Programming Books

One of the most difficult hurdles a QA new to performance testing can go through is shifting their testing methodology from specific to componenents to a balanced environment-wide perspective. This book helps guide the Architect or QA through the process of discovering HOW we look at metrics and WHY we use certain metrics over others. This is much more useful in the long run than rather just looking at WHAT to look at since this can vary depending on your specific infrastructure.

If your reading a RedBook on WebSphere Performance Tuning and you haven't yet figured out what your Peak Average Load is, your performance testing is doomed to fail. This book guides you on the right path to the methodology that will work for your testing. It provides test plan guidelines and even sample scripts. In addition, there are several guidelines for analysis and interpretation.

The book only requires a couple of things to be a truely complete performance testing guide in my opinion: More detailed information and guidelines for Performance Testing Failover situations and slightly more concise guide for scripting. For the type of sites that you'll use this book for, you'll most likely have more complicated scripts and script requirements.

Over all, this book provides a great introduction of the core concepts and outlines quite a few of the more overlooked requirements in this increasingly important field.

This book's title has "Java" in it (and book covers Java performance analysis very well), but large part of it is about web performance analysis approach and methodology that can be applied to non-Java web sites. This is a great resource and a must have for those who deals with performance of web sites. Simply look at the table of contents and you'll love it: http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0201844540/ref=sib_rdr_toc/104-1411948-5301507?%5Fencoding=UTF8&p=S00H#reader-link

It takes a comprehensive look at the java performance analysis. It is very good at describing common bottlenecks be in architect, hardware (load balancing) , user interface etc.

Ideas are well received by our team and book provide food for thought on diverse topics. We have continuous integration testing and continuous inspection (and adaptation) for performance testing and this book was very helpful.

This is an excellent book, providing thorough coverage of performance analysis. Although this book is aimed at Java based sites, it would serve as a good primer for anyone learning how to tune a website with dynamic content. The authors assume the reader has only basic familiarity with internet technologies, and explains concepts as needed. After providing a basic theoretical grounding, the authors illustrate the concepts with a case study, going from simple to complex.

The book is well-organized and thought out, and presents its information in an understandable, easy to follow fashion. I particularly like the inclusion of the test and capacity planning forms in the appendix. This gives readers the chance to put the information to work, instead of just giving case studies or presenting only theory.

A highly recommended and informational book.

The team of authors who wrote this book have two things going for them - in-depth knowledge of performance analysis, and, most importantly, the ability to impart that knowledge in a crystal clear manner.

I like the way this book starts out, showing the contrast between a bricks & mortar store and its online equivalent. This introduces the basics - throughput, transaction, page and user rates, response times and states. More than an easy to follow introduction, it contains all of the key elements of performance analysis, doled out in easy to understand chunks, and sets the stage for the rest of the book.

Every facet of a typical environment is covered, including Java server performance factors, external and internal factors related to networking, load balancers, protocol behavior, and Java internals. The chapter on performance profiles of common web sites is especially useful. Different site types are characterized in a set format that shows caching potential (of the site type), any special considerations, and specific performance testing considerations. This allows you to go directly to the type of site you are going to test, get the relevant information, then proceed to conduct the testing, which is covered in subsequent chapters.

The chapters on testing begin by showing how to develop the test plan, associated test scripts, and select the right tools to support the testing. The areas covered in these chapters are comprehensive. Actual test execution and results analysis are covered in equal detail, using examples and scenarios. One especially useful chapter is 13, Common Bottleneck Symptoms, which is useful to track the cause of observed results that do not match expected ones during testing.

This book goes beyond testing, though - it also covers capacity and performance planning, which is normally a discipline onto itself. Again, excellent advice and coverage of key points. The appendices are an invaluable collection of templates, worksheets and checklists.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It exemplifies top notch writing, is well illustrated, and is technically accurate, and based on proven approaches.

If only every technical book was written this well! Anyone who is working with Java and XML should have a copy of this book. Highly example driven with clear explanations, the author makes using XML in your Java programs a breeze. Even better, the author has a style that makes the book fun to read as you feel like you are learning all sorts of secrets from an XML insider.

The book starts with a quick introduction to XML and then gets into how to create XML documents in your programs. The first four chapters cover everything you need to know about creating XML whether it is for XML-RPC, SOAP, or simply to store in a file. The next section covers parsing XML documents. SAX and DOM are compared and then the next eight chapters discuss these two methods of parsing documents, explaining how to use them, comparing them, and helping you determine how to decide which technique to use for which situation. The section on DOM explains not just how to parse documents using DOM but also how to create new documents. The final chapters of the book cover JDOM, XPATH, and XSLT.

Did I mention that this book is full of examples? The author doesn't rely on simply explaining how something works or how to use a technology (even though his explanations are excellent), he has examples to demonstrate everything he discusses. Each example builds upon the previous example and makes learning the techniques easy and enjoyable.

This book is an excellent resource for combining these two technologies, XML and Java. The author starts with the assumption that the reader is conversant in XML and at least intermediate skill level with Java. The first chapter of the book serves as a XML refresher. The author uses this chapter to reach a common understanding of terms with the reader. The first part of the book covers using many of issues of managing XML from Java and introduces two XML based services, XML-RPC and SOAP.

The remainder of the book is devoted to the various APIs for parsing XML hence the subtitle "A Guide to SAX, DOM, JDOM, JAXP, and TrAX". Throughout the book the author creates clear code examples and very readable text. This serves to develop understanding and insight in reader. This particular technical topography is under continuous change. Adapting to these changes will be much easier after having read this book.

A lot of tips and "gotchas" are shared in the book, but it is arranged so that the developer grab what he needs or he can sit and camp awhile. The book text is available at the author's website, but I prefer to read the paper copy. If you are going to use XML and Java together, this book would be a good investment.

I really like reading this book. It is easy to read and understand. The author does a good job of describing the XML technologies related to JAVA. This book has a lot of code to analyze. This book is a must have for the experienced developer who wants to do JAVA with XML. I have a message for the experienced developer: THE CODE WILL CHALLENGE YOU; IT CHALLENGED ME!!!

Michael

This is definitely a valuable resource for anybody dealing with XML and Java, written by one of the best tech writers in town. The author covers in details a huge amount of topics and API, so many that you couldn't ask for more.
Be advised that some basic understanding of XML and intermediate Java skills are required to get the best out of this book

I bought this book when it first came out. I really enjoyed reading it. The book is well written. It has a lot useful code.
The author code that can be used in the real world of JAVA and XML. I liked the books section on JDOM. This book shows the differences between DOM and JDOM. Also, this book has a lot of information on SAX, DOM, JDOM, and it shows the differences when using each. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn JAVA and XML. Make sure you are an experienced developer before purchasing this book.

Michael

Most of the robot books I've purchased rarely explained the detail of how you could create some kind of "intelligent" program and expand it as you need. This book give you an example using pseudo code so basically you could implement it in any programming language usually found in embedded programming such as C, Basic/Stamp or Assembler. I would highly recommend this book for robotics enthusiast who want to make their robot behave like it has some kind of intelligent.

I have read dozens of robotics books over the years and most of them suck. They were either too academic or too basic. This book is excellent and was a refreshing change.

Written by one of the designers of iRobots Roomba, this book is indeed a practical guide to robotics. It is easy to read and full of practical advice that one would only get if they spent the last 20 something years working with robots. For example, the author repeatedly warns you to expect the unexpected.

Even though this book incudes access to a simulator tool, the author constantly reminds you of what could occur in the real world. This book is for anyone attempting to build a single-purpose mobile robot (whether as a commercial developer or a hobbyist). Rather than focusing on a specific language or platform, the author uses pseudocode to explain concepts. The pseudocode should save you hours of frustration. At the very least, the authors good sense of humor makes reading the book quite enjoyable.

The book aims squarely at teaching the concepts of behavior based robotic programming without being simplistic or being overly technical. A good example is PID controllers -- the ID stand for integral and differential. He doesn't dive down into the mathematics of it but does point out that those two stages of the controller a not separately tunable.

The book doesn't present a lot of pseudo code nor does it focus on an type of microprocessor or language.

It gives very good conceptual descriptions of how to create architectures that allow multiple sensors and actuators to act together to produce meaningful and emergent behavior while pointing out pitfalls and problems that may crop up. The book is chock full of block diagrams showing the setups being discussed.

The book is easy to read and a good introducion to behavior based programming. I always like it when the author uses some humor to turn a book that could have been a boring "must read" into an entertaining experience.

This is a nice little book. It introduces some important concepts in an overall very readable text. Of course the book doesn't offer much technical detail or any real code but sometimes it comes close. If you already have any experience in programming you can easily get the point in the example pseudo codes and adapt them for your own use.
There is a major problem about this book though. The online robot simulation program was available from the link given inside the book but this website is not active anymore so you can not practice the ideas using the "bsim" program.

I adore this book! It is one of those books that I just pick up and flip to a random page, and absorb the wisdom. It is full of tiny little things you can do to make your work look more professional. This guy is amazing.

One-Minute Designer Revised edition Roger C. Parker MIS:Press, 1997

Like it or not, if you use a computer you are a typographer, and that's anyone who arranges words within a given space: letter, report, bulletin, brochure, ad, billboard, book, sign etc. You don't have to be a graphic designer to create good typography because Roger Parker makes it easy to communicate clearly. The book is methodically organized. Each page is devoted to one subject, i.e. column width, placement, type sizes, word and letter spacing, font choice-all 204 of them. Parker writes easily, clearly, succinctly, and is always on the side of the reader, and the absence of verbiage and posturing is refreshing. Each page has direct, easy-to-understand two color illustrations that unambiguously define the text. Unlike program manuals that have incomplete or misnamed subjects, I'm impressed with Parker's contents page and glossary, which makes it easy for the reader to find information quickly. The soft cover book is a comfortable, easy to hold 7" x 9" portrait format. For quick review, the italic captions are printed in red. Text is set in one of my favorite fonts Minion, designed by Robert Slimbach one of the world's great type designers. The generous 11-point size makes is easy to read. This is a book that makes it easy to produce good looking, well organized layouts that communicate, a rarity in manuals. Parker's book should be within arm's length at a workstation, and [for the money], it's money in the bank.

Doyald Young, teacher and author: Logotypes & Letterforms and Fonts & Logos

This book is amazing. It lists 200 examples of good and bad design in a text/title/image/graphic perspective for business documents (which is just like a website). This book is a bible for begining or intermediate graphic designers who want to make the perfectly organized data (newsletters, website, newspaper, etc). Instead of long chapters of boring theory and idealism, it points out common design mistakes and shows a better way to do it and throws in a couple sentences of theory to it. In my opinion this is a must in anyone's library of books.

I bought this masterpiece after I read 'The Non-Designers Design Book' by Robin Williams. The content is much the same, but explored much more thoroughly, with clear examples and well-thought layouts.

If you want to get only one book on Desktop Publishing, THIS IS THE ONE! Don't waste your time with other books.

A paper design is self-explanatory and self-maintaining. This is why Roger Parker was able to write this superb book on design for paper. Web publishing involves collaborative maintenance of a collection of material. So one can never achieve such clarity. Anyway, this is a great book if you want to design some paper stuff and it is also good to think about why you'll never have it this easy in the Web world.

I have used the 1st edition for years as my primary Test & QA reference. Being a fan of Dr. Demming, this book supports his teaching. Mr. Lewis's book provides many pracical examples and templates for the QA practitioner, be they a seasoned pro or someone just thrown into Testing for the first time.

This book represents the most complete and comprehensive approach to total quality of any I've read on either software testing or software quality assurance.

Highlights include:

- A structured quality cycle based on Plan-Do-Check-Act. This cycle is the foundation of continuous improvement, which is the theme of the book.

- Complete description of testing techniques - in this respect the book is an encyclopedia for software test professionals and a definitive reference.

- Comprehensive resource for forms and checklists (I wish these were also provided in soft copy on a CD ROM or author's web site, but they are not).

- Full view of metrics across every aspect of the development life cycle. In the same manner that the testing techniques are encyclopedic, the metrics are also an encyclopedia for SQA professionals.

I've used this book as a reference, and it had a heavy influence on a reference chart a colleague and I developed for depicting life cycle key metrics. It does not confine itself to testing alone, and in fact, has something for production services and service delivery professionals, as well as project managers involved with large scale development and implementation projects. You would have to buy at least a dozen books or download thousands of documents off the Internet to get the information contained between the covers of this book.

After reading Software Test and Continual Process Improvement, I am impressed by the breadth and depth of William Lewis' test and quality process coverage. I recommend his book to anyone who is involved in the software development life cycle, including Project Managers, System Analysts, and IT Directors.

Mr. Lewis' book is particularly relevant those of us who must reduce development costs while meeting our customers' maturing expectations. Times have changed; financial restrictions prevent using development resources to correct software defects. Initiating the prevention processes outlined in Software Test and Continual Process Improvement will boost project efficiency and product value.

My suggestions for improvement: If Mr. Lewis left out the vendor references (in Sections IV and VI), then his book would be less vulnerable to obsolescence. More emphasis on how requirement and test management tools map to each other would strengthen the same sections.

It's naive to assume that a book on software test and quality can describe all the components and nuances of thorough testing. Software Test and Continual Process Improvement comes closer than any other book I've read to describing effective end-to-end software quality interventions. It's the software test compendium to hold on to.

You'd have to download over a gigabyte of internet resources, then cross-reference them to come anywhere close to having a resource as valuable as this book. Lewis has taken proven techniques spanning both software testing and SQA, wrapped them into a quality process based on the PDCA model and places all of the information you need to master testing and SQA between the covers of this outstanding book.

All you need to add is the ability to think. If you can do that you'll be able to transform the incredible amount of information in this book into action. If you do that I guarantee you that you'll be able to develop a world class quality organization.

Of course, you can mine the publicly available resources and sort through them. Before you do, think carefully about how much your time is worth and just how much you can absorb. If you're intelligent enough to understand this book, you'll quickly see that you'll save thousands of manhours. If not, you still need this book because approach will make you think in terms of cost/benefit.

The forms and checklists in this book alone are worth many times the price.

After reading Software Test and Continual Process Improvement, I am impressed by the breadth and depth of William Lewis' test and quality process coverage. I recommend his book to anyone who is involved in the software development life cycle, including Project Managers, System Analysts, and IT Directors.

Mr. Lewis' book is particularly relevant those of us who must reduce development costs while meeting our customers' maturing expectations. Times have changed; financial restrictions prevent using development resources to correct software defects. Initiating the prevention processes outlined in Software Test and Continual Process Improvement will boost project efficiency and product value.

My suggestions for improvement: If Mr. Lewis left out the vendor references (in Sections IV and VI), then his book would be less vulnerable to obsolescence. More emphasis on how requirement and test management tools map to each other would strengthen the same sections.

It's naive to assume that a book on software test and quality can describe all the components and nuances of thorough testing. Software Test and Continual Process Improvement comes closer than any other book I've read to describing effective end-to-end software quality interventions. It's the software test compendium to hold on to.

This "Unofficial" book is very good. David does a great job of showing exactly how to build each project with informative snapshots from the program Lego Digital Designer. The programming was missing a little of information on what to fill in the for each module, but his comments provided enough information to fill in the modules. I did have a question for David and he responded with the answer I was looking for.

I love the Lego Mindstorm kits, and I've always enjoyed No Starch Press's books. So I was excited to hear about their Unofficial Lego Mindstorms NXT Inventor's Guide (ULMNIG). These are two great tastes that taste great together.

Unfortunately, I was led a bit astray by the title. "Inventor's Guide", to me, summons mental images of crazy legos hacks, but that's not the goal of this book.

In the introduction, the ULMNIG describes its true intentions--taking you beyond the user guide and instructions that came with the Mindstorm kit. It does not assume any previous experience with Lego or Mindstorms, but helps you explore a broader range or projects and possibilities.

As an entry level book, I think the ULMNIG overwhelmingly succeeds.

The book starts with a description of the lego pieces, then provides basic guidelines for building sturdy structures and functional gear trains. For me, this was the weakest part of the book. Don't get me wrong. It has solid information, and should be useful for beginning builders. But it felt too short and too superficial for my tastes.

The ULMNIG then spends two chapters exploring the NXT-G programming language in detail. If you are going to use NXT-G, then you need to read these chapters. They provide a lot of information that will help you get the most out of your Mindstorm brick. They are also much clearer and more informative than the user manual. Reading these chapters will save you from hours of frustrating trial and error.

Finally the last half of the book covers six new robot designs. Four of these designs are radically different from each other. One is a differential drive with a ball castor. One is a four-wheeled steering vehicle. One is a six-legged walking motion sensor, and one is a stationary bot. There are also two variations on the differential-drive bot.

This gives you a nice combination of projects. The designs increase in complexity, allowing you to improve your skills as you progress through them. Building them will teach you a wide range of design techniques, while the variations show you how you can modify existing designs for other purposes.

The projects are definitely the highlight of the book. Working through the projects will teach you more about building robots than the rest of the book combined. And, once your finished, you should be ready to jump into your own projects.

Unfortunately, advanced builders/programmers might find themselves somewhat disappointed with this book. The ULMNIG hints at several advanced topics: building dynamic structures and third party programming languages. Unfortunately, these only get the briefest introduction. A few paragraphs each, tops. And the ULMNIG doesn't even mention other advanced topics, like third-party sensors and hardware, or attaching your own circuits to the NXT brick.

So, I would not recommend this book for everyone. But, if you've finished all the projects in the Mindstorm Users Guide, but your still struggling to build your own robots, then this is definitely the book for you.

I'm a coach of a FIRST LEGO League team and I bought this book to help my son "get to the next level." I am making this book mandatory for every team member next season! It is informative, yet easy to read. It covers all the bases from good robot design to programming explanations. I can't recommend it enough!

This is a great beginner/intermediate level book for both kids and adults. The building section is excellent at explaining HOW to use the technic pieces. The programming section is a very good primer for those new to the NXT-G programming environment and language. It sets you up well for the building & programming projects found later in the book. As a middle school teacher running a robotics club, I set some of my more advanced 6th graders to work on whatever project they wanted to from the book. They jumped into taking on the guard-bot and the golf-bot which are the more advanced projects. With little guidance from me, they were very successful and had a blast. That shows how well written and designed the book is!

The Unofficial Lego Mindstorms NXT Inventors Guide

Author: David J. Perdue
website: http://www.davidjpredue.com ; http://www.nxtguidedavidjpredue.com
Strengths: Very nice schematics, parts listings and visuals to highlight or the parts for the machines. Easily readable. Good for novice robot builders but also advanced users will find it helpful as well.

Weaknesses: The book has black/white text.

Novice/Intermediate/Advanced

Rating: 5/5

reviewed by Dr. Eric Flescher, Olathe, KS: (dreric1kansas@aol.com)


Introduction

I have been working with robot kits for many years. I started with the Fischertecknik robot turtle which I built and was able to use with the logo interface with my Apple IIE. Later on I heard about Lego Mindstorms and bought a set to use. It was tough going and after much delay because of the programming and the light issues with the brick, I was able to get legos finally working. Since then, I have worked with several kits and working with PC and Macintosh interfacing. But I was still looking for more a more helpful guides to build more interesting robots. I think I found one in The Unofficial Lego Mindstorms NXT Inventors Guide.

This author David J. Perdue knows his stuff and Lego Mindstorms. He has been creating MINDSTORMS since 2001 and just won the NXT Camera Bot Building Challenge competition and is the author of Competitive MINDSTORMS (Apress, 2004). He has received three Special Mention awards for his creations on the official online MINDSTORMS and is a full time student, pursuing a degree in Management information Systems in Texas. So I opened the book to see what else I could find out and how I could use the book for my LegoMindstorms in the future.

In the beginning, it was difficult to use Mindstorms. For me the kit did not work at all. Working with Macintosh was not an option. There were minimal additional information for working with the robots beyond the parts, software and initial schematics. I had to use a PC. This version works with PC (needs Windows XP or higher and will or already have shipped Vista version) or Macintosh OSX (version 103.9 and higher). It was not until later that I learned from a Legos salesman that the light in the room could be an issue. Its little things like this that kept me and possible others, from doing more with robotics.

I was hoping that the book started with novice programmers and robot creators. This books has "novice " beginning information so this book can be used with those who are new to Lego Mindstorms or are upgrading to the NXT version. It is good to know that this advanced robotic author, is "down to earth" with his writing and when "speaking" the language of robots. I have not upgraded to the NXT version yet and so and wanted to see whether it is would be worth upgrading myself but if so how and what ways could the robots be used with this new version.

The black and white screenshots are integrated within the instruction. The visuals are large enough to read and decipher what you need to know. The lack of color does not really hurt. I really liked the screenshots and illustrations listings of the parts for assembly. However it would have been nice if they were in color (the parts are a multitude or colors. Tables do however include numbers, piece names and the place color however. When you need more information about the parts, they are all there listed and illustrated/ photographed.

Throughout the book, there are helpful ideas in the way of bold notes that are "peppered" throughout the tutorials. In addition, there are pointers that go along with the "balloons " which have text inside of them about related to the robot parts. Circles and arrows highlight the illustrated areas in the screenshots that the author is clearly targeting for his instructions. This makes the understanding of the parts even more explicit.

The introduction introduces Lego Mindstorms, NXT, building , programming and starting and working with robotic projects. Here is an outline of the chapters and what is in store for you.

Part I in entitled "Introduction to LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT". In the Chapter 1, LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT starts off with building robots, the programming of robots, activating robots and what can you do with robots and NXT. Chapter 2 is includes solid but easy to understand information about starting with the NXT robotic set.

Part II illustrates the building with 4 chapters. There is electronic pieces, understanding the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT pieces, the need and building sturdy structures, and working with and building with gears

Programming section is in Part III . Chapter 7 introduction has a nice introduction to the NXT-G system. Later 3 chapters involve advanced NXT-G programming a. There is also more in the form of unofficial programming languages for the NXT.

Part IV involves 6 robot projects and that is where your in-depth robotic education really begins. You are taught the author's Mindstorms method, and working with 6 nice in-depth but easy to understand projects.

Appendices are good resources. Appendix A has LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT piece library. The Appendix B NXT-G has nice quick reference guide section that includes information for advanced programming to perform more intricate tasks. The author details a lot of the complexity, not only with words but also visually illustrates how to and in what ways to to complete the array of blocks, sensors and programming information. While it is not easy to learn, this section takes you "once step at a time". Appendix C informs with other internet resources.

Conclusions

I recommend this book highly for its in-depth tutorials, the visual schematics and the quality of the reading that makes the information well understood. No one said building robots was easy but with this book, you will learn and go further than you thought you could achieve. What I like about this book and the way the author has crafted this book is that he actually invited you to build robots in a none intimidating way. The in-depth information, the visual assemblies and tables, and the easy to read information along with the tutorials will allow you not only start but develop your skills in robot building. You will learn to be creative but at the same learning the logic of the machines and how to build robotics. I know there are many books that teach Lego Mindstorms out there but I am glad I chose this one first.

This book has short chapters and a lot of examples. It is a good "second" book for an Introductory SQL course.

This is a GREAT book for foundation skills in SQL.

I used this book to teach myself SQL when I was "elected" to implement an Oracle database system at a former job and have since gone on to become an Oracle developer and DBA. The concepts and techniques learned in this book have served me well along the way. I have taught Oracle development in a technical school, and insisted that they use this book in the classroom. The diagrammatic approach to learning about tables, columns, joins and SQL functions seems to "click" with everyone who encounters it.

I'm writing this review after buying my ?10th? copy of this book - don't loan it out if you need to keep your copy.

I used this book when I needed to pick up SQL fast. I worked in an organization where I had to build Teradata Data Bases and used SQL to select and move the data. The illustrations really help visualize every aspect of assembling an SQL program and how it interfaces with the data base. I still use it today when I need to be reminded of a particular syntax. Don't loan this book out if you ever want to see it again. I did and now I'm buying another book!

I am currently enrolled in a Database Management (Oracle/SQL) class at Boston College. Right off the bat, I knew I was in trouble when we were told the professor would be unavailable for help and most of students in class were computer science majors. (I was taking the class to broaden my computer skills above and beyond front-end web design.)

The textbook in class was the heinously monstrous 1200+ page Oracle 9i The Complete Reference by Kevin Loney. After struggling through many chapters and finding our professor's teaching style very unhelpful, I decided it was time for another resource.

I checked on Amazon ... and found Sam's Teach Yourself SQL in 10 minutes to be semi-helpful. Then at the Harvard Coop, I stumbled upon it - - A VISUAL INTRODUCTION TO SQL. The problem, I realized, was that I am a visual learner and need to see all the schema tables and step-by step actions to describe what happens as I develop queries. This books is key for any layman, like myself. It walks you through very basic (and more complex) problems in an easy-to-read visual approach. While using SQL on the PC, viewing the tables is difficult and this book helps you map out the problems to figure them out. I was especially impressed after emailing the author about a table question and getting a personalized response.

If you are in a bind to learn SQL on your own, this book is great and won't kill you lugging it around either.

P.S. A great addition I found to this book was a Mac client software (that can access Oracle Databases) called SQL Grinder. Like the book, this program is also very visual and the GUI (MAC) clearly reigns over any PC. Sorry Windows users! Thanks for your help, David Chappell! ;-)

This book doesn't assume that you are familiar with databases or the SQL programming language. It teaches you the programming language step-by-step using a graphic approach. A great way to learn SQL.

I agree completely with the other reviewers. This book is has an amazing wealth of information about VRML and will have you making some amazing worlds by the time you are finished. Many important subjects are covered, from beginning to advanced topics. I do agree that there isn't NEARLY enough information about scripting with VRML, just a brief talk of how to do it. Some more examples with this would have been a huge help, but otherwise, I'd recommend this book to anyone who uses VRML, no matter your expertise.

This book is perfect for beginners and those that already now the basics and want to advance further. It has many examples and is written in a intelligent manor. If you are advanced in VRML you may still benefit from this book however when it comes to scripting and adding Java to your 3d worlds you will need to invest in other books.

Even nearly nine years after it was first written, this book continues to be valuable for more reasons than when it was published. If you are still involved in VRML and have some need to learn this language, this book is a complete guide that starts from the beginning with the simplest concepts and shape definitions and then builds to advanced concepts such as textures, lighting, and fog. Throughout the book there are figures of the resulting images and plenty of sample VRML files for all examples. I do agree with the other reviewers that chapter 30, the one on scripting, is really the only chapter that is no longer worthwhile since so many changes have been made to the scripting part of VRML. Other than that, this is truly one of the best written and most instructive tech books I have ever bought. If you are going to study VRML, there is no longer any other book in existence but this one that is worth owning.
The second reason to own this book has only popped up over the last two or three years. Since Xj3D began to come on the scene several years ago as the XML-based open-source replacement for VRML, this book has become invaluable for evaluating that tool's ability to build virtual worlds. In fact, the Web3D consortium's "test files" for Xj3D, which continues to be a work in progress, are VRML files from this book that have been translated into Xj3D. Since the base tags are the same in Xj3D as they are in VRML, if you are able to understand VRML you should be able to understand what's going on in an Xj3D file with just a little investigation into the basic differences. This will allow you to intelligently evaluate Xj3D and determine if you can find any weaknesses or discrepancies in that tool's implementation.

Doesn't take you through the subject in the conventional manner. After the first couple of intro chapters, you can then easily delve into any other chapter for what you need. Very useful as a reference once you understand the basics. A bit weak on using scripts to control and interact with VRML worlds. Other than this minor gripe, a great book.

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This is an amazing book. It's not a tutorial for a building device driver. For device driver developers, it is an essential reference for understanding NT's kernel system. This book is also great for those who are not building device drivers but want to understand the NT kernel. The chapters on virtual memory, I/O architecture and I/O managers are totally worth the price of the book.

If you are writing Windows Device Drivers, this is one of 3 books you absolutely must have. Buy it.

Dear all,

We have an plotter printer HP 7550a and we run NT as operating system. There are no drivers for nt for this printer.

We now are trying to get this printer working under wp 5.1 because there are no printer drivers for NT.

Who can help me get the driver I am looking for. It does not matter if it is an NT driver or an corel wp5.1 driver.

Please help me we would realy appriciate this efford !

with kind regards,

Jeropen van Mourik

ING BANK Netherlands

This book is VERY well written and VERY readable. I needed other sources to get an actual driver written (see Chris Cant's book) but only because this book gives a much more complete picture and I needed something more specific. That's my point...if you want a good, solid understanding of the system and an excellent reference, get this book. It's not often one finds technical-minded people with such writing skill.

I think its a good book and well organized, my only black poing is that I missed a toolkit section like WinDriver-www.jungo.com- or numega that enable easy and quick development.

Hello everyone ! I bought this book cause I need it !
Not only for a better understanding of max tools but for the entire process of making of a good 3d movie animation !
Well,this book acomplish its purpose !The book pass through every stages of this process !Congratulations for the author and for his clarity expositions !

I just received my copy, this is not much of a review but I have a question, i will update this as soon as i have my review.
My question: is it normal that the book comes with 2 cd-roms? And why are on the 2 cd-roms the same data?

This is a great book on completing a project, it helps in every respect, lots of tutorials, references, information, examples etc....
One thing is not mentioned, to complete these projects, you will need more then 3DS Max 6, you will need to have Adobe PREMIER to make/edit the movie, for special effects & more, you will need COMBUSTION 3, even though it is not necessary but it will be essential for a complete animation, you will need to have a sound editing software like Cakewalk's SONIC or something similar and of course Adobe Photoshop.
I am very happy with the book, and have already started planning & sketching a storyboard plus modeling the environment I will use, my characters are almost ready, but because of this fantastic book, I didn't know about the sound editing and the movie editing outside of 3DS Max requiered to finish a movie, now with this book I will complete my animation project.

This book is a very good surprise. It's very complete, well explained, very clear.

That book contains exacly what is said on the cover.. So no deception possible! (An exemple that Sanford Kennedy shoud follow because his book about 3ds max 5 is terrible, a total desaster.)

So this is the book to buy! Thank you Mr Barret Fox.

He shows how he developed, boarded, modeled, textured, rigged & animated the 3 figures shown on the cover. He doesn't wander off on side issues, nor does he gloss over the tricky parts. The book comes with a CD of usable models and scenes so you can see what and how he did it.


One word of warning is the author assumes the reader is advanced on the subject - don't get this book if you need a basic how-to animate with computer book.