Software Books

This book is the most complete and clear text about the transition that many companies are doing from product centric to solution enabler organizations. A must read, highly advisable if you are in the IT business.

This book is absolutely the best! It provides frameworks to structure and implement an effective professional services organization (PSO) for an IT product vendor. A product company PSO matures over time through various phases characterized by the types of services it offers. This book is full of practical yet winning strategies and tactics to maneuver the high risk waters of professional services. There are clear directions on how to manage key levers that increase profitability but it also sets realistic expectations. Although the book provides the `recipe' for a sample $100 million professional services organization, it lists all the necessary `ingredients' to cook up a PSO of any size.

I liked the fact that it is written in a style that is free of any jargon. Authors are professionals who clearly understand the industry from inside. My least favorite part are the diagrams and illustrations which are at best adequate but could be better. Highly recommend this book!

This is the absolutely best book devoted to building pro services organization in a product-based company. While there are a lot of sources on managing stand-alone pro services firm (i.e. accounting, law), this book addresses the common pitfalls in moving into services for product-oriented companies.

The book is easy to read, well organized, and packed with sound practical advice you can start applying right away, whether you're in delivery, sales, or marketing -- you'll be going back to it often.

This book absolutely is the best book I've ever ready regarding professional services. They describe a pragmatic approach from their experience at SGI services. This book will take you through planning an PS organization, development of various groups, reporting strucutures, templates for tools to help you.

It's focus in on a PS organization of a product company but you can take much away from this book if you are purely a services organization.

What I like the most is that it helps you do begin to address the various challenges where other books gloss over these topics and leave it to you.

This book as become my day-to-day bible to managing a professional service division within our product-oriented company. If you have your objectives and strategy clear, this book will help you getting organized with the tactics.

I bought this book for Computer Graphic Course for Animator class, and I found it really valuable because I wanted to learn much about history of computer softwares like painter, photoshop,and Maya. Anyways, this book is superb! This book is highly recommended for anyone who is interested in working in Entertainment industry.

Superficially subdued by a bland title that reads like a basic, frills-free "Introduction to Computer Graphics" course, Terrence Masson's CG 101: A Computer Graphics Industry Reference, by New Riders Publishing, nevertheless dispatches preconceived notions with its exquisitely detailed history of digital art production. A visual effects director and the founder of Digital Fauxtography, the author has spent at least two stints with Industrial Light & Magic and once served as a technical director at Digital Domain.

An amalgam of CG terminology (pp. 1-209), impactful corporate industry presences (pp. 210-347), programming and mathematics terms (pp. 348-361), fundamental and miscellaneous terms (pp. 362-385), a computer graphics timeline (pp. 385-437) and other mini-sections on CG FAQ (pp. 438-451), job descriptions (pp. 452-461), previsualization (pp. 462-467) and the analog computer era (pp. 468-476), this unique text probably represents the definitive chronology of computer graphics' evolution. The resource's 500 pages belie the mundane name and cover by chronicling numerous advances marking the historic progression of computer graphics-from the pre-mechanical days of the 1940s to the archaic, punch card-based leviathan units of the 1950s and `60s, to the sleek and potent desktop workstations of the late `90s. (The book was published in 1999.)

With the ambitious aid of 97 other industry sources, Masson begins the book by defining "color and light," "painting and graphic design," "modeling," "animation," "rendering," "compositing" and "input & output" terms alphabetically, per section. Processes, programs, properties, rules, companies and more are clearly defined during this first section, accompanied by applicable screenshots, diagrams, quotes and informational tidbits. For the purely artistic members of the digital art community, this material doubtless will prove dry and unpalatable. But for those having more of a technical and scientific bent, this comprehensive industry reference is a fascinating excursion into the intricacies that help materialize the eventual pretty, pixelated pictures so many of us enjoy producing and admiring. Learn what "pixel" denotes ... who invented the Phong shading method ... what "pixmap" means ... the origin of the omnipresent teapot icon ... the beginnings of morphing ... who started Atari ... the conception of ILM ... the significance of SuperPaint ... and much more. It's all here.

Section 8, "Historically Significant Companies," really is the beginning of the salivating learning experience, though, introducing readers to pioneering companies and people whose prosperous contributions have nursed CG through its proverbial growing pains. Some of today's popular and recognized field leaders appear, such as Industrial Light & Magic and Robert Greenberg and Associates, and they're graced by numerous lesser-known but equally essential precursors. Remember the 1979 feature film The Black Hole? Think Abel Image Research and Robert Abel & Associates. Recall 1984's The Last Starfighter? Think Digital Productions. The list and sundry, voluminous details are phenomenal.

The second portion comprising stellar, historically intensive reading, Section 11, "Computer Graphics Timeline," lists and delineates all key advances in the industry, throughout the 20th Century's final half.

On the downside, some of the quotes by CG experts seem to ramble, are inapplicable or just plain too long, but they appear to represent Masson's method for best expressing these individuals' contributions to the digital art community-or just relating arguably interesting events. (Besides, art often is about storytelling, anyway.) The text also is somewhat outdated, having been printed three years ago. But this does not diminish the paperback's essential overall value.

As for the seemingly innumerable industry term definitions, these provide industry professionals -and interested hobbyists-with a valuable reference resource. They also remind the reader that, despite all the creativity involved in generating digital art, CG's undergarments are math and science. It's always technicality before imagination.

Quite simply, if you're genuinely interested in computer graphics as an artistic medium, and you value the learning experience, CG 101: A Computer Graphics Industry Reference is a must-read. All told, this undoubtedly is among the most interesting titles-of any kind-this reviewer has ever read. (No kidding.) Assuming you possess the technical interest in these details, you'll find yourself perusing this gem night after night, until you've marked your last highlight with a neon felt tip and a corner page fold. (I tallied 14 page folds and 39 blue highlight markings in my copy.)

It's not as full featured about technique and practice as I had hoped, but certainly a fantastic reference for the terminology, and techology employed in Digital Production today. By far my favorite parts of the book are the historical references that help really put my daily work into perspective.

CG 101: A computer Graphics Industry Reference Terrence Masson: PUBLISHER: New Riders REVIEWED BY: Barbara Rhoades

BOOK REVIEW: CG 101 is a great reference guide. Forgotten what a particular term means? No problem! Just Open CG 101 and look it up. The first 208 pages and a few more inbetween are jam-packed with terminology and what they mean. There are side bar "blurbs" that contain factoids and quotes. This provides great bits of trivia.

The next 148 pages tell about the history of the graphics industry and how it has progressed from the start to what we know today. CG 101 tells about the companies and the people who use computer graphics to provide us with entertainment in movies and much more.

The 22-page index provides an easy way to find items, people and companies you want to know about. And just in case you wanted to know more than the book has to offer, there are URLs and telephone numbers to give you added places to glean information.

This book covers the bases quite well. Not only is it useful to industry veterans, but more importantly I feel that it's essential reading for people starting out a career in computer graphics. It gives a very detailed background of not only the history of CG production, but also the innovators, movers and shakers, to include production houses and developers. The glossary is very helpful too.

This book works through some great effects in cookbook style, such that if you follow the recipe, you can great some fantastic results. Although I am using CorelDraw 8 LE on the Mac, and am a beginner when it comes to graphic arts, I was still able to amaze friends and family with the output!

The written style is clear, concise and easily understood, and the side bars are very informative. The color pictures in the center of the book are helpful in defining the target look, and the enclosed CD with electronic "recipes" and results is great.

This is now in my top 10 technical book list!

I absolutely LOVE this book. It's opened up a whole new world of possibilities with Corel Draw 9. By the time I've experimented with all of the tutorials, I'm sure I'll be quite the whizz kid. Unfortunately, I'll have to do it all without any help from the CD. There is no INSTALL.EXE on the CD. Therefore, I am unable to install it. Although I can access its contents through my CD-ROM, using it that way tends to freeze up my system and it's just not worth the aggravation. But the book itself is a real jewel and I truly enjoy reading and learning from it. Shane Hunt's writing style immediately puts the reader at ease. This alone is worth its weight in gold and is a rare and welcome commodity in "How-To" books. Thanks Shane!

This is the best how to book I have ever worked through. It is a must have for Corel Draw 9 and 10 users who have never learned all the hidden secrets and shortcuts to this program. After learning each and every technique in this book, my talents in graphic design have multiplied greatly! I find my self creating amazing graphics I never would have believed possible. Thanks Shane Hunt for writing this incredible book!

After trying several of the web based tutorials I decided to try Shane's book. One of the best things about this book is that it takes an artistic approach in the instruction. I have used what I have learned from this book in all my projects to date. Shane has made me a more creative Corel Draw user. After several years of just using Corel Draw I am now creating on a level I never could have attained before. One should know the basics of Corel Draw before using this book. If you know how to access the menu commands then you should get this book. Highly recommended.

The CorelDraw 9: FX and Design is one of the best books on the market to get the most out of your software package. Author Shane Hunt knows his stuff. He presents facts, tips and creative ideas in a fun and entertaining way. This book is exactly what I needed to teach me the 'how' of CorelDraw 9 and at the same time teach incredible creative tools I can use right away. The Official Guides are fine but this book gives you the tools to think not only 'outside the box' but outside the stratosphere.

I ordered this book to serve as a reference for my symfony work. It has been an excellent reference guide to symfony, though it is not meant to be a "Introduction to.." or "Getting Started" book. I highly recommend if you work or have a solid background in symfony and need a handy desktop reference manual.

This book is really the definitive guide. It covers everything you need to know to build a web 2.0 application with symfony. It is written by the people behind symfony, so the book is extremely detailed and has a great format that makes it easy to understand. Well done.

The books contains all the information you can find in the online manual on the website of the symfony project.
If you know this before (and I did), the book has the same quality like the online manual, in my opinion a very good one.

I'm a freelancer that was in search of a framework that would allow me to expeditiously develop applications for my clients, without sacrificing reliability. After researching several PHP-based MVC frameworks, I landed on symnfony due to its comprehensive set of features, strong OOP support, PHP5 utilization, and (very importantly) the great documentation. Yes, this book is available in web format online - but I'm very glad I made the purchase so I could learn the framework as I traveled, and it's much easier to use as a reference (I have it sprawled across my desk as I type this review). If you're looking for a great framework, I'm convinced symfony is it. And if you're looking to learn symfony, and have a resource as you build your skills, this book is what you'll need. The only caviat is, if you have no Object-Oriented programming experience, I would recommend you pick up "Objects, Patterns, & Practice" by Apress before learning symfony.

Well written and understandable for such a large chunk of software. You can be the judge yourself, of course, by reading it online before you buy the hard copy. I'd definitely recommend having the real thing if you're just starting with symfony though.. you can't dogear or bookmark the online version.

I'm not an expert in either Interface Design or Programming Methodology, and I've only read a little bit in these areas. As I read this book, I found myself thinking: "You mean this approach isn't standard practice already?"

After reading Ellen and Alan's description of how a UI Designer and a Developer should interact with each other, it just seems so obvious that everyone should work this way. User needs should affect architecture, and technology constrains design--how hard can it be to understand that? But the implications--design and development are iterative, and ongoing user testing is critical to the iterative process--could change the way some people think about programming projects. (The old Specify, Design, Program, Test, Release process seems somewhat naive in retrospect.)

The book has a kind of fun and lively feel to it. It's clear that the authors were having fun telling their various stories, and were excited about illustrating their points. The writing is casual, which made it amazingly easy to read.

On the other hand, once the informal style sold me on the overall approach, I almost immediately wanted a more rigorous treatment. I'd have loved an Appendix that summarized the formats of the various documents, for instance, and perhaps one that reviews the process flow diagram used at the beginning of the later chapters. (As a former academic, I found myself wondering as well about the independence and completeness of the Design Guidelines, too, but that's my quirk. It's probably not an issue most readers would care about.)

I think this book could become one of those that inspires a sort of religious commitment to its vision, and that that would probably be a very good thing.

First let me tell you this is an interaction design (or user interface design) book, since the title of the book doesn't do this job well.

This is one of the books that have great impact on me. I agree with the review written by Kevin Mullet (printed on the book's back cover) that the ideas presented in this book are a bit "dangerous". It is dangerous because they are not the common practice yet. If people want to follow these ideas, they need to have changes. Changes are always dangerous to many people.

Those "dangerous" ideas include:

- Build fewer features but build them well. (The current practice is to build as many features as possible so that marketers can list those features for promotion. Is a product easy to use? Everyone can claim that since there are no criteria for such a claim.)

- User interface design should drive the system architecture, not the other way around. (Modifying system architecture is always hard. If we want to support a certain interaction afterwards, the architecture will probably can't support cleanly, if at all.)

- Technology should be used for user needs, but not for technology's own sake. (Visual design should also be treated the same.)

Last but not least, this book shows that user interface design is actually science but not art. We don't need a graphic design degree to be an interaction designer.

As an IT project manager supporting web applications, sites and portals, this book summarizes the story of my life. Not just a must-read, but a godsend for application developers and UI designers -- two groups who traditionally don't always see eye-to-eye or face daunting communication challenges. Can't we all just get along? Yes! This book tells you how, using simple, easy-to-understand language and real-life examples. End users and customers will thank you for reading it.

I highly recommend this book as an invaluable resource for anyone currently in, or looking to enter, the instructional design field. The authors have successfully been able to present information, which can often be dry and complex, in a clear and easy to read format.

I have a read many books in this area and they have been a fantastic cure for insomnia. This on the other hand is a compelling read from start to finish. Many of the concepts presented will not be foreign to people that work in this field or in the area of product development. However the logical order and detailed examples work brilliantly to drive home the principles.

Publishers in this area should use this book as a bench mark for design and layout for its susinct and logical passage. Thank you very much Ellen and Allan for such a useful tool!

This book has many examples of good and bad web pages and also consumer products. What it covers is seemingly obvious, but apparently not realized by many. It shows how users and designers can work together for optimal result. It should be a required reading for anyone doing user-interface designs. It is good that they actually have a good free product, HUBBUB ... .that was created using this design philosophy.
I didn't give it a 5-star only because, to me, the section of their HUBBUB experience and the conclusion was too long and could have been made more concise. Also, it was disappointing to see their product not following their own design goals well enough, which seemed to make the book less effective.

Robert Hoekman Jr. second book, Designing the Moment, focuses on improving the online user experience. His approach is a practical one: design interfaces that respect users and allow them to feel in control.

Robert's goal is to inspire the web professional to "improve the moment" for users. His storytelling method of explaining strategies makes the 220 page book a quick and fun read. The book contains 30 stories, based on his own experiences of real-world applications and the step-by-step approach taken toward resolving design interaction issues.

The stories are concise, and offer a critique of each phase as changes are made to interfaces. Robert has a "think out loud" method which allows the reader to better understand the decision making process. Question steps along the way and don't hesitate to make decisions you might change in the future. Designing interfaces is an iterative process.

Designing the Moment assumes the reader has knowledge of web design and development; it does not provide the specific code to implement the recommendations. As Robert mentions in the book, "This book is meant as a conversation starter. It's meant to get you thinking".

The book is divided into seven parts:
Part 1: Getting Oriented - give a good first impression to the user
Part 2: Learning - make it easier for users to find their way around
Part 3: Searching - improve the search interface
Part 4: Diving In - great tips on improving forms and video controls
Part 5: Participating - focus on social media
Part 6: Managing Information - how to manage lots of information
Part 7: Moving On - the sign out process

My favorite story in the book is in Chapter 7, where Robert discusses the simplicity of clear labels. Make it easy for users to to use applications. Provide users with simple, easy to understand labels and instructions. On forms or applications, rather than displaying an error message that the user didn't enter information in a valid format, add informative text on the form or application form field that describes what is acceptable.

Designing the Moment is a wonderful resource for information architects, usability experts, interaction designers and developers. I highly recommend it!

Since I'm starting to pay more attention to user-interface concepts and design, I felt this book was required reading for me... Designing the Moment: Web Interface Design Concepts in Action by Robert Hoekman, Jr. Besides offering a number of excellent concepts, he does so in a manner not often seen in other books. He tells you what he was thinking and how he got to that decision point. That's the kind of insight I need to improve my skills.

Contents:
Part 1 - Getting Oriented: Designing the First Impression; Showing Your Personality; Zen and the Art of Navigation; All Links Are Not Created Equal; Getting Your Head Out of the Tag Cloud
Part 2 - Learning: Surfacing the Trigger Words; Labeling the Interface; Beyond Words and Onto Video
Part 3 - Searching: Making Suggestions; Getting Through the Results; Refining Your Search
Part 4 - Diving In: Standardizing Playback Controls; Nailing Form Layout; Conquering the Wizard; Going the Extra Mile with Inline Validation; Simplifying Long Forms; Getting Them Signed In; Counting Characters
Part 5 - Participating: Building Profiles; Editing; Making Social Connections; Designing the Obvious Blog; Inviting Discussion; Getting a Good Rating
Part 6 - Managing Information: Making RSS Meaningful; Tagging It; Getting Reorganized with Drag-and-Drop; Managing Interruptions with System Notifications
Part 7 - Moving On: Signing Off; Dusting Off Dusty Users; Letting Them Go
Conclusion: The Keys to Great Design

Hoekman is well-known for design concepts, and I tend to like what he comes up with. The difference here over other books is that he starts off with a request or issue to solve, and then takes you through his mental process that got him to the resulting solution. For instance, All Links Are Not Created Equal... The need was to create a list of links for a call-center intranet page. The idea was to somehow communicate the current issues affecting the users, in chronological order, maximum five links. I would take the normal route (which is where he started) of just putting the last five links out there. But to communicate chronological order, that wouldn't work. Then he placed numbers in front of each link (1 to 5). OK, but still "flat" as he termed it. He started trying to incorporate a concept he learned about called "ambient signifiers", or ways to communicate information based on the way it's displayed. This led him to drop the numbers and use decreasing font sizes to show order and importance. Much better, but he still wanted more. He then stumbled on an "aging" technique whereby he would not only decrease the font size, but also lighten the text color the further down you went. This combination communicated both importance and age, and was exactly the solution he was looking for. Notice that he didn't go into it with a preconceived "spec" as to how it would work. But through his mental conversation, you see both how he got there and why he made the designs that he did.

I'm perfectly happy admitting I don't know it all when it comes to design concepts. But what I don't like is to read "do it this way because I said so" material that doesn't explain why. Hoekman makes that rare jump beyond "why" and reveals the imperfections and dead-ends before you get there. As such, this is one of the most valuable design books I've read.

I was was really excited about this book, because designing the obvious laid out several principles that was amazingly useful.

This book turned out to be a little disappointing. The principles are not as deep, and the examples are a little dated. Given the focus on examples, this would have been an excellent book 2 years ago, but now it seems dated.

This still serves as an excellent book if you are new to newer forms of information representation, but I dun think it is that great for veteran web2 designers.

I haven't read Hoekman's first book yet (but plan to now). I took this book on a 4 hour train ride last weekend and devoured it. It was like sitting with a friend and chatting. I dog-eared a lot of pages, each with a different client in mind and couldn't wait to get back and make some suggestions. I know at least one reviewer said this is old hat...Not for me it wasn't. I started as a print designer and moved into web out of necessity. I mostly do simple html sites. But more and more clients are needing to expand and I'm needing to know how to help them do that. I feel better equipped thanks to reading "Designing the Moment". I particularly loved Part V: Participating.

Sheila Hoffman
http://www.hoffmangraphics.com

Like many of you here, I write web apps. Some are written in the context (and confines) as hobbyist, others are for the job. I'm fortunate enough to have my passion and my career follow parallel disciplines. Unfortunately, it means when I'm stuck on something, its effecting me TWICE as bad as I can neither work nor play! I found this book quite by accident, digging through the digital stacks on web applications, and rocketed through it within a weekend - seriously, I winced every time I closed it, and could only think about when I could squeeze in some more time with it.

First and foremost: this book is not a "How To" in the strict sense of the phrase - it will not give you a primer on web application design from end-to-end. Which was great, I wasn't looking for someone to come around and up-end my own methodologies, my own principles, etc and tell me "this is how you do it." Instead, this book is a "this is how I do it" book: Mr. Hoekman will walk you through efforts he himself has made on behalf of his clients to better their web application experience. He describes and defines these zen-like 'moments' when the interface just 'works', and how he looks to create them whenever possible. The book is beautifully illustrated as these ideas take shape so you can see the progression. He really broadened my understanding of some core concepts on interface and how they are perceived by users that I have been overlooking, or simply ignoring as being irrelevant.

To re-state: you won't see a single line of HTML/Javascript/Perl/PHP/Ruby here! It's a wonderful departure from the tick-and-tack of the technical and I plan to keep it within arm's reach for those times when I need a mental 'reboot'.

I ordered his earlier book, Designing the Obvious, recently as well and can't wait. Robert: If I ever run into you in a Phoenix-area Starbucks I'll have to shake your hand ;)

This book is a great resource for when you're looking for that specific line of code. Its terrible to read from front to back, but its an excellent way to find exactly what you're looking for. Its so much code, it'll make your eyes bleed.

Director 8.5 is a monster application with huge range of functionality. Nyquist's "Bible" uses CD-ROM-based tutorials to carry you through the concepts with relative ease. The tutorials are part of one continuous complex project, taking the reader from the basics through media management, interactivity, project management and some pretty sophisticated Lingo programming. It is also organized to allow easy reference for specific issues. Having recently completed an 'Emedia & Design' programme I would have to say that Nyquist's book is probably the most valuable text in my library.

There is no better book with which to get involved in Director. I've read nearly all of them; nothing else comes CLOSE! Get IT! ENJOY IT! LOVE IT!

Este libro es realmente extraordinario para aprender a usar director, pues se ve desde el uso basico de cada herramienta aplicando los ejemplos que incluye el cd-rom.

Recomiendo este libro a quien nunca haya usado director antes, y para aquellos que habiendo usado, solo han aprendido por su cuenta sin referencias técnicas.

A well written book of the "Bible" series! Great examples and delivered in an understandable "lingo." This book is a must have for all Director developers regardless of your level or experience. There is a ton of useful information for everyone.

I just can't wait until I finish reading the entire book before I post this review because this is the best PowerBuilder book I have ever read. This book leads you through the steps on how to develop a distributed PowerBuilder applications. This is a must have and the only book you need to learn how to write DPB applications. Well done, Michael !!

This book cover all aspects of Powerbuilder Distributed components. It is clear, informative, well written and contain many examples. Although covering what is generally considered an advanced topic, this book should be understandable by Powerbuilder beginners. Most technical books covering a product are bad. This is a welcome exception. Overall an excellent book.

This book is very helpful in covering all of the details of building an Distributed PB Application. I recommend it for others to read for it is very helpful and informative.

If you are a Powerbuilder Guru, you must read this book, otherwise you'd take the risk to know less than your apprentices. If you are a novice, you must read it to become a Guru. Don't loose time with me, go to buy one!

Distributed Application Development with PowerBuilder 6 is dedicated to distributed application development in the PowerBuilder environment. It focuses on Distributed PowerBuilder. This text is packed with code samples to guide you every step of the way. Also included is a robust server framework I have used on real-world projects. A "must buy" for anyone preparing to go to the next level of PB development!

In writing The Elements of UML Style, Scott Ambler has done the software modeling community a great service. As a consultant and trainer of numerous corporate clients, I see many teams whose individuals understand the semantics of UML, but have yet to gel as a team with common practices and style. On these teams, communication and productivity often suffer when arguments erupt over why something is modeled the way it is and how my way is better. Teams need to agree on a set of common practices and style. The Elements of UML Style is a great starting point.

The Elements of UML Style is small, concise, intuitively organized, and well explained. It proceeds section by section through the various UML diagrams, in the order they are used on a project. These sections provide many tried and true common sense guidelines and some valuable, but less obvious guidelines aimed at creating well-formed models.

Is it necessary? Yes. This is the best compendium of UML modeling guidelines I have seen published. Projects would be foolish to start from scratch.

Is it sufficient? No. It is a starting point. Projects will want to adjust and go beyond what Ambler writes here. For example, The Elements of UML Style provides general guidelines that urge adopting common naming conventions (section 2.3). A corporation or project will want to nail down specific guidelines for their use case, class, and component names. Also, Ambler focuses on the diagrams of UML, but there is more to modeling than the diagrams. UML itself avoids topics such as what constitutes a well-formed use case specification, and so does Ambler's book. One would have to turn to other books or training, such as IconMedialab's Advanced Use Case Lab course for detailed guidelines in these areas.

Will I be an object modeler just by reading this book? No. This is not an intro book to modeling. Read Craig Larman's "Applying UML and Patterns" (for example) to learn how to object model. Instead, The Elements of UML Style brings together many of the nuggets that will help to become a better, more consistent, and easily understood modeler. I will be recommending this book to my clients.

This book has lots of excellent recommendations on style and presentation of UML diagrams. Ambler offers up 236 recommendations to questions such as: How often should I use stereotypes? Should we model keys into our DBMS? Should we require activation boxes on our sequence diagrams?

I have to recommend this little book to anyone beginning to use UML. More experienced object modelers will have developed their own modeling conventions, but they also will benefit from reading Ambler's articulate perspective. He is an accomplished modeler and an effective communicator.

Ambler covers style guidelines for all 9 UML 1.x diagrams. IMHO most of his suggestions are right-on, and his explanations are consise and accessible. I have been modeling OO systems for 10 years, and I don't agree with every recommendation Ambler makes, but I appreciate what he is offering in this book.

I especially like the fact that Ambler included an Appendix that lists all 236 guidelines in just a few pages. The book also has a high-quality bibliography of other modeling resources, and I was quite pleased that this short book also includes an Index for rapid access to terms.

Most development groups endorse the need for programming conventions and consistent naming standards. "The Elements of UML Style" is an extension of this philosophy to UML models, and every project will benefit from the ideas it presents.

There are two people I look to for information about UML: Martin Fowler (noteably: UML Distilled), and Scott Ambler.

With this book all the pieces are there. "UML Distilled" tells us how to use UML, "Agile Modeling" tells us how to use it in an agile way, and now "The Elements of UML Style" tells us how to use it so that the results look good and are understandable.

Physically, it's a nice book. Small and thin, it packs well, and will fit easily into the most overstuffed briefcase or backpack.

The format is good as well. Organized around the different diagrams, with extras for general guidelines and a quick overview of Agile Modeling, it covers related issues together in an easy to digest format. The guidelines themselves are short, concise, and well illustrated with examples.

I found it an easy book to read, being able to pick it up for a few minutes at a time without having to spend a lot of time to regain my context.

No matter how much you model, or what tools you use to do it, this little book will help make your diagrams better.

This is a great reference book for anyone wanting to improve their UML modeling skills. It won't teach you how to model, but it will teach you how to create UML diagrams which are much easier to read and to understand. Although Ambler preaches that "content is more important than representation", the reality is that if your diagrams look like crap then people think that your work is crap. This book describes a collection of very simple techniques, many of which could be considered modeling patterns, for making your UML diagrams look good.

The book contains both modeling tool diagrams and sketches, showing how you'd apply the various techniques with both your users at a whiteboard or developers at a workstation. The sketches are easy to read, which is pretty amazing considering the book is the size of paperback.

The second chapter is almost worth the price of the book itself because it overviews guidelines which could be used on any type of diagram, UML or not. Chapters 4, 5, and 10 are must reads for business analysts because they cover techniques to improve use case diagrams, class diagrams, and activity diagrams, the things you're most likely to show your end users. Making your diagrams understandable is an important step to communicating what you're doing, and maybe even getting funding for your project.

Other chapters focus on guidelines for technical diagrams. Modeling tool vendors should pick this book up and automate these guidelines. If they were to do that they would really improve the quality of their tools.

If you're serious about UML modeling, then this is a must have book. It's so cheap your company should even consider getting a copy for each analyst, architect, and designer that you have on staff.

I still remember the first time I read something written by Scott Ambler. It was an article about 9 years ago in Software Development magazine (actually it was probably the forerunner) about use cases. His style of writing is, was, and always will be so easy to read and comprehend. Perhaps that is why so many folks write to agree and/or disagree with his ideas: there's no AMBIguity there.

Scott's subscribes to and adheres to the KISS principle (Keep It Simple, Scott!). That is what makes it easy to understand and appreciate. In this book Scott has very capably tackled the easily misunderstood (and therefore often misapplied) ideas of the Unified Modeling Language (UML) and presented them in a manner than anyone can understand and apply in their work.

This book is small enough to fit in your pocket but is incredibly massive in applicability. It belongs on the desks of every developer (AND their manager!) working with UML. Whether applying UML in an XP environment or within the constraints of behemoth software development projects, a basic understanding of the UML is essential. This book will get your team there, quickly.

Research shows that the number one factor that contributes to project success (or failure) is the ability (or inability) to communicate well. That was one of the goals of the UML, a truly UNIFIED language in the arena of modeling. A key value in Agile Modeling (AM) is communication. Coupled with the AM principle of Know Your Models and the AM practice of Apply Modeling Standards, this book will assure that your project's modeling efforts shine.

I have read (well, ok, read through or I would post more reviews) quite a few technical books about SQL Server. Where many books follow a very rigid path through a subject, quite often in a very feature driven manner (Here is this command, and you can do this. Next, this command) or process driven manner (First we do this, then we do this...).

This book is very different from that. The title includes the word "Expert" for good reason. This is a book that doesn't assume you know nothing and start from scratch, nor does it try to teach you every knob and switch on all of the SQL commands. It it more about going to the next level and becoming the expert at programming with SQL Server by covering several deep dive subjects that every person needs to make the transition from "Pro" to "Expert".

It has eleven chapters, each of them about a distinct facet of programming SQL Server, from the common stuff you need to do or use right (testing, errors, privilege, CLR, encryption, dynamic SQL and concurrency) to three chapters on really deep applied stuff (spatial data, temporal data, and graphs/trees). Each chapter has some very deep information, and a lot of code that could make you dizzy if you try to ingest it too fast. It is all explained nicely though, and if you take the time to understand the code you will be far better off for it.

I would not suggest this as a book for the casual "I would like to know a bit more about SQL" reader. It is more for the reader who is already good and wants to become a solid professional/expert SQL programmer who know the right way to do things. For that reader it should be on your required reading list.

This is really a great book. It covers specific topics really extensively and it is very easy to read. I was impressed because I was able to find great information about topics such as Encryption or Hierarchies that cannot be found very easily in other books. The examples are very descriptive but the most important thing is that the author will show you all possible solutions and will prove why the one he selected is the best. It is not a beginner's book but it is a fantastic book for advanced DBAs/Developers.

The author imparts a wealth of knowledge on the reader in a mere 445 pages. His style is direct, clear and doesn't waste any pages on trying to get you up to speed. He gives you just what you need and nothing else. I wish they were all like this.

By providing actual performance testing Adam Machanic doesn't just make expert claims for his methods. In fact, my favorite quote from the book: "The hallmark of a truly great developer, and what allows these qualities to shine through, is a thorough understanding of the importance of testing."

Having never worked with spatial data before, I found the coverage of the topic fascinating. Also, entire books have been written on tree's, hierarchies and graphs. Adam provides enough information in a single chapter for the developer to choose a strategy that works.

5 stars - easy

The book presents real-life SQL Server problems and shows you how to solve them. It is written in a friendly and story-like fashion. The amount of detail presented is just right - detailed enough to understand the topics yet simple enough not to feel overwhelmed by the amount of information presented.

In the first chapter, the author reviews coupling, cohesion, encapsulation and database role in the application development cycle.

Chapter 2 is extremely useful for testing and tuning queries. It teaches you all you need to know about SQL Profiler. Other topics include unit and functional testing and performance counters. The chapter also introduces the SQLQueryStress Performance Tool which is a free query performance and load testing tool designed by the author.

Chapter 3 covers the different types of errors and exceptions and also shows you how to write error handling code using new error-handling construct added in SQL Server 2005.

The chapter on Dynamic SQL, chapter 7, is a must read for every database developer as it teaches you how and when to use dynamic SQL to make your application both efficient and secure.

Other advanced topics covered in the book are encryption, SQLCLR security and designing systems for application concurrency.

Recommended for SQL Server professionals of all levels.

Frankly, I was expecting a very SQL Server 2005 specific book. Instead, what we have is a good general RDBMS book that happens to be using SQL Server 2005. Encryption, access control, testing, basic software engineering and exception handling are never touched in SQL programming books -- including my own! The spatial chapters were new to me. The little asides were also worth looking up. Good clean style, great job.