more apparent, and the linear progression from simple to complex variants lends a pleasant cohesiveness that would have been lost in a more general survey. However, as object/class encodings were discussed at various points, it would have been nice to see a more integrated presentation, in the spirit of the paper Comparing Object Encodings [BCP97].

I need basic information on type safety, theory of object oriented typing, and how to axiomatize nonstandard kind of typing systems. I need it now, in a form that I can put to use without too many side trips

This book is almost what I was looking for. It builds up a semantic logic based on lambda calculus, then creates typed versions. Pierce really does work very methodically up through the levels, ending at about the place where C++ templates and recursive type definitions start. Along the way, he's careful to match the typing axioms to semantics, covering unusual topics like exceptions and type inference while he's at it.

Almost what I was looking for, but not quite. As I said, I have immediate needs, and I'm not into theory for its own sweet sake. That means I had little appreciation for all the chapters that created arithmetic all over again, starting from Peano axioms (or something like), via the lambda calculus. I know that low-level axiomatizations and lambda calculus are much beloved of the theoreticians, but I encounter them only rarely, and when I was trying to get something else done, like now. For me, they created a diversion blocked by an impediment. Also, however convenient it may be for theory, functional programming is mostly a journal-page peculiarity in industrial practice. I admit, analysis of functional programs pushed me into insight I might have missed, but I would probably have been quite happy dealing with assignment formalisms instead.

I almost gave this three stars, because its unnecessary notational baggage and off-main-stream topics weren't doing my job. Bruce's book (ISBN 026202523X) was a much more profitable use of my time. Still, Pierce's goals weren't mine, and the mansion of type analysis has many rooms. Not all of those rooms are furnished to my taste, and don't need to be. I rounded up to four stars for what it meant to do.

//wiredweird

Extremely well written book on type systems in programming languages. Uses lambda calculus to explain type systems. Practical aspects show up in the ML implementations downloadable on the books site.
Contains a lot of programming language theory besides just type-systems. Can be used as an introductionary book to programming language design. Concluding: Great book!