Programming Books

I have purchased several markets development books and this one beats them all. It has a fantastic overview of the markets, the language is awesome & the detailed instructions on how you can build your system ground up is fabulous. I'd recommend it to everyone from Beginner to a Pro - "A must buy !!"

For me, just beginning in this field, this book is a gem.
It has great explanations of the lingo/structure of the financial markets as well as useful code examples.

'Practical .NET for Financial Markets' by Samir Jayaswal is a very specialized book for all financial developers. Laid out over 9 chapters with 500+ pages of detail this is a wonderfully written reference for this niche market.

If you are a .NET developer in the financial industry you owe it to yourself to pick up this great resource!

***** RECOMMENDED

This text is excellent in what it sets out to do and five other reviewers have said so with 5 star ratings. I agree very much with the reviews of Ted Hrudz and Gulli Ellee, in particular - they are well said and spot on. I think I must make a few comments of my own, however. I have managed financial software projects in the last seven years and have experience in developing and implementing capital and money market securities software, and prior experience in implementing equity software, so I have some background and interest in this area.

First the positives: This books succeeds enormously at providing a very good introduction to equity markets and front and back office software development from a .NET development lead, architect or developer perspective. In less than 500 pages the authors manage to provide a very good and reasonably comprehensive/broad tutorial in several aspects of financials as well as .NET and the book makes reasonably easy reading for such technical subjects. Most of the relevant and interesting topics are covered or touched on. The reviewers I mention above itemize most of the .NET and financials topics covered so I will spare you the repetition.

The authors are obviously very knowledgeable in both the securities domain and the .NET architecture and development technologies and issues and convey their knowledge expertly. This book makes an excellent introduction (but ironically advanced/intermediate in several respects) to the domain concepts and requisite architectural/developmental .NET features. Having said that let me add that you will need more than this book if you seriously plan to undertake financial software development with .NET. You may need to supplement your knowledge in both areas with some of these books, depending what you already know or have been involved in:

Securities/Electronic Payments Domain: 1. Securities Operations: A Guide to Trade and Position Management by Michael Simmons; 2. Corporate Actions by Michael Simmons; 3. After the trade is made by David M. Weiss, Revised 2006 Edition; 4. How the US Securities Market Works by Hal McIntyre (2nd Edition); 5. Gobal Securities Operations by Jeremiah O'Connor; 6. Trading and Exchanges: Market Microstructure for Practitioners by Larry Harris; 7. An Introduction to Financial Technology by Roy S. Freedman. 8. You may also need to understand Secure Electronic Payment Systems (see texts by Weidong Kou, Mostafa Hashem Sherif)

Technology (.NET Framework, Visual Studio & SQL mainly) : Books by some of the best authors such as 1. Juval Lowy and Alex Ferrara (.NET 3.5, SOA/WCF, Web Services, Remoting, Messaging, Application Logging, Threading, Component-based/Distributed Architectures, Application Security Design, etc.); 2. Chris Sells (Windows Forms in VS 2005); 3. David Sceppa, Brian Noyes, Fabrice Marguerie or David Ratz(ADO.NET 2.0/3.5/Data Binding or LINQ); 4. Stephen Walther, Alessandro Gallo, Cristian Darie, Marco Bellinaso (ASP.NET 2.0/3.5 and AJAX); 4. Nick Rozanski (Software Systems Architecture); 6. Itzik Ben Gan (MS SQL 2005-8); 7. Secure Coding against hacker attacks using books by Gary McGraw/Billy Hoffman/Michael Howard such as 'The 19 Deadly Sins Of Software Security'; to explore such topics in greater detail.

I think the author could have added the equivalent VB.NET code for VB developers and architects. That is the main beef I have (and the book is a bit too expensive, buy it online for a rebate. It should have been paper back to reduce the price for readers) but I still thinks it deserves a 5-star ranking . Bravo to Samir Jayaswal and Yogesh Shetty, the authors!

The authors' experience building a .NET application for a trading house shows. As a result I learned a little about the domain & saw several well written "how to" .NET examples based on it.

Two negatives might be worth considering before spending a fair amount of money. First, not much (anything?) about building high performance applications. Lots of talk about needing performance in the securities market, little in the way of delivery. Second, the book is based on .NET 1.X "best practices". The chapter on 2.0 reads like a last minute techno-tour.

I thank my lucky stars that I got a hand of this book, just before embarking on my first large scale BizTalk project. It is a veritable treasure chest of biztalk goodies! Exception handling, reliable messaging, operational best practices - this is just the tip of the iceberg.

While a lot of the information is available on the net, nowhere is it more clearly explained and categorized than in this book. Look no further!

The authors know what an architect needs to consider when designing and implementing a BizTalk 2006 solution. They wrote a readable, compact book packed with their wisdom. Not surprisingly, it does not cover every (most?) BizTalk feature.

My only beef with the book is the code - all VB.NET. ;-)

With BizTalk2006 fairly fresh on the market there is not a lot of documentation out there, along with me being so new to BizTalk itself, this book is a great resource. Everything from the administration side of things to development. My seminar instructor also agreed. I strongly recommend this book for those getting into BizTalk2006.

This book expands on the introduction to orchestrations and other key BizTalk components given in the Foundations book. Personally I think that this combined with the Foundations book sets you up nicely to start doing some serious BizTalk work.

Every so often a book comes along which transcends the technology that it is intended to explain. If you are a BizTalk novice, this seminal work is for you. With a self-deprecating style, the authors guide you through the wide and deep integration waters. They tell you just enough so that you can be proficient and yet feel comfortable that you have chosen the correct course. What you might not know is that the authors are building a framework for you to develop the best solutions going forward. For the expert, the authors have redefined what it means to orchestrate the integration space and to use a product to its maximum utility and purpose. I support both small and enterprise BizTalk customers every day. I can't recommend this book enough!

This book can easily be used as a college textbook on Oracle RAC. I am studying for the Oracle Certified Master exam and this is possibly the most high level book on Oracle I have read.

It has 3 major strengths which I found to be superior to any Oracle RAC books I have read (including the manual from Oracle).

1)Technical Depth
2)Comprehensive Overview and instructions
3)Quality of writing


1)Technical Depth
The authors write about Linux and Oracle and are high level experts in the subjects. For example, the authors have a very detailed description of how Oracle Cache Fusion handles locking across all the nodes in a RAC environment (probably the crown jewel of RAC technology). They also discuss, in detail, different types of CPU, memory, and storage and contains detailed description of each architecture. Lastly, it contains vast number of "how to" install, configure, change, analyze, backup/restore, and utilize Oracle RAC and Linux.

2)Comprehensive Coverage and Instructions
No small amount of detail has been skipped. The book contains every utility (there are many) provided by Oracle to implement RAC. It provides a good step-by-step coverage of Linux and Oracle RAC installation as well what each step is adding to the RAC environment. To top it off, it adds how to performance tune, administer, troubleshoot, backup/restore, and use Dataguard in a RAC environment. I can't think of a subject on RAC which the authors did not cover.

3)Quality of Writing
I was pleasantly surprised how well written this book is. Although far from a Pulitzer Prize material, it certainly belongs in that category amongst the Oracle books. Every praragraph has been well organized and written. The proofreader of this book deserves major praise for their work.

Many books around Oracle's advanced topics simply parrot the manuals. Julian avoids that. Instead, he describes Real Application Cluster technology from the ground concepts up to full implementation, with practical notes and tips. He gets into topics that the manuals never touch, and much of what he writes can be useful in any RAC environment, not just Linux.

I whole-heartedly recommend this book and own both the paper and eBook version which I often reference.

This book delivers what it promises. It contains a great balance of technical detail,examples and theory. It encompasses all aspects of implementing/maintaing 10g RAC on Linux.

Very well written. No mater you are a Pro or a newbie, it will be helpful. A very well written book.


Highly recommended.

This is a very hands on command line oriented book. Good understanding of RAC concepts. I found it extremly useful in my day-to-day work.

Highly recommended.

Thanks!

Lotus Domino support for EJB programming mode

Bob Balaban is a Louts Notes and Domino guru. After working for Lotus for many years, Bob certainly new the nuts and bolts of Lotus Notes better than just about anyone.

This book was way ahead of it's time. I heard Bob speaking about Domino and Java at The View's advanced technical seminar in 1999. At that time many Lotus Notes developers were just coming to grips with LotusScript (although it was introduced in Lotus Notes 4) and all of the new web features associated with Domino; HTML, CSS, JavaScript etc.

While this book is now dated, it is still one of the best on programming Lotus Notes and Domino with Java, and the only one that focuses solely on that topic. Many other books have glossed over this topic altogether. Although a couple of others have provided good treatment. If you are new to Notes and Java then it could still be well worth your while to pick up a copy.

Programming Domino 4.6 With Jav

Programming Domino 4.6 With Jav

This is by far the best and most useful book I have purchased in a long time! Bob has great insights on the future of Web interfaces to data and how you, as a programmer, can effectively work in the new paradigm. He does an excellent (and concise) job of helping you sort out the architectural options for the web: cgi/perl/asp/activex/etc. The book then has a detailed explanation of everything you need to know to program Domino in Java. I found Bob's speculation on the CORBA/IIOP and Domino v5.0 technologies especially useful in planning our IT infrastructure. Please buy this book if you are curious about Domino and Java! If you are new to Java you should also find a beginners guide. This is not a 'learn Java and Domino' text for beginners. Intermidiate and Advanced users, however, definitely need this book before they write another Agent in Domino or another CGI script in Perl. This book will wake you up to the future of the Web, Domino, and Java programming!

I have read a few programming books and I can honestly say that no single one has had more positive impact on my level of programming skill and knowledge than this one. Let me preface this by saying that this is not a beginner book. That is, if you have never programmed with C# before, this is not the book for you. However if you have just finished a "beginner" book and are looking for the next step, then I highly recommend this book for you. Whether you are planning on getting into ASP.Net development, WinForms, SOA, or even XNA, this book will provide you with a firm grasp of the language fundamentals that will make jumping into any or all of the above much easier. The book is broken down into several chapters, each one covering different key topics of the C# language such as basic data types (what is boxing? How does the compiler handle value types vs reference types and why should you care?), Generics, Serialization, Reflection, and COM Interop, just to name a few. Mr Balena also maintains an online blog at the Code Architects site and has even been kind enough to personally answer a few of my questions that I had about the topics covered in the book. I can't recommend this book more, it really did make the difference for me between being a C# enthusiast and a professional C# developer.

Francesco Bakena is a well-known author, the book is good.
The themes and the examples are clean. The same line as Visual Basic. I recommend.
Manoel de Assis - Brazil - [...]

Programming Microsoft Visual C# 2005: The Base Class Library (Pro-Developer)

I sought and purchased this book for the purpose of moving to C# 2005 from 2003. I have an extensive library of language and class references, guides and detailed texts for .NET 1.1. Much of that information will, of course, serve me well with the newer language, so what I sought was a good, basic introduction to C# 2005 that covered the important differences in the base classes. This book seems to have been written exactly for me!

Balena has an easy style of writing, also, that just seems to allow the information to jump right into your brain. There are other authors whose technical expertise is obvious to me, and whose books I regularly look to buy, but whose writing have quirks that can distract me at times. Balena is not such an author. Clearly, he knows how to make proper use of the IBrain.InputInformation(T info) method, rather than using the older, weakly-typed IBrain.InputInformation(object info) method. OK. Bad joke. But I hope you got my point!

If you have C# skills of no less then an advanced beginner, and want to find yourself securely in the intermediate range, then you have found the right book. Read it once and you will find your skill set drastically improved. Read it twice and study it thoroughly, and you will find yourself getting turned to for help from your more senior developers. Quite the ego booster.

It's well written, has appropriate examples for the target audience, and doesn't get bogged down in beginning C# material. It has plenty of advanced material, if that is what you are looking for.

Having sweated through thousands of pages of other C# books, I found Francesco Balena's eloquence as refreshing as a perfectly chilled Corona. It immediately tightened my loose grip on particulars such as string formatting, delegates, generics, regular expressions and interoperability. And it is the best discussion of the base classe I've ever seen. Be aware that this book does NOT intend to teach programming. However, if you're someone who can code in some OOP language, knows C# syntax, and seeks professional proficiency in this language, then in my opinion, there is no better book you could own.

I bought this book as a graphic design student upon a teacher's recommendation and it saved my butt on many a homework project when I needed to figure out how to get something done. I've since gone on to become a professional graphic designer and though I'm up to QuarkXPress 6.5 this book is still valid and has still come in handy for looking up the odd hotkey or some odd paragraph formatting.

The book is clean and concise and very logically ordered. The index in the back makes it very easy to find what you're looking for and if you can't think of the name for something you can find it easily by browsing since the book is so well organized.

Each element is plainly described and accompanied by a picture - don't let the greyscale images fool you, they get directly to the point so you can see exactly how to accomplish something.

I've seen a lot of XPress books out there, many 5-times the thickness of this book but all those other books seem to add superfluous text just to fill pages where this book gets to the point. Of all my books for design and design software, this has by far been my most helpful and most used.

Just what I needed to learn QuarkXPress!

If you're like me, and you'd rather jump into a manual than sit in a classroom, then this Visual Quick-Start is for you. This is the fourth VQS book I've bought and it doesn't disappoint. Actually, I'm a Quark Xpress power user, but needed to train some non-design trained coworkers on basic Quark usage. The simple step-by-step sections are easily digested and build on each other as you progress. Alternately it serves as a great reference is you just want to learn how to do a single task.

I bought this book as a last resort because my Computer Graphics professor told us we would need lots of tutoring in order to pass with good grades. I was totally "Quark illiterate" before taking this course and buying the book. Honestly, this book explains a lot more than a tedious 3 week course in class could. The book has taken me step-by-step through all the process of learning style-sheets and type-boxes. This is all stuff I would have never been able to learn if not for the book itself.

Elaine Weinmann's very well illustrated and easy to read/follow excersises are what any student needs to reach their goal in QuarkXPress. My copy is different in color to the one sold here, but it looks exactly like the one my professor uses.
And, because the book is not really that thick, it can fit in either a backpack or a briefcase. The only main problem I have with the book itself is the paper-back style. It will fray and dog-ear pretty fast, so take good care of this "Bible for Quark".

And...for those whom are not too sure of their Keyboard shortcuts, thank God, they put them in the back of the book.
At least I don't have to search my binder for my photocopies! That little extra is a Godsend. Especially when you are being tested on the shortcuts.

Get the book. Hope my review helped you.

I'm a graphic design student and bought this book to aid me with the learning process of Quark. I found the book helpful and easy to read. There are parts that need more work, but it explains how to do things step by step. A beginner can use this book to guide him/her through the process of making a layout and using all the tools available in Quark.

It's been my experience that while politicians have been quick to capitalize on the power of online reputation management, most of the governments that they lead have failed to grasp the possibilities. Concerned about negative comments, the potential for embarrassment, and media scrutiny, many local governments have avoided social media altogether.

Strauss and Beal make the case for why no one can afford to ignore the potential for engagement and the real dialog afforded by social media. And for those who can't fully implement their suggestions organizationally, the book is rich in advice for managing your personal reputation online.

When I first heard of this book, I thought it would be geared toward only large businesses with big budgets--meaning complicated and expensive. Happily for many small businesses, this is not the case. Radically Transparent contains loads of useful information and much of it is things any company of any size can do today for free. From participating in social networks to starting a company blog, this book shows you the right way to engage in these and other online media.

Andy Beal and Dr. Judy Strauss have laid out a step by step plan for any business or brand, to create, enhance, protect, and even repair their online reputation.

If you have a online or offline business it means you have a reputation. People online will talk about your company, products, and services whether you like it or not. Wouldn't you want to know what they are saying and where they are saying it? You can find out now by purchasing this book.

Everyday in my job I try to find new ways to help my clients be more successful or improve their reputation on the Internet. I bought this book off of a recommendation of someone else and absolutely love it. I'm using it as a basis to building a standard structure for working with clients and improving their online reputation. I definitely recommend it for anyone from the beginner to the expert.

The book was written by Andy Beal from Marketing Pilgrim and Judy Strauss.

Andy Beal is a SEO and fellow blogger who specialized in social media optimization, reputation management and public relations. He is like Kris Jones a frequent speaker at search marketing conference, such as Search Marketing Expo, Search Engine Strategies and WebmasterWorld's PubCon.

As the subtitle states, his book is primarily about monitoring and managing of your personal, your professional or your company's reputation online where it focuses heavily on using search engine optimization and marketing techniques as tools to accomplish your goals.

It also provides advice and recommendations for how to approach the social media space as a business in order to reduce the risks and possible problems that will arise, if you jump into this area of marketing without being prepared and ready for it.

The power of social media and the benefits your customers and your company can get out from it are a reward that is worth the risks. Yes, it has risks and it is impossible to eliminate all of them, but that does not mean that it cannot be done. Just eliminate the risks that you can eliminate and be prepared for the things that can happen and impossible to prevent for sure.

What I love about this book is the way it is laid out in a step by step process that leads you from confusion to clarity in the use of social media in business today. Be aware, this is not a book about blogging even though they discuss is a lot, it is a book about all social media and the precise steps you can take to begin and continue influential conversations that can change the face of your business.

The book lays out a clear path for becoming transparent in your business and leverages really good examples to demonstate how it has been done effectively . . . and points out the pitfalls and traps that exist if you don't follow a sound process.

You'll literally go through this book chapter by chapter and implement it one step at a time and to that extent the book will keep you busy for quite a while.

My only criticism is that I wish it had an addendum to cover the very latest technologies and talk about implementing those, so I'm hoping for a quick follow on book. Groundswell did fill some gaps but this book is much more usable for businesses that want to implement the technology and create the conversations themselves.

Excellent book for understanding social media. A must read.

After half a dozen years as a Mac traitor who got dragged kicking and screaming into the Windows-only world at work, I'm retiring from the work world and switching back to Mac-only at home. I waited for about six months for Robin's update for Leopard to be published and it was well worth the wait. While I'm just getting into the book, I can already see that it's going to be a member of my on-desk library of essential Mac reference books. Way to go Robin and John!

I switched to MAC about one month ago, bought the book the next day and found it very helpful. I went through it page by page and it was easy to read and understand and it was more than helpful. I recommend it highly for the first time MAC users.

Can these people write, or can they write? Thier books are always easy to follow, and presented in an entertaining fashion as well. If Robin Williams had written books about all the subjects I so disliked in school, I would undoubtedly have been very well read in all topics.
In a matter of minutes, I was able to unlock a few mysteries about my Mac...in days, I was using the applications without fear or hesitation. And while I am quite aware of how user friendly Macs are anyway, Ms Williams takes away the fears I still tend to harbor. I'm no computer wiz kid, I am FAR on the opposite end of the spectrum. But this book in particular, opened my eyes....from a place of feeling overwhelmed by all the things I KNEW this little box could do(that I didn't think I could) to a world of fun, and confidence. Cool Mac Apps is quickly becoming my favorite book. I recommend it to anyone who wants to learn anything about the iLife applications.

Book is very informative, easy to understand and use. I bought this book for school (I don't own a mac), but there were many things I learned about iTunes (only non Mac program I use) I wouldn't have known without reading this book. Definitely would recommend for anyone wanting to get the most out of their Mac.

As we have all come to expect from Robin Williams, this book is written in a clear, precise manor. The illustrations are all very helpful. I particularly like the way the windows of each application are illustrated with details about each item within the window.

I have been using OSX for over two years now and thought I knew my way around each of these applications, but I was able to learn a lot of easier ways to do things . I have also learned that there were a lot of the features that I was not even coming close to using to their full potential. I have been using iCal, iTunes, and iPhoto on an almost daily basis, so these new tips and techniques are a real timesaver for me.

I was really surprised at how much new knowledge I gained on using Safari. I am on the internet on a daily basis and just took the browser for granted. The quick Tips section was very helpful. The section on RSS feeds opened up a whole new world of information for me.

Cool Mac Apps is a must have reference book that every MAC user needs in their personal library. I would give this book an excellent rating!

The book came very fast in the mail. It was new in quality. I am able to teach myself Ruby from the book.

Superb introduction to Ruby and important programming idioms that every Rubyist should know. Shows you a small chunk of code, with significant lines numbered, and follows the code with descriptive paragraphs that show you what the code is doing. In effect, you learn how to read the code as you go through the book, starting with basic material and getting more advanced as you go along. VERY nicely done.

If you want to learn Ruby quickly and you can only afford to buy one book to do it with, this is the one I would buy! It has interesting little projects with well documented code which introduces you gradually to more advanced topics in the language. It is not a cookbook, but rather, a very well picked selection of programmes where new concepts are thoroughly explained and older concepts are reinforced. There are "hacks" to just about every script and I was able to learn more from this than I did from grinding through the Pick Axe. Amazingly, now when I pick up the Pick Axe it seems accessible!

Well worth the investment!

Ruby By Example seeks to teach Ruby by introducing a series of small scripts, explaining how they work, often by showing some examples in irb, Ruby's interactive shell, and reinforcing the explanations with some suggested modifications to the script to highlight the principles just expounded. The closest examples in other languages I'm aware of are Dive Into Python and (to a lesser extent) Wicked Cool Perl Scripts.

This is a very nice idea, and there are some examples that are a cut above the usual fare: chapter 9 includes a Bible Code generator, and an implementation of the 'methinks it is like a weasel' sentence natural selection program from Richard Dawkins' The Blind Watchmaker. There's also mention of memoization, profiling and benchmarking, the Schwartzian transform for sorting, and even Symbol#to_proc. There's also quite a gentle introduction to Rails, which is probably sufficient for someone new to Ruby and Rails to move onto Ruby for Rails.

However, the execution isn't always perfect. Probably the biggest downside to this pedagogical approach is that there's not really one obvious place to describe how a particular feature works in depth, or the focus moves away from its practical use in a script. As a result, many of the explanations are compressed. Chapter 1 provides a 'crash' description of object orientation in 9 lines. Chapter 3 first mentions hashes, but compares them to functions, and not to arrays. Tail recursion is defined in a 4 line footnote in chapter 7. If you already understand these concepts, you'll be fine, but they won't teach you anything. If you don't, they aren't very helpful. At a couple of points the book also insists that everything in Ruby is an object, but code blocks (among other things) aren't until they're wrapped in Procs. For the more functional-esque techniques advocated in the book, this is a subtle point which could trip up a beginner.

Also, some of the examples are weak. Chapter 4 rushes through regular expressions, using them to compress whitespace, but why not also mention String#squeeze? Chapter 5 uses regexes to deal with XML and it gets the job done, but advice on using a real XML parser might have been more useful in the long term. Chapter 6 contains a truly contrived Buffy the Vampire Slayer-related example.

This isn't a bad introduction to Ruby, and it's a very admirable attempt to do something different, but I wanted to like it more than I did. If you already know some object oriented programming, this could make a good companion to a more tutorial-style book, like The Pickaxe.

'Ruby by Example: Concepts and Code' is the perfect reference for anyone that wants to learn how to use Ruby, one of the hottest programming languages to come around in some time. With over around 300 pages of content spread across 45 examples, this book will give you all the basis you need to go from a non-Ruby user to someone writing good code immediately!! I think that the No Starch line has some of the most unique layouts you will find from any publishing line. Chapters are usually broken up into small manageable chunks that make it easier for the reader to actually learn and dissect the information they are taking in, fonts are clear and concise, and it's just an enjoyable easy read all around. While this may seem low in importance I don't think that's the case at all. Especially for a book where the user base is someone new to a language, environment or tool, I want a book that is easy to learn from, fun to read and makes me actually want to LEARN and look forward to the next chapter(s). If you want to learn Ruby and build on your development skillset, pick up this book and move to the fast lane!!

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Beautifully written book covering almost all area of spoken language processing. However, despite of relative ease of reading, it is necessary to warn the beginning reader, that in some sections the deep enough acquaintance to their theme is veiled. It, for example, concerns questions of definition and application of delta function concept in chapter 5 (Digital Signal Processing).

What a wonderful book. Whether you are a computer scientist or mathematician with limited exposure to the discipline of speech processing, or alternatively you are a dedicated expert in this field, you will find everything you are looking for in this book. For two weeks, I couldn't put this thing down. And that's an extraordinary testimony to a book that's 800+ pages of technical detail. If you want a high level understanding of how speech processing works, or if you want to dig in and build your own speech engine, everything you need is right here.

A thourough and complete review about the subject, in which many disciplines (language, computer, probability, statistics, numerical analysis) converge. As a non-practitioner I have found it an enjoyable opportunity to refresh my knowledges in the field of signal processing, and a source of many hints I have been able to develop in other branches. In spite of notations and methodologies (e.g. bayesian) a bit far from I am used to, the near one thousand pages never seemed extreme related to the meaning compressed into them, spreading from base theory to advanced applications.

This book is a comprehensive overview of most of the major topics associated with speech processing. Divided into five main sections, the book is well structured with a clear division of concerns. The title, "Spoken Language Processing", may be misleading to some as language processing topics only accounts for one section of the book.

The first two sections cover the fundamental theories that should be understood before embarking in-depth into a study of speech processing. This may seem an obvious approach but many texts do not follow this pattern making their use as reference tomes limited. Separating background theory from its use is also useful in that it allows a rigorous approach to its description. Too often texts give a hurried imprecise overview of theories used before launching into a long and complex use of the theory; losing the reader instantly in a quagmire of formulae.

The first two sections of the book deals with background material, material that the reader should at least understand the key concepts of. The first section concentrates on speech in general (including production and perception), probability and statistics, and pattern classification. These last two topics mentioned are both important parts of the book and are dealt with in their own chapters. Both are well written with the right amount of explanation and background. Much of the remainder of the book expects at least some familiarity with the material presented here. These chapters, like all chapters in the book finish with a section entitled, "Historical Perspective and Further Reading". The inclusion of recommended further reading, in addition to the vast number of references appearing in each chapter, make the book as a whole a very good starting point for any work in speech processing.

The second section concerns itself with the DSP topics which relate to speech processing. In this section the reader will find everything from FFTs to multi-rate signal processing and speech signal representations to speech coding. Again the section is well written and the reader is not forced to refer to other texts to understand what is written. If a topic is not expanded upon here then it is an indication that is not dealt further in any great depth in the remainder of the book.

The third section of the book covers speech recognition and is probably the section which will find most use with many readers. This section is very thorough in its treatment of the subject. It starts immediately with a discussion of Hidden Markov Models which is almost exclusively the method employed in the pattern matching stage of speech recognition. Any algorithms that are mentioned are also detailed which really make the book useful. In fact algorithms are presented throughout the book making it a practical reference as much as a theoretical one. This is important because there is a big jump from understanding theory to being able to implement an algorithm to exploit that theory. Other topics covered include an excellent chapter on environmental robustness with one of the best discussions of microphones I have seen. Language modelling and search algorithms are given a thorough treatment. I would like to have seen more detailed information on front-end processing and endpoint detection, as this remains a critical stage of the recognition process. Perhaps the level of detail reflects the fact that this is currently a hot research topic with potential for significant advancement.

Section four, on text-to-speech processing, is a good overview of the field and better than any book I've seen on the subject. It shows numerous block diagrams of what you need to build such a system and gives numerous algorithms in pseudocode. It also dedicates a subsection to each block of the text-to-speech system block diagram, discussing in detail what you would need to do to implement that particular block. Since much of the individual blocks have been discussed earlier in the book, it refers you back to specific earlier sections for details.

The fifth section is a short one on entire systems and shows some case studies, concentrating on what Microsoft was doing at the time this book was published, since that is where the authors' research came from. I would highly recommend that anyone anticipating getting into speech processing have a copy of this classic nearby.

This is a great book if you want to know the future of what Microsoft's top researchers like XD Huang etc are thinking and working. Dr Huang is a super star of the field and it is equally worthwhile to read his excellent book.