Programming Books

This is an excellent book on VB. If you are already a programmer or want to learn programming, this is the right book. It will give you an overview on programming concepts and deep details on programming with VB.

I am an engineer that has been learning c# and VB to build some applications to help our department automate our processes and turned to the Deitel books for instruction. The Deitel series books are excellent. If you had to get only one reference book, I would suggest getting one of theirs. The "How To" books are textbooks and the "for programmers" books basically leave out the self tests and chapter questions. I have both the C# How to and the VB.net Programmers books along with a couple more brand X books. If you are looking for an excellent reference, get the Deitel "for programmers" book. It's a lot cheaper and will still have the information you are looking for.

As a seasoned Access developer, I was really excited at the launch of .NET in 2001 as I wanted to make the jump to developing VB/SQL applications. But alas, every time I made an attempt to develop a VB.NET application using Visual Studio 2002/2003, I would end up with a ton of errors that I couldn't fix, and I would always go back to Access because it was so much easier. The books around at the time were also difficult to understand.

Then I went to a developer conference in 2005 and saw the latest versions of VB.NET, Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005, and I thought Finally!! - Microsoft have made developing VB/SQL applications as simple as Access Database applications. So I wanted to find a book that covered all the cool features of VB.NET 2.0, as well as a discussion of OOP and UML. And just recently I discovered this awesome book by the Deitels.

This book is the perfect introduction to VB.NET 2.0 - for someone who has programmed, but not necessarily VB6. It doesn't discuss differences between VB6/VB.NET 1.1 and VB.NET 2.0, as most other books seem to waste space doing. Rather than have separate chapters for OOP/UML, it combines discussion of OOP/UML within the context of VB.NET concepts such as classes and inheritance, which by the way are exquisitely explained in a simple, readable format with relevant examples.

While the ATM case study, that is gradually built up throughout the book, is excellent, I just wish they had taken it one step further and discussed the design of the "Bank Database", and the relationship between the database design and the classes. Since nearly every business application built these days involves a database backend, this would have been worthwhile discussion.

It still somewhat amazes me that Visual Basic has stood the test of time like it has. It keeps getting updates and facelifts, and continues to "play well" in today's environment. If you need a comprehensive guide to the language and the programming environment, I think you would be well-served by the book Visual Basic 2005 for Programmers (2nd Edition) by Paul J. Deitel and Harvey M. Deitel. Not much seems to be missing, and there are a few features that would cause me to highly recommend it to the Visual Basic crowd...

Contents: Introduction to .NET, Visual Basic and Object Technology; Introduction to the Visual Basic Express 2005 IDE; Introduction to Visual Basic Programming; Introduction to Classes and Objects; Control Statements Part 1; Control Statements Part 2; Methods - A Deeper Look; Arrays; Classes and Objects - A Deeper Look; Object-Oriented Programming - Inheritance; Object-Oriented Programming - Polymorphism; Exception Handling; Graphical User Interface Concepts Part 1; Graphical User Interface Concepts Part 2; Multithreading; Strings, Characters and Regular Expressions; Graphics and Multimedia; Files and Streams; Extensible Markup Language (XML); Database, SQL and ADO.NET; ASP.NET 2.0, Web Forms and Web Controls; Web Services; Networking - Streams-Based Sockets and Datagrams; Data Structures; Generics; Collections; Operator Precedence Chart; Number Systems; Using the Visual Studio 2005 Debugger; ASCII Character Set; Unicode; Introduction to XML Part 1; Introduction to XML Part 2; XHTML Special Characters; XHTML Colors; ATM Case Study Code; UML 2 - Additional Diagram Types; Primitive Types; Index

As I said, there's not a lot that's missing here... :)

The authors forego the hand-holding tutorial approach and target the professional programmer who already knows the basics of how programming works. As such, the book dives into documenting the different features of the language and provide a large amount of example code that demonstrates the features being discussed. It's also written in such a way that it can serve as an ongoing reference manual when you're up and running with the language. It's impossible to know everything about every last feature, so you can go back and check into areas where you're still a little fuzzy...

As I mentioned earlier, there are a few features here that really make me like this book. For one, it introduces UML diagrams and real object-oriented concepts. All too often the Visual Basic programmers I've met are self-taught individuals who can sling code but don't understand the larger industry concepts. Using UML here helps to bring them up to speed with the rest of the world. There are also a number of "call-out" tips in the book that are grouped around good programming practices, common programming errors, error prevention, look-and-feel observations, performance, portability, and software engineering. These gems, by being separated out of the text, are highly noticeable and extremely valuable to help you write better code. The authors also focus on the Visual Studio Express packages for the IDE. These Express versions are free, so you don't have to buy this book and then fork over $500 for more software. You pretty much have a complete, self-contained learning package right here.

I have my hands full with a number of other technology learning goals right now, and Visual Basic isn't on that list. But if it was, this would be the book I'd want in front of me...

You sit sometimes and think for hours about how to do something in Visual Basic that is so darn easy to do in the pure Win32 API. It still does not come. More Jolt. Nope still nothing. Then you read this book and holy moly there it is!

I think that pretty much covers what this book is about. For someone like me that started programming Windows with Windows 2.0 and am an old hand at the actual C level API this book brings some of the tricks of the trade to the Visual Basic programmer. Between this book and "Advanced Visual Basic 6" by Matthew Curland a programmer of VB will find plenty of ammunition to shut down those "VB is a whimpy language" attack chihuahuas.

If you are a better than average VB programmer and need some new tricks to keep interest up or if you are any level programmer that needs a little spice to go with your code get this book and play with the code inside.

This book also does something else all books should do. The authors included the source code for ALL the examples and annotated the code to the max. Thus the "Annotated Archives" title, eh. Other peoples' code is a valuable tool for programmers and there is plenty of it in this book.

This book is the best example book I've ever read! A lot of examples, all are explained and the Code is very useful: Create flat toolbars with the Toolbar Control, do floating or docking Toolbars, or display designer menus! Congrats!

When it comes to references and "secrets of" books, there are so many choices that it makes finding a decent book nearly impossible. I am delighted to have stumbled onto "Visual Basic Annotated Archives." Whether you need to learn how to write an ActiveX DLL or simply wish to look at snippets of clever code, this is the one to consider. I heard that one of the authors (Kent) is a teacher... it shows in his writing style, which is very easy to follow.

this book is so good that you will never need another VB boo

We are visually oriented people. As the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. And with the dramatic increases in computer power that have come about in recent years we can visually display things that not too many years ago took a whole room of equipment.

This book presents a concise one volume introduction to visualizing data structures. It is not specific to any one discipline. The biologist programming how to visualize DNA will get as much out of the book as will the game developer. The material is presented at the undergraduate student level where some programming experience, especially in C++ is a prerequisite.

While there is no CD in the book, there is a companion web site maintained at the publishers which includes the source code of examples given in the book as well as additional source codes of various algorithmic procedures as well as test data to check that the code is compiling correctly. Also on the web are pointers to useful resources related to the contents of each chapter.

This is not a "How did Photoshop do it?" kind of algorithm book. I would suggest that if you want to make good use of this book that you already have had a course on the theory of algorithms, and thus understand how to follow the derivation of whether an algorithm is O(n), O(nlgn), etc. That is because the author dedicates much space to determining what the time-efficiency of each algorithm is before he goes into the details. Next, the author talks about each algorithm in pseudocode, and then finally there is the actual C++ code for the algorithm itself. Not every algorithm involves OpenGL, because quite a few of them don't actually draw anything, they just support the drawing of images by other algorithms. The book is well illustrated. Whenever there might be a question about an algorithm that words or equations can't answer, there always seems to be a figure available to finish the job. The book has a very academic tone to it, and each chapter ends with extensive bibliographic notes. The following is the table of contents:

1. Overview - A fly-over of the entire book.

2. Abstract Data Structures - Talks about solutions to common problems that come up time and again in visual computing. Topics include the Fibonacci numbers, conversions between 1D and nD array indices, how to flood-fill an area using a queue, and detecting whether or not a set of line segments intersect. This may not seem to have much to do with data structures, but the book ties it all in.

3. Coordinate Pipelines - Subjects include translation between Euclidean and projective points, 2D polygon transformations, 3D mesh transformations, and how to render multiple views to one device display by using viewport mappings. OpenGL is used heavily in this chapter.

4. Images - An oddly titled chapter, because if you get right down to it, the whole book is technically about images. The topics include the simple task of displaying the RGB color cube in OpenGL as well as the more complex tasks of image warping, image compositing, halftoning, and dithering.

5. Meshes - Meshes come up often when drawing complex and realistic 3D figures. Topics include approximating a sphere by with a mesh and various remeshing experiments and algorithms with the "Stanford Bunny" as a subject of these experiments.

6. Animation - A brief overview of what it takes to make your images "move". I found this the least satisfying of the book's chapters. "Computer Animation" by Parent does a better job of discussing this topic, in my opinion.

7. Randomization - Topics include computing a uniformly random permutation, quick sort, selecting the nth smallest element of an array, and computing the scaled rigid transformation matching a given pair of segments. The author does a great job of discussing the algorithms, but comes up a bit short in the motivation for these algorithms in visual computing.

8. Higher Dimensions for 3D - Includes some good algorithms on computational geometry and how it ties into graphics. Topics include the k-means iterative clusteriing method, rasterizing a Voronoi diagram, and computing an approximation of the smallest enclosing ball in large dimensions. The author does a good job of tying in each algorithm to its significance in graphics.

9. Robustness - Discusses how to determine if certain algorithms are easily "broken". This discussion is done from the perspective of computing the area of triangles using floating point numbers and also determining if and only if two line segments intersect.

This book does not hold your hand on the issues of algorithm theory, C++ programming, OpenGL, or even basic computer graphics and image processing theory. You are expected to already know that material. This book is more about the algorithms that are applicable to geometry, graphics, and vision and what makes them useful, efficient, and robust. Highly recommended.

I should say from the get-go that I know the author personally, and I've reviewed chapters before the book appeared. I think this book fills a great space between more applied computer vision or computer graphics books, and the more theoretical computational geometry books. It provides a host of practical problems that the author has encountered in his research at Sony Research Labs, and feeds tons of excellent theory to solve it. The theoretical part is made very accessible, even if it assumes some reasonable (college-level) mastery of linear algebra.

The biggest attraction of this book is that it lies at the confluence of several fields. Depending on your background, you may be more versed in the systems issues (vision or graphics), or the algorithmic issues (computational geometries). The first kind of person will really appreciate all the foundations they are given to solve the problems at hand. How to apply them is very well explained in the chapters by using hands-on examples, and ample illustration.

To give you a short idea of the table of contents (more information can be found on the author's book web site, easily found through google):

The chapter on images, for instance, does great job discussing Halftoning, Morphing, Color space, and Interpolation/Sampling/Convolution, and contains material that will be familiar to computer vision and graphics people.

On the other hand, the chapter on meshes (with discussion of half-edge and mesh data structures, and mesh smoothing/parameterization) will be very familiar to a computational geometer or graphics person.

The chapter on data structures includes what is usually found in advanced algorithm textbooks. The advantage of having it in such a context is that its presentation is much more adapted to immediate use. There is also practical considerations such as C++ implementation, and a separate chapter on the use of randomization as an algorithmic design technique. That chapter covers an important problem of point registration and geometric point matching that is very useful in camera registration and in photo merging.

The central piece (that takes 130 pages) is the discussion of coordinates (chapter 3, "The Coordinate Pipeline") which achieves the feat of presenting all that is useful for discussing images (2D), meshes (3D), or camera transformation (projective geometry) in a unified and very accessible presentation. This chapter also introduces a few fundamental tools like homographies and epipolar geometry, singular value decomposition (SVD), Plucker coordinates (for lines in space), conics and quadrics. It is a gem and will prove an invaluable reference in my library.

Finally beyond the algorithmic and application issue, the author concludes with a chapter on robustness, a problem that plagues all these applications. It discusses a set of techniques that can be used to eradicate or at least lessen floating-point precision-related crashes (which not just result in numerical inaccuracy, but can altogether prevent the successful completion of a program and generate all kinds of catastrophic failures).

To recap, this is an excellent books that puts into perspective techniques from more theoretical algorithm and geometry communities to use for vision and graphics problem, among other applications. It is geared towards researchers/developers of applications. It is not a research monograph, and can advantageously be used as a textbook for a graduate or advanced underdgraduate class.

A good book for the student of computer graphics. The field is now very mature, and the book describes key algorithms invented over the last 30 years for rendering and ray tracing. Also useful to some readers will be the samples of C++ code that implement several of the algorithms.

As a learning experience, the book has merit. However, if you are tempted to do research in this field, the book should be approached with caution. When I said the field is mature, I meant that surely much of the techniques for visualisation have already been found. Combine this with the high resolution of current graphics consoles, and we get little room for significant visible improvement. Diminishing returns. The time to get into this field would have been in the 70s and 80s. As a research guide, the book does not really convey the prospects of this field.

This book has been a great reference and learning aid. From start to finish it gives you a great insight of Visual Studio 2008 and the versatility of this program. There are many step by step examples of the many uses of Visual Studio 2008 as well as many tips and web site references. From building application programs (such as smart client and web applications) to accessing data(by using XML or SQL Server) this is a great reference for any programmer. I would strongly suggest that this book become a part of any programmers library.

This book is good for a first overview of what and how do to with VS 2008.
The reader should have minimum programming skils, not a dummie at all.

This is exactly what you need to get started with Visual Studio 2008. Whether you are a novice programmer or an experienced developer this book has something for you. It is a very easy read and has a basic step by step approach throughout. For anyone interested in programming with Visual Studio 2008 or if you just want a good reference guide, I would highly recommend this book.

I haven't read the entire book yet, but my initial impressions are that it is an excellent beginning book for Visual Studio 2008. It also touches on some topics not immediately related to Visual Studio, such as modern programming practices, which I found valuable as a junior programmer.

If you are a veteran Visual Studio user, this book is probably too basic for you.

Most of the chapters are overviews, rather than in-depth coverage of any one topic. However, the content is very practical and concise, and contains a lot more useful information per chapter than some more poorly written books would.

From what I can tell, this book is very similar to the previous edition for Visual Studio 2005, with much of the same text. This new version includes mostly the same chapters, with a few new chapters on new features - notably AJAX and LINQ. The new JavaScript debugging does not appear to be covered, which would have been nice.

The new book is missing a few chapters that were in the 2005 edition - one on SQL Server Reporting Services and another one on Using Enterprise Library.

The omission of Reporting Services is unfortunate, since that is a popular alternative to Crystal Reports. (The 2008 edition still has the Crystal Reports chapter that the 2005 book had.) However, if you are going to use Reporting Services you'll probably get a separate book for that anyway. And perhaps the RS chapter was left out of this 2008 book in anticipation of SQL Server 2008 (scheduled for release later in 2008).

All in all, this is an excellent overview and introduction to Visual Studio 2008. If you have a little .NET programming experience and want to learn more about the basics of Visual Studio development, this book is for you.

Memorable interviews with the most affable interviewer. A lovely way to spend some time.

Even today, when celebrity revelations droppeth like the gentle rain, Studs Terkel stands head and shoulders above other interviewers. He had a knack. He could get people to say things they hadn't planned on saying. Terkel knew precisely what to ask, and how to ask it. Those are my words - the Chicago Sun Times said it better:

"Studs Terkel (gets) people to say things in such a way that you know at once they have finally said their truth, and said it better than they ever believed they could say it."

Trained as a lawyer, experienced as an actor, and a best-selling author, Terkel spent half a century on his Chicago based Peabody Award winning syndicated radio program. He brought together people from all walks of life, artists, writers, philosophers, inventors, and visited with each of them as they recounted their triumphs and failures.

Now, 48 of these original interviews have been gathered for our enjoyment - it's a treat to hear the stories of those who influenced our world in their own voices. We hear R. Buckminster Fuller, Woody Allen, Gore Vidal, Eudora Welty, Dorothy Parker, Bertrand Russell, Leonard Bernstein, and a host of others.

Exemplary listening pleasure!

- Gail Cooke

Studs Turkel is a wonderful interviewer, and over the past five decades he has interviewed many of the great thinkers, writers, and doers of our time. The ones he chose for this collection include Aaron Copland, Oliver Sacks, Margaret Mead, Daniel Ellsberg, Maya Angelou, Pete Seeger, John Kenneth Galbraith, and dozens of others. All together, they provide a fascinating portrait of the last half of 20th century. Highly recommended!

Having grown up in Chicago and spent a chunk of my adult life there as well, perhaps the thing I miss most is Studs Terkel and WFMT, the best
FM station in the country. I learned as much about life and the never-ending struggle for human rights from Studs' interviews as I did from any
professor or priest. Hearing these wonderful chunks of those conversations again fills me with nostalgia and recharges my batteries for my own twilight struggle against the world's ills.

This weekly funfest brings chuckles and sometimes out loud laughter. Not My Job pulls material from the show and listeners will be pleased. The Tom Hanks and Janeane Garofalo are very funny, but reactions from the panelists also make this a must hear.

For those who think NPR is a bunch of boring folks, "Wait Wait" is a great weekly quiz show that's entertaining and (slightly) educational. This CD collection of the "Not my Job" sections from Wait Wait makes great listening - perfect for commutes, while running on a treadmill, etc.

Often times I disagree with the opinions of the commentators but they express them in such a wry agreeable way that I can't help but laugh. I listen to this CD and the program podcast at work and my coworkers often wonder what it is that I am giggling over! I highly recommmend these CD's.

If you like the show, you'll love the audio cd. And if you don't listen to the show, you'll be amazed at how much fun it is! Try it, you'll love it!

I use this book for over twenty years already. It is now worn out, I need a new copy. Although I am now writing in C++, this book is still always close at hand too look up simple things like operator precedence, and standard C functions.

A concise tiny book with all ANSI C functions explained. This book should be the standard style for all the computer language books. I am looking for smiliar ones for C++ and VB .NET, but could not find one yet.

If you want to learn C, you should have this one.

This is my favorite book about programming. I believe
a new edition, compliant with the latest C standard might
be a good idea. Though there is a waste amount of on-line
material available now, books like that are by no means
obsolete. I am now sorry that I bought only one piece.

This is the best C reference book I've seen. It's compact, and contains all ANSI C library routines with alphabetical index and subject index. It explains arguments for the function, and even has a brief example.

This do-it-all reference to the more than 500 Microsoft C library functions provides you with the information necessary for excellent programming results. It contains real-world examples for every routine. Each library routine is categorized by func tion and each section is preceded by interactive tutorials so that you can learn C code quickly. Plus, a unique compatibility box approach shows the portability with other versions of C and popular operating systems. Just follow the expert advice one step at a time and you'll write more organized, complete, and powerful C programs.

Lists functions alphabetically and by category. Lists which compiler versions support the function. Describes functions in detail, with examples. Start of each category describes which functions to use for specific tasks.

This is a really good book. I am on my second copy. This first one walked off. I have been a programmer for over 10 years and though I don't alway use Microsoft C, I still refer to this book often. It is well organized, very concise and contains all the details. I have yet to find a discrepancy. It has quick indexes inside the front and back covers. Front is alphebetical, back is by subject. I've used it so often that I have a lot of the page numbers memorized. Memcpy is on page 249. The only thing else I can recommend about this book is to keep a close eye on it.

The inside front cover and first page is an alphabetic index of all C functions that are included in the book. The back cover has a list by category: Disk Access, Buffered I/O, Graphics, etc. Each function description tells you what compilers use it, what the prototype is, detailed description of each argument, return value and usage, with examples.

Probably the most readable introduction to the Z formal method that I have seen. Jacky does a great job of showing the reader why Z might be useful, gently introducing the concepts, and showing how they can be translated into real code. While this book is not a comprehensive Z reference, it is certainly a wonderful introduction that will give the reader most of the tools they might need (and a great background for learning any of Z's more obscure corners).

This book is the first book I've read on Z or formal methods. It's very easy to read and understand, and replete with Z examples. I recommend it to anyone who's interested in learning Z.

The thing I found most helpful about this book is that the author presents Z in comparison to things that we are already (probably) familiar with: data flow diagrams, state charts, etc. He shows the difference between Z and these things, and walks you through a comparison of one system using all 4 different methods.

There are many good books on how to construct, verify, and establish actual program code using Z. I have read bits and pieces of many in an attempt to gain a general understanding of the whole development process and a breadth of approaches taken to it. I cannot say that I have come accross a book even approaching The Way of Z in both clarity and completeness. Dr. Jacky has left nothing out of this text and it reads extremely smoothly (without the sacrifice of complexity). I recommend it to any Formal Methods student, programmer and anyone interested in the formal specification, verification, and implementation process.

Just leafing through this book I got so many good ideas. The CD that comes with the book is good, and it helped to see some of the stuff in action. The advice on good composition and selecting colors was really helpful, because I'm not always sure if my designs are going to be OK with anyone but me. Now I know some of the "rules" and also know when it's OK to break them. The ideas for how different people and businesses can use web sites was also an eye-opener, and it's clear that this author really knows a lot about marketing and graphic design, not just about the web. It's an all-around great book, and I recommend it to everyone who has or wants a great web site.

In working with computer and teaching web design for over the past three years there is always new ways to learn something you never knew before. This book has provided me with new ideas and techniques but overall there's not anything that makes it standout from the rest of the pack.

In the 270 pages topics like design, e-commerce, layout, web tools, text and page building, graphics, color and structure, table, frames and layers as well as multimedia, hyperlinks and lists are usually what come with any design book.

Also this book in not in color and the areas like CSS, DHTML and image maps were not included. While the cd-rom does allow you to learn at you own pace overall this book made for the beginner rather than for the true designer

I bought Ms. Ulrich's Using Excel 2000 last year, and found her writing to be very readable, and her knowledge to be extensive. When I saw this book, Web Design Virtual Classroom, I was surprised to see she was writing about a creative topic, and had to check it out --- and I'm very glad I did. The book is great, again in her very friendly, readable style, and the CD is informative too. I would recommend this book to anyone who needs to design a web site for business or personal use, and to anyone trying to figure out which software to use and how to go about the whole web design process. Her insights and practical advice are terrific, and I really learned a lot about a subject I thought I already knew.

Laurie Ulrich has written a thoughtful introduction to web design.
This book covers the most popular methods of creating websites (Dreamweaver, GoLive, Frontpage, and hand-coding HTML) and helps you evaluate which might be best for you. It goes on to help you understand some of the basic ways each can accomplish specific tasks. Without going into extraneous details (which would require several books to cover), Ms. Ulrich gives a broad and lucid overview of how to make sense of these programs to create well-conceived website design.
This is actually her stong point in this book - the conception of how to create the kind of website which will best express and realize the goal you desire. She helps you visualize (with the help of many good examples) what might or might not work for you, and how to evaluate it for yourself.
After having read the excellent "Dreamweaver 4 -Virtual Classroom" which she co-authored with Robert Fuller, and several other Dreamweaver books, I had some of the technical abilities to create cool stuff. However I hadn't had any overview of design, and felt a little overwhelmed by the possibilities. "Web Design - Virtual Classroom" cleared a lot up for me, and I now feel a lot more confident about being able to create sites that won't look like a Jackson Pollock hangover.