Software Books

It is really a very good book from IBM about DB2-SPL. In our company we bougth a lot of DB2 book, but this is the very best.

from basics to tricks

Has been extremely helpful. Good information

The book describes IBM's Procedural Language, which runs on their db2 servers. It is not a general purpose language, like C or Java. Rather, it is tied directly to db2 and IBM's implementation of SQL. But within this context, the book explains the expressive power of PL. It shows at length how you can write stored procedures, triggers and functions in PL. The level of detail and the cited examples should reassure you of PL's capability.

But why even write business logic code at the database layer? There have been other books on n-tier application design, which call for the locating of business logic in a middle tier and not at the database. The authors' rejoinder is that while that makes for an elegant design, practical experience shows that often, crucial logic needs to be at the database. This reduces networks traffic and can heavily improve perforance. Hence the need for PL, or something like it.

Be wary of the book's claim that PL lets you write "portable application logic". It is portable only between instances of db2 running under linux, unix, Microsoft Windows or IBM's operating systems. When you write embedded logic in PL, you are also embedding yourself or your company into db2. Which may indeed be fine by you. But just so you know.

If you are a developer or DBA who is new to DB2, I would highly recommend this book to you. Both administration and development topics are covered, helpful best practices and tips are included, and illustrative examples are used.

The fundamental DB2 concepts and the different DB2 tools such as the Control Center are introduced in a very straightforward and easy-to-understand manner. This allows DB2-newbies to get fully up to speed on DB2 terminology and functionality, while serving as a gentle refresher for those who might have prior DB2 experience. The book achieves a good balance of topic selection and level of detail. More advance topics that are covered are explained in a manner that most novices would comprehend and in enough detail to be useful.

The prime focus of the book is on leveraging the ease-of-use and autonomic capabilities of DB2. If you are a developer not wanting to memorize database and/or SQL command syntax, you will particularly appreciate this book. The book shows how most common administrative tasks can be very easily performed using the GUI tools and Wizards provided with DB2. Ease of application development is demonstrated in both Java and Microsoft .net environments. An easy and intuitive introduction to DB2 SQLPL is also provided.

Overall, I think that if you are new to DB2, or need to learn the essential concepts/features needed to develop and/or administer DB2 quickly, you will be very pleased with this book. It is a perfect starting point for introducing the most important concepts, features, and tools. As you gain more experience and familiarity with the product, a more advanced book can be obtained.

I didn't know anything about writing DB2 stored procedures until I bought this book. After reading it I have written several procedures to aid in data migration. It is well laid out and has all the necessary information. The best part is that you don't feel like you are reading a technical book.

Very good collection of Stellent Content Server. Only reason i gave 4 star instead of 5 is that sometimes it is hard to find stuff you are looking for. I have this book for about 18 months now and i have used it so many times both during new development as well as fixing some bugs.

Now that Stellent is bought by Oracle and not knowing how oracle will integrate Stellent CMS with other oracle products, I would suggest hold off buying it, if you are looking for a long term value. If you looking for only short term use, go ahead and buy it.

brian did a great job of getting right to the matter at hand with excellent real world examples.

I only wish this book was written two years ago. However, it is a very well written book with a good layout and great examples. At last many questions that I did not know to ask have now been answered.

Way to go Brain!

Well written, easy to understand and use, congratulations on a truly useful tool. I have worked with Stellent for many years, and have this book next to my keyboard at all times! Bex has always provided clear answers for the user group, but this provides a clear direction no matter what you need to do with your Stellent system.

Kudos!

If you do any customization to a Stellent Content Server or want a detailed over-view of what can be done to a Content Server, then this book is for you. Both developers and managers could benefit from this book. It's easy to explain what needs to be done or what you are asking for, once you know what can be done within the Content Server.

Finding information is easy in the book and Bex's example are clear cut and to the point.

I found this an exellent book. The original design patterns book drew its examples from C++ applications. I could see a use for the patterns in C++, but I thought most of them would not have been necessary if the code had been written in Smalltalk.

This book did an excellent job of showing how and where the patterns could be used in Smalltalk applications. The authors also extended and clarified many of the pattern so that they were simplier to understand. The book is more than a companion to the GOF book; it is an enhancement of it.

This book gives you a better understanding of the patterns than in its original version (the GoF one). I am not a SmallTalk programmer but a 9 years C++ one. At work I had to use the GoF book and never liked reading it. In contrast to this, the SmallTalk companion is easy to read and you can understand the patterns within the first few lines of their description. Take the Bridge pattern and compare their discussions in the two books. If you really like the Gof one then buy it. But according to me, it would be a big mistake buying the GoF in favour of the SmallTalk companion. Trust a C++ programmer :-)

This isn't a Smalltalk translation of "Design Patterns." Instead, it's a companion to that book. You'll need to read the first one to get the most out of this one. If you have read the first one, you'll find this one is better written and really casts essential light on some of the GOF material. The Smalltalk aspects of this book are really a non-issue (except perhaps showing static-typers how many hoops you don't have to use in Smalltalk). This is required patterns reading.

I bought this book because of the unresolved questions I had after spending so many hours exploring the GoF original book. I am an experience C, C++, and Objective C programmer, not a Smalltalk guru at all. And I found the GoF very confusing and intimidating. My current projects these days are written in Java (I miss Objective C). I looked for a book that would cover the pattern catalog in Java because I was really questioning the purpose of some of them in that language. Creating some mechanism to overcome the C++ language is somewhat understandable, but why bother with Java. Take the prototype pattern for example: "...It's (the prototype pattern) less important (to use it) in languages like Smalltalk or Objective C that provides what amounts to a prototype..." (page 121) Sure, ok, but what about Java? Can you give me an example on how it would benefit a language that doesn't really require it like Obj C, or even Smalltalk? Then the sample code refers to the maze example but not much material is given here. I bought several books with Java and Design Patterns in the title but was very disappointed with the beginner level these books approach this problem. The titles are seductive but the content is not that great. I don't need another ADOO (I've read Larman's book already. Get it if you are new to OO BTW.) So I ended up getting that book as a last resort. And you know what? It's great. I program in Java all day (and sometimes all night, sigh...) and this book spends more time on my desk than the GoF original one. So, if this comments remind you some of your experience, you should give this book a try. And this book lighted up another bulb in my brain: I ended up downloading Squeak and prototyping in Smalltalk some of my projects just for the fun of it, but that's a side effect I guess ;-)

I found this an exellent book. The original design patterns book drew its examples from C++ applications. I could see a use for the patterns in C++, but I thought most of them would not have been necessary if the code had been written in Smalltalk.

This book did an excellent job of showing how and where the patterns could be used in Smalltalk applications. The authors also extended and clarified many of the pattern so that they were simplier to understand. The book is more than a companion to the GOF book; it is an enhancement of it.

Mary Kirtland has written a terrific resource for those who wish to know more (i.e. go from basic to advanced) on how to program with COM and MTS. I found the example code (and companion CD-ROM) very useful and relatively bug free. Some of the chapters include:

Windows DNA (now .NET)

COM (101)

Data Access Fundamentals

MTS

ASP

Extending MTS

Application Definition and Modeling

Building Data/Business Objects

Packaging

Building the Presentation Layer

Debugging and Troubleshooting (an excellent chapter on a tricky subject)

Performance Validation

Deploying

Extending the Application

COM+ (pretty good for when this was written, it is time to update the book with the latest and greatest, however).

Most of the information here is still relevant, especially to those with a smattering of COM or MTS under their belt and are hungry for more. Everything is wrapped up well with a comprehensive index. Well worth the purchase price. Definitely a must along with "Programming Distributed Apps with MS COM+ and MS VB."

This book does a good job of explaining the COM standard from the ground up. The first third is devoted to COM. The rest of the book is an overview of building an enterprise application from the ground up using Microsoft technologies.

I used this book as my primary reference in preparing for the new Analyzing Requirements exam (70-100) in the new MCSD track based on the recommendation of someone I know that passed the beta. It may not be listed as a study guide for the test, but it is far better than the Syngress or Sybex study guide for that test. (They were both fairly useless.)

This is an excellent overview of Microsoft's DNA and the technologies that make up DNA. The pieces of the DNA puzzle are clearly defined individually and the way they relate to the others. The Island Hopper application sample (maintained up-to-date on MSDN) is a great hands-on intro to the topic. The amount of coverage on topics like COM, MTS, MSMQ, etc. is just right: technically deep enough to help you understand the concepts, short enough to prevent you from shifting your focus from the architecture to technologies contributing to the architecture.

You may try to surf Microsoft's DNA pages to understand the topic (and potentially get lost in the amount of links that span hundreds of different Microsoft technologies) or get this "one" book to really understand what Mr. Gates is talking about for the last couple of years.

After being confused by multiple books on Windows DNA I was very happy to see a book that actually showed and an entire application which utilized this technology. Part I of the book offers a very concise explanation of MTS and COM without getting too deep into the subjects. Part II showed examples of components that the sample project utilized. I enjoyed the fact that the author used both VB and VC++ in her examples. Beyond the examples, the author also offered very good insight into component design and tool selection. It was enough to get you up to speed so that you can look into deeper books on the subject.

Everyone always draws the same n-tier diagram and says they are going to build a scalable, MAINTANABLE solution.

This book actually provides a blueprint, not the 30,000 ft view.

At my job, we call it "The Good Book"

It describe all aspects about digital crimes using a clear language. It's very good for neubies.

If you are new to this world this is where you should begin. Digital Evidence contains all the knowledge one could amass by obtaining PHD in computing. Especially when you don't have time for a Diploma. I have bought 5 books pertain to digital crime from USA and UK. But this is the one and only book I am recommending to any one in any continent who want to learn or new to this arena. All the other books in this field for Attorneys or with similar requirements are some what academic and may be boring. The CD-ROM accompanying the book gives you much needed hands on training, otherwise which will cost you at least US $ 4000, if you are to go to a training centre to do the same.

Sometimes, defense attorneys have it easy: one slip-up by the prosecution and evidence is thrown out. Knowing that, law enforcement goes to great lengths to ensure that evidence is appropriately collected and protected. That works well in the physical world, where law enforcement has many generations' worth of experience. But in the modern world of computers and digital networks, where the simple act of rebooting a computer is enough to wipe out large amounts of evidence, law enforcement clearly needs thorough guidance.

Such a resource is here: Digital Evidence and Computer Crime, an excellent book that details the elements of digital crime. Author Eoghan Casey does a superb job of applying forensic science to computers. The information presented here is critical to a diverse audience: law enforcement, attorneys, forensic scientists, and systems administrators, for instance.

While cybercrime law is in some ways similar to other aspects of criminal law, it nonetheless has its own language and categories. For instance, jurisdiction is a key element in both the physical and digital realms, but it is a much trickier concept in the latter. Casey develops this topic and many more. Those new to computers and networks need not worry: the book begins with an explanation of how they function. With the basics out of the way, Casey details how computers can be used in crime and how the evidence created from these activities can be used for later analysis....The accompanying CD-ROM contains simulated cases that integrate many of the topics covered in the text. In all, the book and CD are an excellent introduction to an increasingly important area of law enforcement.

This is an excellent book from a real expert.

Everyone and their brother are writing books about computer security and digital forensics.

The difference here is that Eoghan Casey knows what he is talking about.

Excellent book!

This text was used for the digital evidence and computer crime class that I just completed. The book is clear and easy to understand. It goes into detail only when needed. I was concerned that this information would quickly become out of date, but the ideas presented are current and provide a solid background for understanding any newer technologies that come down the road. I usually sell my books after the semester ends, but I have decided to keep this one.

I found it best technical book till date but you should know Flex & Ruby before you can jump into this..

This is a great book. Peter is the #1 expert in Flex + Rails.

I have used Flex for about a year and I have only dabbled in Ruby/Rails development. I have been curious how I might back a Flex front end with a simple service layer that isn't hard to create, maintain or host. So far I have only worked with Java/Spring/Hibernate backend services which can take a little while to build and integrate (Grails is MUCH faster).

After about 100 pages I'm in interation 4 building an interesting RIA with a Rails backend that I can host on relatively inexpensive server if I wanted to. My only struggles thus far was getting MySQL going properly. But that was only because I forgot a step in installing it.

If you have little exposure to Rails and/or Flex and you feel at home on the command line as well as you do in an IDE like Eclipse, this is a great "project" book for you. I'd say you probably want a primer in Ruby, Rails and Flex before you get going but it is pretty easy follow and has a lot of free professional advice from someone that has obviously been around the block a few times. Peter is very upfront about some things that he has done in the book that should not be considered "best practice".

I am hoping to get some good insight how I might do something similar for Flex and Grails. Regardless, I am confident this is going to be a fun journey!

I wasn't sure whether a mixed-technologies book would be adequate for both reading and reference, especially with two technologies. As both a software engineer and a moonlighting instructor this book was an easy read from the start. Mr. Armstrong explores both Flex 3 and Rails 2 with enough background information on both technologies to get a reader ready to code--and that was just Chapter...err...Iteration 1. The second iteration begins with coding (Hello World) and it doesn't stop. This is a must for your coding library and makes a great textbook for students who enrolled in courses geared toward building web and Rich Internet Applications.

The author goes into great detail on how to efficiently get Rails and Flex working together. The book is updated for the latest version of Rails as well as the upcoming Flex 3 release. I've found the book easy to follow along with and enjoy the author's humor spread throughout the book.

As a developer I'm often tasked with making "things talk to each other". Typically if I can I'll use a tool like Flex Builder for a project and if I have a choice I'll pick Java, .NET or Ruby for the server back end - whatever is the best fit. This book only backed up my belief that Rails and Flex really do work very well together. I've learned a lot going through the code both on Rails and Flex.

I also liked how the author is continually refactoring the application (called "Pomodo"), that is where your learning kicks into overdrive. He uses the Cairngorm framework and even RubyAMF. I didn't have any experience in either up until this point. Now I can say I do and it all fits together nicely.

I bought this as a supplement to starting a new job where I knew I was going to be focusing on more inDesign. The book works well as a reference as well as reading through it one chapter at a time. It's a great addition to my growing library.

This book with it's DVD let me accomplish thing I would have had to pay other thousands to do for me. Deke has a is very entertaining style.
I can not recomend this book highly enough!

Deke is a great teacher: easy to follow, speaks clearly and isn't boring.
I don't think everything in the book is on video, but the book is also easy to follow. It too is a great teacher with lots of illustrations, tips and concise directions. Though I was a Quark user and completely new to InDesign, One on One does a great job of teaching it.

Read the lesson then watch the video in a blend of exercise book and video package in Adobe InDesign CS3 One-on-One. It's the perfect lesson approach for any learning Adobe either on their own or via on online class: Step-by-step text lessons pair with the DVD video demonstrations and projects keyed to real-world experience. With over 900 color images, diagrams, and over three hours of video instruction, these 12 self-paced tutorials will prove invaluable keys to any who seek a progressive lesson plan.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

McClellan's series of Adobe books are an invaluable reference for me. His tutorials are lessons I actually use in my work. He gives practical use of the software in a way even a novice user can understand and yet the professional will turn to time and again. Actually seeing the author use the tools in a video is the perfect way to learn software. I have many adobe manuals on my shelves, THIS one sits on my desk.

The only thing I can say is I bought it for my 16 year old grandson and he said it is awesome.

If you read the first book this is an excellent followup to help you increase you understanding of how to build a robot of your own. If you did not a good place is start with the first book Robert Building for Begginers. These books help get you in the thought process needed to build decent robots wather small or big.

This review is by my ten year old Robot fanatic:

This book introduces the most common parts (in a beginner type robot) step by step by defining them properly. So far I have made a line following robot almost from scratch. This book sets you up with many different options. It starts with safety and where to obtain parts then moving on to introducing parts. After that you are shown how to setup a solder-less breadboard.

This book (and it's prequel, Robot Building for Beginners by the same author) is extraordinarily good. It picks up where the previous book (which is the best book in existence for the beginning roboticist, in my opinion) leaves off, getting into details of milling parts, microcontroller circuits, and such. A truly wonderful book. If you read the previous book, and then read this book, you will have an excellent grounding in robotics, and have a very entertaining time doing it. Highly recommended!

I am a novice robot builder. I appreciate the thoroughness and practical approach of this book. I have understood and implemented several circuit ideas from this excellent book.

Books like this are refreshingly down-to-earth after reading the usual college text books.

This book can get you started just in the way you would like to. Mike understands what PB developers need to get started with Web development and Jaguar. Although EAS versions have changed, but the basic concepts suc as "stateless/stateful, instance pooling, transaction support, connection, etc" remain the same. This book is not for Java with EAServer - this is PowerBuilder with EAServer - as the name suggests.

This book was written for PowerBuilder 7 (now 7.03) and Jaguar CTS 3.0 (now Sybase Enterprise Application Server 3.6.1.08). While PowerBuilder hasn't changed much EAS most *certainly* has. When Jaguar 3.0 came out there was no database persistence standard for the Java platform, EJB was barely a spec (v 0.4), and a lot of things that we take very much for granted in the J2EE Specification simply didn't exist. Also, Jaguar 3.0 was a much 'clunkier' system to administer than that newer 3.6.1 release that Sybase has done. While many of the concepts discussed in this book from the PowerBuilder side are still applicable, some of the screen shots and processes are dated on the Jaguar side. Still, the book represents a good history lesson if nothing else. Being that this is the *only* book on the subject of using PowerBuilder as a front end to your Jaguar/EAS server-side code I'd say get it. But it's quickly become in *dire* need of a revamp. Are you listening, Mr. Barlotta??

The site was going to use PB7 and Jaguar - exciting! I ordered the book, read it, used the many fantastic code bits to get an n-tier PB7 app up and running. Fantastic book.

4 months later, the client decided to use Java, scrap PB development and sacked me without even a day's notice. Oh well. I still think Jaguar and the book and PB7 are tops! But the lesson learned is that Powerbuilder is on the way down and out!

I've been developing applications for over ten years. This book stands out as one of the best I've ever owned. It's very honest about how familiar you'd better be with PowerBuilder if you expect to use this book. The author takes into consideration the probability that you're new to Jaguar and yet doesn't 'dumb down' his guidance. It takes you through an explanation of CORBA, distributed processing, and gets you using Jaguar immediately. Excellent coverage of the administration of and development using Jaguar. If you plan on using EAS to build distributed apps, I highly recommend you read this book.

Excellant guide to getting started with Jaguar. Written for those users who know PowerBuilder and need to move to Jaguar. No distributed PB knowledge is required - Barlotta explains everything you need to know in plain english.

The time it will save you in figuring out what you are doing is well worth the cost of the book and more.

The examples in the book are good and source is available on line. The only complaint I would have is the code on the web is not organized in the zip file as well as it could be, but the author mentioned he was going to work on that. A little searching will find the code you need.

If you are thinking of doing distributed or web based applications using Jaguar, buy this book today.

Not only does the author write well and explain concepts expertly, but from the effort she expended in putting together the instructional materials that readers can download to follow her along for the "hands on" parts of the book, one could tell she understands very well what readers need from a tech book writer!!

Great tutorials and help on author's website. Definately a book for someone who needs to start from the beginning!

I am very happy with this book: it's easy to read, the structure is very intuitive and logical, and everything you need to know is covered. If you're just starting with WCF and you're looking for an excellent resource on the subject, look no further.

I purchased this and Lowy's book on WCF. Of the two, I'd say this is the one that will make WCF real to blue collar developers. More technical books need to be written this way. The author does an outstanding job of describing the pieces and parts of WCF from a functional standpoint before leading the reader through simple step-by-step exercises. These do a solid job of reinforcing the theory. I normally blow off working through sample code in technical works, but with WCF, it really helps to explore some of the nuances to things like serialization, callbacks and security. These are best appreciated by doing hands-on walkthroughs and fortunately, the author has provided very good examples in the companion download.

Lowy's book is good for different reasons, but I feel far more conversant in the WCF area having read and re-read Bustamente's book. Lowy's is a nice companion and it goes deep into stuff that, unless your current project really needs it, you'll brain dump in two weeks. Quote Lowy at swank cocktail parties with the hoi poloi, but use this book when you want to gain a solid understanding of this thing we call WCF.

Bustamente writes clearly and to the point. Git r' done types like me who are interested in exploring the functional without getting lost in the minutiae will appreciate Learning WCF.

This book is not about SOA although the author does touch on some basic premises governing what it does for the enterprise. Unlike Lowy, there weren't any real groaners about how SOA is going to replace OO and end world poverty. OO maybe got 30% penetration among software developers in formal polls. (As an informal measure, go into any MS shop and check out how many OO diagrams are created by devs in their work and you'll see what I mean. Most MS shops won't even spend money on third party modeling tools.) SOA isn't going to do any better and it addresses a different set of problems than does OO. Bustamente gives developers a solid grounding in appreciating what WCF can do while leaving all the fluff about "paradigm shifts" and what-not for others.

This is a very good book to get started quickly with WCF. Specially useful are the setup instructions and the section on hosting, which can be big gotchas with new technologies like this one. The section on security is a nice touch.

Here is the table of contents in case you are wondering:

Chapter 1. Hello Indigo
Section 1.1. Service Oriented Architecture
Section 1.2. WCF Services
Section 1.3. Fundamental WCF Concepts
Section 1.4. Creating a New Service from Scratch
Section 1.5. Generating a Service and Client Proxy
Section 1.6. Hosting a Service in IIS
Section 1.7. Exposing Multiple Service Endpoints
Section 1.8. Summary
Chapter 2. Contracts
Section 2.1. Messaging Protocols
Section 2.2. Service Description
Section 2.3. WCF Contracts and Serialization
Section 2.4. Service Contracts
Section 2.5. Data Contracts
Section 2.6. Message Contracts
Section 2.7. Approaches to Serialization
Section 2.8. The Message Type
Section 2.9. Summary
Chapter 3. Bindings
Section 3.1. How Bindings Work
Section 3.2. Web Service Bindings
Section 3.3. Connection-Oriented Bindings
Section 3.4. One-Way and Duplex Communication
Section 3.5. Large Message Transfers
Section 3.6. Custom Bindings
Section 3.7. Summary
Chapter 4. Hosting
Section 4.1. Hosting Features
Section 4.2. ServiceHost
Section 4.3. Self-Hosting
Section 4.4. Hosting on the UI Thread
Section 4.5. Hosting in a Windows Service
Section 4.6. Hosting in IIS 6.0
Section 4.7. IIS 7.0 and Windows Activation Service
Section 4.8. Choosing the Right Hosting Environment
Section 4.9. Summary
Chapter 5. Instancing and Concurrency
Section 5.1. OperationContext
Section 5.2. Instancing
Section 5.3. Concurrency
Section 5.4. Instance Throttling
Section 5.5. Load Balancing and Failover
Section 5.6. Summary
Chapter 6. Reliability
Section 6.1. Reliable Sessions
Section 6.2. Transactions
Section 6.3. Queued Calls
Section 6.4. Summary
Chapter 7. Security
Section 7.1. WCF Security Overview
Section 7.2. Securing Intranet Services
Section 7.3. Securing Internet Services
Section 7.4. Working with Certificates
Section 7.5. Building a Claims-Based Security Model
Section 7.6. Exploring Federated Security
Section 7.7. Summary
Chapter 8. Exceptions and Faults
Section 8.1. SOAP Faults
Section 8.2. WCF Exception Handling
Section 8.3. Exceptions and Debugging
Section 8.4. Fault Contracts
Section 8.5. IErrorHandler
Section 8.6. Summary
Appendix A. Setup Instructions
Section A.1. Database Setup
Section A.2. ASP.NET Provider Model Setup
Section A.3. Certificate Setup
Section A.4. IIS Application Directories
Appendix B. ASP.NET Meets CardSpace
Section B.1. Information Cards and CardSpace: A Brief Tour
Section B.2. Identity Metasystem Participants and Browser Flow
Section B.3. Let's Log In with CardSpace!
Section B.4. Processing the Token
Section B.5. Associating Cards with User Accounts
Section B.6. Creating a Dual Purpose Login Page
Section B.7. Conclusion