Programming Books

This is a great book to get your feet wet with modern VB programming! He includes all of the code right there on the pages with details as to what everything does and what it means. His database is Microsoft Access; SQL Server Express or SQL CE would have been better, but they weren't out whenever this book went to print.

I would tell anybody that wants to learn Visual Basic to buy this book. It maybe long but the step by step details make it where you can work at your own pace.I found this book to be very well written for the person who has never used Visual Basic the information is written in each chapter to show how it is applied and builds on each chapter until you have a working project at the end. I hope this review will help in your decision to purchase this book.

Product was as advertized and shipping was as promised. Great value for my money!!

It's a Shelly Cashman book, what do you expect, basically it's the same as all the other shelly cashman books, very indepth with good lessons and projects..enjoy!

As an experienced C++ programmer, I wanted to try C# out of curiosity. Obviously, I didn't want to read long-winded explanations of the most basic programming constructs -- I just wanted syntax and effective ways to use it. This book fulfills this purpose well. Within a few days, I was able to start writing real, useful C# applications. And, since I'm a game developer, I was able to find Managed DirectX tutorials and I've already written the fundamentals of a C# game engine!

So, if you know how to code, this book will show you how to do it in C#. Thanks, Steven Holzner!

This a a very good book for someone who has programming experience. Fundamental concepts are in the book, but they are not belabored. The book quickly gets on with C# and what it takes to create real applications that do something more than say "Hello World".

If this is your first experience with programming, then this book is not for you. If you have done some programming and are moving to C# for the first time, then this book is a great addition to your library.

For any programmer coming over from another language, I really think this book offers the most bang for the buck (and for your time). I'm a VB6 programmer who wasted a lot of time and money on other books that either offer too much hand-holding (next to no code, everything through forms designer) and wasted time on extensive examples building software I'll never use or focused only on console C# applications with no explanation of topics like ADO.NET, winforms, etc. I need to use C# at work and like many programmers, I'm busy and have little time to waste. Yet, I also needed a comprehensive book because the real world of business programming requires the use of data-access technologies (ADO.NET), security, network technologies, etc. This book succeeds on all counts. The coverage is surprisingly comprehensive and details are well fleshed out. Even using ADO.NET in code is covered while many other books only cover using it through form controls in Visual Studio (anyone who writes database-connected applications knows that you really need a high level of control of shaping the data before you can present it). Nothing is dwelled upon for long so be warned that the book does move fast and info is densely packed into each page.

This is a very solid book. It assumes you know the basics of programming like loops, modules and the likes... If you are familiar with any regular programming language (like C, C++, Java, PERL, python, ruby, even shell scripting) then this books is probably your best bet to learn C# quickly.

There is no whole chapters made to get you to write a "for" loop here, you must have programming concepts to really benefit from this book.

As a programmer, I really enjoyed it and was able to get to work quickly on C# programs. If you are totaly new to programming, get another book to get your feet wet before jumping on this one.

Coppes states the y2k problem succinctly and in an objective, businesslike fashion. He outlines the principal causes and potential "explosion" of the Millennial Time Bomb by explaining well-researched premises that factor the impending event. Included in his work is a fantastic work of theology ("There is Hope") in which he explains the relationship of Old and New Testament prophecy to these events. It's a joy to read this dynamic jigsaw puzzle of research and organization. The chapter on preparedness aptly rounds out his message with a call to self-preparedness that anyone in their right mind will heed! You can't go wrong with this book. It will stun you, compel you, and eventually aims to motivate you to do what is right to leave you at peace with your eternal destiny...

Mr coppes hits head on the many negative eventualities of Y2k and ties in what this means in terms of Biblical Revelation. His expertise in both Y2k and Biblical prohecy give a chilling view of what this really could mean. His challenging book may be a window into this disater and into the heart of God. you wont be able to put it down

An uncommon perspective is offered as the story behind the story unfolds in this information packed book by Charles Coppes. Written from a Biblical perspective Charles Coppes offers practical advice and hope in the face of a serious global situation. I highly recommend this book if you are interested in reading all the facts regarding preparation for Y2K and other events which will shortly take place. Paul Moffitt

Charles Coppes is well qualified to write such a book and has done an excellent job! He provides in depth analysis of the problem and explains why this will probably affect all of us much more seriously than our leaders and news media will admit! He gives key target dates in 1999 on which major computer breakdowns may occur long before the beginning of the year 2000! Thankfully he provides many helpful tips for preparing for the worst case scenario. Unlike other books on the subject, he shows the reader how the Y2K crisis will set the stage for the terrible "last days" forecast in the Bible! Finally and most importantly, Mr. Coppes shows that being spiritually prepared for what's to come is ALL IMPORTANT, e.g. getting right with Almighty God through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ!! In short, he paints a bleak picture, but gives us hope!!!

Running at around 800 pages "The Minimum you need to know to be an OpenVMS Application Developer" by Roland Hughes is a complete reference book for people wishing to learn, develop and/or maintain code in the OpenVMS environment. The premise of the book is simple: to create the same simple application in different common languages used for development under the OpenVMS system. These languages are Basic,Fortran, Cobol, C and C++.

To accomplish the premise, Mr Hugues gives a rather thorough introduction to the fundamentals of the operating system whose topics range from the basics of logging-in to Symbols, Editors and their configurations and the OpenVMS's command line language DCL. Even goes so far as to cover developing a basic import program using DCL and indexed files. These first chapters are a lot harder to read for all those not too familiar with the OS itself and at times the information is given at a breakneck speed which might warrant the usual re-read from time to time. Once the basics are covered the author lunges into Basic and then veers for a few chapters giving us further introductions to OpenVMS tools like FMS, CDD, VMSMAIL, VMSPhone. The author also takes a look at setting up DEC's CMS tool for code management and the MMS (Module Management System-the make utility of the OpenVMS OS). The author continues then on to Fortran, Cobol, C and C++, and finally gets to the database programing section where he discuses both MySQL and DEC's own RDB database. Assignments for further study are included at the end of every chapter, and also included with the book comes a cd with all the code used in the book.

The approach taken to follow the premise is very deliberate and follows the order of the chapters in the book very closely. I don't recommend reading this book out of order. The author himself on the introduction recommends that the book be read once through first and then used as reference. As an example the chapters where the author veered off into after Basic to cover FMS,CDD,CMS and MMS, are an integral part of the book and are constantly referenced throughout the following chapters on Fortran, Cobol, C and C++.

The author uses a colloquial writing style in the book that is easy to read. From time to time he veers off to give further insights to the points he is trying to make but never looses sight of his main objectives, and this is laudable considering the amount of information being dispensed. This is mostly seen in the form of anecdotal information sometimes to clarify his own code other times to give more of a historical perspective. This colloquial style partnered with the unique structure of the book makes for a very interesting contrast as this book could be seen as a reference manual but at its core its a lot more of a personal account on good OpenVMS programming practice by Mr Hughes. A fact that he himself doesn't hide as he relates his opinions on such practices as well as many other subjects throughout the book with a great sense of humor which makes for a much more interesting reading.

Mr Hughes great sense of humor and insight culminates in this book's final chapter called "Ruminations and Observations" which has nothing to do with OpenVMS but is more of an opinion piece on a few subjects that touch all of us that work in IT. These subjects range from the real reason Y2k happened to offshore computing to avoiding a hellhole shop, and are bound to make more than one programmer laugh with glee and more than one manager blush.

In conclusion this is a must read for anybody wanting to learn to write code in this most venerable of Operating Systems.

Reviewed by Regan Windsor for Reader Views (8/07)

While at first glance "The Minimum You Need to Know to Be an OpenVMS Application Developer" may look like a classroom textbook, you don't need to read very far into it to realize it is much, much more. Roland Hughes has managed to write a comprehensive guide on the OpenVMS operating system and a variety of the tools, languages, and databases used, as though he was standing over your shoulder mentoring you through the process. In addition to source code, best practices, and tips and tricks, aimed at saving the novice developer hours of frustration, Roland also includes critical historical information on various applications. This information transfer is critical to the success of the IT industry and consequently the success of all companies whose systems are impacted by the historical trends in application development!

"The Minimum You Need to Know to Be an OpenVMS Application Developer" covers the fundamentals of OpenVMS, including hardware and software, as well as some tips on choosing an editor, and then starts the reader off with some hands-on exercises that build throughout the book. Also included are some end-of-chapter exercises (with answers included at the end of the book) to ensure the reader has grasped the key elements of the chapter.

The chapters that follow cover various tools, languages, and databases for developing applications on the OpenVMS platform. Beginning with DCL and Utilities, moving through DEC, FMS, CMS, CDD, FORTRAN, COBOL, C/ C++, covering Object and Text libraries, as well as Message Utility, Mail and Phone, describing MySQL and RDB databases, and ending with a chapter on the authors observations on the IT industry. Each chapter includes an overview, a discussion of functionality, and other relevant historical information, tips, tricks, best practices, and much more, and then works through several programming examples and exercises (source code provided). Many of the exercises walk the reader through the same process with the various languages, providing an appreciation of the trade-offs between them. Where more advanced functionality is available, Hughes provides a high level overview of what the additional functionality can provide.

"The Minimum You Need to Know to Be an OpenVMS Application Developer" should be on the desktop of anyone new to the OpenVMS platform and on the bookshelf of those seasoned veterans looking for a comprehensive reference book. Hands-on programming throughout the book provides a highly effective learning tool, and the best practices, advice, and knowledge transfer from the author gives the reader the unique feeling that they are sitting down next to a mentor, being coached through the tricks of the trade!

Do you want to be an OpenVMS Application Developer? If you don't know what that is, then you probably don't need this book, but if you do, you've found the seemingly most comprehensive and readable guide to doing so. Roland Hughes' offering, "The Minimum You Need to know to be an OpenVMS Application Developer" is an abundance of information that you cannot afford to be without.

Here's some background: "OpenVMS (Open Virtual Memory System) is a high-end computer server operating system. As a multi-user, multiprocessing virtual memory-based operating system (OS), it is designed for use in time-sharing, batch processing, real time, and transaction processing. It offers high system availability through clustering and distributes the system over many machines." In other words, you need to know this!

This isn't a beginner's guide, to be sure. However, those in the IT industry will be thankful to Hughes as he describes uses of: the MMS and CMS tools from the widely used DECSET OpenVMS software development toolkit CDD FMS the RDB and MySQL databases. He describes other tools found in OpenVMS application development such as VMSMAIL, and PHONE. The book works readers through and around a single application which is developed in each of DEC BASIC, FORTRAN, COBOL, C and C++ using a variety of tools. On the accompanying CD, full source code is provided.

Hughes' language is easy to understand. He doesn't speak over the heads of the readers, nor talk down, and his tome is not the dry textbook form you may be used to. He uses humor and easy going guidance, making this likely one of the most readable IT guides out there.

Drawing on his vast experience and knowledge, Hughes rewards himself and the reader with a final chapter on the IT field. His guidance here is not so technical but rather personal when deciding where a developer wishes to work. His attention to company restrooms is something I did not expect to read about but is likely very valuable information. If you want to be an OpenVMS Application Developer, this is the book you need.

OpenVMS (Open Virtual Memory System) is a high-end computer server operating system. As a multi-user, multiprocessing virtual memory-based operating system (OS), it is designed for use in time-sharing, batch processing, real time, and transaction processing. It offers high system availability through clustering and distributes the system over many machines. The ability to distribute both the application and a single transaction across multiple nodes is the heart of clustering; otherwise, it is just networking.

Roland Hughes' book, The Minimum You Need to know to be an OpenVMS Application Developer, offers Computer Applications Developers, Consultants, Systems Analysts, and developers switching to OpenVMS, a detailed and informative companion guide to understanding and implementing the applications and modules needed to operate and maintain OpenVMS.

From logging into OpenVMS, each chapter charts a systematic guide to operating and sustaining the application coding and programming of essential modules running on OpenVMS. Such languages, tools, and databases as DCL, DEC BASIC, FMS, COBOL, CDD, FORTRAN, C/C++, MySQL, and RDB cover the heart of what you need to know as a maintenance programmer. Using a created lottery tracking system, Hughes generates a single application and develops it in each of the following: DEC BASIC, FORTRAN, COBOL, and C/C++. As well, Hughes shows readers how to use CDD, CMS, and MMS with these languages. By repeatedly applying the same method in different languages, Hughes demonstrates in a clearly written and easy to follow guide, how a programmer knowledgeable with one language can become skilled in others. The CD-ROM that comes with it contains the source code developed in the book allowing readers to learn the advantages and disadvantages of each language.

Well-illustrated examples with detailed analysis, descriptions, and definitions, allow the reader to follow the book while working with the server, thereby learning the "nuts and bolts" of creating, understanding, and managing command files. Each chapter details troubleshooting tips, error handling tips, reducing debugging time, as well as the Do's, and Don'ts of writing applications. Following each chapter, there are exercises to enhance comprehension of the modules and applications in OpenVMS.

With a wealth of experience, Roland Hughes provides thoughtful and knowledgeable observations about the IT field. One important bit of knowledge he conveys: "IT is a way of life, not a job." With easy to follow instructions and detailed examples, I highly recommend this informative and well-mapped book as an asset to those in the IT industry, as well to students entering the computer-programming field.

Tracy Roberts, Write Field Services

It is often the case that a new area of inquiry, comprised of elements from seemingly disparate disciplines, yields surprising insights. Zeigler's and Hammonds's effort is no exception. While linguistics has from time to time informed mathematics and computer science, to my knowledge little has been done to date towards the application of semantics and pragmatics to this type of data exchange.

The prose is concise, clear, and conversational. Given the complexity of the two topics and the more or less mutual exclusivity of their lexicons, readers whose experience has been acquired only in the one or the other of these two disciplines will nevertheless quickly become comfortable in this discussion. The authors provide many examples to illustrate their line of reasoning, all drawn from a wide variety of sources.

As an IT professional with 15 years' experience and an advanced degree in a foreign language, I found this book satisfying, illuminating, and provocative. While it is intended to address a specific engineering problem, its implications extend well beyond its stated purview. Heartily recommended for those who would like to think about the synergies of data engineering and pragmatics, and also for those who want to think about what might be beyond the horizon.

This book offers to the reader a thick and consistent theoretical background for dealing with ontologies (i.e., languages for describing "a state of the world".) Both authors merged very carefully their knowledge and disciplines [social and computer (engineering) sciences] in a complete and homogeneous framework.

In the new research area of computer-based problems, dealing with complex systems induces increasing efforts for building unifying modifiable ontologies describing the systems, data and communications. Large digital data are described and abstracted through more and more complex software. Computer-based problems need to have strong theories to map very quickly evolving technical evolutions. Developing such theories allows to build a common field for discussions and specifications to participate all together bringing tools and incremental concepts (concepts of concepts of concepts...) Always thinking of knowledge of knowledge (or metaknowledge) models can be constructed. Using such a philosophy, ideas become program-independent and right issues and perspectives are more easily identified. Knowledge can be organized to cognitively map real systems to computer-based models. This is what offers us this new book. But that's not all!

More than neutral/specifiable mathematical structures, this book provides precise mappings and discusses usual notations and current orientations (XML, HTML, UML, MDA, etc.) Actual generic large applications (geospatial sensor data, natural languages, hierarchical constructions, WWW, etc.) and a plethora of didactical examples are presented. Lastly, a web-based interface allows the reader to experiment his understandings.

Even researchers from the modelling and simulation field will find here a way to deal with digital input data.

According to me, this book is the starting point (and foundation) for those who intend to build soundly ontologies through computers in a modular, generic and hierarchical way: government agencies, developers, standards organizations, researchers, etc. They will find here the precise technical solutions they are searching for, as well as a common evolutive language to model data for dynamic systems. If all problems could not be grasped in one book, the latter will pinpoint major issues in such an abstract way that people are able to identify easily them and to find further solutions.

This book is definitely for those who intend to increase their knowledge on ontology, develop mental models and want to talk and search together in a controlled and original perspective!

Addressing the compatibility issues raised in sharing data between collaborative organizations that employ different approaches to representing data becomes a major concern in today's net-centric computing environment. Effective information exchange requires not only an agreement on the syntax and semantics to be established between data producers and consumers, but also a common understanding of the pragmatics, namely the intended use of the data in specific situational contexts. It is the development of a generic ontology framework called System Entity Structure (SES) to describe both static and dynamic world states and a set of openly available tools to support automated creating and testing of the data model, then, that is at the center of Bernard Zeigler and Phillip Hammonds's new book Modeling & Simulation-based Data Engineering.

By delineating the critical relationships that best structure a data engineer's domain of interest with the extra expressive power, the proposed pragmatic framework captures the exact intent of the data producers and consumers, which, in turn, allows for effective conversation and appropriate downstream processing. The SES framework is formulated as a labeled tree comprising basic elements and relations that satisfy a set of formation rules or axioms. With the supporting tools, it can be defined in a restricted form of natural language and subsequently be mapped into various computational forms, including eXtensible Markup Language (XML), Document Object Models (DOM), XML Document Type Definition (DTD), and XML Schema. A standard way of restructuring and pruning different SES representations is provided to improve representation utility and harmonization. The Pruned Entity Structure (PES) provides the basis for static and dynamic world state descriptions, efficient extraction of data, and more advanced form of information exchange. As the authors put it, "the SES together with the Discrete Event Systems Specification (DEVS) formalism offers a powerful system-theoretic framework for specifying families of dynamic services that can execute in simulated or real-time and interact with other services in a net-centric environment."

Throughout the book, a broad range of easy-to-follow examples, case studies, and exercises is provided to consolidate the concepts and methodologies presented in the text and to give readers significant hands-on experience. This book is addressed to all those who are concerned either with data engineering in general or with interoperability in multi-institutional collaboration. Any reader with a general knowledge of ontology and discrete-event modeling and simulation will be able to benefit from the authors' insights.

For those who are working on complex problems of data interoperability and reuse of data sources in distributed environment, especially GIG/SOA, this book provides rigorous and novel methods and framework approach to solve data harmonization and ontology integration problems effectively. The authors present the pragmatic frame concepts, ontologies, System Entity Structure (SES) framework, and modeling and simulation based data engineering, all of which are useful methodologies to achieve automated interoperability testing at syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic levels in a net-centric environment. The book identifies complex problems encountered in harmonization and testing and illustrates framework and approach to implement such solutions in software tools and services. The concept of SES is being implemented in a commercial software with some online support. It is a truly fine resource for data and system engineers who look for solid approach to solve complex real-world problems!

This is an excellent book and a must read not only for IT professionals but for anyone in any organization or home that has software, graphics, sound files,shareware, freeware etc.

Very few people understand the potential liability they face when any one of these is not properly licensed or it infringes on any copyright. The potential fines for illegal use of any software are staggering and frightening.

I have taken Al's on-line course also and that is incredible! Every IT professional and senior executive out there should take this course. Can you really afford not to?

If you conatct Al he will show you case after case of huge fines levied against individuals and corporations. The software police are very active and you could be next!

This book is a MUST read for anyone who owns a computer. Even more so for those responsible for or managing their companies technology portfolio. This book is the first thing I've seen on the market that really addresses Technology Portfolio (Asset) Management in terms of what you need and should be doing.

This is the first publication I've seen outside of some certification courses that tells it as it is while offering important insights and solutions. Modern Pirates opens portholes of little known insights into Software Asset Management and associated fields. As I read it my mind kept asking, "Who are the real pirates?" You won't fall to sleep reading this one. It's an unusually fun read on a most serious topic.

MODERN PIRATES is a must read for those who know little or nothing, or have misconceptions, about the field of Software Asset Management. It is also a very handy review and reference for us veterans, although I did learn interesting new things. It would make a thoughtful gift for the unbelieving boss.

Modern Pirates is probably the only book being published today that deals with I.T. Asset Management, and it consequences, and is a must read, not only for I.T. Asset Managers, but for any level of management, from the CEO on down of any company. Real life examples of what can happen to any size company should run a chill up the spine of any manager. I found this book to be great and very informative reading as written by an extremely knowledgeable person in the I.T. Asset Management field. I highly recommend this for all to read. In this day and age of software compliance actions costing companies millions, you can't afford to not read this.

The book is very helpful for graduate students who are first learning LaTeX for publishing their dissertations or for submitting articles for publication. It is especially helpful for users of LaTeX that are using pre-made style guides. This book is not for the advanced LaTeX user who is trying to create their own style guides or document class files, all though the book does have a little on the topic. The book also includes a chapter on using LaTeX for making power-point type presentations, which is helpful in math and statistics where presentations have to include equations. Power-point does not handle equations well. The statistics department at my university recommends the book to all our graduate students for writing their dissertation. I have also contacted the author of the book for additional assistance and found him to be very willing to help with LaTeX problems outside the realm of the book. He helped our department create a document class file for publishing dissertations, a more complicated procedure in LaTeX than the typical LaTeX user will have to encounter. This book is a good introduction into the world of LaTeX.

The book 'more math into Latex' is a good tool which helps somebody without experience in Latex to start using it as soon as possible and reach an adequate level for simple enough articles very fast. I would not be able to judge this book for difficult Latex applications.

I am a LaTeX programmer and instructor. This weekend, I finally had time to read Part I of this book, Short Course, and paged through the other parts.

What a pleasure! Grätzer has an amazing talent to say exactly what is important, without putting in extras that will distract a reader.

You'd think that by this time I'd know enough LaTeX to, at least, get through the Short Course without learning anything new; but instead I ran into trick after trick that I didn't know. I use Beamer but I didn't know FoilTeX, the presentation package used in the Short Course. It's a great idea to let tell users very early on how to make a presentation from their papers, and then leave Beamer for full treatment later.

I very much like Appendix A, holding the reader's hand as LaTeX is installed. Then the three "productivity tools" are introduced, explaining how to use these tools on both platforms, and leaving the rest of the user interface for later, leisurely exploration, making it really quick for users to start using LaTeX.

Very early in the introduction, Grätzer talks about "the three layers" (TeX, LaTeX, and the AMS packages) and, from the beginning, use all three seamlessly. This is a radical new idea. It will substantially reduce the learning curve -- my students will appreciate it. The wonderful foreword by Rainer Schöpf (one of the two lead programmers of AMS-LaTeX) makes the role of the AMS packages clear in the historical development of modern LaTeX.

I really like the way you got to "Lines too wide" so early in the Short Course, explaining to the user the cause of the problem and solutions. Why do most books postpone this?

I better not go on and on. Just wanted to write these few lines about my enjoyment as I read this wonderful material.

I was a graduate student in math and faced the daunting task of typing my thesis. It was bad enough that I was inexperienced in writing math, but I was also a novice in LaTeX.

I tried two well-known books. In one, there is a Part I, Basics. This is for me, I thought. Unfortunately, it is 200 pages long and does not cover such elementary topics as the "cases" structure. For that, I had to go to page 288. The other book had "cases" hidden on page 238, under the title "Matrix like environments". Not very helpful.

What a relief it was when I came across this book. It helped me set up LaTeX on my Dell notebook (why do other books assume that you already have a LaTeX installation?). Then I downloaded the sample files as instructed and read the really easy 60 page Part I (Short Course). I worked through the text and examples in less than a day. Then I started writing my thesis.

In my spare time, I gave the rest of the book a cursory reading. Occasionally, I need to go beyond what is covered in the Short Course. For instance, as an analyst, I need complicated integrals not covered in Part I. (They are easy to find: in Part II, in the chapter on typing math.) And when the time came to give a presentation on my thesis, I went beyond the Short Course's section on presentations to Chapter 14, and I used Beamer!

Everybody was impressed.

Now I am Jim Whitby Ph.D. Thank you George for the help.

If you are a beginner, this is the your book.

What new can I write about a book that is in its fourth edition, and has served the LaTeX community for almost two decades?

There is a new chapter on presentations and an appendix on installing LaTeX on a PC and on a Mac, so you get help from the get go. Also, for the first time, this book merges TeX, LaTeX, and the AMS packages into one, smoothing the learning curve for beginner and advanced user alike.

If you are new to this book, I should start by pointing out that you get two for the price of one. A sixty page Short Course gets you ready to type your first article in an afternoon or two. The plentiful sample files help you get started fast.

The rest of the book presents a detailed survey of LaTeX: how to type text and math, document structure, presentations, customization, and long documents.

Gratzer teaches by example: each new concept is introduced with examples and sample documents, so you learn by doing.

Multiline math formulas is the most difficult topic of LaTeX. This is the only LaTeX book that dedicates 40 pages to this topic, trying to make it accessible with a Visual Guide and a verbal guide of how these multiline structures can be classified and understood.

Gratzer teaches by distilling the most important information you need. For instance, Beamer, the presentation class he presents, has hundreds of commands and its documentation runs to hundreds of pages. The Beamer chapter selects twenty commands, so you should be on your way writing your first presentation in hours not weeks.

This book has served me well when I started, and it is my constant companion, placed next to my computer when I type LaTeX.

What is linux good for? That is the question that the authors of this book set about explaining. They tell you all of the wonderful things that you can make linux do with a little bit of effort. It could use a new edition but otherwise a very good read.

PS A station wagon packed with hard drives has more bandwidth in most instances than dsl or cable internet.

I've been curious about Linux for some time now. But, the only books that I could find, are all on installing, administering, configuring. Every one rehashing what the other said. None of them sold me on diving in.

When I discovered this book, I was apprehensive, but I went for it and purchased it. All I have to say is WOW! I never realised how flexible Linux is, or how much you could do.

I was thouroughly impressed on the variety of this book. I've finally been inspired to dive right in to Linux.

Are you a new Linux user, and want to learn more?

Are you an experienced Linux user, but are wondering what other interesting things you can do?

This book will teach you fun things. This book will teach you useful things. This book takes you on a tour you can't help but enjoy. At the end of the day, you'll find yourself not only entertained, but more knowledgeable about what you can do with Linux. It's probably more than you think!

This book helped me discover new interests and new possibilities, all in easy to read and entertaining prose. With that in mind, I'm giving this book the highest rating possible.

Technically, Linux is the name for the operating system kernel at the heart of "Linux" distributions such as RedHat and Debian. When most people "use" Linux, they are in fact using the shell, the web server, or any other of the zillions of open source programs that (1) are available for, (2) are distributed with, or (3) can run atop the Linux kernel.

It used to be that there were only a few things you could do with a Linux box (namely run a Unix box as a web server) but the open source community has come a long way in providing (1) applications and (2) hardware support, so that you can now do a lot of things w/ your Linux box that used to only be doable on a Windoze box.

Schwarz et al have put together a smorgasbord of things you can do with your Linux box. These projects range from things you would tend to do on a Unix box (eg IP Masquerade, SSH, system security, even a chapter on writing Apache modules!) to stuff you would expect to need to do on a Windoze box (eg burning CDRs, syncing with Palm devices, and audio/MIDI/image/video processing).

The level of detail in the chapters (as well as the required level of Linux familiarity on the part of the reader) varies considerably -- a hazard of multiple authors and the breadth of the topics covered -- but each chapter starts off with a "Difficult-o-Meter" which more or less accurately states the level of Linux proficiency required.

That said, there are some real gems to be found in this book. There are some pretty hefty howto-like treatments in this book of topics such as system security, "undernets" (collaborative web sites), and setting up a web/IMAP/mail server.

There's a chapter on "Tools You Should Know", which lists the tools a typical Unix hacker should know: regular expressions, vi, dd, sed, diff, etc. Like some other parts of the book, this chapter doesn't give you a lot of information on these individual tools, but it brings them to your attention, so you at least know what to look for.

This book by itself won't turn a newbie into a Linux ninja after one reading, but it is a good overview of many different things that can be done with open source tools on a Linux box. I would highly encourage the prospective reader to take a look at the Table of Contents of this book. If you see a topic you're interested in, then this is a worthwhile book to buy. (I suspect that most folks running Linux at home at a beginner to intermediate level will find several bits of interest in this book.)

I'm looking at you, Microsoft Product Writers, although you're certainly not alone. In 240 pages and 2 days I learned, easily comprehended, and retained more about the fundamentals of a SQL server than I ever did reading many of those "Introduction To..." behemoths.

The book starts with introducing you to both the product as well as database design and efficient database/table creation. Following this is an excellent overview of using MySQL and the MySQL-flavor of SQL focused on language (query language keywords, functions, etc), table types (MyISAM, InnoDB, etc), and transactions. You're reading is concluded with an excellent overview of general administration and optimization. Each section is broken down into discussion, fully-functional examples, a quiz, and to-do exercises, ensuring that you get to implement and solidify the skills you just acquired.

At the time of my writing this, the book is 4 years old, and the version of MySQL it addresses (4.x) has already been upgraded. I knew that when I purchased the book, and it doesn't matter as the fundamentals haven't changed. MySQL may have released improved GUI tools to accomplish many tasks as well as introducing additional features, but the underlying SQL language, design methods, and structure is the same, and knowing/understanding the fundamentals improves your efficiency and makes using the product easier.

As the purpose of this book is to teach you the fundamentals of database design and creation, this will not be your last purchase. But for those new to MySQL, you can not go wrong starting here, even now.

MySQL is the database used by many commercial and open source security products. Although the user is often "shielded" from interacting with the database directly, it's important and sometimes crucial to know basic MySQL administration.

"MySQL Tutorial" is the perfect companion to any security tool which depends on a MySQL database. For example, no one seriously expects to collect large amounts of data with Sguil and Snort unless a MySQL or similar database is working in the background. "MySQL Tutorial" gives the right details on the right subjects for those running integrated MySQL databases.

This book is not for Oracle gurus. It's for people who need basic understanding of MySQL installation, configuration, security, and administration. I found the authors' explanations clear and relevant, hitting the high points I would expect in a 267 page book. The text is example-driven, using a sample "employee" database to demonstrate various administration tasks.

The only real fault I found involves the scripts at the publisher's Web site. They create a sample database whose naming convention differs from the book's description. For example, the scripts create an "employee_skills" table, but the book speaks of "employeeSkills". The best answer to this problem is to manually correct the scripts prior to running them, or to type in the examples by hand.

"MySQL Tutorial" met my expectations, with a page count and price far more reasonable than many tech titles available today. I recommend this book to anyone who uses MySQL in a role supporting intrusion detection systems, Web servers, or similar applications.

This book assumes some familiarity with the basics of databases, and knowledge of some web application language with which you can write your queries.

Its a nice overview of MySQL's capabilites and quirks. After reading the first few chapters I am more convinced than before that MySQL is the best database choice for all but the largest, most critical applications.

If you're an experienced techie and you want the heavy details on MySQL, get one of the $50 encyclopedia-weight books. If you want a nice introduction and instructions on how to work with basic queries, try this book.

Luke Welling and Laura Thomson have the special gift of taking information, disseminating it, and making it simple to understand for everyone. This is the second book I bought from these authors (Php and MySQL Web Development) without any complaints.

It is nice to see books of this size (250 pages) at this price point coming out. Nothing is worse than those large tomes that weigh a ton and cost an arm and a leg. You should be able to get through this in a week, which is perfect for busy professionals.

This tutorial is written very clearly and does what I want from it - nail down the 80% of the necessary information needed to get work done. After each chapter there is a quiz to test your knowledge. The authors tackle both the user and administrator side of using the product. One of my favorite sections in the book is the Database Crash Course which discusses normalization.

If you are serious about using mySQL in your web projects, look to this book to get you started quickly. This book won't turn you into an immediate mySQL expert. But what it will do is give you the skills to be proficient. It was good enough to get my projects started on my website, KerryOnWorld.com. This is a top 30 book in my 15-year technical library. That is how much I like it.

Databinding is handled later, and lots of interesting stuff I wasn't knowledgeable about came sooner. Bravo. This is a great book that will always be on my desk! (I'm a professional developer with walls of books by Microsoft on Wrox, primarily.)

This was the 3rd or 4th WinForms book I purchased. The others were good, but they were lacking in detail. This book does a great job in explaining 'under the cover' details. The authors do a good job explaining DataBinding, Controls, GDI+, Form, Menus, Inheritance and much more.
This is more than a resource book. The first half is devoted to getting you up and running with building WinForms apps. The 2nd half is an incredible reference, one I turn to almost daily.

If you plan to use or are using .NET WinForm, please, do yourself a big favor, buy this book and leave it on your desk

The authors appear to go to great length for completeness in a companion reference for programmers creating DotNet Forms, an important new feature of the DotNet frameworks. We have been always looking for a capable web enabled report writer without integrating a third-party product, such as Crystal Reports for the Web. DotNet Forms promises in creating at least simple, yet dynamic, multi-paged reports without a whole lot of work.

DotNet provides for creating dynamic Excel-like forms for ASP.NET html. Additional form paging provides for DB presentation similar to Yahoo and eBay searches, which is a familiar and intuitive format. DotNet provides these DataGrid forms with the DotNet Forms API. The API architecture is listed in the last two-thirds of this book, which is an inch and a half thick.

While the authors claim to include a "very fast-paced" tutorial (p1) in the first third (313 pgs) of the book, the DataGrid portion is a mere 6 pages (p307-312), very steep indeed! I'd highly recommend its combined use with another MS Press book by Dino Esposito (0-7356-1578-0) which devotes about half of his book to DataGrid reports and code examples. Another is Jesse Liberty's O'Reilly book on VB.Net (0-596-00438-9) which has one chapter devoted to ADO.net (34pgs).

The publisher include a MS Visual Studio.Net Add-in on the accompanying CD which has the text of the book as integrated help files, 1.7MB MSI files for VS.Net 2K2 and 2K3. Appears a tad bit small? I have not tested the usefulness of the claimed dynamic integration of the O'Reilly Help files along with MS Help during coding process within VS. It appears that this is the initial product enhancement from this publisher. I wonder if an annotatable PDF file of the book would be more useful; at least this would be in a separate window. This tome was read at a local library.

At a local SQL Server Users Group meeting, a new technology that will embellish on the DataGrid and Forms was discussed and demoed. It is the forthcoming SQL Server 2K Reporting Services that will be a low/no cost add-on for SQL 2000 Server and authoring with a Visual Studio.Net 2003 download. It currently is in beta and will be released in 4Q03. It appears to be XML based and production reports can be rendered for browser, printer, PDF, and TIFF output. What a seemingly great idea.

Overall, this detailed 469-page reference on the DotNet Forms API appears needed for the programmer, although this is probably duplicates what's available on a MSDN subscription CD somewhere. The appendix includes another 69-page API term cross-reference and a 23-page index.

This was the 3rd or 4th WinForms book I purchased. The others were good, but they were lacking in detail. This book does a great job in explaing 'under the cover' details. The authors do a good job explaining DataBinding, Controls, GDI+, Form, Menus, Inheritace and much more.

This is more than a resource book. The first half is devoted to getting you up and running with building WinForms apps. The 2nd half is an incredible reference, one I turn to almost daily.

If you plan to use or are using .NET WinForm, please, do yourself a big favor, buy this book and leave it on your desk.