Software Books

I actually met Joe in a Books-A-Million in Montgomery, Alabama... He is a very nice guy too! The book is chock full of code, it is concise and it is worth every penny and then some. If you want to learn about how to use LINQ effectively, congratulations, you just found your book.

Once I had heard of LINQ I had spent a lot of time reading through the MSDN docs, but I wanted more information about it. Pro LINQ was the answer. It gave a very thorough run-down of each of the various technologies involved with LINQ as well as a breadth of useful examples to illustrate the points that were made. In addition I thought that the book had a nice progression of topics that left you wanting to continue on to the next chapter. LINQ is an awesome technology, and I feel that this book is a great tool to add to your arsenal to help better utilize it to its fullest capabilities. This book was definitely written from a developer's standpoint, but I didn't feel that it threw too much at you. I would highly recommend this book.

This book is incredible at explaining the new LinQ functionality and since many of the enhancements made to C# were made to accomadate LinQ, it also does an excellent job at explaining the new language enhancements in a concise fashion. Highly recommend this book.

Reading this book you can get the illusion that LINQ is just about XML. There is so much more - pretend that LINQ has noting to do with XML and see how it can change your project delivery!

LINQ in Action This is the book that really shows what LINQ can do. It is VERY easy to read and get upto speed using this book - its a must have. Once you have mastered this book then look at others.

It's very rare to find a book on any programming topic that works as both an introduction to the subject as well as a reference for seasoned users. Joseph Rattz's book should be the first stop for anyone hoping to learn about LINQ. The examples given make what could have been a potentially massive learning curve even for experienced ADO.Net users a lot smoother.

I have been learning ColdFusion for about 5 months now and have 4 books on it. So far I have this one and 3 others. And out of all the books I have on ColdFusion, I use this one and one other one the most. Even though it is written in ColdFusion MX, it still has a lot of good ColdFusion examples and descriptions on how to make some of the most popular applications. Great book if your looking for a book that is a little cheaper and still has a lot of great info. If your looking for the new breakthrough features of CF8, than mabye you should try somewhere else. But overall, a great book for the price!!

This book is the best Cold Fusion book to date. I use this book daily. The book contains clear examples without a lot of fluff. Can't wait until the next release.

Everithing you need to good programming in ColdFusion. Not to useful if you're interested in Server Configuration.

The only quibble I have with this book is that it is not long enough! Some parts just paraphrase ColdFusion documentation, which is not bad in itself but left me wanting to know more from the author about how he applied the feature to a project.

It would be phenomenal if the author could expand this book or, better yet, put together a new book of more extended examples called "ColdFusion Examples in a Nutshell," similar to "Java Examples in a Nutshell" by David Flanagan.

Having said that, I can now state that this book is a shining example of what a programming book is supposed to be:
(1) Well-Organized. Chapters are grouped logically.
(2) Well-Documented. Almost every topic has at least one example; a few have a complete set of templates to guide the beginning CF (ColdFusion) programmer.
(3) Well-Balanced. In addition to instructive code, the author also provides many in-depth explanations of ColdFusion and database principles.

About six months ago the company I work for recently moved to Coldfusion 5 server (holding off on CFMX until all the bugs are worked out) and since that time, application programming duties have been dumped on me. As a web designer and not a programmer, this was a more than a little worrisome. After trying to wade through Forta's Construction Kit, Hewitt's Core Coldfusion 5, as well as "Mastering Coldfusion 5" it was as if the light was turned on by Rob Brooks-Bilson's Programming Coldfusion.

By the by, those books mentioned are all great books. I own all of them. But when it came down to what I really needed to know and understand Bilson came through like no other. Great job Rob! Keep up the good work.

Although I have been using FMPro 6 for more than a year, and bought this book in the fall of 2000, I still refer to it often. I wish Coulombre and Price (or someone else for that matter) would write the same book for version 6. Nevertheless, this book is full of scripting and coding gems that I'm sure any developer can appreciate. Sometimes just to brush up on my skills if I haven't done any developing for a while, other times to learn a new trick.

This book obviously is not meant to hold your hand while you do your own coding. It encourages you to take the examples and develop further on your own. Because it is set up with this self-learning concept in mind, it never fails to let me down, and I never feel talked down to. There are plenty of tips and tricks to boot as well. There are few books that continue to inspire long after a new version of the software has been released. This is definitely one of them.

I have a pretty nice library of FileMaker books and this is my favorite. The thoughtful review of how to consider a design on paper before developing, along with hints about how to interact with clients and use diagrams gave a structure to my communications with clients that is professional and powerful. In addition to this there are amazing hints and chapters of information that I (joyfully) continue to refer to in my development practice, though I've had the book for years now. More than any other, it put me in control, and I am grateful.

This book can't be for serious developers.

You will read to Chapter 8, Crafting the User Interface,
page 214 (out of 532) before seeing anything that's
more than "do the right thing"-type of generic advice.

It's too bad, since the applications I've downloaded
in a quest to get a handle on FileMaker are all very
attractive. This book, however is not helping me
with the simplest of tasks: how to use FileMaker Pro
to turn an Excel spreadsheet into a useful database.
Importing the data and cutting the flat Excel file is
easy to do with the help of the FileMaker Pro user
interface. Coulombre and Price point out the FileMaker
model isn't stricly relational. I"m still looking for
the "how to" join (or relate) my Christmas card history
to the address file. Having created the relationship,
this is where the FileMaker help falls off rapidly, and
you might expect this book to become useful. It doesn't.

The chapter titled "Dumb Portal Tricks" should have included some
simple, or straight-forward "how to" map a portal into the
layout.

The layout chapter could have included one example of how to
put tabs on the layouts. The authors give good reason to prefer
tabs over menus in organizing an application. I believe them.
It will have to remain on faith, lacking necessary evidence.

I'm not breaking the seal on the accompanying CD since there
is no information in the book about what to expect. The rest
of the book offers little hope the CD will be more help with
specific tasks.

If your an intermediate user to FMP, you'll love this book. If you're an advanced user, good scripting and reporting info and good webifying Chapter. Also, good case studies and planning chapters.
But if you are new to FMP, except for the chapter on planning, you need to have a basic understanding of the program. Otherwise, it is the beginner and intermediate who will really benefit from this book.
It also contains a CD which has great examples of invoicing, billing & inventory control to great scripts and layouts. If you can only buy one book to accompany the user manual, this would be my choice at the present.

This book is not for beginners, as it explains very briefly fundamental FM concepts. Instead, there are many very useful tips and insights on how to succesfully develop a real-world app.
I personally found the script section invaluable, this book really upgraded the way I use Filemaker.

This a very good book. It is written by two people that together have more than 40 years of experience in project management (PM) and provides with real and usefull examples.
I strongly recommend reading to people that already know PM. Its not a basic book in PM.

This is very good book on project management, i am a member of pmi, but in pmi u learn more about project management in general but this book is for IT guys, esply chapter on project management process is good, allso about tackling issues is well documented.

I have applied methods in this book and a related seminar to a number of real projects and have gotten excellent results. I am not an IT person and was placed in charge of systems. The book helped me to plan and execute a huge IT project from scratch.I have 12 staff who were applications programmers of which 2 were analysts. I divided their tasks and attached them to users per the ideas in the book. The approach was applied to enhancements, new systems for tender evaluation and purchasing, and hardware. Per the methods of the book, all arising matters with management, vendors, and users were seen as issues and not as problems. By the team approach we were able to sack one person and reassign his roles. A 4 year project was finished in 2 years. Hardware and WAN were completed in two months. Right now we are planning a project to reach out to the remotest plantations that we own that is another 170 areas. We are using the book here as well. The key idea here is that the methods in this book are different and WORK.

IT projects are very different from standard projects. This books provides an in-depth approach to managing IT projects. It has some very good specific tips regarding risk analysis, the management critical path (as opposed to the critical path), the use of score cards for project evaluation, how to deal with issues, and how to use lessons learned and experience to get continuous improvement in project management. In addition, the book focuses on templates rather than the traditional work breakdown structure-so it is gives greater flexibility. Another novel approach is use of the team members in participating in project management. Overall, very useful and informative.

Our organization has reviewed over 50 books in IT and general project management from the view of usability and useful methods for a multiple project, complex environment. We found books like Schwabe and Menche somewhat useful, but very limited in dealing with the actual problems faced in projects. There was just too much introductory material. This book, on the other hand, is very useful in that it addresses problems such as scope creep, changing requirements, high management expectations, dealing with vendors and users, and other specific issues. It is also being translated into Chinese. This is the book you should get if you want to address problems in real projects and want specific guidelines.

This is the best C++ book i've ever read (and i've read many good authors). It explains the concepts in depth with plenty of sample-code and drawings. The author seems to be aware which concepts could be misunderstood and repeatedly clarifies them in his examples.You cannot become a serious C++ programmer, if you don't understand these concepts correctly. Most of the object-oriented concepts are illustrated with real-world examples, so u learn how the language can be applied practically. I wish i'd gotten this book during my school days.

This text is definitely classroom quality, covering almost all aspects of the language, both theoretically and practically, and the books size reflects this. It doesn't cover the STL at all, but to do so would have made the text too large. The best thing I liked about the book is that it discusses object oriented design concepts (as pertaining to C++) very well.

This is am amazing book that very clearly explains the 'how' and 'why' of each feature in Object Oriented Design.My design skills certainly got a lot better with this book.I loved the chapter on Inheritance.Inheritance is one of the most powerful features of any object oriented language and the most effective form of code reuse.This book does a very good job at giving the reader a good idea of how to exploit this feature effectively.

this is *the* C++ book that got me thru my programming assignments. from concepts to code, from design to implementation, the author detailed everything very clearly and thoroughly, excellent job! this book is evenly-paced and highly readable with golden nuggets everywhere. before getting this book, i used to be lost in lectures and assignments, confused about concepts of pointers etc, but after carefully studying this gem, i could truly understand the essence of C++ and write solid, high quality code. to sum it up, i have three words for you: GO BUY IT!!

I read most of the 1st edition.
A very insightful look into C++ programming with
detailed but simple examples to explain the fundamental
and yet powerful concepts and intricacies with the language!

This book provides meticulous details about QA for integrated software and component-based software .This particular book teaches how to approach testing and QA in a systematic manner .The book gives an organized and detailed description for the Software Quality assurance for the software components. It teaches all the way from very basic step. Beginning with Black Box testing and following White box, Regression testing, Performance, System level testing .The approach includes various different validation methods that needs to be rigorously applied and a detailed QA approach which teaches all the possible Test Cases. Overall this book provides a complete teaching of the Component Based Software. Being Professor Jerry Gao's student, have completed software quality and testing courses under him. This book has increased my knowledge for component-based software testing as it describes different testing methods, phases, issues, challenges etc. I highly recommend this book for college graduates and professionals who want to brighten their career in QA and testing areas.

This is a very unique book on QA and software testing topics because it discusses some of the testing techniques & concepts extended from research world and also covers the modern software component concepts and the applicability of these techniques on them. The book is divided into IV parts. The first part introduces the reader with software components and it's testability. The model based solution to some of the issues and challanges can be applicable to the SOA based softwares as well.
Part II of the book discusses the fundamental black box and white box techniques. A section is devoted on white box techniques for object oriented testing.
Part III of the book focuses on most important challanges of todays software. The UML based approcah to software integration testing discussed in this book uses an unique approach of content and context based relationship of objects. Regression testing for maintaining software is discussed in detail.
Part IV is entirely devoted to QA topics. They fully cover QA measuremnet and validation topics, standards and certification.
This is a must have book for software developer, Test engineer and QA professionals. The references at the end of each chapter reminds you to go deeper and dig into IEEE and ACM papers on the subject. I have already recommended this book to my fellow software developers and managers.

The book has detailed coverage of all software testing terminologies and methodologies such as black-box, white-box, test automation, integration, and performance testing.Over all, this is a very good book for learning Testing techniques for component based software.This book is extremely well organized and should be useful for both novice and experienced software testers.

I learned many new concepts about Software Testing from this book. I learned how to do the manual testing, automation testing of the component software using this book. White Box Testing, which involves Control Flow Graph is documented well in this book anyone who wants to learn about the White Box Testing can easily learn through it. This book is very user friendly in terms of doing Software Manual Testing.
Automation Testing is described well too. I recommend anyone from Software Engineering planning to go into Software Testing should read this book atleast once.

This book helped me gain good knowledge about Software testing, its objectives and various approaches for real time experience. It helped me understand the basic concepts and fundamentals of Software component testability. Through this book, I got a basic idea about the rules and methodologies that are being implemented and followed in current software testing field, as per industry standards.

Black box and White box testing techniques and their relevant issues, challenges and solutions, the various test models, everything is explained very visibly. It serves as a good guide for the beginners as well as the Software professionals of all levels. Information on testing methods like Regression, Integration, Performance and System testing are detailed in a systematic manner.
The information in this text book, taught us to follow the best ways to achieve a well defined test coverage criteria by deriving a definite plan for the project- a plan for managing the schedules, designing and testing the software based components to meet the requirements in the project within a deadline. We, in a team, worked on a Simulated ATM machine, for a practical experience, and the book helped us as a good start. Each chapter has a good introductory part, which gives a clear synopsis about the complete chapter.
The book explains the role of different testing tools, designing and handling the test cases, how to perform component testing quickly and efficiently through automation testing, without manual involvement. Manual testing is time consuming and hence to solve this issue, Automation testing has been introduced lately and this information has been illustrated by the authors very clearly in the book, with suitable examples for the readers understanding.

I personally found this book very helpful and knowledgeable. A Software component's life cycle through the testing phase has been explained well, alongside giving us information about the methodologies to improve the quality of a product, and how to derive a test case to support the functionality; everything is mentioned in this book. My only suggestion is, this book is a complete pack of information on testing of a Software component and its Quality assurance, and hence, from college students to Software professionals, everybody has to experience this book, if they are seriously looking to pick up their career in Testing.

I wanted to use ruby on rails for my web applications, but after some failed attempts I decided to learn a bit of the ruby programming language first. This book guided me to the language, even if you are new programmer I completely recommend it.

Beginning Ruby is one of the easier books to following Ruby, and get a decent understanding Object Oriented Programming (OOP). If you don't want to fork the money over yet for this book like I did not knowing if I would understand (I just now have grown a big enough interest into programming to want to study), then I would suggest grabbing the book called Learn to Program from Pragmatic Programmer Series. In that book he runs through basic ruby syntax, and programs that actually function more or less like a BASIC application would. Once you finish the short yet insightful Learn to Program book, this book becomes even easier to follow. Once you make your way through this book though, you will want to more then likely purchase the Pragmatic Programmer Ruby book (The Red Pick Axe Book, which the 3rd version is due out in October). But from a novice programmer perspective, this is an amazing book and is always by my side.

I have dabbled in programming, but never really rolled up my sleeves to learn a language... until now. Both ruby and python seemed like great choices, and I looked for materials to play with them. Both offer some very nice features and the ability to get up and running with something useful and fun easily, yet offer plenty of room to grow. After a short evaluation period, I think I just like the "feel" of ruby better, but that's totally subjective. After settling on a language, I looked for a book.

I checked out Chris Pine's "Learn to Program", and of course _why's Poignant Guide to Ruby, and then this book. This one is, by a large margin, my favorite. Both Chris Pine's book and _why's guide have their moments, but in my opinion Cooper's book has a considerable edge in clarity and usefulness. It explains complex concepts in clear prose and then by example. I feel that I can tackle useful problems after having read the book. It seems to hit the sweet spot for being clear but not condescending, complex but not overwhelming. The examples are very applicable to many real-world problems.

This book is more of a tutorial than a reference, which is exactly what I needed as a new programmer. In addition to being a great ruby book, it's also one of the best "tech" books I've ever purchased. It's rare to see this level of quality in technical writing. I really hope Mr. Cooper continues to produce programming books.

I had heard quite a bit about Ruby, so I thought I would see what it had to offer. I went looking for an introductory book and found this one. I was hooked before the end of the first chapter. The author has an engaging writing style, and has done a great job of introducing the language and the community. The book is logically organized and presents the material in an easily comprehensible style. This is a great book for getting started with Ruby.

Cooper's book is by far the best introduction to Ruby I've read as well as to programming in general for beginners. He strikes (for me, at least) the right balance of showing how-to as well as the rationale behind it. It is neither too shallow nor overbearing, but steadily builds on previous lessons, always careful to point out where to find further/more up-to-date documentation.

Cooper's writing style is concise and clear. Examples are explained well. After having worked through books on AppleScript and Objective-C I wish they had been written by Cooper as well.

5 stars!

This is a must have reference book. If you are new to C# maybe you should try first an introductory text (such as the "Visual C# 2008 step by step", or the "Head first C#") but keep in mind that introductory books usually have things spread around ... and as such this "nutshell" text is still essential (not only as a reference, but also for filling-in any gaps/details the introductory books might not mention).

This book is a really great combination between a tutorial and a reference book. What I like the most about it is that it not only explains you how to use the different elements of the C# language and the .NET Framework core namespaces, but it also explains to you how they work in the inside. This gives you a notable insight when you try to understand a strange side-effect in your code.

All explanations are made very clearly and it is very easy to read. The different chapters of the book are arranged by topic, so it is easy to use it as a reference when you can't exactly remember something. It can also be read from cover to cover.

It is, however, not recommended for beginners (as it is stated in the introduction); if you are looking for a programming tutorial this book is not a very good idea.

great book, a must have! if you do not have this book you are not a C# developer! =)

The "In a Nutshell" series has long been my favorite's. I am glad they did C# again with .NET 3.0. The format of the book changed quite a bit with a much better format and lenghthy explainations and demonstrations. I truly hope they redo ADO.NET in a nutshell as that was my favorite as well.

This book is all you really need on C# and .NET framework. [I have many others, but always find myself coming back to this, and for good reason]

Pure awesome - if you're a good programmer already and want the skinny on what's new (or even great explanations on what you already think you know), spend the $10-$15 and buy this book. I love it and I buy every version they put out. There just aren't enough people like Joseph and Ben writing tech books!

Having bought TrueSpace2 with no prior knowledge of CGI, and being the world's worst artist, I was skeptical reading previous reviews. However I needn't have been.

The author gently takes the reader through from first principles to advanced modelling in a clear and concise manner, and in such a way that it gives you confidence to try something new.

I can't recommend this book highly enough.

Great book, it also taught TrueSpace in a matter of weeks instread of learning by exprimentation.

I started using TrueSpace back when version 2 was the newest release. I figured I could play around and build some small videos for myself. This book walked me through many of the functions and allowed me to apply what I have learned. Practically from the first page, the author walks your step by step in creating your own object. Now with version 6 available, I wish this author would write an update to keep us all in the know. Even now I still refer back to this book for missing tips and function that I don't use offen enough to remember. If you like to use TrueSpace and really want to develop something not only recognizable, but high-end I suggest you start with this book.

What are Amazon playing at! nowhere is the price displayed of this ite

Even though Caligari has recently released trueSpace 4, this book covering version 2 is a must have. The easy to follow and understand print will have you creating breathtaking graphics in no time at all. Caligari's trueSpace is truly outstanding only if you learn to use it properly. This book will do that for you.

The good thing about this book is that it gets just to the point. Unlike other books, which tells every detail of this and that drawing tool, this book instructs you how to make nice and stunning graphics in a short time. With only a beginners knowledge of CorelDraw I started up following Shane Hunts carefully written instructions and succeded in making some spectacular images for my Website - graphics that I could never have done myself, without the help from a professional designer: Metallic looking 3D objects and so on... I found it relatively easy to learn tricks from examples and then adjusting it for my own purpose.

There is only one thing I would ask for in a new edition: A little more on Web-graphics. I can recommend a couple of other books with almost the same approach as this one: "The CorelDraw Wow Book", by Linnea Dayton, Shane Hunt and Sharon Steuer and "Corel Studio Techniques", by David Huss & Gary Priester. They are also great.

Prior to reading Shane's book I had pretty much given up on being able to learn the program...I was stunned to see how easy he made it to create stunning images in coreldraw...I learned techniques I truely did not feel capable of learning prior to reading his book and enjoyed the process...His enclosed cd alone was worth the price of the book ...He does not guard his techniques ...he shares them openly and wants you do know all he knows...very well organized and writen and simply turned my graphics life around!

So many computer related books written in the last several year look like they've been thrown together. They're full of typos or the content is just incorrrect or incomplete. It's apparent that a lot of time and effort went into this book. The book is full of great examples, the insruction are complete and it's interesting to read. I was a relative novice with CorelDraw and this book allowed me to create some great designs quickly. It showed me tricks that I probably would have never figured out on my own.

Highly recomended!

I've even had a Corel novice use the book with no problems. She liked it MUCH better than another one in the standard style. It's an easy to use book written in a fun and useful style. Look at the many positive reviews..

Somewhere in this long list of raves you will find my first review of this book. I gave it four stars. That was very high praise from me...back then when I had just finished the book and thought 5 stars was fawning. Now I know I was wrong. I finally put another book in the space CorelDRAW f/x was supposed to occupy on my shelf. It sits by my computer while I work, and frequently comes with me when I need lunchtime or waitingroom reading. I use this book constantly. I can't let my first review stand any longer. If you have any doubts about this book forget them IT IS WELL WORTH MANY TIMES THE PRICE! I intend to add the new version to my computer desk and book bag when I upgrade to CorelDRAW 9. And probably 10 and 11 and...