Software Books

I'm glad that there's finally one book about atl server, but this one seems to have been written in haste. Sure it shows you how to hook up to a database and pull out records, but the examples are not nearly as complex as msdn's . In particular, the caching section is seriously lacking...

This is an excellent book on the definitive technology for VC++ developers wanting to write web applications. ATL Server is the evolution of ISAPI; better, faster and much easier to write. If you are comfortable with C++ template programming and attributed Visual C++, you will find this framework a joy to work with. Just like ATL, ATL Server is streamlined, high performance and easy to extend.

Written by the ATL Server team, this book will guide you through the different parts of ATL Server, giving you not only reasons for why certain design decisions were made but also real-world examples.

The ATL Server library is the perfect addition to ATL, adding the ability to create web services and web applications with the light-weight model of ATL. I found this book very useful for getting new members of my development team up to speed on the basics of ATL Server development (both those with previous ISAPI experience and those without).

I also found this book very useful when tackling some of the more difficult problems that our application faced. In particular the Advanced sections on SRF files, Request Handlers and Web Services provided a number of useful techniques that we were able to apply in our application.

The book also outlines some techniques for using parts of the ATL Server library in non-web applications, which we are finding very useful as we update some of our existing code.

If you're a hardcore C++ developer wanting to do native web development, ATL Server is a great library to work with. If you've done ISAPI extensions, you'll find ATL Server to be a natural, flexible and very performant extension of that model, which makes development a *lot* faster.

And if you like that, then this book is a great way to get you up to speed on ATL Server. It is, after all, written by the people who wrote it. The book is wonderfully easy to read, covers both the basics and plenty of advanced ATL Server topics, and has tons of examples. Plus, it has the advantage of being written with real applications in mind.

On the other hand, if the profile above doesn't sound like it fits you, then this book is probably not for you :)

We adopted this text for drafting class in our school. All I want to say is that it is a wonderful book. The drafting examples and exercises in this book starting from Chapter 1 through Chapter 17 are simply wonderful, exactly what students need to get "hands on" experience on real drawings.

I have not read the other chapters of this book, but they also surely look wonderful.

I recommend this book to any faculty member that wants to teach a drafting class.

Reminder for the faculty!!!! Make sure you do not forget to ask for teaching support material for this book from the publisher. The teaching support material that comes with this book is simply out of this world.

I am using this text for teaching AutoCAD this semester and so was going through the book during this break. This is an excellent resource for learning AutoCAD 2004 and I am sure it would be a great help in teaching the AutoCAD class. The layout of this book is perfect and is exactly what people need. All the new features of AutoCAD 2004 are explained in detail and are made really simple in this book. I am particularly impressed with the way Sham has explained the modified version of Mtext command and inserting blocks and hatches using the new "palette window". Sham has also explained in detail the various methods of adding new blocks to the palette window. Before I finish, I would also like to mention that the 3D modeling in this book is wonderful!!! One of the best I have seen in AutoCAD books. I am sure the explanation of 3D modeling in this book is one of the best launching pads for the students who want to take classes in advanced solid modeling programs.

My recommendation, looking of AutoCAD books, go ahead and buy this book!!! You would love this book and the exercises in it.

Without taking much space here, I simply wanna say that the 3d in this book is worth all the money! I have used a few other books in the past, but the examples of 3d in this teach a lot new techniques of working. It taught me that AutoCAD is much more than just 2d drafting. I am extremely happy I bought this book :-)

This book is easy to learn AutoCAD. All the commands of AutoCAD are explained with lots of graphic and text. The flow of topics covering AutoCAD is in a good sequence. I use this book to teach students in my class. The exercises and examples are well stated and explained. Above all this, I have the liberty to contact the author for the technical support if I have any technical difficulties using AutoCAD because the Author provides free technical support. This book is recommended to all students willing to learn AutoCAD.

Written in a very own Allen's style, this item offers great tips on common topics that not always, and not necesarily, are mastered by intermediate users. Onstott's work is very useful also. Very good purchase for new users who wish to push a little more. And for the Professionals? Not bad. A very good reminder about seemed-to-be-easy daily matters at office.
Paper and Printing quality of the product are simply excellent.

It is not surprising, considering the fact that Lynn Allen is the Technical Evangelist for Autodesk and that she meets with thousands of AutoCAD users every year, that once again her book is packed to the ceiling with fantastic tips, insights, tricks and strategies for putting AutoCAD in high gear. The book offers invaluable information in bite-sized morsels which can easily and gradually be implemented into any AutoCAD-based process to simplify and streamline it. Lynn also maintains an equally beneficial blog at [..] if you want a sampling of the kind of material conveniently compiled in this book. Highly recommended for anyone seeking "AutoCAD PowerUser" proficiency.

I have been using AutoCAD since 1992, after the first couple years of using AutoCAD, I stopped learning new tricks and learning better ways of using AutoCAD because I was able to do my job with the set of AutoCAD skills I have. This book helps me brush up my CAD skills and taught me many new tricks to be more efficient. It was never too late to teach an old dog new tricks!

This book is fantastic!! It really allows a power user more options and tips and tricks. Every tip ends up saving time and makes CAD more fun to use. Lynn keep up the great work.

While reading "A Needle in the Right Hand of God" I got frustrated by the size of the plates and the lack of clear references to the various scenes. Then, I bought this...Voila! This incredible piece of work is so illuminating, amazing in its details and versatility. It is filled with surprises and knowledge. I thought it was a bit pricey, but now I would have paid even more for it!

Being a Hood (and a student of Dr. Foys), I found this CD to be extremely informational and easy to use for background information regarding assignments. Pop the CD and you're on your way towards a whole bank of knowledge.

This CD proves to be handy to the novice who wishes to know more about the Bayeux Tapestry or the time period, to professors and students alike. One piece of advice: TAKE IT SLOW--regardless of your level of knowledge. This CD is filled with information, as well as detailed maps, photographs and clips.

I recommend this CD to all people alike interested in this particular field.

This amazing CD offers not only incredible visual detail of the tapestry, but also a treasure of historical, literary and topographical information related to the battle. A panoramic photograph of the battle site and an interactive map are just two examples of the many wonderful features of this CD. Anyone interested in the Middle Ages, the tapestry, the battle, or the era of the Norman Conquest must own this invaluable resource. (I have very little savvy when it comes to computers; but I had no trouble at all running this on Windows--very user friendly.)

This CD-ROM edition of the Bayeux Tapestry is a great program for students, teachers or people just interested in learning about this famous piece of history. An amazing amount of detail is included, from a basic introduction, to scholarly arguments about how to interpret a single inscription or figure in the border. The videos and colour maps are helpful, as is the ability to search through the entire program by keyword. As a Mac user, I was also grateful to find that it runs on both PCs and Macs.

I started buying this series for my 6 year old one year ago. She received "Mr Bach comes to Call" for her seventh birthday. She has spent hours listening to it and then to other Bach CDs. The music is well selected and the historical content is described quite well. Her imagination has really been excited. As we live in Germany for the moment she has expressed a wish to visit Liepzig to see Bach's grave. We have four in this series now and think they are brilliant. All of us enjoy listening especially on long car journeys. Great entertainment with educational value.

my children are 6 and 7. they love this touching story of beethoven. we have taken many a long car ride and this cd is always our companion. it would be a good idea to also get a background book of beethoven for your children as they may become so intested, as mine did, that they simply had to know more about him. i bought the teachers notes that go with this. i would have done better to get a more thorough book, but it has served us well. this cd is highly recommended

Beethoven Lives Upstairs CD is an intriguing imaginary story told by a child who lives in the apartment below the elderly, deaf Beethoven, whom the child believes to be a mad man. The story of Beethoven's life and his greatness as a musician, even after becoming deaf, is woven through a series of letters the child writes to a relative who teaches the appreciation of Beethoven and his music. It is a beautifully written story of the great and tragic composer's life, interwoven with marvelous renditions of his most beloved music. This is one of the Symphony of Stories for all ages collection of Classical Kids CD's from Children's Group. You and your children will want to own all of them and listen to them again and again!

Excellent story for the entire family to enjoy. Music and information is blended together to make the audio version of this story enjoyable for a wide range of ages. Great way to introduce kids to famous composers in a format that is interesting and fun. And, the listeners don't Have to sit still while the story is being read.

I bought this book knowing a good bit about regular ASP and how to communicate with databases, hoping to learn how to do the same thing with ASP.NET. I was not disappointed. The book walks you through step-by-step in creating database connections, command objects, stored procedures, etc... It doesn't dwell too long on topics that it shouldn't be covering (like database design, and web site design). The instructions within the book identify software that is free, so there are no unpleasant surprises. This book will be a great reference and has really helped me make the jump from ASP to ASP.NET.

This book does a good job explaining how to work with databases. The one thing I didn't realize is the only language used for examples is C#. It would be nice if VB examples were also included.

I really liked this book because it shows step-by-step how to do things and then has a "How does it work?" section. Great book! Well written and seems quite comprehensive.

Almost every book with ASP.NET 2.0 in the title will tell you something about the Grid View, Detail View, Form View, SQLDatasource and the SQL 'Select' statement; this one will too. While the other books provide a rudimentary overview of these topics then move on, "Begining ASP.NET 2.0 Databases: From Novice to Professional" takes you way beyond the SQLDatasource and the 'Select' statement, delving deep into ADO.NET.

Just as bread & butter go together ASP.NET and databases go together; and there is a lot more to the database side of the equation than is brought out in most ASP.NET books, which tend to limit themselves to the use of the controls, getting into databases only enough to have something to show in the controls. with this book it is the other way around; the reason for the controls is to display and maninpulate data in a database, and there are several ways to access and manipulate databases with ADO.NET besides the SQLDatasource. Along the way you will learn to use the controls with all the different data access formats and how to use the controls and their events to manipulate the data, which is what it's really all about.

If DataReader, Command Object, DataSet, OLEDBDatasource and ODBCDatasource are not familiar terms to you, and you want to develop ASP.NET web sites you need this book. If you don't know when not to use the SQLDatasource (there are some definite situations when it won't work), or don't know how to create a server side data cache and why you would want to, you need this book.

The book is easy to read and has numerous small exercises titled "Try It Out", after each exercise is a "How It Works" section where the code in the previous exercise is explained, line by line in most cases. Not only does Damien take you through DataReader, Datasets and Commands he also covers stored procedures, which you will want to use rather than queries in code shown in most of the other books.

While the book primarily uses SQL Server 2005, MYSQL 5.0 is also covered at the same time, everything from installing and configuring to using with stored procedures, parameters and transactions.

If you want to build ASP.NET web sites you will work with databases, if you are not intimately familiar with ADO.NET this book should be on your bookshelf readily available.

From the beginning you get a strong sense of being directly in touch with the subject. The authors ideas and his writing style are easy to understand and make for interesting reading if you want to know more about GNOME programming methods. The welcome at the front of the book says it all and it gives a clear explanation of any introductory topics that may be helpful before progressing into the later chapters. Even the Free Software Foundation and Richard Stallman are mentioned in order to help you to understand some basic ideas. The rest of the book goes into some detail about libraries, widgets and other parts of the sophisticated programming language that GNOME really is. Chapter two starts out with thirty pages of introduction to Glib. All of the introductory subjects that you won't see anywhere else are here and can be easily understood. Next is introducing GTK+. This is enormously useful and gives some simple ideas about code and how to use it properly. The next part of the book goes into the subject of controlling the user interface layout. It was at about this point that I was beginning to think something like "I wonder why you can't get visual basic books that are as good as this ?" Also, "It would have cost me thousands of dollars to have done this with MS Windows programming tools". I thought that the last two chapters which are about gIDE and Glade were the best part of the book. There's also the advantage of being able to subscribe to a GNOME internet list to ask the sort of questions that you wouldn't have been able to ask before you read the book. If you haven't done much with GTK+ then do go ahead and buy this book. Your world will change!

This book is very easy to read thanks mainly to the author but also to a nice font and layout. The examples are very helpful and cover a broad range of areas within GTK and GNOME programming. Bottom line would be the quality of writing and the diverse coverage. I have 5 GTK/GNOME books, and I like this one the best.

This book is well written and on a whole well executed. The two sample projects that he walks you through I thought were excellent additions to the book. The author also gives you a brief background of the GNOME project and how it is different from KDE which uses QT.

One thing I did not like about this book was the fact he does not give any mention to GTK-- which is the C++ kit or any of the many other languages that can take advantage of GTK beyond acknowledging it's existance. It would have been really nice for this book to have had a chapter on other languages and GTK.

Also the chapter on the rapid application development (AKA RAD) tool GLADE was rather skimpy.

However if you are a C programmer looking for a good GTK book, look no further.

I like Peter Wright's style of writing for this book. Other big books like this can be boring to read, which can really slow down the learning process in my experience. Wright speaks to the reader in a language that is suitable for beginners. Some C knowledge is expected, but is marginal really. I liked the introduction to glade, as well as the two big examples in the final two chapters. One thing that would have been kind of nice is more material on automake and autoconf. Otherwise I enjoyed this book a lot because he keeps things very simple.

As an Oracle developer for over 10 years, I have read many Oracle books on a variety of topics, and this book is definitely one of those that stands heads above the others. As the title suggests, Beginning PL/SQL: From Novice to Professional covers a range of PL/SQL topics, both foundational and advanced. From the fundamentals such as triggers, procedures, packages, the book moves into the more advanced operations of Bulk Collection, Objects and even one of the more neglected but no less important areas in PL/SQL, unit testing. The topics in this book are delivered to the reader from a professional point of view in that all examples of the PL/SQL in the book are approached and designed as quality, production ready code. Topics such as design patterns, best practices and even some of the more insidious Oracle "gotchas" are discussed in this book, making it a wealth of information available to both the new as well as seasoned developer looking to update their PL/SQL knowledge. As a final bonus, this book packs all of this pertinent information in an refreshingly compact size with a breezy, fresh writing style. As one who has many a weighty computer tome where maybe 50% of the book has pertinent information and the rest is fluff, finding books where the fluff is removed are books to be treasured. If you are a PL/SQL developer of any level, beginner or veteran, this book is definitely one that should be turned to for information.

A friendly and well-written book recommended for anyone ready to learn PL/SQL. This Beggining PL/SQL well-written and well-organized introduction to the PL/SQL programming language. It uses a careful, example-based, easy to understand approach.
Thank you

The author did an excellent job covering novice PL/SQL concepts and building those concepts into more advanced topics such as information modeling and object orientation. Each chapter is filled with easy to follow, step-by-step coding examples. Each chapters also contains exercises where you create and execute code. I found this most useful. There is no better way to learn than actually doing it yourself.

One thing that impressed me is how the author stressed the importance of testing code during the application development process. An entire chapter is dedicated to application code testing and documentation and rightfully so. Every PL/SQL programmer should own a copy of this book!

As a Information Technology professional with little expertise in PL/SQL I bought this book as a replacement for a PL/SQL training course. It has taught me much and is a very good reference. I feel confident about attending the future Oracle training courses without having attended the pre-requisite PL/SQL training course after reading the contents in this book. I can see that the information in this book will still be useful for years to come as it covers fundamental information. I recommended ut as it lays a good foundation. It is not one of those books that states the obvious or is so simple that you to wonder why you purchased it (and we have all done that before, haven't we).

Having taken several classes from Dan Wood I appreciate the years of practical experience these guys bring to the table. It is a very good, readable, and thorough introduction to MS SQL Server 2005. SQL 2005 is a big product with lots of intricacies. This is one of the best introductions to to it that I've read.

This is an awesome book for someone that is new to SQL Server and needs to learn basic administration. The authors did a really good job of explaining the fundamentals in clear simple language.

I especially enjoyed the explanation of the storage engine. It made things clear to me that I didn't understand previously.

I had not touched a DB box in quite a while, and I was recently handed a SQL 2005 box to manage. This book pretty much covered everything I needed. The writing style is laid back and readable, and they get right to the point, without going off on all sorts tangents. The chapter on Automating Administrative Tasks (Chapter 8) was pure gold.

Good stuff.

I found this book offers exactly what I needed. I learned how to best manage my SQL 2005 Database Server. I found the information to be accurate and well written, an excellent reference that I've used many times. I really appreciated how the authors used real world experience to relay hard to understand concepts.

Sub-Title: Approaches and Technologies to Enhance Organizational Knowledge, Learning, and Performance

This book is the second edition or followup to the authors original book on E-Learning. It is perhaps the most complete analysis on the subject.

Education is in an interesting time. The basic structure of the ecucational system of a teacher and a group of students gathered around him dates from the time of the Greeks. Computer aided instruction where essentially a computer uses some of these same techniques to pass the knowledge of an expert on to students using a computer.

There are, a lot of little steps between the idea and the actuality. Of course there are the mechanics of how to do it. And there is the problem of finding the right teachers. [One military training course, set up by people who have 'been there, done that' teaches things like selecting a candy bar that won't melt in the desert (M&M's?) and how to armor a truck.] There's also playing on the skill that today's game playing kids have learned playing video games. What a way to teach someone how to drive a tank!

This is a book I'd recommend to anyone interested in or in charge of setting up a computer based training program. Dr. Rosenberg has 'been there, done that' in so far as e-learning is concerned.

Marc has taken the time to explain through examples what we need to know to make wise decisions about E-Learning. I walked away with ideas and guidelines I can use immediately.

I have been using this book for grad course at Roosevelt U. Most books used for the classroom are dry and outdated, but I found "Beyond E-learning" informative and innovative. I would highly recommend this book to all Learning and Development professionals. If this wasn't a very good book, I would take the time to write this blurb.

Once again, Marc Rosenberg shows us the way to really transform our organizations into efficient, effective knowledge-centered enterprises. He warns that e-Learning, like training in general, is often done the wrong way, for the wrong reasons. He busts myths right and left (the section on "the myths of e-Learning" alone is worth the purchase price!), and steadfastly refuses to be swept along by fads, technologies -- or even traditions of training.

What Rosenberg does is to lay out a vision of the Smart Enterprise, in which the focus is on performers rather than learners. He argues persuasively that technologies such as e-Learning, classroom learning, knowledge management, communications and collaboration technologies are best viewed not as individual technologies (or fads), but rather as complementary parts of a balanced strategy for performance improvement in enterprises which effectively translate data to knowledge to information to performance. Detailed chapters then discuss each of the key components of this strategy for performance improvement, including practical advice on how to implement them and where the pitfalls are. Examples and issue sidebars featuring luminaries in the field and corporate success stories add weight to the argument.

This is not just another "business book of the month" full of quick-fix half-truths. It is a mature, broad and comprehensive view of what it really takes to make any knowledge-intensive organization get what it needs to reach its goals. Senior line organization managers will find it essential; training managers will find it liberating and exhilerating -- or threatening. It's required reading for everyone responsible for making their enterprises smart.