Software Books

Woody's book (and WOW site) offer the very best practical and error-avoiding advice on using MS Outlook 97. Using Outlook is very different from using other Office applications. The file management aspect is thoroughly confusing and inflexible. Woody's book helps deal with this thorny issue.

As a software trainer and consultant, I am always looking for good books. This book is not good -- it's GREAT! The information on pgs.643 to 647 is worth much more than the price of the book! A must have....

Until now I have practically only been reading the Outlook 98 part of the book, as this part was the most urgent from my point of view. I have certainly not been disappointed. But on the other hand I had not expected less as a keen reader of Woody's Office Watch (WOW) and Woody's Window Watch (WWW). I am really looking forward to the rest of the book. It is a pleasure reading and learning from a book where there are a lot of humour included.

I have been using Office 97 for 1 1/2 years and have taken college courses in Word 97 and Excel 97. Having received certificates in both courses I thought that I knew it all. RIGHT! Woody Leonhard has taught me about the easy ways to execute commands. His shortcuts are invaluable to me. I am a quadriplegic and find his advice very helpful and time saving. I am learning Powerpoint 97 in far less time than it would of taken me in school. I believe he has been most helpful in making me a real power user. Thanks to Woody and his gang.

Clear, concise and easy instructions on how to use MS Ofc 97. Points out the good, bad and ugly of Microsoft products. Can turn any novice into more of a professional than he/she ever dreamed of! I recommend this book to anyone who will be working with MS Ofc 97! Don't pass this one up!

Great book that covers Photoshop CS/CS2 techniques thoroughly and provides the tools to create great projects. I would definitely recommend this book for users of Photoshop that are at an intermediate level. The books details everything from color to using filters and special effects.

If you need help, this is where you'll find it.
The CD that comes with it is a lot of help too.
Worth the price.

This is another in the WOW series and even though it's for the last interation of photoshop (CS2) there is a wealth if info here. It's all in color, clearly explained. It gives you an overview of how much you can do in this amazing program and helps you develop the chops to put it to use. Nicewly structured so you can pick and choose what you need at the time if you don't want to read it cover to cover. You won't need every technique here but it gives you the tool to apply in other ways for whatever you want to do. One of the easily accessible and useful books on the subject.

This book is to me the bible of Photoshop. It's so thorough and thick, and it's large number of illustrations, screen shots, and photos make it work whether I am carefully following a book example on my computer, or sitting and reading without the computer.

Let me begin by saying that this book is BIG, slightly bigger than a hard backed dictionary or textbook. If you plan on carrying this around in a backpack or ferrying it between school/work and home, don't.

This book has a humongous, colorful wealth of information. I guarantee that this book will show you how to do ANYTHING you could possibly want to do in Photoshop. Whether you plan on reading it straight through or using it as a reference book (I recommend the latter), you will appreciate the collection of tips and tricks this book has to offer.

Covering everything from picture touchups to full fledged graphic design, this book is artfully written and painstakingly thorough in its design. With pictures demonstrating everything, along with the helpful and easy to follow text, this book is great for those wanting to really get into Photoshop. If you're a graphic artist or have a job that requires the use of Photoshop, this book will expand your knowledge and understanding of Photoshop. Whether you're new to photoshop or a professional, this book is definitely a wise investment to help further your Photoshop skills.

This book is a must have, I have recommended to all my friends and family. Kudos to the Author for publishing such a wonderful book.

I am always looking for new tools to make my job as a developer easier, more efficient, allow me to write code that is more easily maintained and just make things more exciting. The problem that comes with learning these new tools (such as LINQ) is finding the time to learn them to the point that they are useful. This style of this book made it very easy to read with excellent code examples, providing me with the knowledge to get started using LINQ in my current project within a week of reading. Lastly, I was able to contact the author (with a timely response) about a question I had using LINQ in my project. Joe was friendly in his response and very approachable. Highly recommended!

This is a very comprehensive and well structured LINQ learning guide. It can be used as a structured tutorial or as a reference guide, as definitions and sample code for each method call are complete.

What is really nice is that this book works well in eBook (Kindle) format. I am usually reluctant to buy technical books with code listings for the Kindle, but all the listings in the text are zoomable images and easy to read in the landscape rendition.

this book is a great referece for those who want to learn the new features in .net 3.5. it is not for the beginner programmer as it uses some advancced techniques that could be confusing. It is more of a reference book than a learning book, overall it is great and covers all areas of LINQ.

After being disappointed by other books on ASP.NET was leery in purchasing another. Wishing to learn about LINQ I finally gave in and ordered this one. I'm pleasantly surprised and delighted that it actually teaches you something other than just touting the benefits versus older technology. It is so complete as opposed to other books that give you a dip in the shallow end and leave you to wonder what else there is out there.

Excellent book. Well worth the price. Get it.

It's now over 6 years since this book came out and it still has a tremendous amount of relevance. I am rereading it again and stop by every now and then in hopes that a new edition will come out. I have all the other Zeldman books and they are all useful, but nothing approaches how much I learned from this book. It amazes me how much of the content is still applicable. Anyone who's been doing this since the book came out can make mental notes about what has changed. A proponent of CSS before it was practical (really), Jeffrey seems to have planned a long shelf life for this book.

If you're a graphic designer who is entering web development (which is a large segment), it's still a must read, but beware the 4.x browser version suggestions, and don't bother to try and support tables any more. It's not necessary, and it's bad form for oh, so many reasons. Everything else in the book is absolutely essential for the transition. Your best bet would be to read it and ask questions from someone who's been developing websites for a long time (and is open to web standards).

And if you've been building these things for a long time, it's still a great book to revisit at least yearly.

You can't really go wrong with a Zeldman book, imho, at least so far. If he writes something on knitting, I can't guarantee it...

This book gives a good overview of Web Design till 2001.
People who are interested in where the web is coming from will like this book. If your are looking for how web design is done today anno 2005 I would like to recommend Jeffrey Zeldman book "Designing with web standards".

Even though some of the content in this book is outdated (such is the nature of a book based on the internet, which evolves daily), it is still a mainstay in my collection. I would recommend this book to anyone even remotely interested in web design.

Jefferey Zeldman teaches basic, foundation building principles that you will use almost daily during your tenure as a web designer. If your looking for a book to hold you by the hand and teach you how to perform specific actions with step by step coding, this isn't your book. Instead, it touches upon ideas and methods. Zeldman covers topics from designing good navigation to fundamental steps in working with a potential client.

I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars. It would have received a perfect score if it wasn't for some outdated material. Purchase this book, it should be a part of any collection.

A thorough, comprehensive and usable book for people trying to migrate from traditional media into the (sometimes) scary world of new media.

Jeffrey Zeldman's unique voice permeates the entire book, holds your hand, and gently guides you through the ups & downs of working with the web. His examples are concise and to the point, his writing style (as always) humorous and friendly, and, most importantly, you get the feeling that he truly loves this medium, and would like nothing more than being able to help another person discover just what the fuss is all about.

Should be on the shelf of every designer - no matter what your level of experience is.

This book opened my eyes to issues such as accesibilty, css and xhtml, I now have a site that is fast to load and easy to update. I found this book to be an easy read,[ I am neither a graphic designer nor a trained web designer] I really like Zeldman's writng style and will use some of his points in my classes web design for photographers. The mix of code and ideas was great and for once I just read the book rather than being tempted into turning on my computer and starting work.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Echo many of the other comments. This will be a true reference guide for a long time.

My only comments are that I wish there were more suggested 'guidelines' for the clarity and vibrance controls. Additionally, the last chapter on automation was excellent. I just wish that that sort of step-by-step explanation was done for more examples.

For anyone who has got themselves to the stage where they are ready to embrace RAW and move further inside the digital system which is revolutionising photography there are certain steps which must be taken.

Naturally, you will require a digital single lens reflex camera (DSLR) and start taking those pictures - saving them using the RAW option. Allied to this, you will require a suitable computer with Adobe Photoshop CS3 installed. This book is not going to teach you how to install and the basics of CS3 - so those skills will have to be mastered before you take the next step.

That next step is this book and the only way to appreciate the content is to sit down at you PC (or laptop) and start at the first page. It's a slow process but all journeys commence with the first step.

Laid out in a manner which allows the reader (user) to build on each lesson as they progress, this book is may be turgid in places but, at least you can go back and go over any point again and again until mastered.

Quite frankly, if this was the only book on the subject you ever consulted, there would be very little missing from your overall skills once the content has been digested "and" fully understood.

NM

I really got a big step forward in my RAW convertion skills and my photos too :-)

This is an outstanding book. That is not surprising because the authors are legendary. Jeff Schewe has continued the high standards established by the late Bruce Fraser and expanded on it.

The first half of the book offers you the basics of the technical issues and explanations of how Camera Raw works. The second half takes you through the actual process of using these controls.

Since studying this book recently, I am now using Camera Raw to perform most of the major changes I make to my files and very little subsequent work is needed in Photoshop.

Fine book .... very informative and written in a clear style.
Great for a beginner as well.

I bought this book hoping it would supplement the PeopleSoft SQR class and in general was not disappointed, given my expectations. I knew it wouldn't include anything on PeopleSoft 8; thus the illustrations in the "SQR and PeopleSoft" section are dated. However, the examples in the section on working with effective-dated tables were very useful and apply to all releases. I haven't read the "Advanced Features" section of the book yet, because I was discouraged a bit when I had trouble grasping a few of the concepts in the SQR Basics section. I was pleased that their sample database, on which the reports are based, is modeled on the HRMS JOB, EMPLOYMENT, and PERSDATA tables; however, including sample output with each of their exercise/illustrations would have been helpful.

In summary, if you are a pretty experienced functional person (I am a consultant), are motivated enough to invest the time to learn SQR, and have access to the tool, this may be a good choice. Certainly more information (understandably) than you can get from a five-day SQR class.

You need this book if you are going to write SQR(s). However, you won't use it much with PS 8. You'll use App Engine.

I was working on a problem a couple of years ago and took the suggestion of a co-worker to buy this book. For the last two years I have been using it as a reference. I spent a few months off and came back and embaressed myself puting a report in process scheduler. So I sat down and read the book front to back. I wish I had done this a couple of years ago.

I have been working with SQR for five years. I have used examples and the SQR manuals to accomplish what I wanted. This work provided me with a lot of knowledge that I had never taken the time to pick up. Now even if I take the time off and need a refresher the sections are highlighted.

I have found this book very useful as both a reference and a knoweldge builder. Also, the writing style was good enough that rereading the portions that I was alread aware of was not too irksome. Interestingly, I could swear some of the interview questions I have been asked came right out of this book.

Aside from the fact that there is no other book that teaches SQR, this book is unique and valuable for following reasons:

- It teaches good programming practices. Anyone who has developed in any procedural language (including scripting and query languages) can quickly learn SQR. Therein lies a problem that this book overcomes: the excellent advice given about program development and structure can offset bad habits picked up in other languages.

- It's a definitive resource for SQR developers. Although SQR is relatively easy to learn, it's also rich with features missing from most other languages, such as complete control over printed and screen output, built-in constructs for graphs and charts, and multiple output file formats. Using many of these features not easy for beginners or programmers more used to other languages, but this book shows by example how to exploit every feature SQR has to offer.

- It dispels the common notion that SQR is a PeopleSoft-only tool. In fact, PeopleSoft doesn't own the language, and SQR will work in any database environment. More important, the book shows how to develop application and database independent programs that will work in any environment. This is an awakening for those who are going down proprietary paths, such as standardizing on Oracle's PL/SQL. While PL/SQL itself a powerful language, but is limited to Oracle - migrating from Oracle to, say, DB2 requires that all PL/SQL programs be scrapped. Had the applications and reports been developed in SQR the only changes would be to tables referenced.

In addition to the above, this book also provides good practices for forming SQL queries and understanding how a poorly formed join can make the difference between a resource hog and an unintrusive application. Since SQL, like SQR, is easy to learn many developers take the path of least resistance and develop queries with no thought on their effect on production systems. This book gives sound advice for avoiding that mistake.

The section on PeopleSoft, while out of date with respect to version 8, still contains valuable information for the majority of SQR developers whose exposure to SQR is via PeopleSoft.

There is something for everyone in this book - beginners can learn SQR the right way, and seasoned developers will have a ready reference that covers almost every facet of SQR in practical terms. If your job is primarily SQR development I also recommend that you also get a copy of "SQR Programmer Reference" by Don Mellen (ISBN 0967773008) as a quick reference to the features and nuances of SQR.

Expert systems designer and programmer Vlad Landres and PeopleSoft specialist Galina Landres have completely revised and updated this second edition of SQR In PeopleSoft And Other Applications. Covering the fundamentals of the SQR version 6, and how to integrate SQR programs with PeopleSoft version 8, SQR In PeopleSoft And Other Applications is packed from cover to cover with reusable code examples, warnings of pitfalls, efficient methods, effective-dated tables, complete SQR syntax reference, and so much more. There is no shortage of solid advice and demonstrations in this straightforward and strongly recommended "hands-on" guide.

Initiation to the steep learning curve for Adobe After Effects is eased considerably by this volume of scaffolded lessons that include extra tips and keyboard shortcuts.

This is a must have book along with Mark Christiansen's Studio Techniques. So well explained, step by step tutorials, thorough explanations of why things happen. Highly recommended!!

The only real downfall of this book is that you really have to have the included disk to really get all this book has to offer - of course the best way to learn anything is to do it, but I am a fan of manuals that just walk you through the steps of how to do something. This isn't a good book to just sit down and read but if you want to jump right in and read this AS you do the exercises from the disk (which I find sometimes inconvenient) this is a great manual.

It covers pretty much all the basic functions that you will commonly use in AE and is full of instructional images.

This is a fantastic book to get started in after affects. Adobe CS4 is coming out in October 2008 so this book will be out of date just a little. Saying that though if you are just starting out with motions graphics this is the place to start.

Fantastic book.

This title has a wealth of information that is geared mostly towards beginners, but can still be used by those familiar with the program. The slightly non-linear arrangement of information makes certain topics hard to locate, but otherwise this is definitely a good book.

I have been building software professionally for about 20 years, and in that time have read a lot of books. While generally impressed with the O'Reilly series, this book exceeded my expectations.

I think C# 3.0 in a Nutshell is clear, very well written, concise (even at 700+ pages), thorough and practical. While not for the first-time programmer, this book is an excellent reference, guide and teacher for those familiar with .NET and C# concepts, and who wants to review the basics as well as learn about the new .NET 3.5 constructs, e.g., LINQ.

Of course, other books specifically dedicated to a given topic will go into more depth, but this is a great place to get a fairly deep overview accompanied by cogent explanations and examples.


This is a must-have on every .NET programmer's bookshelf.

This book seems like a great reference so far. I had been hoping to learn C# with this book, but it's not really a learning book. it's definitely first and foremost a reference. Most of the wording is quite dense. I found myself reading the first few pages several times because they were so packed with information as they tried to explain the entire layout of C#. Later in the book I could pick out useful information with a fast read.

I was annoyed that it advertises a free online edition, because that is not true. The online edition is free for only a short time, and after that the subscription is very expensive. It would be nice if there were a place online where you could download examples or notes. It's nice to have an online and print copy of the same book just for text searching.

This is one of the few programming books I bought I actually keep nearby. Great reference for everyday C# coding needs - better organized and more clear than MSDN.

This book is a huge step up from the first edition. It's totally rewritten. I bought it a couple of weeks ago and now it's between the keyboard and the screen. I am continually referring to it.
The chapters on assemblies and reflection are worth the price of the book alone.
I could not ask for more.

This is an excellent reference on C#, the .NET framework, and LINQ. It's not just a rewrite of MSDN, but gives some great insight into how to use the core pieces of the .NET framework for practical applications.

The chapters on LINQ alone are worth the cost of the book. The authors dive deep into LINQ and really give you a good understanding of how it works.

I also like how the authors stay focused on the core pieces of .NET, and don't stray too deep into things like WCF and WPF. There are plenty of good books for that.

I highly recommend this for anyone desiring to learn more about C#, the .NET framework, and LINQ.

Very well organized, and good content.
Id like to see more diagrams or so, so we can se how they decide to build the things... but it still is great.

I think this is one of the best books on this subject that I have read so far- very practical, very useful. There is a lot of information, real-life examples and experience from the .NET framework design team.

As a professional I have worked many times on building re-usable and extensible frameworks. Therefore, I had to read several books in order to make sure that the framework I was building was doing what it was supposed to do. However, in all these years I had never the luck to get a complete guide of "building a framework the right way" and I had to always put together pieces from different articles in order to make my own guide. Well, there you have it! Buy this book, read it and you will have a complete guide of how to do things the right way. Another great thing about this book is that different professionals make their comments about almost every guideline. As a result you are not only exposed to writer's view but also to the views and opinions of many well respected software professionals. Do buy this book and as hard as it might seem try to apply its recommendations to your daily development process.

If you need to write C#/.Net or even Java, this book is a must have.

I don't personally think that all developers will find this book useful. In fact, I have a feeling that some may find it highly useless and disruptive as it is abstract in a sense (one must apply the lessons to each library and scenario independently, taking into consideration many different aspects of usability and readability) and it does require some "retraining" of bad practices which have been long since ingrained due to years of usage.

But whether this book deserves a five star rating or a one star rating - whether this book is for you - can be answered by asking yourself the following question: are you obsessed with quality? Quality in the sense of creating a library that is:

- Easily reused by others, even first timers encountering the library or even first timers to .Net
- Well thought out with well designed classes
- Consistent within itself and consistent with the base libraries from Microsoft

The importance of the little things like naming classes, properties, methods, using one type of construct over another, using one type of accessor over another, etc. cannot be stressed enough in the overall picture of creating a library to a higher standard of quality, usability, and extensibility.

As Confucius is to have said:

"If names be not correct, language is not in accordance with the truth of things. If language be not in accordance with the truth of things, affairs cannot be carried on to success.

"When affairs cannot be carried on to success, proprieties and music do not flourish. When proprieties and music do not flourish, punishments will not be properly awarded. When punishments are not properly awarded, the people do not know how to move hand or foot.

"Therefore a superior man considers it necessary that the names he uses may be spoken appropriately, and also that what he speaks may be carried out appropriately. What the superior man requires is just that in his words there may be nothing incorrect."

As I wrote in an e-mail to my team, I think that digesting this book will lead to: higher quality public facing APIs for our customer development teams seeking to extend the functionality, increased readability and more consistency internally in our teams, increased usability and decreased maintenance costs for the support teams as well as new developers on our team, and of course, increased skill, knowledge, and competency as developers of each of the team members.