Software Books

The "Search Inside this Book" feature was not available when this review was posted. This book contains the following (excellent) articles:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. COMPONENT DEFINITON.
1. Definition of Software Component and its Elements.
George T. Heineman, William T. Councill.
2. The Component Industry Metaphor.
Hedley Apperly.
3. Component Models and Component Services: Concepts and Principles.
Rainer Weinreich, Johannes Sametinger.
4. An Example Specification for Implementing a Temperature Regulator Software Component.
Janet Flynt, Jason Mauldin.

II. THE CASE FOR COMPONENTS.
5. The Business Case for Software Components.
John Williams.
6. COTS Myths and Other Lessons Learned in Component-Based Software Development.
Will Tracz.
7. Roles for Component-Based Development.
Paul Allen.
8. Common High Risk Mistakes in Component-Based Software Engineering.
Wojtek Kozaczynski.
9. CBSE Success Factors: Integrating Architecture, Process, and Organization.
Martin L. Griss.

III. SOFTWARE ENGINEERING PRACTICES.
10. The Practice of Software Engineering.
George T. Heineman.
11. From Subroutines to Subsystems: Component-Based Software Development.
Paul C. Clements.
12. Status of CBSE in Europe.
Barry McGibbon.
13. CBSE in Japan and Asia.
Mikio Aoyama.

IV. THE DESIGN OF SOFTWARE COMPONENT INFRASTRUCTURES.
14. Software Components and the UML.
Kelli Houston, Davyd Norris.
15. Component Infrastructures: Placing Software Components in Context.
Steve Latchem.
16. Business Components.
James Carey, Brent Carlson.
17. Components and Connectors: Catalysis Techniques for Defining Component Infrastructures.
Alan Cameron Wills.
18. An Open Process for Component-Based Development.
Brian Henderson-Sellers.
19. Designing Models of Modularity and Integration.
Kevin J. Sullivan.

V. FROM SOFTWARE COMPONENT INFRASTRUCTURES TO SOFTWARE SYSTEMS.
20. Software Architecture.
Alexander L. Wolf, Judith A. Stafford.
21. Software Architecture Design Principles.
Len Bass.
22. Product-Line Architectures.
Martin L. Griss.

VI. THE MANAGEMENT OF COMPONENT-BASED SOFTWARE SYSTEMS.
23. Measurement and Metrics for Software Components.
Jeffrey Poulin.
24. The Practical Reuse of Software Components.
Don Reifer.
25. Selecting the Right COTS Software: Why Requirements are Important.
Cornelius Ncube, N.A.M. Maiden.
26. Build vs. Buy: A Rebuttal.
George T. Heineman.
27. Software Component Project Management Processes.
William T. Councill.
28. The Trouble with Testing Software Components.
Elaine Weyuker.
29. Configuration Management and Component Libraries.
Hedley Apperly.
30. The Evolution, Maintenance and Management of Component-Based Systems.
Mark Vigder.

VII. COMPONENT TECHNOLOGIES.
31. Overview of the CORBA Component Model.
Douglas C. Schmidt, Nanbor Wang, Carlos O'Ryan.
32. Transactional COM+: Designing Scalable Applications.
Timothy J. Ewald.
33. The Enterprise JavaBeans Component Model.
David Blevins.
34. Bonobo and Free Software Gnome Components.
Michael Meeks.
35. Choosing Between COM+, EJB, and CCM.
Andy Longshaw.
36. Software Agents as Next Generation Software Components.
Martin L. Griss.

VIII. LEGAL AND REGULATORY.
37. CBSE as a Unique Engineering Discipline.
John Speed, William T. Councill, George T. Heineman.
38. The Future of Software Components: Standards and Certification.
Janet Flynt, Manoj Desai.
39. Commercial Law Applicable to Component-Based Software.
Stephen Chow.
40. The Effects of UCITA on Software Component Development and Marketing.
Stephen Chow.

IX. CONCLUSION.
41. Summary.
William T. Councill, George T. Heineman.
42. Future of CBSE.
William T. Councill, George T. Heineman, Jeff Poulin.
Appendix A. Glossary.
References.
About the Authors.

I hope this helps.

This book is an excellent collection of articles describing all of the important issues surrounding the construction of component-based software systems. Each chapter describes a different aspect of the question of how to build a system using reusable components. Although each of these chapters is written by a different author or authors, they have been edited so that they read as a continuous whole. It is interesting that the editors were able to get some of the biggest names in the field to write articles on their specialties. A look at the author biographies show that they include industry practitioners, academics, industrial researchers, and independent consultants. Together they have a very impressive amount of experience and varied expertise. Perhaps my only complaint is that because so many different topics are covered, and each article is rather brief, some of the articles just touch the surface of the issues. But they do provide a balanced picture of these issues which then allow you to go out and do further in-depth reading on salient topics using the included list of references.

Covers the full spectrum of component-based software engineering, from the basics to legal aspects. Contains one of the most authoritative collections of essays and whitepapers on the subject between two covers. I have used this book as a basis for component-based development, and have also used it as the foundation for a SQA initiative because the material also addresses quality. Many of the essays support a software reuse strategy, which is an added bonus. Another use of this outstanding book is as a resource for in-house training in many aspects of software engineering outside of the component-based domain. It's that comprehensive and complete. I recommend using this book with Successful Software Development as the two primary references in mature development organizations.

This 818 page collection of 42 papers and articles is a definitive work on component-based software engineering. Regardless of your area(s) of interest, there is probably a chapter that addresses it. More importantly, each chapter is written by a top expert in their subspecialty.

Instead of giving a chapter-by-chapter description, I am going to cover the chapters that I found useful. To begin, Part II, chapters 1 through 3 gave me a quick primer in software components and highlighted the need to think in a different frame when dealing with component-based development. If you are new to CBSW then the 48 pages devoted to the basics are worthwhile reading.

Part II's five chapters on making a business and technical case for components is outstanding and the authors cover every facet. I found Part III, which covers software engineering practices, particularly useful. The value to me was the status of CBSW engineering on a global scale because I am currently providing consulting services to an India-based company that specializes in components. For this reason I also found Part IV's eight chapters on managing component-based software systems especially valuable.

The real eye-opener [for me], however, was in Part VIII, which devotes four interesting chapters on aspects of legal and regulatory issues as they related to software development as a discipline, and component-based software engineering specifically. In particular, chapter 38 on software component standards and certification was enlightening. I was also enlightened by chapter 39's fascinating discussion on commercial law applicable to component-based software, and the effects of the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA) on component-based software development and marketing.

This is an excellent book that covers the entire landscape of component-based software engineering and, although is a weighty 818 pages, is not difficult to read through. Each chapter is really a paper or article, so each is standalone. If you are dealing with off-shore development in any way, the book is especially valuable, and if you are doing CBSW in-house, the key differences between this approach and other development approaches are highlighted and will give you sufficient information with which to approach CBSW intelligently and effectively.

Easy to understand. It is essential to a researcher. It would have been rated as an excellent book if it includes the Matlab programming and Erdas rather than any other software like MIPS.

Matlab based programs would have been more beneficial because many of them use matlab only.

I checked the book out from my library to read for my thesis, but the book is so good that I want to add it to my own collection. I have used it so much, that I'll need my own copy! The CD that comes with the book is also very good. The programs run very quickly on today's fast PC's. It's a great tool.

I bought it just looking at the table of contents at ... website, and I got exactly what I was looking for !! A complete book on image processing/interpretation for remote-sensing imageries. There is even a concise introduction on remote-sensing principles. The book is concisely detailed and have clear how-to-do theoretical/mathematical explanations(often lacking in others) on every topic. And the best point, every section/method is referred to key publicatons for anyone interested in in-depth study of a topic !!!

Gives a lot of practice questions to do. Answers are provided which is an added bonus. The questions are of varying difficulty. Beginners can gain practice by attempting to answer the easier questions first, before going on to tackle the more difficult ones. Those who are more familiar with Microsoft Word can aquire further knowledge in it and brush up their skills by attempting the more advanced questions. Haven't seen many books like this on the market. Definitely worth the buy.

I am generally lazy when it comes to writing reviews but a book like Computer Tutor sure got me there. Bravo! to the author. Indeed a superb bit of work.

Computer Tutor is a very good book. I like it because it has interesting questions. Someone new to MS Word can get to know the application without the boredom. I took the Microsoft Office User Specialist exam a few weeks back. I needed to brush up on 'Tables' and 'Styles' and Computer Tutor helped me tremendously. I also have other books written by the same author and have enjoyed reading them. Her books are very cleverly written. You can really appreciate their content when you start off knowing absolutely nothing about Microsoft Word and end up passing the MOUS exam!

Finally, someone wrote a book for beginners! Someone understood a beginners needs! I am new to Microsoft Word and most of the books available in bookstores say 'for beginners' but certainly do not live upto it. This book truly helps beginners get a thorough understanding of Microsoft Word.You can also use the book as you get more familiar in MS Word, as it has a range of questions addressing all levels of difficulty. You can grow up with Computer Tutor, as it is useful for the beginner and the intermediate. Even the expert can learn a thing or two from it. It is an unusual and charming book.

Collaboratively developed and written by Karen Mitchell, Craig Savage, and Jim Erwin, Contractor's Guide To QuickBooks Pro 2002 is a straightforward, easy-to-follow guide for setting up and using the QuickBooks Pro 2002 accounting software to expedite one's construction business. Meant expressly for contractors who may be lacking in familiarity with computer software programs, the individual chapters address the basics of using QuickBooks Pro 2002, setting preference, using it to track workers' comp costs and other expenses, recording receivables and payables, keeping track of one's customer base and much more. A solid, "user friendly", highly recommended "how to" manual and reference, Contractor's Guide To QuickBooks Pro 2002 is enhanced with a CD-ROM offering reconfigured construction company files to save setup time, and Job Cost Wizard, a program that swiftly and easily converts National Estimator estimates into QuickBooks Pro estimates.

I PURCHASED THIS BOOK WHEN ALL ELSE FAILED. FOR THE LIFE OF ME I COULD NOT FIGURE OUT HOW TO USE QUICKBOOKS FOR MY HUSBANDS CONSTRUCTION BUSINESS. QUICKBOOKS FOR THE CONTRACTOR GIVES YOU THE INFORMATION YOU NEED IN THE TERMS THAT YOU UNDERSTAND.I FOUND THAT THE HELP MENU IN QUICKBOOKS WAS BASED ON A MAIL ORDER COMPANY AND DID NOT GET THE QUESTIONS I NEEDED ANSWERED.I RECIEVED THE BOOK, READ IT COVER TO COVER AND USED IT STEP BY STEP FROM ESTIMATING TO TO PAYING JOB MATERIAL BILLS.
IT WAS SO EASY AND THE BEST PART IS THE BOOKKEEPING IS RIGHT!!
FINALLY!!
I HIGHLY REC0MMEND THIS BOOK TO ANY SELF EMPLOYED CARPENTER OR CONTRACTOR WHO IS HAVING TROUBLE WITH QUICKBOOKS.
ALSO IT COMES WITH A DISK THAT MAKES IT POSSIBLE TO IMPORT ESTIMATES FROM NATIONAL ESTIMATER. THERE IS EVEN A DEMO TO SHOW YOU HOW. GREAT BOOK HANDS DOWN

I am a systems manager, and know nothing about accounting. However I did know that my husband's construction firm was not using QuickBooks Pro properly. Amazon's helpful search engine suggested that I might like Contractor's Guide to Quickbooks Pro 2002. Amazon sure was right. This book quickly and simply explained how to set up a construction company's accounts and helped me turn two years worth of mis-input data into reliable reports. It also helped me develop a 10 page guide for the company's staff to use when entering invoices and payments.

The authors also have telephone support for reason prices although I have not yet needed to use them. They will also convert a Company's Quickbooks accounts into their suggested standard for a pretty reasonable fee.

I would highly recommend this book to small and medium sized construction companies. The book is wonderful, especially for non accounting types.

I consider this book to be the best on the market for contractors who use quickbooks. I recommend this to clients who use Quickbooks and are in the contstruction industry, or any other line of work that uses job costing. It has many illustrations which make it easy for bookkeepers for whom English is a second language.

The attached CD-ROM is a nice addition which can help contractors who are just getting started get their books set up quickly.

I had to buy this book for a class I am taking, and it has proven very helpful and useful.

John Huntington's book is the THE reference tool in our lighting shop for show control. It has everything you need for the different control languages, in clear and concise formats.It is a must on every theatre technician's bookshelf

John Huntington's new book, Control Systems for Live Entertainment, is one of the most useful and informative books available for anyone interested in theatre technology. The book covers such technologies as MIDI, DMX512, MediaLink, MIDI Show Control, and others.

A well dog-eared copy of the first edition has been in my tool kit / computer kit for the last couple of years. I have found it a valuable resource. It has helped me on-site more than once. The second edition is more comprehensive and organized. Kudos to John in publishing a great resource fit for the student and experienced professional.

George Tucker- Show Control Engineer- Scharff Wesiberg NYC

Although out of print and somewhat out of date, this book still offers some helpful hints for Corel users. The section on perspective and fountain fills is good for reference. If you see this one out on the discount table, grab it!

I loved this book and read it from cover to cover. It's hard to find the time to try out every project but they all seem really worthwhile and I've referred to some of the hints/tips when I'm starting one of my own projects and know that a particular end-result can be achieved, if only I could remember how. This is not really a reference book however - more of a cookbook. Beautifullly illustrated and clearly explained. One of the best 'how-to' computer graphics books I've ever used.

This is the perfect book for anyone looking for the hidden trick to using Corel Draw. Clear examples with full color illustrations showing step by step the tricks to making stunning vector illustrations. The introduction alone has saved me hours of time and money in wasted printing simply by understanding the tricks to calculating blends and fountian fills. I don't start a new project without refering to this book just to make sure I'm using the most effecient method to creating a desired special effect. I only wish a book like this was made for Corel PhotoPaint

I purchased this book on my own (was using 6 then); got so frustrated that I quit half way through. Am now taking a course on 7 and using this as text. Thank goodness my instructor has rewritten the directions for those exercises used. When I try to go ahead on my own, it is extremely confusing.

I have waited for what seemed like forever for this WOW book to hit the shelves and I must say it was well worth the wait. I have other books written by both Shane Hunt and Linnea Dayton and I'm glad to say they have maintained their rep of putting out good references for the rest of us. Every time I open it I see something else I want to try or gives me ideas for new things. This book is well designed and written - not too techie for novices and chock full of great illustrations. If you dislike working your way through the effects menus, you'll love the pages that show all the fountain presets, bitmap filters, etc. I appreciate the authors remembering all of us who do not upgrade every year or who use more than one version (or Macs). Every CorelDRAW user, using any version, should get this book. You'll be glad you did.

I first bought coreldraw7 a couple of years ago, at student price.. and it didnt come with a manual. So I figured out a lot of techniques thru trial and error. But I missed out on a lot of the Coreldraw features, although I thought it was great software all the same, and did a lot of drawing with it.

Just last week I bought the Coreldraw Wow book, and ..at last! ..the tools and features of this software are revealed to me in an amazing compendium of techniques, tips and excellent information.

Shane Hunt's 'The Coreldraw Wow! Book' is clear, well written, and an inspiration. Full of useful techniques, it's an excellent book to really show the power and versatility of Coreldraw.

Shane Hunt has a gift for clarity and precision as he describes how to get the most out of Corel Draw. This book is for both beginners and advanced users and lets users in on the secrets of the amazing special effects supported in the program, in all its versions.

I've been following Shane Hunt's writings on graphics for a while, so I was sure to grab this one. He and the other authors show you some of the finer and more detailed aspects of Draw's abilities. I keep seeing things in other images and wonder how they did this or did that - now I know - and it isn't that hard when you know the tricks. It is written in easy to understand instructions and walks you through the difficult parts. I highly recommend it to anyone that is serious about increasing their Draw vocabulary and repetoire.

You want to know a great way on "how to" identify classes from any type of user requiremnets? Buy this book now!

A lot of OOA books like to tell how to design from start to finish. However, some (most) of us are thrown in some obligatory process without consent. CRC will bridge the gap on getting your Classes defined.

Also, CRC works well for "Use Cases". I use CRC after a good Use Case session for Class Diagrams. Some prefer to do CRC before Use Cases. That's the beauty, CRC can be injected anywhere you deem fit.

And, finally, this book will get you "thinking in objects" fast!

I have been trying to teach OOD to new graduates for a couple of years. Now I teach through this book first. It has more good information about how to get groups to come up with good designs than any other book I have found. Be warned, it's not about UML or Java. The book is about how to get people to work out a design together.

This book and the stream of thought it stems from is one of the most influental in OO software engineering. It focuses on sharing responsibility in a system. It takes into account the obvious parallels between software teams and their software systems.
The technique itself can be very enjoyable and if you can convince very formal people to use it, it will change their lives, much more then any formal OO methodology will do. CRC Cards make you live software systems! This should be the first experience of everybody who wants to learn OO. You can even use it to explain your work to your kids:-)

This book encourages better OO design and analysis, shows how to involve the entire team of developers to the design of the whole system. The authors also describe how to gain benefit from involving the user and other parties to the OO design process.

I was in OO development for five years and I was thinking about a solution which will improve the efficiency of OO design and help to avoid splitting the program between developers who create their own set of classes they are responsible for. Such splitting leads to integration problems and overall design imbalance. Fred Brooks has described this consequences in his famous book "The Mythical Man-Month", where the modules are being written first and integrated later, and the coordination of interfaces between modules written by each developer requires essential effort and time. The CRC Card Book shows how to have "the interfaces" coordinated in the very beginning.

However, the methodology described in this book is "fragile". As soon as it isn't followed by all of the developers, it became useless. But if it is followed, the results are amazing. The book, however, is not very easy to read and lack something which can attract the developers who are "neutral" to improving their way of creating OO programs. But, for the people who already have strong OO background and are seeking the way how to improve their efficiency significant, the book is a must-have.

I loved Danny Goodman's Complete HyperCard Handbook and have relied on it for years. So when I wanted to learn what is really going on in AppleScript and how to do things with it, I figured I could count on Goodman. I was not disappointed. I had already read the entire reference manual on AppleScript put out by Apple but was still almost clueless as to how to use AppleScript successfully. My beef with most books that purport to teach you how to use a scripting language is that they simply lay out all the elements that you have to work with, along with a few trivial examples, and then leave it up to you to figure out how to put something useful together. Goodman has a real knack for knowing the questions a beginner will have and the types of things a person is likely to want to do using the scripting language. In the first 100 pages, Goodman concisely answered numerous nagging questions and pointed out significant features of AppleScript that had escaped my notice. Even though the book was published way back in 1994, it is still very relevant, as the essentials of AppleScript seem to have changed very little. An extremely helpful book.

Those familiar with Goodman¹s ³Complete HyperCard Handbook² will feel right at home with this comprehensive look at AppleScript. His style moves beginners through the rough first stages of the learning process with a quick look at the basics of the language and cogent metaphors that help convey the underlying structure of AppleScript. His early chapters are easy to follow, but present the nuts and bolts of the language in a way experienced programmers will appreciate. Perhaps the strongest point of the book is the reference section. Variables, operators, and commands are presented in a well organized way, with all the information on function and format close at hand. It is this section one will flip through again and again in the process of exploring the first few scripts, and the enclosed disk is packed with utilities and samples to get started on.

When I wanted to learn Applescript I bought serveral books, included this one. This book gave me clear insight in the AppleScript mechanisms but also why I should use it. It is been a reference since and I don't travel/develop without it.

Danny Goodman's absolute treatise on AppleScript. The definitive, must have bible for learning, using, living with AppleScript.

Danny's easy-to-read and insightful tomb. This takes you from absolutely clueless to programming in as little as a month. Danny starts with theory then delivers pratical, real world solutions as examples.

Many books eschew the object oriented underpinnnings of AppleScript, often assuming (wrongly) the customer already knows OOP (Object Oriented Programming). Danny goes through object-oriented programming with outstanding lucidity comprehensible to everyone.

After laying the foundation, Danny dives into addressing the issue by issue in AppleScript including referencing, coercion, looping, optimizations, object-store, and so so much more. The depth of AppleScript is only limited by your imagination.

Many programming books are considered authorities, the last stop, first stop, definitive source everyone turns to. Danny Goodman's _AppleScript Handbook_ is that. If you want to learn AppleScript the right way so your can use it, adapt it, relearn it, and reapply it from application to application, then you *must* own this book.

-Scott

For some of us learning programming has been less of a structured approach and more of a journey, picking up what we could as we went along. This book is a significant aid in that it takes us back to the basics of how to write problem solving code and at the same time giving us an extended toolbox to apply to how we perform it. It has been a real help to me by reinforcing things to me that I thought I understood, and teaching me new ways to do things that I had no idea on how to approach.
Al Edlund

Michael McMillan's "Data Structures and Algorithms Using Visual Basic.Net" is an excellent resource for the serious programmer using Visual Basic.Net. With the advent of the .Net technology there have been some major changes to Visual Basic, one of them being the collection classes. Most vb reference books provide a weak introduction to the collections and how to use them; this is the focus of the book and really allows the reader to gain enough confidence to start using them effectively in their own programs.



I look forward to more books from this author.

McMillan does for Visual Basic in .NET what other languages like Java, C and C++ have long had. Fundamental data structures like hash tables or hash sets, arrays, linked lists. He shows how to use these in the VB context. They greatly simplify your programming tasks. These constructs are so widely used in any practical programming language.

Without them, you find yourself having to tediously reinvent basic functionality. Adding little value. And with the risk that your implementations might be buggy.

McMillan shows how to use the structures in several algorithms. Having said that, this book will not be of any surprise to someone already familiar with algorithms. It does not go into these to the depth of Knuth's 'Art of Computer Programming', or Sedgewick's texts.

I have selected this book to be the textbook of an introductory course in data structures and algorithms for my second year programming students. There were three major reasons behind this choice:

1- The book doesn't go into the mathematics found in other books. Of course, mathematics are essential for those who want to create algorithms, but it's not the case for the majority of programmers, at least in the business computing field, who just want to implement them. On the contrary, I think that teaching the mathematics underlying the construction of algorithms makes the learning process unnecessarily hard.

2- On the data structures field, the book takes advantage of structures already implemented in the major development platforms. As the author says it: "students of data structures and algorithms can now see how to use a data structure before learning how to implement it" (Preface, p. vii). From an educational standpoint, this is a far better approach than starting to discuss a concept abstractly.

3- The examples are in VB .NET, which I consider a good starting programming language. For those who rather prefer another language, the author has recently published the same book for C#: "Data Structures and Algorithms Using C#".

In a word, I consider this book an excellent practical approach to learn common data structures and algorithms without going into the complexity of mathematics.