Software Development Books

This book basically contains the printed version of the official Ada 95 standard. You can obtain the text of the standard online, but for those who want a nicely printed copy, this is the book to buy.

However, the Ada 95 specification has since been updated with a number of errata fixes, such as typo corrections, fixed omissions and inconsistencies, etc. Those fixes have been rolled up into the standard text and are printed in the Consolidated Ada Reference Manual. That is the book you should buy. I believe it is also a bit less expensive.

This book is the official standards manual for the Ada 95 language (ISO standard). It takes an advanced reader, and is not a spead read.

This manual is part of a two manual release, with Ada 95 Rationale manual being the other in the series. This manual gives JUST the facts, that manual gives the reasons behind the facts.

Larry Ullman's easy informal writing style disguises a highly focussed, readable, condensed and very lucid approach. He manages to put in a paragraph or sentence what other authors take a chapter or two and then explains it much better.
This book gets you up, working with and understanding AIR very quickly. You may have to break off and learn a bit more JavaScript or IDE's but that is easily done. I had never heard of the runtime property of a window so read up about it even though it was not really necessary to do so.
He does introduce you to Aptana Studio which is an excellent IDE for the purpose .Its free and does a huge amount of donkey work leaving you to do the fun part. Here too you may have to break off and learn a bit about Aptana.
A handy web designer will find this book very interesting and useful. In short order you can write your own APIs.
I should think that because of it layout and focus on AIR an experienced professional would scream through the book in no time but find it invaluable in showing him/her what AIR is all about and how to work with it.
I have several of Larry Ullman's books and find he usually explains thing far better, more succinctly and lucidly than many more erudite tomes with many editions (which I also have).

As an experienced desktop programmer (and some web design) I have been looking for the "best" (easiest) way to write programs that are cross platform (PC, MAC, & Linux). A must for me is the ability to write and read files! I have read most of the book while in a bookstore and I was very impressed with all it has to offer. I just ordered it and I have already written my first program in 5 minutes! Ok, it was "hello world". I am using Dreamweaver CS3 (or any editor) and javascript and ajax. Low cost programming with the Adobe AIR runtime. This is the best and newest technology I have seen in years. Larry writing style makes this look easy and it is!!

This book serves as an awesome guide to the engineer seeking to become a key player in their team and business. The author brings a lot of experience to the book and equips the reader with the tools needed to build and maintain a successful business. John (the author) covers some of the popular frameworks, containers, API's and patterns used in Java today. Aside from the technical topics, John touches on the culture of engineering and business politics you may face.

I've been in engineering for almost 10 years now and have worn many hats; nothing beats experience and this book is a window into that experience. If you're like me, the engineer that stands the front line when the business is challenged with the technical issues of today, Affinity is the sword I'd carry into battle.

If you are responsible for any Java container at any level - You should read this book. Discusses many common pitfalls of Java server administration and for the first time in a long time, I felt that somone can relate. The author does a great job of providing examples of bad practice - almost like a Weblogic anti-pattern guide - and then advice on a better way to go about your business. Where this book really excels is in how it's written. Technical yet friendly to those who are not - think managers who aren't involved in the day to day operations, can use this book to give them strong insight into their staff's work and help to preempt many of the problems faced by organizations and personnel.

If you ever wonder how to keep up with the open-source explosion especially with respect to Java tools and technologies, here is one book that could come in your assistance. Very well written, simple to understand and easy to read examples explain various open-source technologies that can take you beyond Jakarta and a bit more. May be next year we can see the 2nd edition that can talk about the advances made in the last couple of years or so :-).

-SB

Many tools were discussed. The Ant tool chapter alone was better than the whole book called "Ant the Definitive Guide". He explains ant in a very gentle way. Good job. You get a good feel of how the industry cranks out webapps with these tools like eclipse,struts,junit,cactus,etc,etc. Good coverage!

Blade Kotelly is the one person in voice design whose attention to the human possibilities of a well-designed voice user interface provides assurance that humanizing our machines will not mechanize humanity. This treatment does not, however, merely try to convince aspiring designers to make their interfaces sound human. It illustrates how a designer can avoid ambiguity, aim for the most graceful styles of retries and error recovery, and how emotive responses can help to implicitly communicate the system's capabilities and limitations without requiring lengthy, explicit descriptions to be read out.

Though they are sometimes subtle, the issues and solutions outlined here are broadly explained, and this fosters an appreciation of each and leaves readers better equipped to anticipate where the next one may lie.

Kotelly is not delivering a text book which seeks to catalog countless dos and don'ts of design. Rather, he takes what I feel is the proper tack of showing by example how problems arise and listing not one, but a variety of choices a designer could make to avoid the problem. The result is not a series of commandments, but a richly illustrated outline of a well-developed philosophy of design and depiction. The work, I feel, helps the reader to appreciate the impulses that shaped Kotelly's leading work in the field, and to promote in him/her a sense of how they can develop their own affinity for designing systems that work efficiently and are received warmly.

If you truly think that a book will help you break into this field or expand your mastery within it, this is an excellent choice. It will inform you and prompt you to think well beyond the content it directly offers. It is perfect to get you thinking more passionately and expansively of what is possible in voice user interface design.

Speech recognition as a commercial product is still very new. In 1988, when I was first involved with it, the state of the art did not involve real time capability. You had to record the utterance and then analyse it with a computer. Typically, you also had to train the software with the speaker beforehand.

Now, we have commercially available real time, speaker independent products. Some of the largest companies, like United Airlines and ATT, have deployed these, to try and reduce call centre costs, and to improve the user's experience when dialling into such a place. Are you considering installing such software? Of course, you can talk to the vendors. But where can you get objective advice? One possibility is to ask researchers in the field. But they can easily and inadvertantly drown you in jargon, especially if you do not have a technical background. This book attempts to fill that need. You do not need a degree in computer science or maths to understand it.

The book does not explain how speech recognition works. Rather the emphasis is at a higher level: Using it in your workplace. The author gives many lucid examples of this. Basically, he outlines a commonsensical appproach that can be understood by anybody. He explains how not to overburden the user with long utterances full of information, but to take advantage of the context of the conversation to omit unnecessary details. He emphasises thorough testing, with a disciplined scaling up to a real life deployment in a call centre. Something that may well have been omitted in other deployments, leading to users gnashing their teeth in frustration at an obtuse dialog, or at busy phone lines.

He also discusses why companies should regard this as part of their corporate branding, and how to choose an appropriate "noble" voice as part of that branding. I think the "noble" sounds rather pompous, actually. But that's not his fault! It is a standard phrase in this field, and you too might get used to it.

The Art of Rails not only a great Rails book, but it is a great web development book. It's first chapter should be read by every web developer. It clearly explains how the web started, the choices that were made, and where it is today.

These types of broad insights are what you'd expect from a top CS curriculum. The kind of insights that explain why you are doing what you doing, instead of just how.

I just wish I read this book when I first started programming for the web.

I really enjoyed this book. (Of course, I enjoy most tech books because you can always pick up new information or a different/better slant on something you thought you already knew.)
It is obvious Edward knows his stuff, and he has a knack for describing and explaining difficult concepts.
I especially liked his coverage of AJAX, Methods and Messages, Procs and Blocks, and Mixins.
Good book, Edward. Thanks for writing it!

I would highly recommend this book for users that have to create assemblies. It is the best book out there using SolidWorks. The book provides a step-by-step approach that is great. The book addresses: top-down design, in-context mates, redefining external references, renaming parts, menus, commands, importing Autocad files, drawings etc. It is packed with go and useful information. PS: And you can understand it!

My company switched from Autocad to SolidWorks 6 months ago. Assemblies were giving us a challenge. I would highly recommend this book for users that have to create assemblies. The authors step you through real issues - importing Autocad files, renaming parts, drawings with configuration, top-down design, in-context mates and redefining external references. The CD with the book contains real parts and assemblies from SolidWorks 3D collaborative web site. The tables and tips are also helpful.

As I mentioned, my search for COM understanding could end here. I just went through the chapter that explains COM. I felt really relieved and accomplished. I searched and read several other COM books but none of them were this good. I'll go through the reminder of the book to quench my thrist.

I just read the first chapter last night. I found it to be very clear and succinct. In flipping through the rest of the chapters, they appear to be of the same quality.

I have some brief C++ experience from several years ago, and more recently some Java. All of my COM experience is with VB. With this background I was able to easily grasp the concepts being explained.

My goal is to learn to write COM objects in C++ as quickly as possible. This book is my choice for that task. It seems to have the balance of fundamentals review and new information that's right for someone who already has the basics of the C++ language and wants to expand into COM.

I haven't tested the code examples, so I can't be sure there aren't typos, but the code I saw looked correct to my relatively novice eye.

At this point, I'm very pleased with the purchase of this book.

this book was in perfect condition and still in the plastic packaging. Shipping was slower than expected but for the cheap price that I paid, it was definitely worth it!

I've only made it through half way and it has been 100% better than expected.

I have been querying SQL Server databases for six years using .Net. This book took me inside SQL Server and showed me how to manage tables, relations, stored proceedures, indexes and triggers.

The book achieves great mix of instruction and best practices. At times, I found myself wanting to know more but the book is already over 400 pages.

This is an excellent book for learning SQL Server 2005 Express. I started learning MS Access in 2003 when my wife asked me to develop a database for her to use at work. At the time I knew only the words "relational database". Over 99% of what I needed to know to develop that contact and resource management database to its fully featured capability came from multiple books.

The expectations have changed over time and now I need to use SQL Server 2005 Express as a back end with Access as the front end for that database. Knowing nothing about SQL Server 2005, I needed a very good book to help bring me up to speed. I found that in Robin Dewson's "Beginning SQL Server 2005 Express."

From the installation of SQL Server 2005 Express through an explanation of Triggers and Reporting Services, there is a clear and concise explanation of each aspect with the opportunity to Try It Out. I needed to know all of what he presents and I was especially interested in Installation, Security, and Database Backup, Recovery, and Maintenance. The Installation chapter explains very carefully and clearly authentication mode, service accounts, user instances, etc. The Security chapter clearly explains logins, server roles, database roles, and schemas. The Database Backup, Recovery, and Maintenance chapter is also clear and carefully written with information on types of backups, detaching and attaching a database, and transaction logs.

The Chapter headings are:
1. SQL Server 2005 Express Overview and Installation
2. SQL Server Management Studio Express
3. Database Design and Creation
4. Security
5. Defining Tables
6. Creating Indexes and Database Diagramming
7. Database Backup, Recovery, and Maintenance
8. Working with the Data
9. Building a View
10. Stored Procedures
11. T-SQL Essentials
12. Advanced T-SQL
13. Triggers
14. Reporting Services

Robin Dewson is a very good teacher with the gift of knowing how to present a concept and then build concept on concept. He also provides helpful tips on things to do and not to do.