Programming Books

I first lend this book from collage developer an have read with great enthusiasms and finally ordered my own copy of this book.
The book gives detailed information on how to developing software from scratch, taken you by hand and leading you de hole way step by step.
With the different way to present the information en with lot of illustrations its newer a boring read.

Anders Kjaer

[...]

Although I was initially put off by the non-serious cover and gimmicky premise, I decided to trust to O'Reilly and give this book a try. That turned out to be a great decision!

Be forewarned that the real title should be "Head First AGILE Software Development," so don't expect other methodologies, but it definitely delivers. Whether you're just beginning to take the plunge into agile development, or you've been sort of trying to do it for a while but don't have a real clear picture of your goal, this is a great book for you.

However, if you've been developing agilely for a while, then what you'll find here isn't much more than a refresher course or reminder of how you should be doing things.

I've been eyeballing the Head First books for a while, specifically the Java and Object-Oriented Analysis & Design. I don't program in Java and I think I understand OOP very well. Because of this, the Head First structure looks to offer a bit less structure - so a good "read as you can" book.

I got this title in a raffle. I'm glad I did. It whetted my appetite for more Head First. Not so much for the content (Which I will review further down) but because it's almost like reading a comic book. Easy, entertaining and something my busy dizzy mind could readily grasp in small chunks. I will probably get another Head First book in the future. Probably more than one.

As for the content of this book, it was well laid out and for someone new to the concepts of formal software design, it was nice to see all the little pieces come together. I did have a hard time with the Java specific environment, but I guess it would be a much larger book if they covered other systems. The steps were clear, some of them a smidge corny, but most of them logical.

After having read this, I was inspired to put it to use. That's when it hit me. I can't see this working unless the entire development group reads the book - or they were all newbies. Well I can see it, just not in the places I've worked.

The way this book is writen is just fantastic. Wonderful book to LEARN how to develop GOOD software.

Head First Software Development is another home run from the Head First series. I have bougth the HTML/CSS, Design Patterns, Object-Oriented Analysis & Design, and now this book. These "Brain-Friendly Guides" are such wonderful learning tools packed with great information, and so much fun to read. Keep them coming!

As a veteran Oracle DBA, I had some potential customers with both Informix and Oracle to support and since I had not used Informix in 5 years, I needed to brush up on my Informix skills. This book is unfortunately now out of print, but my copy from 5 years ago is still used on occasion. I agree with other poster that on a general DBA basis, it covers Informix quite well. I just wish that it had more coverage of high available clustering and replication topics as well as troubleshooting problems with Informix. Still good and only book that really covers Informix in detail.

This is a really good look and is suitable for both the novice and expert. There should have been more coverage of topics on HA & Replication. Also it is sad that it does not cover the latest releases. As this is out of publication, I paid a bit more than original price for a used look, but it was worth its weight in gold. The reseller from Ohio promptly sent me the book and answered my calls. Book arrived in new and good Condition. The book's website has been neglected. It needs some attention. Visited the InformiX users group for info and latest trial software after talking to the author, when I found that the CD needed keys. In the end everything was available at www.iiug.org and I had a pleasant experience using the book.

All In All A Good Book.

Of all the books I have read about Informix, Flannery's is the easiest to use. The topics are well organized and cross-referenced, which helps me find what I need quickly. In addition, the book has a web site which keeps it current. Also, the book's numerous examples make it easy for me to apply the knowledge it contains. I love the formatting and the way that I don't have to read hundreds of pages to find the answers. Well done!

This book is awesome, I just wish more topics including replication, more detailed troubleshooting techniques, and finally a good DBA practices/methods section. I now have two books, one for work and one for home. It is constantly open on my desk (both places). The sections on privileges and optimizing indexes have been my favorites due to the easy layout. Each section presented the infomation in clear and concise ways, allowing for quick implementation.

As a new DBA (1yr.), I can't thank Mr. Flannery enough. I only wish the rest of the Informix Press books would strive to meet or exceed this standard.

Since I'm new to Informix, I was forever looking for a book that would help me get a better understanding on how to support Informix databases. The Informix user manuals were very unorganized make it very difficult to get the answers I needed. This book is well organized, making it easy to locate the needed information. There are plenty of useful examples that are easy to understand. This book has now become my main reference source. For the novice or expert, this book should should be in your reference library.

This is a great book to start with for those who want to learn JavaScript. It has excellent discussion of the basics of the language with plenty of examples to follow along with. Most of the example scripts are small and basic in nature. But, they can still make useful additions to any website that might need image rollovers, cookies or pop-up windows. In the later chapters there are a few larger and slightly more complicated scripts like an image slide show. The book also has thorough coverage of basic programming concepts like variables, arrays, loops and such. Therefore, any prior programming or scripting knowledge is not an absolute requirement. All the code in this book worked smoothly with errors found only in the HTML code. The minor, and somewhat strange, errors in the HTML code really didn't create any problems. The multiple choice final exam did provide a descent review of the material at the end of the book. However, I would have preferred answers with a little explanation rather than just the correct letter.

The only issue I had with this book is the final chapters. I did expect a little more exposure to advanced scripts and concepts. There were only a few examples and most were scripts from dynamicdrive.com with little or no discussion of new concepts. Much of the final two chapters were just descriptions with URL's of sophisticated scripts that can be downloaded from Dynamic Drive. This was a bit disappointing since most designers/developers probably know how to find and install scripts from the many code libraries on the web.

Overall, JavaScript Demystified is a great book for a true beginner with no prior experience with scripting or programming. This is not the best book for those who just want to copy scripts or who are expecting advanced topics. This is a book for those who want to actually learn JavaScript. I definitely would look forward to a new book by the same author in the same format that covers advanced JavaScript.

Clear and concise, done with not one wit of 'speaking down' to you, and the explanations are straightforward. The material is introduced a piece at a time, and with reasonable review questions that are surprisingly thorough.
I would suggest it to anyone who wants a good reference to JavaScript as well. Buy it you won't be disappointed.

I felt that this book was very good for beginners as well as a good reference for those that have a strong background in html and JavaScript.

I recently attended a JavaScript course where the instruct have a difficult time explaining JavaScript in clear Englishing. I'm not a programmer, so I needed someone to explain this in simple English. This book make JavaScript clear enough so that I passed the course.

I you ever wondered how the professional web page developers dress up their web pages, then take a look at this book. Every trick that I've seen on commercial web pages are revealed in this book. I easily copied code from the book into my web pages and made mine work like a pro web page. Good book.

My brief research before the purchase of this book lead me to believe, that this is currently (July 2008) the best book on jQuery. After getting started with the book, I still think that's the case. Except if I consider online docs and tutorials as well. Online tutorials benefit jQuery from the fact that you can really try out and see what's happening. Sure you could download the code or type it down from the book, but the fact is that I ended up learning more about jQuery following interactive online tutorials than from reading the book.
Usually, I prefer reading a book on the couch instead of on a computer screen, but that's not how you learn jQuery. You have to try it. You have to play with it. And if you have to sit in front of your PC or Mac anyway, you might as well just follow an online tutorial.

I rarely write reviews for the books I read, but with this one a review isn't that hard. First and foremost, this book assumes that you already have some solid knowledge on web design (CSS, HTML, and Javascript). There is a quick chapter on javascript in the appendix that helps but it's more of a friendly reminder of javascript concepts that anything else. It's also good to have an understanding of some of the more advanced CSS selectors that are in the CSS3 specification. This isn't a requirement but you'll get a bit more out of it if you do. jQuery has some very powerful ways of selecting elements and you can use some of the CSS3 selector statements even if the browser doesn't support it. Very cool stuff! The authors do a great job of explaining things with detailed code and real-world examples (which you can download and run yourself if you wish to follow along). They also do a good job of breaking everything down into a linear fashion that is easy to absorb and don't get ahead of themselves all that often. All in all, this is probably one of the best web development/design related books I've read in a while. I haven't quite finished yet but the half I have read is reqlly well written. I already feel like I have a firm grasp of the basic concepts of jQuery and could probably start using it a bit. Bravo to the authors for writing a solid book on jQuery!

I have solid JavaScript skills and plenty of experience, but at first I wasn't feeling 100% comfortable using jQuery; I was able to be productive very quickly, but failed to feel at home using it. This book was exactly what I was looking for. jQuery has its own way to approach many problems and, in my case, I almost had to "unlearn" certain habits and embrace the idiomatic alternatives offered by the library. jQuery in Action helped me a lot in the process, saved me some time and made the whole learning process much more enjoyable. I wish there was more space dedicated to ui.jQuery, but I understand that's a topic worth a dedicated book.

I found this book to be a great resource for learning about jQuery. I was able to apply what I learned right away.

This is just an excellent book all around. It's well-written. No BS to wade through (just the stuff you need to get going with jQuery). It has excellent online tools to download so you can really get into jQuery and how it works (they call it a Lab page -- it's a set of HTML pages that you download and use to test tasks or theories in jQuery).

I haven't read too many books solely on Ajax frameworks but I cannot recommend this one enough. You'll be up and running with jQuery faster than you can imagine.

I really enjoyed reading de le Varre's poignant memoir. He writes with a searing honesty about his challenges and triumphs. Rene is at his best when describing the family he obviously loves so much. Particularly in Andre, his father, the reader will discover an honest approach to a complicated relationship filled with anger and tenderness.

Reading de le Varre's book is one part history and one part travel adventure. His descriptions of both small town life and big time European travel and adventure fill the reader with thoughtful imagery.

I thoroughly enjoyed the trip.

I really liked the book. I think it is a good read for 1) people who know Rene 2) those from or living in Croton 3) interested travel readers 4) and, of course, those who deal with alcohol issues in their lives.

The descriptions and recent history of Croton is awesome. I liked the family backgrounds and also the European perspective which was detailed - especially Vienna, Austria.

It is very sad how things unraveled for Rene's Pop. The career achievements in film by he and his dad are well documented and should be!

Growing up in Croton? This book captured it for me. From Little League to hitting the bottom line on HS football when Croton was the worst team in the County and people in town started to get an inferiority complex that kids in Croton just could not compete with those in other towns! They really believed this. How about running the Croton River rapids? Imagine jumping off Quaker Bridge and floating down the Croton to Fireman's Island! And, the description of HS baseball was very good with the love of being out there playing and learning how to win.

Where was that Carvel stand?

I loved reading about Rene's family dynamics, travel excursions throughout his life and in the end learning that he figured out to change his life by choosing a healthy addiction rather than the standard choice of unhealthy addictions. Most of us don't attain this insight of ourselves...
I am sad the book is over... it was a fun travel adventure as well as, life through the eyes of a runner.
LOVED IT!

Diana Hersh

WHAT A MAGICAL LOOK INTO THE LIFE OF A YOUNG MAN WITH A FATHER WHOM HE ADORES AND YET HATES FOR WHAT HE IS DOING TO HIMSELF. THIS WELL WRITTEN STORY HAS FUNNY MOMENTS, AS WELL AS THOSE THAT TUG AT YOUR HEART. THE DESCIPTIONS THAT RENE PAUL HAS WOVEN INTO THE STORY OF HIS TRAVELS ALL OVER THE WORLD, MAKE YOU KNOW SO MUCH ABOUT THOSE COUNTRIES HE HAS VISITED. HE EVEN WEAVES HISTORY OF THOSE PLACES INTO THE STORY.THE AUTHOR HAS HAD AN EXCITING AND YET SLIGHTLY SAD LIFE. THIS IS A BOOK THAT IS HARD TO PUT DOWN WHEN YOU FIRST PICK IT UP TO READ. IT PULLS YOU INTO THE STORY. I LOVED IT AND RECOMMEND IT.

A remarkably insightful memoir...Rene offers a glimpse into the dynamics of a fascinating family. No blame...no guilt...simply understanding and acceptance.

I have been working with Unix for more than 5 years, and read more than 20 books about unix itself. But I never seend book like this much well explain about internal architecture. Unix 6 on PDP-11 is old, but main idea still remain all major distribution.

It great helpful for my understanding about Unix.

I learned about the existence of this manuscript 16 years ago, yet could never find a full version, until the book came. I have read most of it and it is beatiful. Many of the tradeoffs the early UNIX versions had are there. Context switching is done via coroutine jumps, the callout table is used only for the teletype, the very origins of the scheduler and swapper are neatly explained among many other things. PDP11 architecture is simple enough to make this book still a jewel for those interested in learning OS concepts and evolution and specifically UNIX.

The world is full of books on operating systems: their theory, their internals, their applications, etc. The Lions book connects OS theory to practice better than anything I have ever seen. Reading it beforehand certainly made graduate-school Operating Systems a lot easier.

This is prably the best source/commentary book. Though some of the stuff is outdated, the core still is quite valid and gives useful insight into the implementation of the kernel.

I have gone through about 10-15% of the book, like filesystems and os initialization, and fouud it extremely helpful.

santy

Any comments made on a superlative commentary on superb code would be largely superfluous. This gem should be part of any Operating Systems course. The greatest of the pleasures offered by the book is the opportunity to read the source code, version 6 of the UNIX Operating System. It is a unique opportunity to see the real masters at work!

Highly recommended, with Maurice J Bach's "The Design of the Unix Operating System" as a supplement.

This truly excellent book fills a large void in the software engineering and IT world - tying the business case to software. It is of paramount importance to demonstrate a quantitative, bottom-line impact when embarking on a software development or evolution project. Too few engineers and managers consider the full business context when making decisions. Many hard lessons in my 20 years of experience could have been avoided if I had the insights and techniques that this book provides.

I expect Mr. Reifer's book to be a classic in the field. It is chockfull of practical methods with worked-out examples of making the software business case. Not only is it rigorous in it's quantitative approach, but the author's broad and seasoned perspective helps practitioners steer through the minefield of people, politics and organizations. I seriously believe we would have more successful software projects if all technical people took on such a balanced view.

Don Reifer's book provides information not found in existing books on software engineering, process improvement, and project management. His primary audience is technical people who must sell a project to business people. In particular, he provides concrete, practical advice for selling a process improvement program. For example, Chapter 4 stresses the importance of focusing on cost avoidance instead of cost reduction to justify improvements. In Chapter 7 he suggests briefing middle managers individually to obtain their support. Based on my experience, this is sound advice because middle managers are often the most difficult people to convince in an organization. Giving personal attention to each manager pays big dividends later. He also suggests taking advantage of state tax laws to partially offset the costs of training employees. This is a win-win strategy for both the firm and the state. Training gives employees new skills and improves retention. This, in turn, helps the firm obtain more business and so generate more income for the local economy and more tax revenues for the state. He explains the difference between project and capital funds, and how to exploit this difference to obtain the resources you need. The book has many useful checklists. For example, one identifies the types and sources of information needed to prepare a business case. Another identifies the critical items to check when deciding to acquire a business.

His book will also be of interest to marketing people who are preparing sales presentations for complicated technical products. For example, these individuals could prepare business cases to compare possible alternatives. Even experienced managers unfamiliar with software products and process improvement will find the case studies useful.

Don Reifer illustrates the concepts presented in Part 1 with actual case studies in Part 2. These are based on his 30+ years of experience in the software field. The case study in Chapter 7 begins with what amounts to an engineering view of the problem and then the author provides comments indicating how a manager would like to see the information presented. This case study really shows the contrast between the technical and management ways of thinking. The case study in Chapter 8 shows how to assess the value of a company whose primary assets are intellectual property and knowledge capital.

Overall, the book is concise and well written. I was able to quickly absorb the concepts and techniques without spending a lot of time. It is a valuable addition to my reference shelf.

Making the Software Business Case: Improvement by the Numbers covers an area too few software engineers have any exposure to: financial modeling and business analysis, as it relates to the IT domain. Reifer's concise (300 page) book provides a broad overview of how the IT area appears from the business side, including critical material on how to frame technical proposals in business terms.

Amongst the many nuggets to be found in this book are:

· useful tips on where money can be found
· good insights into the politics of proposals and budgeting
· getting middle management buy-in
· countering executive challenges
· successful management of cross-project initiative dynamics
· software capitalization/depreciation
· Discussion of reuse from a cost avoidance perspective.

This book is not only good in terms of its material, it is also an eminently readable book in terms of style. Reifer elaborates his argument through the clever use of case studies that provide human interest and momentum to otherwise dry material. These case studies include:

· A defense contracting firm implementing software process improvement
· A public utility replacing an outdated mainframe-based transactional system with modern client-server technology
· An industrial controls firm suffering from moribund products
· A firm seeking to Internet-enable its internal systems

Reifert places strong emphasis on "making your numbers believable." He argues that this believability must address these nontechnical considerations:
· Cash flow
· Cost basis
· Cost/benefit
· Estimate fidelity
· Present value
· Profit and loss
· Risks
· Source of funds
· Tax implications

He does an admirable job in placing these concepts in context, and providing a clear overview of each.
The utility case study demonstrates the importance of understanding the overall financial dynamics affecting one's enterprise. For example, the differences between capital and expense budgets can be key in determining whether to purchase or lease equipment. As Reifert elaborates in the utility scenario, "Because this has been a profitable year, an increase in expenses [i.e. leasing as opposed to purchase capital expenditures] could have a profound positive tax consequence." The book has many examples of this type of valuable, integrated business insight.

Reifer has much sound general IT management advice mixed in with his financial message. A recurring theme through many of the discussions is the need for an executive sponsor, to provide political cover and tactical advice in forwarding the business case.

He also urges the reader to frame benefits in terms of cost avoidance rather than cost reduction-promising cost reductions often lead to the question, "OK, then who are we going to let go?" Not a good way to win friends.

I found his observations on the subject of central process quality assurance groups interesting:

"Reinventing staff organizations such as process and quality assurance groups is a good idea. Engineers assigned to such staff groups get stale once they've put in more than three years of service. Being in an audit and support role, they forget how hard it is to develop and deliver quality products under extreme deadline pressures." (p 137). The book displays a continual awareness of the need to balance these contending issues of cost, schedule, and quality.

The case study based on the industrial controls firm has an explicit architectural theme. This is an especially compelling discussion; software engineers are well aware how critical architectural decisions are, and how often they are compromised in the rush to write code. The discussion demonstrates how to make the case for architecture and include it in an overall work breakdown structure. Reifert is exceptionally creative in his case study creation, taking the opportunity to demonstrate hidden agendas, the pitfalls of contractor estimates, and developing a good working relationship with high-level consultants.

The book provides a solid summary of software estimation. There are whole books written on this subject, so the chapter is necessarily at a high level (although it does dive into some detail on the COCOMO II model in particular). However, it provides a valuable discussion of aspects of high-level IT budgeting beyond tactical project estimation, presenting numerous examples of cost breakdowns covering all phases of the systems development lifecycle, from architecture to maintenance.

The final case study moves into even more adventurous ground, discussing a company seeking to Internet-enable its internal systems via takeover (hostile if necessary) of a specialist firm. The ensuing narrative outlines the due diligence such a move requires, and the various tactical and strategic issues it may raise. A brief discussion of international intercultural relationships is excellent.

The book has only one minor flaw: it was obviously written during the dot-com bubble. There are frequent references to industry dynamics such as a venture-funded firm's survival depending on extreme time-to-market pressures, and perhaps an overemphasis on faddish Web technology.

This book is easily on my Top 10 software engineering book list. It provides a lucid, crisp overview of business issues that are all too mysterious to the average software engineer. Given the potential that well-architected, business-responsive software has to increase productivity, this volume is a service to both the software engineers and the enterprises that employ them.

This book is the aggregation of Mr. Reifer's extensive experience in software management and economics of reuse. His earlier books, "Practical Software Reuse" (ISBN 0471578533), and "Software Management" (ISBN 0769511007) evidence his experience, and probably account for the realistic approach he takes in this book.

Despite his technical background he takes a business-focused approach early in this book by explaining the difference between business and technical cases. Too many technical managers confuse the two, and this plus the other material in Chapter 1 explaining the fundamentals of business cases will set you on the right course.

Chapter 2 is the essence of this book, with advice on relating goals to metrics (using the Goal/Question/Metric technique), and the development and alignment of business cases to development life cycles. This is followed by two excellent chapters covering principles, rules, and analysis tools, and strategies. Much of this material is standard fare, but Mr. Reifer's clear explanations are better than most books that cover this material.

The second part of the book employs case studies that lead you through the development of a business case using principles, concepts and techniques given in the first part of the book. These reinforce part one of the book, as well as provide clear examples of business cases that work, and the process with which to develop them - including challenges, how assumptions were derived, and other nuances of which you should be aware.

The final part of the book is a single chapter on overcoming major barriers, and the sage advice is well worth heeding.

Overall, this is one of the best books on business case development because it is business-oriented, has an approach that is financially and tactically sound, and is written for technical-oriented managers in their own language.

This is not a book for software developers or managers who work in a small shop where there is focused development, little formal bureaucracy and a great deal of camaraderie. It is written for the person with responsibility in a large organization who has an idea for a major new project and needs to get it approved. Essentially, it tells you how to survive and thrive in a large organization that builds software.
The advice is fairly simple but quite accurate. Use numbers in your presentation that can be justified and are consistent with any previous numbers that relate to the project. Have solid data concerning the expected return-on-investment (ROI) from the project as well as any additional costs that may not be outwardly obvious. Quite accurately, the author is emphatic about the principles of present and future value. So much so that appendix B is just a set of basic compound interest tables. This is the most important advice that anyone in a large organization with a business case to plead can ever receive.
A lesser, but still critical point is that you must have a manager to champion your proposal through the managerial hierarchy. That champion must also know the expected ROI from the project very well, as upper echelons will consider a lack of knowledge on the part of the champion to reflect a lack of interest. Another point to reckon with is that if you receive the budgetary increase, it most likely means that someone else in your organization had theirs cut. Nasty, but also the way things are.
Finally, the author takes you through a case study as to when you should acquire a company rather than build a new internal division from scratch. His analysis of what to examine and consider significant is a solid strategy for determining which is the better option.
This is a book that really has two audiences, those who are lower level managers in large organizations with an idea for a new project and those who are starting a company and need to convince the people with the money to open their wallets. For them, it is priceless, but for all others it is difficult to see where they will find it of value.

Aside from the occasional incorrect terms and exhibits, it appears to me that the authors got bored during this project. As I progressed through the book I noticed that the level of detail was reduced with each chapter. If you need the nity-gritty, (ie to study for the Certs) this is not the book.

Having read the MS Press book for the Networking Infrastrucutre test, I knew I needed something thatI could use that would actually help me pass. I read this book and it covered the material in good detail and included good practice exercises to test my knowledge. Even if it wasn't written to be a test prep book, it worked for me. Nice book.

I have been to Global Knowledge's classes, 6 in fact and I am now a dedicated fan of their books. This book is well written and very helpful for those of us getting into Win 2000 in a big way.

While I have read and reviewed many books on Windows 2000, this is the first one that I have read from this particular publisher. It is one of the best books and compares to the likes of Mark Minasi's works. As the title indicates, this book concentrates strictly on the networking services of Windows 2000. It covers all the typical items of DHCP, DNS, WINS, etc. in a very organized and detailed manner allowing you to quickly setup the services and get it right the first time. It does an excellent job of explaining how the services work with each other and the problems an administrator might encounter.

Although not designed as a test preparation book, the book could be used for that purpose. In my opinion it is much better than a test preparation book that tells you what answers to put where on an exam, it is a real-life problem solving book with the answers to the questions that you will have in reality instead of on an exam.

There is one more thing that is unique about the book and publisher. When you purchase a Syngress title you are given a unique warranty against content obsolescence as the result of vendor upgrades. If there is a vendor upgrade and you need to get the new information or changes to the information then you can download chapter updates directly from the Syngress web site. In addition you can sign up for monthly mailings of customer questions and the detailed explanations. Finally, you get a free membership to Access.GlobalKnowledge - an information source for IT professionals.

What a deal! An excellent book, a warranty against becoming outdated three months after you read it and access to an informative and helpful web site. This is a book that should be on every administrator's bookshelf and the extras just make it an even greater value.

Excellent book. I've read a number of Windows 2000 books from many different authors/publishers. Some good, some Ok, some not so good. This is one of the great ones. There is a wonderful chapter on TCP/IP 2000- which is obviously a foundation for Win 2000. I found myself reading this chapter numerous times as it delves into QoS, IPSec, Arp, DNS Caching, etc. This is followed by great sections on DHCP, DNS,Developing a WINS strategy, etc. As many of us get ready to take the MCSE2000 exams, this is one of the books that will provide a ton of value in one's studies- and will remain on my shelf for reference.

This is great book, It has a lots of example and explained really well. Great Work!

The book is good but many solutions are not tested fully so its not that they can be cut and pasted directly out of the book. you may have to troubleshoot many of them. Otherwise a real good book.

As a Developer working predominantly with Oracle Databases for over five years, I'm always looking for books to help me produce better code. I have to say this is one of them. The author has produced a book that explains concepts in a practical manner that is also easy to read. I began reading this book just before starting a major development project and the code insights and examples assisted me greatly in this project.

Probably more a information and guidence book rather than a reference book. I found I read it from cover to cover and used the information as a platform for future developing. Some great code examples which I have used to great effect though!

With 15 years experience in Oracle as DBA and developer, I wrote a lot of packages and found in this book true advices and practical solutions, wich sound good to me. The best feature is that you can experiment all the code found in it and see by yourself the advantage of using the way proposed by McDonald. I like these books where autors breaks some common ideas ans show by "A + B" that the right solution is not the most common. A real useful book written by a true professional.

The book takes a bottom-up approach: the first part shows useful coding and optimizing techniques, while the second one gives real world applications and tips on program design.

I have two minor complaints, however:

Most chapters assume at least a good knowledge of PL/SQL and build on that, which I think is fair for a book titled "Mastering ...". On the other hand, two of the chapters (Triggers especially, and PL/SQL Debugging to a degree) take a different approach and start from the beginning, explaining the basics, too. It may be just me, but I think those pages are wasted.

Furthermore, there is a certain amount of overlap with Tom Kyte's Expert One-on-One Oracle, also from Apress.

The book got to me in a timely manner. I'm very pleased and hope to do well on the exam.

I used this book together with the corresponding Training Guide, by the same authors (this was redundant because the two books essentially repeat each other - I could have just used the Training Guide.) I think these authors are amazing - they have ability to present everything in such an easy understandable way, that I didn't just memorize the stuff for the exam but actually understood it. Now my next one is 70-229 - SQL server exam, I wish Kalani had a book for that one as well...

This book is pretty good at explaining the needed topics. I only used this book to pass the exam and found it compact and accurate.

Two bad notes are since coriolis was bought out it is tough to get errata for this book and there are a few problems. The securit section is a bit weak so read some online stuff to fill it in.

Good luck ZoOnI

I skipped reviewing the Microsoft study guide and used this book as my primary reference in passing the exam. Each component on this exam (web services, windows services, enterprise services) has its own architecture and interface. This book did a great job of distilling that information in a way that was easy to understand. I especially liked how the chapters were organized to introduce a concept, and then show you the code for implementing it. I simply wrote my own example for each chapter and did well on the exam. I didn't get much use out of the study guide or CD, but the practice tests in the book are very useful.

This certification study-resource from Author Amit Kalani, served as a rather indispensable part of the revision portfolio for Exam 70-320 (XML Web Services and Server Components with C# .NET ).

Simply put, it is a very useful & sound comprehensive reference for Exam 70-320. It served me greatly in gaining both an overview of all the elements that would appear on the 320 exam, but also served well in my overall review and revision endeavours for the 70-320 Exam.

using this resource got me to the place where i felt i had covered the core objectives for the exam and was ready to move on to the next phase ie: having a go at tackling past question scenarios.

i was glad i bought it.

what i liked about this book :
- it is a comprehensive read at 344 pages -(ie: the 2 Testing chapters non factored)
- there are exam questions after every chapter, relating to that chapter and the exam objectives the chapter tackles
- Answers with explanations are provided with every question featured in the book.
- there is a CD with questions set in an application that simulates the exam room scenario
- The CD also comes with a .pdf, e-version of the book.

I purchased the book in question as a pair with the companion Exam Training guide -(equally written by the same authors: Amit Kalani + Priti Kalani) from Que press ISBN: 0789728249; and i basically have'nt looked back one second since taking that decison.

the two books complement each other very well and provide a very fine balance between the need to train & equip the reader with the strong hands-on .NET XML Web-services development skills he/she will require in order to thrive as a C#.NET web developper; whilst at the same time fully framing these necessary hands-on expertise , in the context & framework of the exam the reader probably seeks to take at the end of working/ploughing his/her way through the book.

Amit Kalani is a very good author. he is well known in the C#.NET world. and he has a way of making a typically difficult material to teach, clearly explained, and he reinforces this with ample examples and practise, so it sinks in and becomes proper knowledge. So for those starting out on C#.NET or others looking for a place to start the preparation for the MCAD.NET with C# or 70-320 exam, these Books could easily serve as the spot to take it from.

However, i would add but the small proviso that depending on where you are along the previous "C#" programming-experience scale, i'd say you'd do well to buy yourself a good companion C# programming language text to accompany you on your journey.

There are lots of books on Amazon that would serve you well in this function/capacity . the text i used to give me a helping hand is called the: "C# Bible" by author: jeff ferguson (et al); it has for ISBN:0764548344.i found this easy to read and got through the first 20 chapters of concise, easy to follow, C# language basics, with relative ease.

After working through the 70-320 ExamCram resource in question and using the Training guide counterpart to acquire deeper hands-on practise to cement the interface between :( knowledge of the .Net Framework1.0 XML Web-services development concepts as treated in the books), with that of proper programming competence;(ie:knowing your stuff); I was ready for the next phase ie: going on to tackle past exam questions

using Transcender and the Testking more than sufficed to ensure & assure success at the exam;

Take & Ace the exam with ease: 150minutes & 43 questions.

Success at the exam-level is assured by appropriate preparation; ie: tackling past questions regarding .NET programming & C# XML Web-services development related problem scenarios in order to sharpen your wits about choosing the right solution in any given problem scenario. this is the crunch of it. do that ,and u pass.

End of.

The passing mark is 700 ie: 70%. i sat the exam on Tuesday (31st October 2006); scored 98% ie: 984.

MCAD.NET requirements accomplished!

Good luck.

cheers :-)