Programming Languages Books

This is the best book on C++ ever written, even better than Eckel's "Thinking in C++".

It is a very clear book, easy to read, with colors, well organized and with exercises. Solutions are provided for the exercises.

I think the most important thing about this book is it's written with ISO C++ 1998 and STL in mind. Most other books teach you C++ 1989 (or even older!) and have an appendix about ISO C++ 1998 and another appendix on STL, and believe me, that's not good for you.

This is certainly the best C++ book I have read for auto-didactic purposes. C++ is a horrible programming language (coming from a functional programming POV, as well as a ton of ANSI-C systems and Fortran numerics coding in my past), which has unfortunately become a standard in many fields. Should it be a necessary evil to you, this is probably the book to read. Better yet: find a different line of work. All right thinking people should avoid making C++ a part of their profession. It has erased more hours of talent than MS minesweeper or solitaire.

After having purchased and read many different C++ books over the last few years in an ongoing quest for C++ knowledge... I can whole
heartedly endorse this volume... You will learn C++ from this book , buy it, study it , move ahead with your C++ journey...

Attending lectures on C++: Not a clue.

With this book: No problem at all!

The book is great!

If you like to learn from examples and illustrations, and do not have too much time to waste with long explanations, this book is for you. All the major topics of C++ are covered in a nicely structured series of 33 chapters. To name a few:

-Pointers
-Classes
-Methods
-Overloading
-Dynamic Memory Allocation
-Inheritance
-Polymorphism
-Abstract Classes
-Exception Handling
-Templates
-Containers
-etc

Every topic in a given chapter is typically introduced in two pages, the first with an illustration and/or a sample code, followed by a clear and concise discussion of the topic, including its motivation and caveats. The discussion on pointers is particularly illuminating, as well as the discussion on Classes and Object Oriented Programming, which is after all the heart of C++.

I would not recommend this book for someone who does not have any previous exposure to a structured computer language, but it is definetely a great guide and reference on C++ for those already familiar with C, Pascal, etc.

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"

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 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 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!

OK, so perhaps you don't need this book, but you'll enjoy it anyway!
The best review and tutorial on clusters available, this book is also funny
enough that you probably don't want to read it in a quiet environment.

As other reviewers have said, this is an excellent book and is a *must have* for anyone exploring practically any aspect of cluster computing. Even beyond the quality of the information conveyed, the writing style is wonderful and the author makes an otherwise abstract and cumbersome topic quite readable and quite approachable. This book is regarded as the Clustering Bible worldwide, and I've seen copies placed prominently in the bookshelves of individuals in Beijing, Tokyo, Paris, and the US. Microsoft's own Cluster Server was codenamed 'Wolfpack', as an honerable reference to the cover art of this specific book.

Aaron McKee
Clustering Products Manager
TurboLinux Inc.

In a subject which is probably considered dull Pfeister has written a book which is actually entertaining as well as informative.If you are new to high perforamnce computing this book will begin from the basics and teach you all the way.If you are a pro you still will find it a great refernce material worth a read.You are bound to find something new in it.

This book provides a terrific introduction to the hardware, software, and systems architecture of parallel computing, candidly discussing the issues and trade-offs in various approaches. The emphasis is on clusters, but there is lots of information on the whole continuum from single processor machines to SMPs to clusters to distributed computing. Pfister will leave you with a better understanding of things like how SMP machines keep processor caches coherent, what the differences are between SMP, NUMA, and distributed computing, how various cluster products work, real world cluster issues (like system administration), programming models used in parallel computing, and why programming code that runs efficently on these architectures is usually the hard part.

The book is somewhat dated - nothing about Beowolf for example - but the concepts remain valid. Many of the issues are illustrated with reference to mainframe clusters, especially IBM's 390 sysplex, which I found particularly interesting since I don't have much experience with these systems.

The style is highly readable and informal, but not insultingly non-technical. The book is loaded with opinion and insights - it is not a dry textbook of issues related to clustering. Highly recommended for anyone in the business of creating information systems that need to run fast.

While struggling through this book, I spend more time thinking about the characters of this author than about cluster. He has this unique style of telling a subject like a friend telling you a story and it goes like : I am going to tell you this .. but first let me explain why I tell you this .. and now I want to tell you how I am going to tell you this .. and finally this is this, believe you me .. OK, truth is - I lied, it is actually this ... and on and on. He successfully made "this" simple and understandable to a certain degree, but the "how I, why I" portion mix with some high IQ humours did confuse me no end - though it is fun. I find that at some stage I have to use a finger to point to a key sentence and said " OK, Pfister is going to tell me this - lets see how" - then at some stage I will have to judge whether he has finished what he promised and is already on to new stuff. And, he does choose some words that I suspect is more often used in classical literature - rococco, dischotomies, litany, etc - which although harmlessly infrequent, does add some irritation to the already burden mind. All things considered, going through this book is fun. In case you are one of those like me that is quite lost and struggle a fair bit, I did find chapter 6 fairly readable - so perhpas you want to starts from there and work backward/forward if other chapters frustrated you a fair bit.

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.

'Learning Flex 3: Getting up to Speed with Rich Internet Applications' is a great guide for anyone looking to learn or improve their Flex 3 skills. A collaborative book between O'Reilly and Adobe, this text is a perfect buy for anyone that wants to get their feet wet with this new and exciting technology or just needs a refresher in the basics of how to build Web 2.0 applications.

The Flex platform is perfect for building self-contained apps which are netcentric, modern and efficient. If you are looking to build a new web app you owe it to yourself to take a look at this technology and this is the perfect first step to take!

**** RECOMMENDED

Learning Flex 3 is an excellent resource for beginners who know nothing about Flex. Please read a detailed review of the book I posted online at RIA Revolution -- [...]

Well worth the price - for anyone learning Flex 3 and needing a good well rounded book that answers a lot of essential questions. A great find, easy to read, to the point, clearly written and the examples work exactly as you'd expect. A very satisfying read indeed.

The first thing that stood out is that it's in color! I love color, especially for technical material it adds a whole extra dimension to the medium and another vehicle by which to communicate. Obviously in code listings it makes the code easier to visually digest and mentally break down what you're seeing, and with screen caps color is so much more appealing.

The dimension of the book is wider that normal, which gives the book an extra wide gutter that the publisher is able to leverage. And leverage they do by making use of it for an assortment of side bars, notes, tips, and blurbs.

So aside from the aesthetics, content of course is the key. The book is aimed at beginners who don't necessarily have any sort of programming background - so the audience that this book would appeal to includes anyone interested in learning more about Flex and if it's the right fit for them; as a quick read (only 304 pages) you can blast through this book in a short amount of time.

Who might those people be? Developers wanting to test the waters with Flex because they had heard good things about it, Flash or Web media designers thinking about getting into the development side of things with Flex, and management level folks looking to explore new opportunities and want to get a barometer reading on what it would take to get into Flex, etc...

The writing style is fairly casual, and you feel like the author is talking to you (as opposed to the feeling of a manual). I think the author does a pretty good job at keeping things high level with enough meat to make the reader feel they're actually being productive as they work through the examples.

So I'd recommend this book to someone who wants to get their feet wet with Flex - someone who may not be fully committed to Flex at this point in time and doesn't want to invest a ton of time yet.

* Difficulty Level: Beginner
* Range of topics: Moderate
* Depth of topics: Light
* Development experience needed: None
* Reading Speed: Fast
* Writing Style: Casual

I was beginner to Flex and went through different books and adobe document (excellent & highly recommended for reference). Now after going through the book I feel it is perfect for someone who want to learn Flex (coming from Java or anyother OO language)

It is very well organize plus color text makes it very easy to read (color text is my favorite).

In my opinion must read for beginner who come from Java background (myself)