Software Books

After taking a class from Phil, I went ahead and bought his book. I have found it to be one of the best resources for general Java matter, as well as in depth discussions on advanced technologies. A+ Phil.

This books introduces the more advanced Java topics, wich are mentioned in other books but never explained. This book explains these topics in clear and easy to understand way. If i see a Sybex book i mostly leave it in the bookstore, but this book is ok to pick up!

The book presents the relevant concepts of the likes of the delegation event model excellently, and even delineates the APIs quite succintly. But,somehow,it lacks sufficiently detailed, concrete examples for advanced topics like RMI and JDBC-ODBC bridges, et cetera. However, all taken into account, it most definitey can be considered eponymously as a ( package one.In.All && must.Buy() deskTop::Reference() && nice::bedSide.Read()) for solid Java developers in the market eg. guess who!!! -Apurba Krishna Sircar

This is definitely one of the better (a lot better!) books on Java I've bought so far(I've got about 10 others). Explains difficult topics well. I use a more general book on Java for a general view of the language/classes and I use this one for more difficult topics which a lot of books only mention but do not explain. The use of diagrams and figures together with easy to follow explanations gives a better understanding of Java topics like streams, threads and networking.

Although the book uses a specific JMS engine for the examples the details and the concepts were all right on and covered everything I needed for JMS. It literally saved my bacon, especially the peer to peer stuff over topics. Whew!

Super job.

Sam

Eric Bruno's JAVA MESSAGING explores different ways of messaging using Java software, from JavaBean events and JMS to SOAP. Web programmers receive all the basics to using these features, tips on how and why to use each feature and when to choose something else, how to combine features, and more. The basics of Java communication processes are revealed in chapters which form 'classes' to link related information in a logical progression. An excellent, basic foundation for Java users.

As we look at how much we use the web, it is sometimes hard to remember just how new this concept of worldwide packet switching really is. Java was started as a new language before a lot of the new concepts like XML and SOAP were conceived. But as a new language it has been able to move into using these new concepts faster than nearly any other language.

What I especially liked about this book was the first chapter. So often computer books start with programming. This one starts with a description of what we're trying to do here. He gives several examples of the types of communications that he is going to cover in the book. I had a particular application in mind when I got the book, but in reading the first chapter I began to see several other ways that messaging would help our system.

After the first chapter, I've go to say that it's a pretty regular computer software book. It tells you how to do the things that you want to do. It is quite clear on all the different software protocols, packages, and philosophies. Basically it is all that a Java programmer needs to implement messaging in Java.

The CD included with the book gives you all the sample code from the book, as well as the complete messaging toolkit and several open source tools.

Excellent introduction to messaging, including healthy portions on JMS and web services.

The writing style is clear, consistent, and to the point. Probably what I liked most was this no-nonsense writing style. If it's on a page, it's important to understand. The author doesn't waste your time with irrelevant discussions or out of scope topics.

Editing and code presentation are top notch, making it easy to follow, and build upon from one example to the next. The author also shares some gotchas and considerations that I wouldn't have expected to see in an introductory discussion which were particularly valuable.

Another great feature is one of the drawbacks of the book. The framework presented in the book is elegant, but in many of the examples, there is too much cognitive overhead involved in grokking the level of abstraction in the framework, and this takes away from actually learning the concepts. I would have liked to see more non-framework code for the introduction, which is then tied together with the framework.

Easy to follow, very concise examples, wide variety of topics

Firstly, this book does a great job of introducing the javascript core language in a thorough and engaging way. The author goes to great lengths on topics that will concern real-world developers and discusses in depth the right and wrong way to write code.

This leads on to a more general reference on the language. It is here that the book really shines. As well as lots of examples, the fundamental principles behind the langauge and any associated technologies are mentioned. All this is done in a very avuncular style and I must admit I enjoyed reading the book, and trying out some of the examples/topics on my PC.

There are some caveats:

This is not a book for pure novices. Previous exposure to other languages is inferred and the author(s) point out similarities with Java and C++.

Netscape is the preferred browser here, but unlike some other tomes, at least IE gets a mention and differences are noted, though the writing does favour the NS browser.

These are small gripes with what is otherwise a much needed and well scripted (sic) resource.

This review is based only on a quick glimpse of the book, so read this with some reservation. I might follow up with a more thorough review later.

This book looks very comprehensive, and seem to be very much up-to-date with latest browsers and W3C standards, including DOM 1 and DOM 2.

But more than a 1000 pages probably makes it very difficult to read in bed ! ;-)

Giving 5 stars might seem a bit optimistic without further investigation, but I'm pretty sure it is a at least a 4-star book.

I wanted to learn JavaScript, up and rearing to go. So I got David Flanagan's book "The Definative Guide". But the concepts flew over my head. Its the best book on JavaScript, without a shadow of a doubt, but simply fearful to the poor old newbie like myself. Don't get me wrong, its well written, but if he had written it the way I needed it to be, it would have taken up 100000 pages. Shipping would be a nightmare!

Anyway, about this book.

It's a good book, great for newbies. I don't know why the other author review mentions that you need to have prior experiance with a programming language. That's rubbish IMO. Sure he mentions Javascript having a simularlity to C/C++/Java, but its not like you gotta learn those languages, its just a mention, thats all.

He explains basics, like what a token is, how if/else/for statements work. You know, basic stuff for a newbie to learn. If you are a programmer already, just skip the first five chapters, and you'll be in the meat of the book about JavaScript, so its just as relevant for experienced programmers too.

Anyhow, once you are finished (and applied the concepts with a mock up webpages) you are no longer a newb. Then move on to that gem which is David Flanagan's Definative Guide. After going through that and applying it, you'll be well on your way to becoming a "good" JavaScript Programmer.

P.S: Becoming actually Good is no mean feat. Take JavaScript seriously folks!

P.P.S: You MUST learn HTML and CSS before reading these books. JavaScript is almost entirely based in the real world on manipulating markup and style sheets. To attempt to learn JavaScript without knowing them properly (I do mean properly) would be a major folly.

When I received this book, I was impressed by the fact that it contained 943 pages on Kylix - without covering any database or internet development. Now that I finished the book, I'm even more impressed. Not by what's not in the book, but by what's actually covered in the book.
Somehow, the book reminds me of the years I spent at the University of Amsterdam (back in 1983), and first learned to work with UNIX and Minix.
I'm not sure why. Maybe the fonts, maybe the quality. But one thing is for sure, like the cover said: this is not a Delphi book 'ported' to Kylix. This
is a true Kylix/Linux Development book, and as such, I'm sure every Delphi developer can learn something from it.

The book consists of four sections, and a number of appendices. The first section contains about 250 pages about Object Pascal. But before we
start the first section, there's chapter 0: Hello Kylix, in which the author explains why Kylix is great, and what this book will offer (and what not -
so you'll know right away). It also explains where to download the sample code, and then continues with a first hands-on getting started tour in
Kylix.
The first real section of the book consists of four chapters (252 pages) and is about Object Pascal. From data types and datastructures to program
syntax and structure. As a Delphi developer, it was the 'least interesting' section of the book to read, although I would still recommend browsing
through the pages, since there are numerous tips or footnotes that are worthwhile to read (as the back cover says: "even long-time Delphi
programmers will find some surprising details here", such as the part on libraries and dynamic linking). In fact, it reminded me of the excellent Pascal
textbooks I read during my study (mentioned before), and I can recommended it to anyone who wants to learn Object Pascal.
The second section of the book extends the 'simple' Object Pascal languages and moves on to Kylix - the RAD Development environment on Linux.
In five chapters, we'll learn how to use Kylix (the IDE, designing, debugging), and the components that can be used with Kylix. When I say
components, the author has split them in a few different chapters. First, we get the Visual Objects (VisualCLX components on top of Qt), followed
by a chapter about Foundation Objects (the non-visual components and support classes such as collections and streams, as well as threads), and
finally library routines (only the most important ones, like Strings, Dates, Maths, etc.), and component building in Kylix. Although - like I mentioned
before - this is not a Kylix 'port' of a Delphi book, the author does place 'cautions' and notes in the chapter to highlight some of the differences
between Delphi and Kylix that are important to Delphi developers. The repeated reminder in the border that keeps telling us that "Kylix is not Delphi"
grows a bit tiresome after a while, but the notes themselves are good points.
The third section of the book is about Linux - for Windows developers, and using Kylix. It covers Linux and Linux programming from a Windows
programmer's perspective, explaining the differences, and showing what to do (and how to do it differently) under Linux. Subsections include files,
memory, processes, regular expressions and scripts (this brought back some fond memories when I first used UNIX almost two decades ago). The
final chapter in this section introduces X and Qt (we've seen Qt before in the previous section). It's only a short chapter, which is good, since I
consider this only background information (to give an architectural overview of X and Qt). VisualCLX is build on top of Qt (and X) and in theory you
should seldom have to sink down to the API level.
The fourth section of the book is about entire projects, and contains two chapters: one about a visual find utility (imitating Windows' Find Files),
and a chapter on Mandelbrot 4 (I wasn't too interested in this, but the results look very nice).
Fortunately, the book wasn't finished after this last chapter, since we still have a number of interesting appendices. Covering topics such as "Kylix
for Visual Basic programmers" (there may be more than you think), "Kylix for Delphi programmers" (a bit late if you read the entire book already, but
it gives a short summary of the most important changes and gotchas, including references to chapters that cover these in more detail). So Delphi
developers may want to start reading the book with Appendix II. Other appendices cover topics like Optimization and a BASM quick reference,
although these two are too short to be of real use I'm afraid. Appendix V on Deployment is a whole lot better, especially since this is indeed an ever
returning Kylix developer's FAQ. Well written, and helpful for deployment on systems that don't have Kylix installed.
Apart from the regular text, the book contains numerous little "notes" that contain tips, background information or just useful techniques worthy to
highlight. The index seems complete, but could use a smaller font to get a better overview. Syntax highlighting is used in source code listings,
which I always consider to be very helpful. Unfortunately, on a few places it was missing or inconsistent (just as I sometimes didn't agree with the
source code indentation and layout, but these are personal feelings of course).
Back in the beginning of the book, in Chapter 0, the author explains that he wants to write a 'classic' book. The book that a bookstore would carry
if it had only one Kylix book. I'm not sure if this book is the classic Kylix book (not without database or internet coverage), but it sure is a great
book to learn Kylix as well as Linux - for everybody!

And when it comes to the missing sections (on database and internet): I can also recommend Delphi/Kylix Database Development by Eric Harmon, as well as the Kylix Developer's Guide (for which I wrote the web development chapters).

There are an infinite number of ways to skin any given cat, and when covering a new RAD environment, which one you use depends almost entirely on who your target audience is. Jon Shemitz has written his book for the experienced programmer coming to Kylix from other RAD environments on platforms other than Linux/X. This, I feel, is the source of Kylix's user base: Not the casehardened command-line Unix-lifer gcc guys, but people who have been using Delphi, Visual Basic, or Visual C++ under Windows.

For people like that, it's a natural. Jon begins with a "Hello Kylix!" project to let people get their bearings within the Kylix idea, and then systematically explores the programming language (object Pascal), the environment and toolset (Kylix itself) and finally the underlying platform (Linux, Qt, and X.) People who already have their Unix scar tissue can skip the Linux section, but Windows expatriates will be glad it's there. The coverage of Object Pascal skims the simple stuff and emphasizes the subtleties that most books gloss over: inheritance, properties, class references, and the rest of the OOP machinery that far fewer people understand than claim to. (For that part of it, I recommend this book even to people who are sticking with Delphi under Windows!) The Kylix coverage, again, goes for depth: The section on threads is clearer than anything else I've read on that topic. The Unix material is well-chosen, and I learned far more about Qt from this book than I did from the Qt doc.

The overall quality of the book is very high. The writing is superb, and the screen shots are well-chosen and clearly reproduced. Scattered throughout the text are "Kylix is not Delphi!" tips, which people coming to Kylix from Delphi had better read. The text is set in smaller type than many "fat books" on programming, so I would guess this 950-page book represents about 1100 pages using conventional layouts. No fluff, good example code, fine index. Finally, APress has at last dropped the CD stuck into the back page. The example code may be downloaded in tarball form from the publisher Web site.

My recommendation? No matter how many Kylix books you end up buying, buy this one first. Then go for the specialty texts like Eric Harmon's Delphi/Kylix Database Development.

This book is a whopping 1000 pages and never did I get the feeling that _any_ of it was fluff. Not only does it give you a thorough exposition on writing programs in Kylix, it also delivers vital information on writing and running programs under Linux. Many programming books come with source code as does this one, but I almost always never use such code because of poor quality or a lack of relevance to my project. Within 10 minutes of starting this book I had found critical uses for several of the modules Shemitz provides, and I see a lot more that I'll be using in the future.

There's a wonderful chapter on Kylix that existing Delphi programmers will find absolutely invaluable. In addition, programmers coming from the Windows environment like me, will find some terrific chapters on the Linux knowledge you need to get up to speed fast, saving you from torturous safaris through the Internet. Without question, a terrific book.

Well done, Jon Shemitz. Two things jump out from this book: first, lots of text and virtually no screen shots. That means a LOT of very erudite content. Second, brilliant organisation. It's not a feature of many Delphi/Kylix books, even the worthy ones, and it is manna when it droppeth.

The book touts itself as "a comprehensive guide for developers wishing to make quick inroads into developing native applications for the Linux platform". Comprehensive it is, but this is no quickie how-to. This author goes the extra yards and provides good, lucid explanations for why a certain thing is as it is. It reflects excellent research, meticulous QA and the trait of the true teacher, to share what he knows. As a result, I'm finding topics in this this book that have eluded me for years of Delphi work - being absent from the popular titles, the Borland help and the Borland knowledgebase.

When (not if!) you buy this book, pay attention to the Notes panels and the footnotes. Shemitz (or his editor) has been very tight about delivering the story. His post-its and those vital snippets of experiential background are not buried in the main story but are distilled out expertly and consistently into these two reader aid devices. The plot stays right on target and those tricky bits are just where you want them, without having to dive off to a cross-reference.

Because I live in a remote area, I have to buy books "sight unseen". Hence, my tech library is a "lucky dip" of useful titles and doorstoppers. With this one, I really lucked in. I think it was a gutbuster to write and consider it worth every drop of blood, sweat and tears.

This book is not pretentious about what it tries to do. It has no grandiose notions of explaining theories behind architecture, capturing history of the field, how to select architecture to enhance certain architectural qualities, trade offs to consider or patterns to choose from.

It is simply a guide on what architectural views are more relevant than others when trying to build large scale systems, what the view points guiding the generation of those views are, how to use these views effectively when guiding software projects. This it does admirably well, to the point.

It does point to other reference material of relevance for other topics on architecture that is useful for deeper knowledge.

Apart from avoiding pitfalls, this is a good book to help train senior developers and leads who want to move to architect roles. Also helps in developing shared vision on architectural deliverables to be generated among stakeholders.

4 Stars since it is rather pricey.

An excellent reference on what UML diagrams to use to capture the achitecture of a large software project. And this isn't based on the authors' ivory-tower opinions, but on their actual experience of using these diagrams in the real world. We have since used their approach to successfully capture (and thereby communicate to others) the architecture of software projects at our company.

The writing style is a bit dry (there are no humorous anecdotes), but this is more than made up for by being concise.

The book also includes an excellent primer of the various roles a software architect (and other software managers) should take within a large project.

This book presents a very practical guide to designing and developing large-scale software systems. I've been involved in a number of large-scale projects and this is the first book I've found that includes many of the things you usually find out the hard way. Things like how to effectively communicate the design to the team, how to manage iterations and how to document designs and changes to the design.

Since the topic is large-scale systems, the book focuses more on techniques than on specific examples, but it more than makes up for that by providing practical tips and recommended reading references. If you are leading a software development team or plan to, this book will help you on a very practical level.

[Review duplicated from Amazon.co.uk]

Jeff Garland and Richard Anthony have written a very practical and accessible explanation of the process of designing and describing the software architecture for a large information system. All of the major architectural structures are covered and the depth of experience of the authors is evident from the solid, practical advice given throughout. There is also a huge amount of practical advice as to how architectural structures can be described using UML, which is particularly valuable.

The only significant criticism I've have is that they don't talk about the quality properties of the architecture all that explicitly. The focus in most of the book is about capturing architectural structures rather than talking about the required architectural qualities that led to the structures being selected. The reader is left to discern this for themselves.

This said though, I'd still recommend the book to any practicing information systems architect.

Few books offer so many practical rewards for lawyers (indeed for anyone who uses Acrobat). Cleanly written and full of screenshots to aid you, this is a one stop shop for "everything Acrobat" a lawyer could possibly want to know. David Masters is renowned as a lawyer/expert who speaks nationwide about the use of Adobe Acrobat in law firms. If you get the chance to hear him speak, you'll thoroughly enjoy him in person, but the book is a reference tool that you'll go back to time and again. Most lawyers who read this book are shocked by the many things that Acrobat can do - and they practice better, more efficiently and more securely as a result. This book should be in every lawyer's library.

More and more courts are allowing, if not requiring, that documents of all type be presented in electronic format either in addition to or in some cases instead of on paper. There are unquestionably a lot of lawyers who will assign the task of producing the electronic document to a secretary. But this is kind of like having a lawyer these days who can't use a PC - there probably are some, but they are getting fewer and fewer.

This slim document, now in its second edition is aimed to enable lawyers (or their secretaries) to produce the .pdf documents desired by the court. It does not go into all the details of what Adobe Acrobat can do, that would take a thousand pages or so. It is not a book intended for the teckie who lives, breathes, and eats computers. It tells the lawyer what he needs to know to meet the courts requirements. At this it does a great job.

This book really walked me through using Acrobat Professional.

I'm know computer wizard, and this book has been really useful to me.

I really needed this book! It focuses on the functions of Adobe Acrobat 6 that lawyers need to use. Explanations are clear, illustrations are helpful.

These are skills that a lawyer could choose to "leave to the support staff." The lawyers who do that are also the ones who can be productive and profitable practitioners in the 21st Century without touching a computer keyboard. (I assume there are a few of them somewhere.)

The rest of us need to know how to create, manipulate and use documents in the PDF format. This book tells us how. Those who are experienced Acrobat users may not need it, but I am not and this book really gets right down to the things I need to know to use Acrobat in my work.

It would be pure gold like this one. This book won the Shingo Award: http://bigblue.usu.edu/shingoprize/AboutUs/index.htm. The selection committee clearly knew what it was doing. The author has created an excellent exposition of how lean manufacturing methods can be applied to create abstract intellectual assets such as software and, by implication, systems engineering plans and designs.

Overall the book is an excellent, well written discourse on lean methodology with numerous examples of its application. The authors explain in clear detail how best to apply several lean tools to plan and to perform major systems and software projects, e.g., TRIZ, Analytic Hierarchy Process, SCR, Blitz QFD, Theory of Constraints, Agile practices, high integrity UML, language selection to support lean production (SPARC Ada), load leveling, and Kano Modeling. The cases where this approach was used provide consistent evidence of success; software productivity was significantly improved over previous practice by roughly a factor of four even though the requirements churn in those same contracts was significantly higher than in other successful projects. It is critical to note that software production was stabilized against serious requirements instability by the lean practices being described. Further, that stabilization was a major contributor to successful completion of the contracts!

In the first few chapters, the author spends some time explaining the niche in which lean methods live and work most effectively. In chapter 5 the author analyzes the SEI's Software CMM model to determine the manufacturing paradigm for software. One should note that, since the publication of the book, the Software CMM has been replaced by a newer model, the Software/System/etc CMMI that addresses several of the lean concerns: http://www.sei.cmu.edu/cmmi/.

After some thought it is clear that the fundamental criticism of the Software CMM is that the implementation of any business model by practitioners of the manufacturing paradigm is the principle problem. Such practitioners will likely take a relatively low risk, evolutionary, incremental approach to introduce change. They will therefore initially implement a set of organizational processes that promote and support the manufacturing paradigm in a way that minimizes necessary change, the nearest "as is" state. Such processes should not be expected to be particularly lean until after performance needs drive significant changes to support a leaner approach, the "to be" state. This incremental approach, while fairly smooth and stable can take a decade or more to reach a lean paradigm even if that is the intended end state.

If the authors choose to write a second edition it would be useful to discuss how the CMMI model that has come into use since the writing of this book provides potential synergy with the lean approach. To understand what is improved over the software CMM, one should note that the new CMMI model includes systems engineering process areas rather than being focused exclusively on software. Like its predecessor the CMMI is a process framework and is thus process and performance agnostic. The model is not quite paradigm agnostic; it clearly votes against the craft paradigm by labeling such practices "initial" or "capability level 1". One might speculate that a fully integrated lean approach would garner capability level 5 ratings for the relevant process areas. Further, there is no performance aspect to the CMMI SCAMPI appraisal as there would be with a company performance audit model such as the (Malcolm) Baldridge National Quality Award: http://baldrige.nist.gov/. The CMMI SCAMPI asks if there are specific and generic practices (documented processes) in place to address a set of basic business capability questions (goals), but it does not ask how well those processes perform. It is left entirely up to company management to track and manage process performance. In that respect the CMMI model is independent of the lean manufacturing approach. Synergy with lean methods is both possible and desirable. If the authors choose to write a second addition, it would be valuable to devote a chapter or two on how to develop such a synergistic approach in building and maintaining a comprehensive set of organizational business process assets.

It would be pure gold like this one! This book won the Shingo Award: http://bigblue.usu.edu/shingoprize/AboutUs/index.htm. The selection committee clearly knew what it was doing. The author has created an excellent exposition of how lean manufacturing methods can be applied to create abstract intellectual assets such as software and, by implication, systems engineering plans and designs.

Overall the book is an excellent, well written discourse on lean methodology with numerous examples of its application. The authors explain in clear detail how best to apply several lean tools to plan and to perform major systems and software projects, e.g., TRIZ, Analytic Hierarchy Process, SCR, Blitz QFD, Theory of Constraints, Agile practices, high integrity UML, language selection to support lean production (SPARC Ada), load leveling, and Kano Modeling. The cases where this approach was used provide consistent evidence of success; software productivity was significantly improved over previous practice by roughly a factor of four even though the requirements churn in those same contracts was significantly higher than in other successful projects. It is critical to note that software production was stabilized against serious requirements instability by the lean practices being described. Further, that stabilization was a major contributor to successful completion of the contracts!

In the first few chapters, the author spends some time explaining the niche in which lean methods live and work most effectively. In chapter 5 the author analyzes the SEI's Software CMM model to determine the manufacturing paradigm for software. One should note that, since the publication of the book, the Software CMM has been replaced by a newer model, the Software/System/etc CMMI that addresses several of the lean concerns: http://www.sei.cmu.edu/cmmi/.

After some thought it is clear that the fundamental criticism of the Software CMM is that the implementation of any business model by practitioners of the manufacturing paradigm is the principle problem. Such practitioners will likely take a relatively low risk, evolutionary, incremental approach to introduce change. They will therefore initially implement a set of organizational processes that promote and support the manufacturing paradigm in a way that minimizes necessary change, the nearest "as is" state. Such processes should not be expected to be particularly lean until after performance needs drive significant changes to support a leaner approach, the "to be" state. This incremental approach, while fairly smooth and stable can take a decade or more to reach a lean paradigm even if that is the intended end state.

If the authors choose to write a second edition it would be useful to discuss how the CMMI model that has come into use since the writing of this book provides potential synergy with the lean approach. To understand what is improved over the software CMM, one should note that the new CMMI model includes systems engineering process areas rather than being focused exclusively on software. Like its predecessor the CMMI is a process framework and is thus process and performance agnostic. The model is not quite paradigm agnostic; it clearly votes against the craft paradigm by labeling such practices "initial" or "capability level 1". One might speculate that a fully integrated lean approach would garner capability level 5 ratings for the relevant process areas. Further, there is no performance aspect to the CMMI SCAMPI appraisal as there would be with a company performance audit model such as the (Malcolm) Baldridge National Quality Award: http://baldrige.nist.gov/. The CMMI SCAMPI asks if there are specific and generic practices (documented processes) in place to address a set of basic business capability questions (goals), but it does not ask how well those processes perform. It is left entirely up to company management to track and manage process performance. In that respect the CMMI model is independent of the lean manufacturing approach. Synergy with lean methods is both possible and desirable. If the authors choose to write a second addition, it would be valuable to devote a chapter or two on how to develop such a synergistic approach in building and maintaining a comprehensive set of organizational business process assets.

I have read "Software Lean Strategies" from cover to cover and believe it is of truly "outstanding value" I'm a highly experienced software engineering professional and each work day have the responsibility of ensuring complex safety-critical systems functionality controlled by software is of high integrity. I try to read, learn and see perspectives of all. It is refreshing to see a real world book with many examples and lessons learned in Software Lean Strategies. Why do I feel this is an outstanding book? First, it has given me a new perspective on how to integrate systems more strategically. It is all about the long haul software life cycle strategies and not about day to day tweeks and tactics. It is all about real world systems and the constant struggles in software. Also it is kind of like Fredrick Brook's famous book "Mythical Man Month" first written over 30 years ago about IBM and the 360 computer. Software Lean is more about software and systems integration developed a few years ago and how to apply the value stream and to focus on essential priority tasks and work products. Software Lean shows software development is still plagued with inefficiencies and the authors are not saying they have the silver bullet, but are only sharing some of their experiences, lessons learned and what seems to work best. When I look at Software Lean conepts in totality the authors are simply communicating and suggesting some areas to focus on for cheaper, better (higher quality) systems and higher technical integrity. I firmly believe folks who will read this book with an open mind will get new ideas. It stimulatated my thinking and helped me apply some of the principles to prevent costly rework. When compared to other books on the Lean subject this one has specifics and many principles and examples grounded in fact. It is truely non-fiction. Some other books on the subject are way off the mark and have some rather odd concepts that are counterproductive. I did learned to think more strategically after reading this fine book. I try not to slam anyone's opinions in books, especially when they are so open and honest about what works in software development and what does not. Software Lean "earned" a recent prestigious award. I read it a year earlier and touted it amongst software leaders, coworkers and collegues as a darn good read. Final point: I am normally a little critical of new concepts and fad books, but in this case found no fads and agree with 95% of what is written in Software Lean. It is somewhat innovation and very logical and I believe one can benefit by seeing many persopectives and not being so close minded. The other 5 % I disagree with is either what is lacking or perhaps simply philosophical differences based on my biases and inability to see the point. My hats off to this book that has helped to stimulate some actionable ideas. I've loaned it to a couple of enginners on my staff and they like it. The more we read, the more we learn. I keep "Software Lean Strategies" on my desk on top of The Mythical Manmonth and right next to several latest editions of software periodicals, such as Embedded Systems Design with the Star Trek crew, Maxwell Smart taling into a shoe phone, and others on cool covers to grab attention of software and systems engineering geeks like myself.

Barry Hendrix

My dear old mom--or someone at least as authoritative; I can't quite recall whom--once said that you should always begin a conversation by saying something nice. Especially when you are responding to a *slanderously* bad review. :-)

Great advice, mom. Here goes...Reviewer Steele indeed seems to know what SCR, CoRE, and SPARK Ada are. There; mom was right. That felt *good*.

Obviously not everyone agrees with Steele...starting with the judges of the Shingo Prize, which Business Week has called "the Nobel Prize of Manufacturing." Their professional credentials are pretty good. The review from stickyminds.com (the encyclopedic software development community) is also very positive. Why is Steele's review in such stark contrast to these expert opinions?

It is because every one of Steele's points is in blatant error. In each case he either gets easily-checked facts wrong, misrepresents something about the book, or misunderstands something fundamental about Lean Production. A few points below will give you the idea. Whether this happened accidentally or on purpose only Mr. Steele can answer. If you want a complete analysis of his review, contact me through our publisher. Amazon reviews are the only visible way for authors to respond ("comments" get lost), so, though giving a rating to my own book feels strange, hopefully enough reviews will eventually be posted to bury both my and Steele's numbers.


1) Steele: "This book... never offer[s] a single specific example of lean application on a software development effort."

I'll let the professional reviews lead. From the Shingo Prize review:
* "Multiple examples...show how lean software development improves...software projects"
* "The authors explain different lean techniques, for example load leveling, and show how they can be applied in the software development process"
* "This book focuses on the specifics of lean IT, down to choosing the programming language"

And from the stickyminds.com review (emphases mine):
* "It is extremely well-written with liberal use of real-world examples"
* "Parts two and three provide a detailed manual on building lean software"
* " `Lean Software Strategies' includes many helpful examples and analogies"

Here's some of the specific examples these reviewers are talking about:
* Requirements analysis: SCR method. Also names the programs on which it's been used. (pp 125-129)
* Design: an actual architecture I developed and used on multiple named programs. (pp 401-406)
* Verification: a powerful, time-saving tabular approach (pp 246-251)
* Customer analysis: Kano Modeling, others (pp 104-108, 137-152)
* Planning program work: Analytical Hierarchy Process, others (pp 112-119, 177-193)

There's several more, many visible in the online Table of Contents through Amazon's "Search Inside" feature. I got my start on many of these techniques with less guidance than is given in the book.


2) Steele: "It was widely understood among certain circles that the C130-J team...was made available for the 382J development and the real software lean story was the use of the small now experienced team."

I know we haven't had a chance to become friends yet, Steele...but that's no reason for me to withhold a little friendly advice. Put a "stop payment" on your latest inner-circle dues check. They're not earning their keep. The C-130J military-aircraft development started up two years after the civilian 382J. Not vice versa.


3) Steele: "The author's experiences...are in fact applications of techniques that have been around since at least the mid 80s."

That would be true if the techniques in the book all originated in the 1980's. However, the book also addresses model-based development (late 1990's on), Blitz QFD (late 1990's on), high-integrity UML (2000 on), several current programming languages, Agile development, and many other current techniques. This is, again, made abundantly clear in the book's pages and in the online Table of Contents.

More serious, though, is the reviewer's implication that "latest tech" is the only legitimate way to go. Under mass production that was generally the case. It's how Detroit dominated the world's auto industry for decades. But 1950's post-war Japan couldn't afford Detroit tech...so to survive, Toyota developed a way to use older technology to its advantage. Today we call that way, "Lean Production" (it addresses more than just technology, of course). All described in the foundational Lean books by Womack et al, i.e., "The Machine That Changed The World" and "Lean Thinking." Good background reading for reviewers of Lean books.

Moral: Sometimes older tech does a better job than newer tech. In those cases, don't be afraid to use it. (By Lean criteria, SCR remains more advanced than most of today's popular software methods.) Our book discusses why this is so, and how software-development organizations can use this dynamic to their advantage.


4) Steele: "The book spends a chapter maligning the CMM practice in which nothing good about it is said."

Short answer; pages 61 and 73 (among others):
* "The SEI [the organization that created the CMM] is a very competent and diligent organization, and has always based its work on sound research" (pg 61).
* "The CMM is...almost completely compatible with the mass production [principles]" (pg 73)

But that mass orientation was so complete that in many ways it prevented organizations from adopting Lean.

The SEI seems to have agreed with at least some of our observations. They replaced the CMM with the CMMI, improving many of the very problem areas I pointed out. I'm not claiming cause and effect; only similar thinking. Indeed, a couple of national leaders in the CMMI community have told me they agree with my analysis. Finally, for the last two years I was a leader on my company's CMMI initiative. They wouldn't have picked me for that position if I had been completely anti-CMM or -CMMI.


Mom also said I should know when to give things a rest. That point has certainly arrived, if not long passed. I'll call this response done. Thanks for reading.


Jim Sutton
Author, "Lean Software Strategies"

Nolo's Legal Guide to Starting and Running a Small Business was exactly what I needed to help start my company off on the right foot. I don't have a very strong legal backround and would have been way over my head if I'd tried to forge ahead totally alone but at the same time I didn't want to spend a fortune consulting a lawyer. If you're in a similar situation then Nolo's Legal Guide is the perfect solution. It is well written, well organized, thorough, and very easy to use. It's a great general start-up kit that would be helpful to any fledgling business that I can think of. If I had had to call a lawyer to answer every legal question that arose in the first couple of months (a huge number) then my company may easily have never gotten off the ground. I was so pleased with this product that I have since purchased two more Nolo books (Tax Savvy for Small Business and The Employer's Legal Handbook) that are more directed at business owners who have gotten through the initial start-up phase. Both of these books are also excellent and I would recommend them as follow ups to the Legal Guide to Starting and Running a Small Business.

There are several books in the market on how to incorporate your company based on the state. Even though there is an advantage to these books as you get state specific information for filing paperwork to incorporate, usually there isn't any other information in these books that you can use.

This Nolo guide on the other hand stays kind of generic in the sense that they don't spend too much time in how to fill out the incorporation forms and where to file. Instead, they give good information on every subject you would need to research when starting a small business.

The book starts off by explaining the different legal forms of corporate entities you can choose for your business and details each of these forms in the next three chapters. After this, there are more than 20 chapters devoted to almost any kind of situation you may encounter. For example - there is a chapter on Resolving Legal Disputes, a chapter on Small Business Contracts, a chapter on Home Based Business, etc. Some of the topics I had no prior knowledge of and gained tremendously from - Retail Pricing and Return Practices, Zoning Laws, Deducting Expenses for Business Use of Your Home, Workers' Compensation, Thirteen Common Sources of Money, and Strong and Weak Trademarks.

This is a good book to read when you are STARTING your own business. After that, you will probably need to research more into the topics that are relevant to your situation. Otherwise, there wouldn't be so many different legal guides that small businesses can use (from Nolo). Obviously, as your particular situation becomes more unique you need to refer to the specific books that have an advanced treatment of that topic. And finally, it is always better to seek a lawyer's help after being aware of the basics of the Law.

As usual, Nolo does a fantastic job of covering a broad range of topics in a very detailed fashion without losing the reader's attention. There are a lot of examples to explain the various topics and everything is in plain English. I especially like the references to the IRS forms and publications you need in various circumstances. When you go to the IRS website, it isn't clear which form is relevant to you. It's neat that Nolo makes sure to reference the right form when they are discussing a particular subject.

I hope your small business succeeds and that you find this book helpful in getting things started. Be sure to check out the other Nolo books when you are past the initial stages and definitely build a good working relationship with a trustworthy lawyer for times of need. Good luck!

This set me straight on a few things while setting up my business. It is well written and easy to understand. I would recommend this to any 1st time business owner starting out.

Full of the information you expect based upon the title of the book. The information is detailed so you have the guidance you sought.

This book is like an encyclopedia of small business. I'll definitely be returning to this book throughout the years.

I've been an avid Leo fan since I first saw him on the Screen Savers back when TechTV used to be useful. I was actually flipping through the channels on my best friend's TV and stopped on TTV because I didn't get the channel at my house. Leo draws people in by coming off extremely personable in any media he produces. I watched TSS and Call For Help because of him, listen to his KFI radio show, and own every book he's produced and there is a reason for this: Leo Laporte makes technology fun. It's not dry, never bland, and there's always something for everyone, which makes this book a particularly good read.

Each chapter has something for everyone:
1 Computer Gadgets
2 Portable Gadgets
3 Digital Photography Gadgets
4 Home Movie Gadgets
5 Home Audio/Video Gadgets
6 Telephone Gadgets
7 Game Gadgets
8 Automotive Gadgets

What makes this book really stand out from his Almanac line is the page after page after page of beautiful color photos. This is a full color book with eight chapters. Each chapter is divided into subcategories and each subcategory has a one page introduction. Then Leo writes a one page review of his favorite in each subcategory, followed by half a page on between two to eight other subcategorical recommendations. Each product is photographed in color. Model, manufacturer (complete with relevant website), price, and any other relevant info (say megapixels for digital cameras) are documented in a little yellow bubble.

My favorite part (after the color, layout, and general feel-good tone of the book are considered) is the actual content--the reason I bought the book! You will find at least one product you must have (I found 15 and chronicled them on my website). The content ranges from novice to expert, high tech to low tech, and cheap to super expensive. You'll notice that Leo writes about products you may have heard of before but never considered until his recommendation (the Logitech io Digital Pen or the iRobot's Roomba--both on my Amazon wishlist).

I'm looking forward to Leo's other releases, including a gadget guide for Macs, a TiVo guide, and, of course, the 2005 Almanac. Enjoy the read!

A Big Question: First, what does this fellow consider gadgets to be.

Answer, there are hundreds of gadgets here, far too many to mention, but they fall into seven categories:

Computer Gadgets -everything from speakers, to mice, to a little fan that plugs into your USB port.
Portable Gadgets - mostly stuff like PDA's and things to plug into them, but also portable players (music and video), GPS Devices, a robot vacuum cleaner and a robot dog - no, the robot vacuum cleaner does not clean up after the dog.
Digital Photography Gadgets - Cameras, sure, but lots and lots of other stuff from 3-D attachments to filters, cleaning kits and viewers.
Home Movie Gadgets - More cameras, and then more cool stuff like video mixer, software, video capture devices.
Home Audio/Video Gadgets - No cameras this time, but media hubs, jukebox, recorders, home theater, satellite radio systems.
Telephone Gadgets - Some really neat new phones, headsets, hand cranked power adapter. Game Gadgets - controllers of course, but also adapters, switches, even a specially designed game chair.
Automotive Gadgets - GPS, sound, rear view TV, and a data logger that will talk to your cars computer.

I wonder where he could have found all this stuff.

Leo Laporte knows so much about Technology and doesn't use all the "technical talk" when he describes it to people therefore enabling us to understand what Technology can do for all of us these Days. In this book Leo has several different catergories of "gadgets" (he doesn't like that word lol) and reviews a few from each category then makes his pick on what is the best value in that particular section. Due to the fact that Leo is not as of now on TV in the US his books and his weekend Radio Show are the only ways that I'm able to get to listen to him and read about the products that he likes. So Go Buy this Book and I'm sure you'll enjoy it!

Great Job on this book Leo!
- Ryan_Ly (KFI Chat)

2005 is coming up fast, so Laporte and Miller have brought out this book, just before the holiday season. Some of you will certainly enjoy just thumbing through these pages, and trusting to serendipity to be your guide. All the pages are in full colour, and the product photos and textual descriptions are very attractively laid out.

In some ways, the book reminds me of a Sharper Image catalog. But the authors are independent of the vendors. So the product descriptions should be more reliable than in a typical vendor's catalog.

There may be biases in the choices of products. But as Laporte says in the Introduction, the biases are strictly what caught his fancy, and not some vendor's promptings.

Nicholas Boughen has really created something amazing! He walks you thru all theighting tools in LightWave Eight at an easy to read pace with great examples and lessons. What makes this book special is that although it teaches you how to light in LightWave 8, it covers the fundamentals of lighting , how to recreate real world lighting,and more.

Nicholas has a talent for explaining complex techniques in an easy to understand way. This is a must own for any LightWave user, or anyone wanting to know more about lighting in general. Not only has my LightWave lighting improved, but my digital photo's have gotten better as well. Thanx for the great book!

I've got 3D Lighting and Rendering as well, and I like this book alot better, simply because he explains things a little better.. he's straight forward and shows you how things are done. The explinations on the different types of light types and properties are great.. I believe this is a must own for any LW user.

Don't buy this book UNLESS you want to learn from a professional who thoroughly understands real-world lighting and how to apply it in Lightwave 3D. Everything from Principals of Lighting, HDRI, Volumetrics, Plug-ins & Image filters, Rendering times and fakes to speed it up, recreating light sources from a photograph, Setup examples, and a lot more. And all from a guy who does Lightwave 3D lighting for a living.
-nuff said.

This book might be entitled 'Lightwave 3D 8 Lighting', but the book extends beyond just the realm of Lightwave 8. Nicholas has created a tome of knowledge in all things CG lighting related. The book is written for the newbie to any current or future lighting technicians. He walks you through lighting from looking at the world around you, to lighting theory, color theory, how to recreate lighting from plates and finally how to create your own worlds greatest lighting rigs. Along with all of this he continously points out time saving tips and cheats. With it comes plenty of images and exercises to bring the words to brillant life. This book is written the way all CG books should be written from theory to pratice for new user to pro. If you are a Lightwave user this is a must own book. If you are not a Lightwave user but still work with anything lighting related this is still a must own book.