Software Books

This particular book provides the reader with a comprehensive view of PHP development. I was pleased with the vast amount of topics covered. This book is a very useful tool for developers.

This is a great book in that the author provides comprehensive coverage of a complicated subject, and does it in clear, concise and understandable language. The book should be a promary resource for programmers. I look forward to more contributions from this author.

'Pro PHP XML and Web Services' by Robert Richards is a great book to help you learn your way around these technologies. Packing in over 900+ pages, this book gives a broad overview of the subject matter which is outlined here:

01. Introduction to XML and Web Services
02. XML Structure
03. Validation
04. XPath, XPointer, XInclude
05. PHP and XML
06. Document Object Model
07. SimpleXML
08. Simple API for XML
09. XMLReader
10. Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations
11. Effective and Efficient Processing
12. XML Security
13. PEAR and XML
14. Content Syndication: RSS and Atom
15. Web Distributed Data Exchange
16. XML-RPC
17. Representational State Transfer
18. SOAP
19. Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI)
20. PEAR and Web Services
21. Other XML Technologies and Extensions

If you need a book that dives into the XML technology and doesn't look back, this is a nice pickup that gets the job done. Lots of other Apress books I feel are a bit too long, but this book at over 900 pages I have less complaints about. It's solidly written and a nice companion book to have on your bookshelf for anyone that programs with XML.

**** RECOMMENDED

This book is amazingly well written. The content is organized in an intuitive and logical fashion. The author explains base concepts and progresses into advanced topics, providing consistent depth of coverage along the way. The author's writing and concise examples get the message across on the first reading - unlike some texts that require multiple passes. It's also noteworthy that the Technical Reviewers, Christian Stocker and Adam Trachtenberg, are renowned PHP experts and authors. If you plan to study or work with PHP and XML, this book is a MUST HAVE.

This is first and foremost an XML reference. The author takes the reader through over 100 pages XML background in the first three chapters, then an overview of a few utilities like XPath and XPointer before he touches on PHP. Having provided some grounding in the basics, he then proceeds to develop the use of XML in PHP from the basic topics of DOM (Document Object Model) and XSLT (Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations) to the more advanced topics of SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) and web services.

Along the way Richards introduces the reader to utility classes like SimpleXML, SAX (Simple API for XML), XMLReader. He also touches on PEAR (PHP Extension and Application Repository) utility classes and topics like security, RSS (Really Simple Syndication) and UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery and Integration). The author's examples are reasonably concise and readable; making the necessary points without getting carried away.

The bottom line is that this is a highly effective reference (that means fairly comprehensive, but dry reading; I read cover to cover, but it was relatively tedious) on XML and its varied uses in association with PHP. This is not a book for the newcomer to programming, nor is it a cookbook for examples for the casual programmer/web developer, although the author does provide PEAR examples for connecting with major web services like Amazon, Google and Yahoo (among others). My suggestion for readers is to review what you need of the first 11-12 chapters to ensure a firm grounding in XML, and then hop to the chapters specific to the problem being faced.
P-)

Professional BizTalk Server 2006 is one of those books which really goes over and above what you can find on online documentation . There are only few BizTalk books and thank god we have one like this . The books has a lot of hidden gems that will make you go 'aha '.

Absolute Must read if you love the Product. A great Chapter on Testing which I have not seen in any other BizTalk book .

Great book for all who want to know HOW BT really works and WHY it works like that. Very valuable purchase.

It took a long time for decent BizTalk Server books to start appearing, and those of us who have been committed to the product for some time know the pain (and fun) of having to work out, for ourselves, how this product works, how best to apply it to real-life scenarios and how to exploit its rich functionality.

I was really impressed with this book. It has two characteristics which I think are particularly noteworthy. The first is that it offers a huge breadth of coverage, but also manages to combine this with reasonable depth. This is hard to achieve when writing about BizTalk Server because it is such a rich an extensive product. The second characteristic is that it reads like a book written by practitioners - people with real-life experience of using the product, and the scars to prove it. Indeed, that it very much the case, and it means that the book provides far more than just rehashed information. It provides guidance, advice and best practice which is rooted in reality.

I like to think I know a thing or two about BizTalk Server (though it still manages to spring surprises on me quite regularly). I am not greatly addicted to computer books, because so many fail to be of any very practical use. However, I can report that this is the first BizTalk book (and one of very few books, generally) that I've carried with me into engagements to use as a reference. Warmly commended and highly recommended, especially for those who have done enough with BizTalk Server to realise the extent of the mountain they must climb.

I've been on a couple of BizTalk projects, all of them for Fortune 50 clients. We did a lot of things wrong, hence a lot of lessons learned. This book is good...REALLY good. How good? Well, let's just say that I never, repeat NEVER write book reviews, even if a book was the greatest thing since the bread slicer. (I guess because I'm too busy building Orchestrations and Custom Pipeline Components.) That alone should convince you that this book is a must-have for anyone wanting to know anything about BizTalk.

DISCLAIMER: Allow me to contradict that last statement... This isn't for everyone, however. It is really in-depth and explains more than the minimum required. The book also targets those of use that continue to ask the question "Why?" and it quenches our curious thirst. If I were to pick this book up when I was first learning BizTalk, I would throw it down and stomp on it. But now that I've been around the block a few times and I know the difference between a best practice and a "you're on your own" practice, I am able to get a lot from reading this material.

With BizTalk, there's so many ways to skin the proverbial cat. This books explains all of them (from what I've read), but then it points out the preferred approaches that one should take when implementing an integration solution via BizTalk Server...lots of Notes & Caveats sections, things that I crave.

This book will give you very objective insights into BizTalk. And you don't need to worry about reading it with your rose-colored glasses, either. It's neither half-empty nor half-full, it just is, you know?

This book has information in it that you simply will not find anywhere else. Its written by people who have worked with the product on some of the largest and most important projects where BizTalk has been the platform of choice, and the knowledge that thay pass on is exceptional.

While I wouldn't recommend this book to beginning programmers, it's great for people who already know another language (preferably C/C++) and a little about object-oriented programming. It touches on many subjects, so you won't need a whole bookshelf of Java books ("Let's see...one for language reference...one for graphics and the AWT...one for networking..."). I take this book back and forth every day between work and home. What would I do without it?

This is one of the first books I bought to get an understanding of Java and how it is comprable to what I already know of C/C++. This book is the perfect starting point, giving every comprable declaration to C/C++. Kudos to the authors, can't wait for a more up-to-date version though.

Excellent book, but now that Swing is moving ahead of AWT, this book is useless for GUI. But as for the basics, it's an complete book. Good for someone who already knows a programming language

Fantastic book. Pithy style, very readable, no fluff, excellent as a reference. Anyone coming to Java from C++ should get this book. About the only thing I would do to improve it would be to have at least a short chapter on database access.

Even though this is one of my oldest Java books I keep going back to it. I wish it would be updated for the new Event model and swing however. The coverage of the 1.0 JDK is very good and I still go back to the gridbag description and examples when I get confused.

This book was a joy to read. It gives a great overview of quality issues within "Web systems" - meaning Web applications and architectures. The book balances a too-specific look with a too-general look and succeeds quite well in a balanced treatment that will make the whole worth the attention of any quality assurance or quality tester professional in the Information Technology industry.

In particular, the second chapter, on the RSI Approach, is a nice addition as this is something that most practitioners of quality subjects will not find elsewhere and the general subject matter is generally that which is avoided in books of this type. Another topic often avoided in these books is that of usability and accessibility concerns and yet these are covered here in good detail chapter six.

In general, I think the book offered a great amount of detail just where it was needed and gave a lot of "mini best-practices" in each chapter with the use of bulleted lists to highlight specific points. The detail of the book extends to various topics, like performance, compatibility, usability, and security - all topics that are of high concern in the current world of making qualitly Web systems that customers and user respond to. The appendices in the book are also excellent. The "Test Tool Evaluations" section will be a welcome addition to those who wish there are more concise evaluation forms for automated tool solutions.

I highly recommend this book to quality assurance/testing professionals, quality assurance managers, and even those who work more in the project management and development spheres. Those latter will get benefit from the book because the book manages to highlight topics of concern to both groups and also gives them insight into the quality aspects of the projects and products that are developed within an organization.

Although the authors of this book are noted experts in software testing this book goes far beyond testing by addressing the full range of quality and design issues for web-based systems.

All of the major elements of web-engineering and quality are addressed, including SECURITY (this is the first test or quality book that fully acknowledges the relationship between quality and security, which is a cornerstone of the Reliability-Availability-Support triad for systems in production), PERFORMANCE (I especially liked this section because it got into the guts of performance and scalability), COMPATIBILITY (essential for ensuring that your system works with the world of users over whom you have no control - web-based systems can and usually do extend into the great unknown), and USABILITY (this will make or break a commercial web site).

Aside for the complete coverage of all of the important topics that need to be considered, and the life cycle approach to quality and testing this book contained a real gem: RSI approach to use cases. RSI (Requirements-Service-Interface) is an interesting and highly useful approach to use cases. Some key strengths of using the RSI paradigm is that you will ensure traceability between requirements and the services and interfaces that are implemented. Moreover, this approach partitions services and interfaces, which allows you to manage the complexities when developing a test strategy and associated test cases. To me the chapter on RSI was worth the price of the book.

Overall, this is a solid book that covers testing, as well as the larger domain of systems quality. It gives some unique insights of issues and factors related to testing, but is not solely about web testing. It should be read by all key team members including requirements analysts, architects, developers, test engineers and project managers *before* a web project is initiated.

This book is excellent for any web systems tester. It covers all areas of functional and non-functional testing related to the Web.
It covers how to most efficiently model a web application using a specific use case approach, in addition it covers how to test for security, performance, usability of a web site. The book has been very useful in our testing efforts.

This book covers quality assurance of web systems beyond merely testing. It offers practical insight for designers, developers, project managers and quality assurance team members. A big bonus is the appendix which details and compares automated test tools.

This is one of the best quality assurance books in a while... Thinner than Automated Software Testing, but as informative! If you are doing any kind of web testing, this one's a must have for your library. Talks about all aspects of software testing on the web. I give it 5 stars hands down!

A well organized, logical progression of accounting and financial concepts, taught and applied in a unified fashion to give the user a high level of understanding and control over his or her business. If you want to sincerly understand your business operations, to identify opportunites and to make it better, this book is for you.

As a CPA I found this book to be completely accurate and recommend it to all my clients. No book can be all things to all businesses, but this comes close.

I ended up looking for another book after receiving this book. It didn't seem to answer any of the specific questions I had regarding Quick books - It seemed to be more of a hardcopy version of the help function online which was a big disappointment. I would look at the online help in the software and if it works for you, don't waste your money on this.

A cogent resource for easily and thoroughly navigating QuickBooks. The author provides a comprehensive source enabling all business professionals to utilize QuickBooks for maximum business advantage. Highly recommended, its on my desk and should be on yours.

An invaluable resource for any business who
uses Quick Books. Concise, well-organized and complete
QuickBooks 2005 Bible is a resource we are already putting to great use in our business.

The QuiickBooks 2008 Solution Guide is a very helpful resource. It saves time by having solutions to many common problems users encounter in QuickBooks. The book is very well organized and extremely useful in the practical world of small business accounting.

Laura's done a great job of not only explaining the how of QuickBooks but the why. As a QuickBooks consultant this book is a must for all of my staff and will be a strong recommendation for my clients.

Jeanne Tarazevits, CPA, CITP Tara Consulting Orange Co. CA

This is one of the pivotal QuickBooks reference books! As a QuickBooks ProAdvisor, I have my own little "QuickBooks Library" that I refer to on a regular basis. And this book is THE book I reach for first, each and every time!
It is jam-packed full of readable and easily understood information needed by users, business owners, accountants and QB ProAdvisors alike.
Don't just bookmark this page and tell yourself you're going to buy it tomorrow or next week - buy it today! You can't beat the price!
And, as QB 2009 is released, I'll be buying the 2009 version of this book, immediately!

We use the 2008 QuickBooks Solutions Guide in our software consulting practice. Our firm, Core Performance Consulting, is an Intuit Solution Provider based in Orange County, CA. Since it is such a comprehensive resource on all things related to QuickBooks, we are giving away copies to our Customers as a promotional activity. Thanks Laura for writing such an excellent book !

Peter Cullen

I found this book extremely helpful and most importantly easy to read and understand. I would recommend it for anyone who uses QuickBooks on daily bases or is just an occasional user. The book does a great job at describing common scenarios or problems that one may encounter along with clear solutions and suggestions for corrections.

This encyclopedia is a leading resource written by leading philosophers and scholars. It is indispensible for researchers and students who need to refer to a philosophical topic or a great thinker and their thought. It is also good for the casual reader who may be interested in philosophy and wishes to learn more about the subject.

The encyclopedia is very comprehensive and covers all the main areas of philosophy as well as both Eastern and Western philosophy. Jewish and Islamic and African Philosophies are also well represented. There are many biographies of leading philosophers, as well as scientists, theologians, lawyers, writers and politicians who have covered philosophical questions.

The price puts this resource beyond the means of most individual buyers, but all good libraries should stock it.

It is the best encyclopedia of philosophy available in English,
and as comprehensive as one could reasonably want on the
Anglo-American analytic tradition. However, it is still inferior
to the magisterial Historisches Woerterbuch der Philosophie, ed.
Joachim Ritter (12 vols., of which 11 have thus far been
published) - the one true indispensable philosophical reference
work.

We bought this encyclopedia set to the Royal School of Library and Information Science in Copenhagen (both the 10 vol. hardbound and the cd-rom version). I simply find it indispensable and so do many of my colleagues and students. My experience is that this effect comes from the first glance in this work. We are not using this work as professional philosophers but as library and information scientists who needs a broad orientation about fundamental problems related to knowledge, its production, dissemination and use. In my opinion there is a general trend in many of the social sciences towards more theoretical and philosophical foundations. In this process it is extremely important that you have works that bring concise introductions to various traditions in thinking and scientific methodology. The importance of this work is in my view, that it allows researchers and students in social sciences and other fields to have a central reference point when we put forward our arguments.

This work is useful along several dimensions. In this review I shall only mention epistemology and the philosophy of science. We have in all the sciences (especially in the social sciences, psychology, media and information sciences) many approaches or "paradigms", for example: (social) constructivism, critical realism, empiricism, feminist epistemology, hermeneutics, historicism, paradigm theory (Thomas Kuhn), Marxist philosophy of science, critical rationalism (Karl Popper), positivism and logical positivism, postmodernism and poststructuralism, pragmatism, rationalism, and realism (with scientific realism and antirealism). One simply need to be informed about the basic principles behind such approaches, and the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy is the only place where you can get a reasonable detailed and comprehensive overview. Add to this that every article starts with a summary, and ends with references and reading lists (often annotated). This is simply a very user friendly design. Of course no work can answer all questions, and of course serious students need much more than this (and of course a few articles is a little disappointing). This work is, however, an important tool, that in my view cannot be overestimated. Its real importance is, I think, that it can strengthen the theoretical approaches in many sciences because it provides us with a common overview and reference point. When I am introducing or discussing Library and Information Science, I am trying to connect the different approaches or paradigms in this field to basic philosophical questions (se my article "Library and information science: practice, theory, and philosophical basis in the journal Information Processing and Management, vol. 36(3), 2000, pp. 501-531). In this way I hope to be able to contribute to the development of this field. In my opinion all other fields should benefit in a similar way. Why is philosophy important for most fields? Because the empiricist and positivist view is simply wrong. You cannot produce knowledge from observations alone. You simply have to consider many theoretical issues which have been clarified through accumulated experiences.

This collection, especially the CD-ROM version is a very useful resource. It is easy to use and very consice, full of information. This encyclopedic collection contains all themes in philosophy and some in religion, which makes it useful when someone is trying to make connections to other fields. Individual philosophers and a general overview of their life works and projects, different idealogies and terms are all explained in full extent in this simple to use encyclopedia.

It is so exciting to be able to use this resource. It is a recent acquisition at the college's library, and since I have discovered it I haven't been able to put it down. I give it 5 stars, and although I haven't read it entirely (for obvious reasons), I think it will be a resource I will be using for the rest of my life.

Check it out and see for yourself!?!

I was excited about this collection, but I thought it was 37 dollars and 75 cents, so I was a bit disconcerted to find a $3,775 dollar charge to my Visa. However, once I started reading the collection, I realized it was worth every penny of the cost -- for all you get, this is an absolute steal, really! Now I'm sending the collection to friends and family as gifts. Take out a loan, beg, borrow or steal: Do whatever you need to do to get the money to order this series -- you won't be disappointed.

The book is really well written, covering even more topics (i.e. Networking) than the first edition. Considering the advanced nature of the book, it's surprisingly easy to understand.

However, i would recommend reading Operating Systems: Design and Implementation (3rd edition) by Andrew S. Tanenbaum and Albert S. Woodhull before this one if you're not familiar with Operating Systems, as this book covers advanced topics which are not for begginers.

Reading this book, I think it helps to know UNIX and some C already, but is ok if you don't... This book gives great details and examples. Must have for anyone working on/with solaris 10.
Yes.. it explains how zones and things like that work...

Do you want to know how the Solaris kernel works? This is the book for you!

If you've read any of the other titles by these authors you'll know how clear and succinctly written this book is. The book is not your normal 2nd edition "nip and tuck", it's a rewrite!

One of the things I really like about this book is that it describes the internal theory and implementation of many kernel subsystems, but is not a code walk through or reiteration of other books / manuals.

The book covers many of the new and recent features of Solaris, so it's also valuable for long time Solaris engineers that need to keep updated. People that are new to UNIX internals will also like this book as it starts with the assumption of some UNIX principles (but not too much), and takes you a *lot* further.

There are pointers to other material for the truely adventurous, and small examples with sample output that keep the subject material relevent and enable to reader to make the connection between the theory and their system.

Very highly recommended!

The book "Solaris (TM) Internals and OpenSolaris
Kernel Architecture (2nd Edition)"
is one of the best
books (perhaps the best one) that I own on
the Operating Systems related field.

I study also the Linux Kernel which is also
technically elegant, and I recommend to anyone
interested in Operating Systems design and
implementation, to study the
OpenSolaris Kernel also,
since is very well designed and
in my opinion is technically
the best design that I know until now.

The book is excellent, it has clear presentation of the
advanced algorithms used at the Solaris internally,
and the reader has a lot to gain by elaborating
the internals of perhaps the most
advanced modern operating system.

Well written and detailed. If you wish or need to know about the internals of Solaris this book is the source. This is a second edition and covers 10 and updates information on 8 and 9. The first edition covered 2.5.1, 2.6, and 7. I liked the first edition and waited for this edition based on the books/authors web site and have not be disappointed. Highly recommended, a reasonable background in OS theory is helpful with the type of material covered here - but not required - it will aid in understanding however. Recommended more general OS books would include "Operating System Concepts" by A. Silberschutz, J. Peterson, P. Galvin, "Operating Sytstems" by A. Tanenbaum, A. Woodhull, and "Unix Internals" by Uresh Vahalia among others.

While working on a 90 page directory for our church, complete with written history, pictures, and lists of official acts in columns, I ran into a few formatting questions. I ordered this book and I found it answered my questions in lanugage I could easily understand, point by point, after looking up the difficulty in the books' Index. I highly recommend the book to those using WordPerfect X3. The boxed "Tips" on many subjects from the two authors are a nice plus.

I found the book to be quite useful in adapting to WordPerfect Office X3. My only complaint: My copy started falling apart almost as soon as I started using.

I've been using WordPerfect for about 20 years or more. It's a fine WP for anyone writing books. I bought this resource book after getting the X3 office suite and I find that even though I thought the upgrade of the word processing feature was not much advanced over version 6 or 9, the "Using" book shows me otherwise. I need it to make sure my investment in X3 is fully realized. It seems clear, complete, and with enough detail to keep me busy when I need to know something.

I've been a WordPerfect user (and never much of an MS Word user) ever since adolescence. A major attraction for myself and many others being the Reveal Codes function. However, this review is not about WordPerfect vs. MS Word, but about the book Special Edition Using WordPerfect X3.

One of the most important features of a book such as this (which is about 2 inches thick) is its index. I find the index to be well laid out, easy to read and a good combination of bold and plain text. There is also a Contents at a Glance on the very first page, as well as the Contents proper.

New features of WordPerfect X3 are listed on pages 2 to 7. Note that I don't consider the addition of the Yahoo! toolbar, and the Y! icon (which I couldn't get rid of - it kept reappearing) as enhancements. This is clearly a commercial move rather than purely an enhancement, which brings me to my only complaint with this book, it seems to lack a critical edge. Not once in the whole manual is there a "bug", nor "plugin". Come on, let's get into the workarounds and tweaks! Anyway, this isn't enough for the manual to lose any stars in my opinion.

The ease of pasting unformatted text from other programs/documents (an essential feature - done in a more round-about way in MS Word) is described on page p339. I use this feature all the time, I'm very pleased to learn (p339 - again) of the shortcut key Ctrl+Shift+V to do this very quickly.

Just to go back to the WordPerfect vs MS Word debate for a minute. The #1 downfall of WordPerfect is becoming more and more clear in our globalised world: The lack of unicode support (especially obvious when it comes to Asian languages).

Overall: Highly recommended. Special Edition Using WordPerfect X3 complements the simplicity and comprehensiveness of WordPerfect itself.

Having used WordPerfect since version 4.1, it remains my word processor of choice. When forced to (usually when dealing with other people's files with multiple inserted images) I can grit my teeth and use the "other" program, but I always bail out of it and get back into WP as soon as I can.

This guide is big and user-friendly, and fills the gap caused by software makers providing less and less in the user guide department. On-screen help and PDF on-disk manuals have their place, but there are times when nothing works like a hardcopy manual that you can tag and make notes in and that doesn't clutter up the screens you are trying to work on. This guide is well worth the price if you only need it once in a while.

I highly recommend Teaching with the Internet to the novice and experienced net user. It is a great sounce of "current" web sites spanning the educational needs for K-12 students. I have used lessons taken directly from the book with great success. I consider the text to be an invaluable resource in my personal journey in understanding the "net" as well as to open new areas of exploration for my young students. This book is also a wonderful tool for parents trying to assist their children with study projects, book reports, etc. The information in this book is updated regularly through its web site as changes take place on the www. This educational tool is a wise investment for anyone who uses the "net".

The is a very good resource. It gives great ideas on how to use the internet in the classroom. What I like particulary is the wealth of ideas it gives on how to incorporate the internet in the classroom.

Teaching With the Internet: Lessons From the Classroom is a practical, hands on guide well suited for layman use. It encompasses both Netscape and Internet Explorer browsers as well as the IBM and Macintosh systems. Each chapter is devoted to either a specific Internet strategy such as navigating and communicating or to specific subject areas and concerns within the public school curriculum K-12. This text should be included as an essential component in every school's technology reference library and utilized as an indispensable resource in effective Internet teaching. It is packed with countless creative teaching suggestions and noteworthy web sites as well as step by step instructions on how to implement it all.

This book proved to be very informative, giving step-by-step models to use to incorporate internet resources into classroom activities, computer workshops, research projects and student inquiries.It is organized by chapters that give curriculum based internet ideas, with excellent related educational web-sites. It is geared for all levels of teacher ability, so everyone can get their classroom started. Although some ideas and sites seemed repetitious, it allows you to refer to a specific chapter by subject area to find related sites and sample activities. This book is comprehensive enough to highlight features of various navigation tools, cover both MAC and PC platforms for grades K-12.

Don and Deborah Leu have created a great Interent reference/teaching guide for teachers of all computer skill levels, from beginners to old pros!

The book not only inlcudes explicit explanations of Internet terms and procedures, but includes plenty of figures and examples of what the screen would actually look like as you are working. The Email to You sections contain real teachers describing real projects that they have sucessfully done with their students. Leu and Leu also provide many, many links to resources and project ideas in the major academic disciplines for teachers to use as they begin to incorporate the Internet in to the classroom.

I would highly recommend this book to teachers and teacher educators alike. I consider my self to be an advanced user of the Internet and I learned several new things from reading this book!