Software Development Books

This book, by Thompson Learning, is an excellent book in that it not only goes into the code aspect of game creation using QT and a C++ compiler, but gives some insight into what it takes to design a particular game program solution.

However, even though it does not take a whole lot of programming experience to program a game, one does need to have at least a working knowledge of form creation using (QT or a Visual program language) and some knowledge of a C++ compiler.

Remember, to show a form it must be called by code which includes at least one (Show form) code block.

I would say the programming level needed to use this book effectively is at least advanced beginning. And I believe some experience in the Linux version of QT and the Linux GNU C++ compliler would be very helpful.

See this book as a general introduction to developing games and open source software, but some definitions are often shallow and/or briefly explained. You'll have to follow its many references to gather the whole knowledge together. Recommended for those with good skills in C++ and class programming but are willing to build some board games for fun. Interestingly, it gives some insight into AI and 3D gfx, but never deep enough for someone to start any serious project. The attached CDROM contains complete projects which does help a lot (but nothing that you can't find in the Web).

Well written, concise, clear -- this is book is the perfect introduction for anyone who wants to code using Qt and KDE as well as for anyone who wants to get into game programming as a hobby.

This book contains everything you need to know to develop game programs on Linux and the KDE desktop, with information on how to make your games portable to Windows, Mac and PDA. It covers a wide range of topics in a very clear fashion - technicalities of various platforms, use of Qt canvas 2D graphics and OpenGL 3D graphics, sound, artificial intelligence, path finding, maths and physics of games and network play, to name just a few. The references to websites and other texts, at the end of each chapter, are alone worth their weight in gold.

If only I had had this book available when I sat down to develop a game 4 years ago. I would have saved about a year of my life, which I spent finding out things the hard way!

Thanks to the Oppenheims, I am the best gift giver in my family. I'm not letting anyone in my family know about my secret weapon...but you should all know that my nieces and nephews think I am the best uncle ever. The book tells you what to get for every age and every budget. I love being the hit of every family party.

I was so impressed with this new book. I have purchased several other editions and always keep one with me when I go kiddie shopping. I have never found age appropriate shopping such a joy. The reviews are always on and being able to know approximate prices has been a real help.

My children are partial to Groovy Girls and all their accessories. I have seen the Oppenheims on NBC many times and know this is one of their favorites.

I usually find myself baffled when it comes to particularly young children under the age of 2. I refer to this book for great ideas.

Congratulations to the Oppenheims for another wonderful book.

Ususally skeptical about some so-called "experts" rating kids' products, I happen to catch one of the co-authors one morning on NBC's Today Show. Her approach to evaluating kids' toys, books, software, etc. was so straightforward, smart and dead-on that I immediately went out and bought the book. Best investment I ever made.

I have two kids, age 11 and 7, and I know what they like. The problem is I tend to buy the same type of toys over and over for them. The beauty of this guide is that it introduces you to types of products and brands that you may not have considered before. I find it's lack of gender-stereotyping also refreshing. It is invaulable for holidays and birthdays, and I find myself referencing it constantly.

I understand that this is the one and ONLY guide that does not accept any form of payment for review of products. Therefore, I can unequivocally trust the reviews to be impartial. Each product is not just reviewed by adults imposing their values on it, but by kids of the targeted age group. This makes me confident that the products aren't just "good for my kid," but actually will be enjoyed by them.

This book is INVALUABLE. I have seven neices and nephews, but no kids of my own, and I rely on this series as a reference for gift-giving ALL the time (I've used these books since 2000). Before that, gifts I gave to them were often not age-appropriate, didn't appeal to the kids, or drove the parents NUTS with the noice levels.

And then, I started using the Portfolio!!! I know, this sounds like a bad infomercial, but I'm being honest, I promise. So far, it's been ABSOLUTELY FLAWLESS - no kidding. I've given my nephews (ranging from newborn to 10 years old) several gifts, books, and videos, all of which have been perfectly age-appropriate, well-recieved, and played with for long periods of time. It's easy to follow, has great hands-on tips, and is cross-referenced for easily finding ideas and tips.

The best part, however, is that not only does it cover toys, books, and games... but it also explains developmental stages, provides tips for making up your own games, and creative inspiration for thinking outside the toy-box! I cannot recommend this highly enough for parents, aunts/uncles, grandparents, or anyone who needs to buy gifts (or anything else) for kids! This is one review book that is WORTH THE PRICE, every time.

This is THE Book to have if you intend to do any type of network programming on the palm. The time you'll save in the first hour will pay for the book.

Not only is it very well written it includes many great examples, covering the simple to the complex. Even if I'm only doing something relatively simple I've found it's always worth it to see how the author's handled the situation in his examples. There's also a lot of information here that's only briefly touched on in the Palm OS Reference or not covered at all.

I'm very careful about purchasing books, usually relying on reference manuals and online docs when I can. However, this is one that I have absolutely no regrets about adding to my library.

Kevin

I found this book to be exactly what I was in search of - something to clearly explain how to use NetLib along with well documented examples! Greg Winton does an excellent job of taking the reader through the development of an FTP application (explaining NetLib and sockets along the way) - each chapter builds on the previous and introduces new concepts in comprehensible portions.

I admit, like most engineers, that I jumped ahead to the end to see the "whole enchilada", but then went back and reread the earlier chapters. This was still a good approach for absorbing all that is presented in this book.

I highly recommend this book to anyone venturing into networking their Palm. It is well written, concise, and contains insights from someone who is clearly experienced in networking.

An excellent, well-written book with great examples that should work for both beginners and advanced users. No other book on Palm OS development [I think I own just about all of them] overlaps in any serious way with the topics treated so thoroughly in this book.

The chapters on non-blocking sockets are an absolute must-read for anybody who wants to develop robust, responsive, real-world applications for the Palm OS.

Two nit-picky items: 1) the book is somewhat more verbose than it needs to be because of irrelevancies about "the Zen of this..." and the "Tao of that...". If you ignore these altogether too-cute sidebars, you'll have a generally more productive and pleasant read. 2) there are some occasional stylistic problems with the C-code. Not errors, but things like assignments to local variables that would never be referenced that show up. The code is also somewhat more pedestrian than that employed by most working C or C++ coders. For the large audience, this might be a plus. I think the style makes it more accessible to VB and NS-Basic types. But it will be a little off-putting to the hard-core.

Palm OS Network Programming is the first book for which I have written a review. I cannot think of a finer book to start my editorial review career. Greg Winton's organization, clarity, and writing style, transforms a potentially dry topic into a work of art that is truly a joy to read.

I am currently 3/4 of the way through the book and I'm torn between plowing through it (as I usually do) and reading as slowly as I can...not wanting to reach the finish line.

Greg Winton does an outstanding job of describing the principles behind Palm OS networking, and explaining network application development in crystal clear detail. The order in which the material is presented and the explanations that accompany the API descriptions and sample code, confess that this was not a book that was rushed to market, but was instead thoroughly researched and revised to perfection.

I truly believe that Palm OS Network Programming raises the bar for future programming books, and deserves an easily accessible spot in every Palm OS developer's library.

I have spent the last six months of my life learning as much as I can about parsing. I own half a shelf of compiler books, and I have flipped through the pages of half a shelf more.

No other book approaches the clarity and comprehensiveness of this book.

When you try to read most literature about parsing, authors tend to throw around a lot of terms without explaining them. What exactly is a "deterministic" parser, a "canonical" parser, a "directional" parser? Grune and Jacobs explain every one of these distinctions lucidly, and put all known algorithms in context of how they compare to the rest of the field. How do the algorithms compare in what languages they can parse, how fast they are, and how much of the work can be done ahead of time? The book addresses all of these trade-offs, but doesn't stop at asymptotic complexity: in chapter 17 (the comparative survey), they note that general parsers may be a factor of ten or so slower than deterministic methods, even though both are linear. This high-level overview and comparative survey are something I was desperately seeking, and I've found nothing comparable to them anywhere.

There is also a lot of important background information that other authors tend to assume you know: for example, did you know that when authors say "LL" they almost always mean "strong LL" unless they specifically say "full LL?" Are you totally clear on the difference between strong LL, simple LL, and full LL? If you're not sure, Grune and Jacobs will give you all the explanation you need to fully understand.

This book strikes a perfect balance between breadth and depth. All significant algorithms are covered, most with enough detail to fully understand and implement them, but Grune and Jacobs punt on less practical material like proofs or rigorous formal descriptions. That information is never more than a citation away though, thanks to the 417-entry annotated bibliography, which gives you not only references to source material but a paragraph or two describing their key results.

I couldn't be happier about adding this book to my bookshelf of compiler books -- it quickly became the book I refer to most often, and I thank Grune and Jacobs for this superb guide to this vast and diverse field of computer science.

After searching all over for a way to understand the translation field and looking the dragon book and all, this is a great find. I am a practicing software engineer with training in electronics (good old forgotten days) and did not like math classes. This book is a great way to make this topic approachable for a practicing industry developer. Admittedly is a difficult read but if you want to understand something it needs the effort. If you cannot read the # * + etc in the other compiler books this books makes it comprehendible.

The first edition is available at Grune's web site but this very much expanded second edition is not.

just google the first author. he has the pdf version online.

Weather you are a newbie Peoplesoft DBA or have been on the field for sometime....there is something for everyone in this book. This is an awesome book and it talks about A..Z about Peoplesoft DBA aspect. Buy it if you are managing/administrating Peoplesoft instances. Its worth every penny

This book is a deep in-depth view of the function of Peoplesoft on an Oracle database. Not only does it cover the fundamentals of how Peoplesoft uses the database features, it also details almost every table in the system on a row by row basis. An in-depth resource which is sure to be invaluable to anyone using this software configuration.

I bought this book just to get familiar with Peoplesoft environment (before the project to install Oracle RAC for Peoplesoft) and cover what I need to know as Oracle DBA. It beats all my expectations - I found lots of DBA relevant details as well as extremely useful overview of architecture and application design with Tuxedo.
After skimming through the book for few hours, I was able to fully understand and talk to Peoplesoft people at client side. In some cases, I knew even more details (or where to get more) than DBA on client site. Showed this book to the client DBA and he was so much thrilled with that - ran and bought it right away.
Well done David! Excellent Job. Thanks!

I have been an Oracle DBA for ten years and needed to ramp up very quickly recently for a large client to support their PeopleSoft environment without time to get training on PeopleSoft. This book fits the void left empty as the other PeopleSoft books are geared toward PeopleSoft application developers and not for an Oracle DBA who needs to understand the new ways of working with Oracle databases and PeopleSoft applications. Definitely a gold mine of nuggets for those who need to understand Peoplesoft on Oracle!!

I purchased this book on sight, having had Dr Menasce's class. It is a reasonably easy introduction to his brand of performance modeling. I don't understand why this approach isn't more well known.

His operating systems class was one of the most memorable that I took at GMU (over a decade ago). I don't know how many other Operating Systems professors take his approach in focusing on queuing theory in modeling performance problems, but his approach is enlightening.

Using one of his performance models, we were (in class) able to tweak the performance characteristics of the various (modeled) components and watch bottlenecks move from one device to another, underscoring how you can reach a point where improving performance in the wrong component can be a waste, while making small improvements in the bottleneck can provide much better (often linear) improvements.

Capacity and Performance management is a very complex subject. I have read a couple of books. Most of them had dry theory without supporting examples. In some cases, I abruptly stopped reading. These type of books may be good to people who are quite fresh from the academic world. Having worked for sometime, one would desire a book with simple but strong fundamentals and more of relating examples.

This book stood out to my quest. The pace of the coverage was gradual from Gear 1 to Overdrive. Every ounce of theory was supported with examples. Normally I would skip theory and look for examples. But here I enjoyed reading theory. Well Written!

The Case Studies were real world examples. I gained a lot reading this book. Would recommend this book for Technology professionals who want to switch to Capacity and Performance Management.

I would definitely want Mr Menasce and his team to write books on the same topic to address real world end-to-end and new challenges like Petri Nets, Technology Consolidation, Data Warehousing, GRID, Utility Computing, Virtualisation etc. This should definitely help the Technology Community at large.

"Performance by Design" provides both a conceptual and a practical framework for experienced software developers that want to get started building quality applications using performance engineering techniques.

Performance engineering is a discipline that attempts to integrate concerns about the responsiveness of computer applications and their capacity requirements into standard application development practices, which otherwise focus almost exclusively on meeting functional requirements. Just like not getting the functional spec right in the early stages of the application development lifecycle can lead to a cascading series of design and implementation decisions that are difficult to reverse in later stages of the development process, neglecting performance considerations until after the applications has met its functional requirements is often too late to tackle them effectively.

The first part of the book surveys a wide range of performance modeling and capacity planning techniques, served up in clear, concise language with a minimum of mathematics. It is a gentle introduction to analytic queuing networks written at the level that any advanced undergraduate Computer Science student ought to be able to master. The heart of the book, representing Chapters 5 through 9, is a series of Case Studies that rounds out and concludes Part 1. Each of the case studies deftly illustrates another analytic technique that a performance engineer needs to understand how to apply. Chapter 5, for instance, steps through descriptive statistics and cluster analysis as it discusses what is involved in deriving model parameters for a simple database transaction workload. Chapter 6 builds upon this discussion by solving a simple multi-class model, delving into confidence limits and the use of a factorial design to limit the number of trials of a benchmark experiment. Finally, Chapter 9 illustrates using software performance engineering techniques to model a new application during its initial development phases, beginning with the database design.

The first half of the book is designed to stand alone if the Reader doesn't have the stomach for the rigorous mathematical treatment of analytic queuing models that characterizes Part 2. The second half of the book should be familiar territory to readers of Menasce's other books on performance modeling, beginning with Markov chains and proceeding through Mean Value Analysis. The final two chapters describe approaches to modeling serialization delays and servers that have load-dependent performance characteristics, two topics that are essential to accurate models of application-level performance.

The great challenge of the performance engineering approach is how to persuade experienced applications developers to adopt these techniques. "Performance by Design" is aimed at getting software developers to pay closer attention to performance concerns throughout the application development life cycle. Compared to other books on the subject, this may be the best attempt yet to promote the practice of performance engineering as a discipline that deserves to be integrated into the wider context of application development.

This team of authors has produced yet another invaluable book for practitioners who perform capacity and performance planning, as well as students who are introduced to this topic for the first time. Unlike earlier works by the authors, which addressed performance in specific systems environments such as client/server, e-business and web services, this book is more general. Therein lies the true value - it teaches the fundamentals and will not be soon outdated.

The book is structured into two parts - Part I consists of four chapters that lay the foundation. Chapter 1 covers system life cycles, Chapter 2 moves the reader from systems to descriptive models of the systems, and Chapters 3 and 4 delve into the essence of performance - quantifying performance models and giving a performance engineering methodology. This material is reinforced with five chapters, each of which is a case study of a specific performance problem. These include database services, web servers, data center, e-business services and help-desk services.

Part II, The Theory of Performance Engineering, addresses the underlying knowledge that performance and capacity planners will need in order to approach their tasks using true quantitative methods. The six chapters in this part of the book cover the following topics in detail, and are clearly and succinctly written: Markov models, single queue systems, single class MVA (Mean Value Analysis), queuing models with multiple classes, queuing models with load dependent devices, and non product-form queuing models. Armed with a knowledge of these fundamentals you should be able to tackle complex performance and capacity problems, both in the software engineering domain when a system is being designed, and in the operational support domain when service level management and availability are the goals. In addition to the way the authors step you through complex math in a clear, easy-to-understand manner, this material is augmented by Microsoft Excel workbooks that bring the material to life. Nearly every chapter has associated workbooks and spreadsheets that can be downloaded from the web site that supports this book, adding considerably to the value of the material.

If you are new to performance planning as a discipline this should be the first book you read on the subject. If you teach performance planning, this is an ideal text around which you can base a curriculum that will prepare your students for real world challenges.

This is an excellent book on powerbuilder programming targeted mainly at intermediate and advanced level programmers and provides step by step code not found in other powerbuilder books. This book does not waste too much of time on theories ,but wherever possible provides useful hints.Till date, there is no powerbuilder book in the market that provides plenty of code,and this book does fill that void.Only minus point is lack of PFC coverage.I really wonder why waite group is yet to release their next version(ie PB 6 how to) and I am eagerly awaiting its release.

This is a fantastic book which Provides a lot of code not found in other PB books that too in an excellent step by step HOW TO format.It mainly targets the intermediate to the advanced level Programmer although beginners can also benefit from it and advance quickly.Lack of PFC coverage is the only minus aspect about this book.It wastes very little time on theories as is the case with most other PB books.Topics covered include OLE, API calls etc. I am eagerly waiting for their next release.(ie PB6 how to)

This is a book which provides a lot of code in an excellent HOW TO format.It does not waste much time on theories as is the case with most other Powerbuilder books.Instead it teaches through practical examples and Provides step by step code. from beginner to advanced level.Lack of PFC coverage is the only minus aspect.I am eagerly waiting for their next release.(ie PB6.0 how to)

This is one Powerbuilder booK Which Teaches you how to write code from beginner to advanced level in an Excellent step by step HOW TO format.It does'nt waste time on theories as is the case with most PB books.The only Minus point about this book is that it doesn't cover PFC.I am eagerly waiting for PB 6 HOW TO to be released. I hope PFC 6.0 would be covered in that Edition. I hope the authors take notice of this.I strongly recommend this book For people who are not too comfortable with coding in Power builder but yet familiar with the concepts.

I bought this book just out of interest to read a book about mail servers.
I have setup mail servers before (including virtual domains etc.).

I think this book sales point is the combination of the well thought structured contents, the nice contents flow, the good administration manners and well paced chapters based on simple proven solutions.

Its one of the books which you just cant put down till the end. The author has its very own idea of how to tell the story and its refreshingly different.

He is deliberately splitting up processes for server and client side point of view (f.e sending and receiving e-mails, filtering etc.)and goes the extra miles to bring his points accross.

The book describes all required functionality for basic, but full blown mail server systems (Virtual domains, clusters etc. are - if at all - only mentioned for completion purpose).

I did like that the authors have a good feeling on how much information first time system admins can take. Whereever possible the author gives basic explanations about the components described, warn to make backups before proceeding, and reasons the design decisions he made (keywords: backward compatibility with previous standards, work arounds etc.).

I also liked the motivating spirit, design considerations and experiences the author is sharing with the reader. I would give it 5 stars for junior system administrators, 3-4 for seniors.

Regardless of how many stars I give it, I find the story, how its told, its ideas and the spirit of it most impressive.

Full marks !!

This book was really informative from start to finish. I come from a Windows backround, and with the aid of this book, I now an running an open source mail server. I would highly recommend this book!

I am very impressed with this book. My interest in deploying my own email server has been peeked by recent events concerning privacy. While I am a programmer and I lean towards open source technologies, I was a little skeptical of my abilities of launching an open source email solution. After about four chapters of this book I relaxed because I realized the author was never assuming anything on part of the reader. Everything was thoroughly documented before me. Plus it's cool that the author adds in a little bit of history here and there on email. I definitely recommend this book. Just remember to get the most out of it, read it front to back.

If you're a beginner this is a great book. However, I guess I'm at a higher level than what this book aims for. For example, I don't need the whole history of email, nor do I need basics on getting around a Linux system. Also, this book used FC4 and sendmail, while I am a Debian guy who uses Postfix.

If you've never set up a server before, give this book a shot. Otherwise, look for something a little more advanced.

Also - Poor editing! See especially the discussion of IMAP servers (appears as "IMA" in several tables). There are other assorted errata as well. Nothing a second edition can't fix (from what I saw).

If you have an interest in learning about mashups, this is a book you don't want to miss. Whether you're just starting out or have some understanding of the subject already this book will dramatically increase your understanding of the subject.

An excellent, up-to-date (2008) book on mashups including: a workmanlike overview of the components with real exercises, details of the services, list of leading websites supporting mashups with specific interactions/examples of several, resource links, etc. A common thread through the book is using Flickr services, which makes sense as a learning exercise -- theirs is a widely used and robust set of features and services. While I could actually care less about interacting with Flickr, it was a good learning tool, and if by chance you do want to use Flickr in your mashups, then order the book right now.

One point, though, is that while the author tries to speak to all levels of web developer, that doesn't succeed so well -- the topic is really pretty advanced for beginners. Though anyone can glean useful knowledge, this is really a book for mid-level and above developers. If your exposure to websites is limited to Photoshop and Dreamweaver, this is probably not the best book for you.

I use (mostly) PHP now (formerly Java and before that C++ and before that you don't want to know), and there were a lot of PHP-specifics (though not exclusive), which I appreciated. The scattered resource links were invaluable. I tend to be submerged in my own field, and don't have the time to keep up with every trend, and this book pointed out several sites/tools that are apparently widely known and used, but with which I was unfamiliar.

Excellent job.

This is the type of book that you can either skim and get ideas from or sit down at a computer and work through all of the examples. The material is presented clearly and thoroughly illustrates different types of mashups. The book discusses how to use Yahoo Pipes and Google Mashup Editor, their respective map API's along with manipulating Flickr properties and API's. Integrating feeds and blogs into mashups are also described. Though not required, a reader would understand more of the book with some background in languages like javascript, php, and of course xml/html.

Kudos to the author and publisher for this release.
This book is a tour de force of the subject of Mashups.

I was looking for a good book on this subject so that I could introduce it to students as part of an extra-curricular technology program in NYC and this book is perfect.

In a sentence, Mashups are created by taking data from one or more sources and making something new and useful from them.

In my opinion, the subject is very important because there is a vast amount of data that is available now. Today the challenge is not just finding data but putting to use. This book shows you how to do that.

The author's writing style is excellent, mixing theory and applications. The book is filled with hands on examples as well as references for research in each of the areas.

I believe that this book can be read by anyone interested in the subject, regardless of their technical background. For those that want to create Mashups without programming, this book shows you how. For those that want to delve into programming, everything that you need is covered including AJAX, PHP, various data formats and how to parse them, various Javascript libraries and more.

The book is laid out in four parts:

1. Remixing Information Without Programming
As the title suggests, the chapters in this section require no previous programming experience. The author walks through some specific examples, introduces terminology and analyzes how sites like Flickr and del.icio.us work so that you can get the most out of them. Tools such as Yahoo! Pipes (a browser-based visual application for Mashups and Remixing) are explored. Following along with the discussion the reader can put together a Mashup or Remix by simply understanding the concepts and using tools, but not having to delve into coding.

2. Remixing a Single Web Application Using Its API
For the person who wants to code, this part of the book jumps right in discussing the Flickr API, PHP usage, XML processing and more. From there the discussion moves to other APIs and using AJAX/Javascript widgets.

3. Making Mashups
This section starts by delving into the ProgrammableWeb website. Showing how to find what resources are available, studying existing Mashups via which APIs they use and how to go about creating new ones. From there XMLHttpRequest and Javascript libraries such as YUI are covered and a step-by-step example is given using the previously discussed techniques. Lastly, the author addresses issues around implementing Mashups on your site including standards, accessibility and your own API. I was glad to see these topics covered as sometimes in the haste of getting something online, they can be overlooked.

4. Exploring Other Mashup Topics
This final section of the book covers a large range of interesting topics such as Map-based Mashups, Social Bookmarking, Calendars, Online Storage, Desktop and Office Suites, Embeddable Data Formats and Searches.

As you can see, there's a lot of information covered in this book. In my opinion, everything that one could want on the subject and written in such a way that you want to keep reading, exploring and creating your own Mashups.

I highly recommend this book - so far, it has been my favorite read of 2008!