Reference Software Books

I started reading Harry Potter a few years ago so that I could find out if they were suitable for my kids. Guess, what? I'm a well-educated adult, and I love Harry Potter! I can't believe that I can be so entertained by something that every kid on the block is reading (usually I don't go for children's fantasy).

Sophisticated adults will complain that this is derivative and "light." Yes, it is. It's children's literature, and that's what kids like. But, this is superior children's literature. The writing is exceptional, the characters are deep, the humor is subtle enough for adults to enjoy. It's very well done. I wish that all of the stuff my kids were reading was done this well.

I'm thrilled that, because of Harry Potter, children are reading large novels again. I know several kids who've been inspired to read, and to not be intimidated by big books, because of J.K. Rowling. If you have only seen the movies and haven't read the books, you are really missing out. --FanLit.net

what else can i say that no one else has?- this is a GREAT book like all her others!!!

One fine day while I was at work, I went into our café and came across a coworker reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
Like a lot of adults I started laughing and said, "Aren't those for kids?"
My former coworker said, "Don't laugh until you've actually read them."
I took her advice and picked up the same book.
And I have to admit, she was right!
The Sorcerer's Stone was, like many of you, my introduction to the Harry Potter Empire.
I loved it, from start to finish, a pleasure to read.
These books are not just for kids, but anyone who has an imagination.
I've since read all the Potter books and I loved every one of them and the movies also.
How many books end up getting made into worthwhile movies?
Not very many, but I'll be darned if Hollywood isn't making every Potter book into a stellar movie.
I give this book and all the Potter books my highest recommendation.

Our family enjoys the annual summer vacation road trip - seeing the countryside; anticipating our arrival at the vacation destination and listening to audio books. My son and daughter are 6 1/2 and 9 - they were thrilled by Jim Dale's reading of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. He does a great job of creating a distinct voice for each of the book's characters and the pacing is spot on. We're looking forward to our next road trip and listening to Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets which is also read by Jim Dale.

I loved this book and read it in two days and began the next immediately. One thing that troubles me -- about many amazon reviews -- is that they are NOT reviews. Person after person summarizes the story (which is, basically, summarized in the official editorial paragraph. WHY OH WHY does everyone do this! WHy not just say what you liked/disliked and why?

Rowling uses EXQUISITE VOCABULARY (hurrah! KIDS WILL LEARN NEW AND INTERESTING WORDS), STRONG PLOT AND SUSPENSE, AND ENGAGING CHARACTERS. I also very much appreciate that some of her positive characters are not all goody-two shoes and have imperfections and character flaws (Hagrid's drinking and keeping beasties, students who "swore" when angry or shocked).

I saw the films first and felt they were well cast. The books are better than I was prepared for them to be.

OH! How I love to be very pleasantly surprised!!!

I adored reading the Harry Potter books, but I always wished I could hear them read in the appropriate British accent. Jim Dale is not only an excellent reader of the books, he creates remarkable voices for each character. His readings have given me new insight into the books. I recommend purchasing any of the audio CDs of the Harry Potter books, as read by Jim Dale.

After the brilliant Prisoner of Azkaban expectations were running very high.
Fortunately, Rowling delivers yet again.
Another book that was almost impossible to put down.
Azkaban was shorter, but this one is really long.
Its length didn't deter anyone from reading through it in record time, including me.
Adding even more drama and action and a story line that was simply amazing, Goblet of Fire succeeds on every level.
Goblet adds a more mature theme to the series as the characters get older, which adds even further depth to the series.
Another winner from Rowling and another must have/must read.
Recommended!!!

Title: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Author: J.K. Rowling
Date: July 8, 2000
Publisher: Scholastic press
Reading Level: Ages 9-12
# of Pages: 734
Genre: Fiction

In this fourth edition the main character Harry Potter is now 14 years old. Of course, Harry is still that same boy from book one with the lightning bolt scar, only now he is slightly older and he begins to understand the challenges that face him ahead. It seems like just another year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry until the Tri-Wizard Tournament is announced and Harry is mysteriously entered into the tournament as a contestant. The Tri-Wizard Tournament is a magical competition that tests the contestant's bravery, knowledge, and magical skill. Along with the tournament readers are introduced to two other magical schools (Durmstrang and Beauxbatons) and get a rare glimpse of the wizarding world during the Quidditch World Cup. Again, Rowling combines her vivid details of the wizarding world to paint an amazing picture that allows the reader to revel in even the smallest details that make Harry Potter so special. Along with the death-defying Tri-Wizard Tournament, Harry must now focus on the return of Lord Voldamort and his death eaters. Once again, Rowling also introduces a few new characters into the story, both good and evil. A new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor arrives at Hogwarts and some problems are created by house-elves throughout the story. The positive about this book is that they first third of the book spent reviewing the previous three Harry Potter books, so even if you have not read them you can start at book four and have a good idea of what is happening. Also, many points of the plot are left open leaving room for book five.
There really is not a negative to this book. Honestly, after reading the first three books I was leery that Rowling was not going to be able to continue writing such engaging stories, but once again she proves that she is able to keep the magic alive. Rowling does an excellent job of reintroducing the main characters and keeping her faithful readers engaged.
Personally, this is my favorite book from the popular series. Rowling is able to take this story to a new level by creating a slightly darker version of the popular series and allowing the main characters to experience challenges unseen in the previous books. Goblet of Fire is the first time that a main character actually dies at the hands of Lord Voldamort, the main villain within the series. This is also when Harry Potter, the main character, begins to develop into a young adult and begin to take on the responsibility as the main rival of Voldamort. Overall, this story marks a turn in the Harry Potter books that expresses a more "adult" tone to the story.

I've been reading the "Harry Potter" series sense Gr. 2. The first was ok, the second was mildly intertaining and the third took a giant step in making the series understanding. But the forth is far by the funniest and most clever of the series. I like it how the author (J. K. Rowling) squeezes more information from book to book. It's very understandable and fast to read. If your a fast reader you can probably get to Chapter 3 in about 2hrs. This book is "AR" (Acellarated Reading) and is fun to read. It is worth 32 Points (Awesome). As other books you search for big points this series can take you up far. My friends and I read the "Harry Potter" series and love the films. I heard the other books like books 5-7 have more than fifty Points (I almost threw up it was so high!). I reccomend these books for people who like long stories that make some sense in each book.

Triwizard Tournment ,Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasly.

Harry potter has a horrible life under the commands of the Dursleys. He wants to get to Hogwarts, a wizard and witchcraft school, one of the three, Beaxubutions and Durmstrang. This year the Triwizard Tournment is happening at Hogwarts it hasn't happened in over one-hundred years.

The champions are Viktor Krum, one of the worlds greatest seekers, Cedric Diggory, a fellow hogwarts, Fluer Delacour, a Beaxbutions student, and Harry Potter, himself! The problem is Harry did not put his name into the goblet of fire. He is too young. Who put his name in the goblet of fire?

Draco Malfoy and his gang of Slytherins have badges that say "Vote For Cedric Diggory, The Real Hogwarts Champion". If you press it into your stomach, it says "POTTER STINKS".

The first task is easy for Harry it gets harder and harder until the final task.

I would recommend this book to readers who like fantasy and magic. By Zoe

My family has enjoyed listening to the Harry Potter audio books for several years. Jim Dale's readings include a host of characters with remarkably distinctive voices that carry over from the first book, the Sorcerer's Stone, to the last. He reads with fabulous energy and makes these great stories come to life like nothing I've ever heard before.
The Prisoner of Azkaban is no exception. This audiobook is a fabulous way to enjoy several afternoon in the car or in your favorite chair at home.

A fellow Potter fan pointed out that this book was longer than "Chamber"
My bad.
I must have been confusing the movies. DOH!!!
I blame it on age. :)
As for the book, ahem....
In short, it's brilliant.
All the action and drama of the first two with twists and turns that made it almost impossible to put down.
The Prisoner of Azkaban further advanced the series with slightly more mature themes and an absolutely haunting atmosphere.
This book solidified the series as a force to be reckoned with.
Same as the previous two, highly recommended.

Like the first two Harry Potter books this book is great, it is in this book that parents should beware; it starts to have a few more moments that might scare the younger reader, it takes on a darker side as Harry ages and Voldemort begins to gain his power back, Definately makes you want to continue to read the complete set, this is my second time thru the books and I never tire of reading them. Great Reading for all ages

I liked, is in good condition,parece nuevo, a mi sobrina le encanto thank you !!!! por tener todos estos tipos de libros.

It's a great story, with much more detail and interest than the movie that was based on it. Jim Dale's performance is excellent and really brings life to the characters.

I took off one star because one of the disks was scratched & Amazon cowered behind their policy that they would not allow an exchange of an audio product that was opened.

When I bought this book, I couldn't believe all the 5 star ratings in the reviews. But, now that I've finished it, I have to agree with them. Simply put, this is probably the best computer-related book I've read. In the book's 850 pages, I found a grand total of five minor problems: one was grammatical, two were typographical and two were minor disagreements with how some things were presented. All trivial. Content-wise, if the universities would teach this material and if programmers would follow the methodologies contained in the book, the world of software would be far, far better off. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this book and rate it an Excellent 5 stars out of 5.

This was a great book both for me and my team. I've been in the software industry for many years. I started building a team of developers and needed an easy way to bring novice and experienced programmers together on a similar set of standards. This book provided us with the perfect framework from which to start our team. We've developed several major projects using the principles in this book and have experienced a great deal of success.

One warning, the book gets a bit tedious after the first half. If you're looking to improve your C programming skills, it gets really detailed into pointers and other fun, or not, stuff. Also, the examples are in VB.NET...but you still get the point.

If you're an experienced software developer or a newbee in the world of commercial computer programming this book will give a good kick in the right direction. Steve McConnel will keep you hooked by mixing the right guiding concepts with real-life knowledge and examples.

I'm currently studying computer science and have been reading this in my spare time. Skip your lectures. Just read this book! If you want to construct software in a timely, efficient, and complete manner--this is the definitive book to read. Not dry at all, Steve McConnell covers topics for all experience levels. Even if you're an experienced programmer, you will learn something from this great piece of literature.

I've only gone through the first few chapters thus far. So pending finishing my reading, I'll update this review. Unfortunately this might never happen as I find myself re-reading portions of the book to pick up new ideas and details for software construction!

for all programmers. Shall I say Application Developers? Software Engineers? Whatever the title is, programming jobs are alive and well! This book provides a solid foundation. It is too bad very few American students are interested in this profession.

The average students are all studying business marketing. The good students are studying finance.

At Harvard University, they do not teach Accounting. The best ones, study Economics. There are only 21 students studying Computer Science at Harvard. Yet, parents are paying $220,000 to Harvard and other Ivy League. Truly amazing!

Is there anyway we can change this trend?

This is a great book for anyone going thru a difficult time. I received my book after the death of my son. Took me four years to actually pick it up and I am so glad that I did. It gives me hope for each new day. I just purchased four more to give to friends that I know are struggling. I hope that it can help them as much as it has helped me.

This is one of the most hopeful devotional books I have ever found. If you are having difficulties or going through trials, this devotional will help light your way using God's word and uplifting thoughts, poems, and other writings. This book enriches my relationship with God and helps me trust and rely on Him more. Well worth the money.

Don't buy this and dont read it. If you put small amounts of poison in your food, over time it will kill you. This book has lies, scripture out of context and a God who is like an abusive father who beats children to teach them. This has to be the worst "Christian" labeled book I have encountered in 25 years. Heres a quote that shocked me from Sept 30 / page 369. "Our Almighty God is like a parent who delights in leading the tender children in His care to the very edge of a precipice and then shoving them off the cliff into nothing but air."
My Almighty God is not like that at all, and neither is my Jesus. There are many such statements and quotes throughout this work to render it with the label of "poisoned bread". It will destroy your faith or seriously distort it over time and bring ruin to your relationship with God. It even makes reference to Jesus being our Elder Brother! I was LDS at one time and that is a big lie. We are Gods creations and handiwork, Jesus was God the creator incarnate. We do not have his nature, and we are adopted. I am considering burning this to keep warm on a winter night instead of giving it to someone and spreading spiritual sickness. Best advise I can give is read the Bible. Try the Gospels, Psalms, Proverbs,or Pauls letters. Why settle for trash when you can have treasure. Test all things...Don't be decieved...If any of you lacks wisdom, ask God.

I heard about this on GMA. Robin had said that her mother had one and had almost worn it out. I love this journal. It has Bible quotes and messages from individuals along with a place on the side to write your own notes. The one I purchased is leather and the quality is unspoken. I loved it so much I bought one for my Sunday School teacher. I imagine my will be worn and fraziled someday. I would recommend this journal to anyone.

This is a wonderful devotional. I give them to anyone going through hard times. They have always thanked me for such an inspirational gift. Each day in this book seems to address a need you may have at the present time of reading. I highly recommend.

The absolutely best, most comprehensive reference for the serious fly tyer. It teaches you ALL the components of the artificial fly and 10 ways to tie each variation. No fly tyer should be without this incredible guide. Ted is the best in the business of writing about fly tying, fly fishing, equipment, etc... A consummate professional.

This is by far worth the money you pay for it. This book is mistitled however it should be the fly tier's bible. An absolute must for ANY fly tier rather they're new to the scene or been at for 50 years.

The fly tying bible! must I say more?

Very good and instructional fly tying book.
All aspects of fly tying techniques are covered and assisted with many pictures.

A must book for any fly tier. If you buy a book on fly tying this should be the one. Outstanding quality, and at Anazon price is a great buy.

As a new fly tier "The Fly Tier's Benchside Reference" has the information I was looking for. The text with the pictures makes learning new techniques fun. I would recommend this book to any one that want to learn fly tying.

As far as plentiful quality information on the classical world, this book is number one. Any subject you could possibly think of regarding Greek and Roman history, this book has information followed by a bibliography for further research. This book is great for the serious student of history as well as the average history buff.

"The Oxford Classical Dictionary" is the Standard of the profession - the Gold Standard. This is the reference book you will see on the desks of professional classical scholars. The articles are easy to search for, the explanations are accessible even for the non-pro,& the physical lay-out & size are manageable. There is no other comparable volume for other languages, literatures, & cultures.

The first ever of the "Oxford Companion" & "Guide" series (now covering a growing number of fields)in 1937 was the "Companion to Classical Literature" of Sir Paul Harvey. That set the tone & the bar for all others to follow.I still have my very small volume of the 1st edition(how the books have grown in size over the years!)& use it every week. Although I also possess the 2nd edition OCD, I consult this latest, 3rd edition on a daily basis.

Perhaps the name 'Dictionary' is misleading to the layperson. This book is not in fact a dictionary of the Greek & Latin languages, but written in English. This is an encyclopedia -- "6,000 articles cover everything from the daily life of the ancient Greeks and Romans, to their geography, religion, and their historical figures....w/ comprehensive references to sources and recent scholarly publications." (OUP Catalog)
It's almost impossible to describe what a monument of scholarship this book is, yet it bears that weight lightly. And this book is so much fun too as one jumps around the articles. This is a reference work that you can read for hours. Information on all aspects of Gr.& R. life, literaure, history, anything in the realm of classical civilizations -- you could live in this book, believe me!

Next to a big English dictionary & other foreign language dictionaries, the OCD is the next on the short list of Serious Reference Books One Should Have.
I suppose this review is, perforce, for that interested layperson who wishes to be better-informed ;classical scholars,either pro or semi-pro, already know,love,& use this book.

This edition (the third edition, 1996) has over 6200 entries on 1640 pages! And no, I haven't read them all... This is really wonderful for those times when you come across a new term (whether a person, place or thing) and need some idea as to who (what or where) is being discussed, indicated or alluded to. This Edition, published in 1996, was put together between 1991-1994 and contains matters (such as the Near East) that were barely touched on in earlier editions. But never fear! - The centrality of Greece and Rome has been quite correctly retained. There is, however, a much broader (and self-consciouss) inter-disciplinary focus to this edition. Older readers will likely be annoyed by long bows to feminism, Marxism and postmodernism in some of the essays. Occasionally, the tone and 'politically correct' point of view of some entries can be a bit over the top. If you are either old-fashioned or easily annoyed (and you know who you are) it might be wise NOT to toss out the second edition... But even they might find some of the new 'thematic' entries - on disease, ecology, economy, imperialism, literacy, motherhood, and technology, e.g. - more than occasionally useful. There is even good news for the under-educated - most Greek and Latin terms are translated! But I would prefer that the Greek or Latin and its translation both appear; this compromise would likely satisfy both novices and experts. Unfortunately, the cost of including the original term and the translation would likely cause the publisher to balk. Now, Roman names will probably continue to annoy everyone. If, for example, one looks up Caesar one finds 'See Iulius Caesar'. Now, as I hope we all know, the Romans had three names (using Caesar as an example): Gaius (praenomen), Iulius (nomen), Caesar (cogomen). Pretty much no one, besides Emperors and writers, is listed under the cogomen in this edition - they are almost all listed by nomen. (No, Caesar is not the exception, he was never officially Emperor.) The change of 'Julius' into 'Iulius' is also annoying - especially after being assured (Preface, viii) that "the more familiar form [...] should be preferred." But with a work of this scope and length there will always be a multitude of quibbles and annoyances. One of mine is that I wish the tiny bibliographies that follow some entries were less brief. But all things considered this is a first-rate OCD that will inevitably, after a generation and a half has passed, need to be revised. But such is the fate of all academic reference works. - They are all such slaves to fashion! That said, the general editors, Hornblower and Spawforth, and the area advisers have much to be proud of; 4.5 stars, 5 if the 'politically correct' gestures are toned down and the bibliographical data following some of the separate entries increased.

The Oxford Classical Dictionary is a must for those interested in Ancient history. It is well researched, thorough and easy to use. Its coverage is broad and deep and it is well referenced.

Very good dictionary for someone interested in Greek and Roman antiquity.
I especially like the sections on Greek and Latin pronunciation.

I bought three books to teach myself how to produce DVDs. The Erica Sadun book is for advanced users and was not helpful to me. The Bob LeVitus "Little iDVD Book" is probably one of the most poorly organized and edited books I've ever come across on any subject.

Pogue's "Missing Manual", on the other hand, is comprehensive, clear and well-organized. I've produced about half a dozen DVDs since reading (and re-reading) Pogue's book and it clearly made a huge difference in what I was able to construct using iDVD.

In my opinion, this is the only book you need to read to learn how to produce movies using iDVD.

Beyond teaching readers to work with iDVD, Pogue also offers loads of helpful suggestions about editing in general. This book is outstanding.

I love this book! I was ready to give up trying to use iMovie because of a small glitch that was incurring. After browsing thru the book the very first time I opened it, I came across the trouble I was having with iMovie. Mr. Pogue directed me to the correct settings and I am now having a great time editing my DV movies.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone attempting to use iMovie. There is so much more to this program than Apple addresses in the help file. Mr. Pogue's writing is concise but not out of reach for the average Mac user.

I have many books by Mr. Pogue and I would recommend any of them if you are stumped and need a well explained how-to-manuel.

Can it get any simpler !! ha ha ha ha ha
I found this book to be extremely informative and easy to understand (especially since i am yet to purchace a mac and digital video cammera ).. I will have no hesitation now to go out and purchase a Mac and a Digital cammera .. and feel confident making my first feature film or "Home Movie " LOL

It's OK. It has about the same amount of material as the "iMovie 2 for Macintosh Visual Quickstart Guide" - The missing manual is fatter because it contains additional stories and things that a reader might find amusing, but that are not particular relevant to the topic. The section on movie making basics is very good. For an expanded view see "The Five C's of Cinematography". I thought I would find more information in this book since it is fatter than in the VQG, but it ended up that they are about even in content.

First I have to give props to David Pogue and his Missing Manual series. As a bookseller and computer geek I've long favored the Dummies books as the best entry-level source for third-party information on software. However, O'Reilly made a smart move when they turned their attention on that market and grabbed Dummies standby Pogue to headline the new series. The Missing Manuals (and their mutant-dogcow mascot) are a credit to O'Reilly and a must-have... assuming, that is, that they cover the program you need. The series is still too small, but I'm sure it won't stay that way.

Now, to the book itself. If you need to do something with iMovie, it's in there. That pretty much covers what I need to say in this review, but it doesn't cover everything the book has to offer. Remember back in the 80s when the Mac made desktop publishing a reality, only to unleash a torrent of wretchedly amateurish graphic design? Well, Pogue spends much of the first couple of chapters attempting to prevent that from happening. This book starts off with a very basic primer on video production and how to use your equipment -- assumed to be a typical consumer-grade MiniDV camcorder, but it covers other options as well, particularly video bridges and the like.

The meat of the book discusses iMovie 2's capabilities, including discussions of its weaknesses and how to work around them. Effects, titles, and transitions are discussed in detail, including some useful information on crossfades (never fade straight to black -- instead, you want a black stillframe). Conversion to other formats is also an issue, and a significant part of the book discusses postproduction using QuickTime Pro. Directions are given for converting your work for DVD or VCD as well.

The issue I have with the book is largely its focus on iMovie in MacOS Classic, and the bugs that are present in that version that might not be in the OS X version. Screenshots all come from 9.x, with the only Aqua material being the interface of iMovie itself. I don't mark down for this since the program operates more or less the same, but an inexperienced user may have trouble. (I might note as well that the book works just as well for iMovie 3, which has a superficially different interface but handles more or less identically.)

So, yeah. If you're doing video production on iMovie, this is the book to get, hands down.

This in-depth look into transaction processing provides a wonderful place to start when considering implementation in your application(s). Cover-to-cover, this is an EXTREMELY easy read and doesn't try to be "fancy" or use complicated wording as many other books on the topic do.

Before reading any other transaction books or jumping into API document, this is a MUST MUST MUST MUST read. When developing an application that has transaction support, this is wonderful as a reference in order to include data in presentations, summaries, position papers, internal documentation, etc.

No only will this benefit a general developer, but also benefit people not in the development environment. This allows for clarification of communication between departments without going into API-specific implementation details.

This book is excelent for who want to deep his knowledge in TP. Is very practical with many examples and tips. Funthermore include examples of of transacctions for commercials TP like a MTS (COM + today), Tuxedo, CICS, etc.
Is a book very very recommendable.
bye.

The title of this review is a quote from the book and it summarizes it very nicely. Indeed, the book provides a great deal of information in such a small volume, but many of the things that would have been nice to have are missing and many are just skimmed over.

The best chapters of the book explain in very simple words the principles of transaction logging (along with recovery from a failure), two-phase locking and two-phase commit.

The chapter on transactional communications is not as thorough as the just mentioned ones and pays most attention to transactional message queueing rather than synchronous RPC and peer-to-peer. On top of that, message queues are just transactional, period. No attention is paid to the message queues specifics.

The chapter on transaction processing monitors considers only the three-tier environment with presentation, workflow and transaction tiers.

Other problems ?

The whole chapter with an overview of the existing transaction processing software was useless. You see, product Foo has features A and B, and product Bar has features C and D, so what ? As you read it, certain architecture similarities show through, but it's up to you to analyze it, the book gives no cross-product comparison, no analysis, just a list of acronyms.

Samples in Cobol (duh !) or tangled C-like code. The pictures are less than perfect.

But the biggest problem to me was certainly the lack of real-life information. Specifically, I would better be interested in interaction between transactional and non-transactional systems. An acknowledgement of databases and message queues being the only transactional systems (or not) and the implications of that. Two-phase commit in heterogeneous environment. And so on.

A great introductory book.

Transaction processing is a daunting topic, and this is one of the few books that provides the basics in a clear, understandable manner without overwhelming the reader. Most of the book is focused solely on transaction processing, but it touches on queuing as well, which makes it the ideal first book for anyone who is seeking details that extend beyond pure TP.

I like the way that the authors use real products to reinforce key points made throughout the book. While some of the products are no longer mainstream (indeed, some were never mainstream), the fact that real world implementations are used makes the information realistic. If you are using CICS, MQSeries, Tuxedo or similar products this book will have even more value. I also like the way difficult topics, such as locking, high availability and database recovery are given entire chapters because these topics need to be thoroughly understood in order to completely understand transaction processing.

After reading this book you will be armed with sufficient knowledge to make intelligent choices in selecting the right approach for transaction processing in a system design, or to understand the nuts and bolts of any TPM that you are supporting. I also agree with Cem Kaner's earlier comments that this book is an ideal resource for software test professionals who need to understand the entire environment that they will be testing. If you want to go deeper into TP, I recommend "Transactional Information Systems: Theory, Algorithms, and the Practice of Concurrency Control" by Gerhard Weikum and Gottfried Vossen, which drills much further down into the details of both transaction processing and queuing systems.

This book was written in 1997 which is often considered ancient in "Internet-years" but it is still very relevant because it focuses on fundamental principles of transaction processing (TP) rather than the latest whiz-bang technologies that optimize TP.

For those of you who aren't TP experts, a transaction is a computer operation that meets the ACID test. ACID here stands for:

Atomic - the steps that comprise transaction succeed or fail as one, there is no partial success.

Consistent - the internal data structures of the system(s) remain consistent with business rules.

Isolated - the data read or manipulated by the transaction is not altered during the duration of the transaction's execution.

Durable - the results of the transaction are persisted

Why does this matter to the system user or stakeholder? The canonical example is that of the ATM machine (or the "handy bank" if you're Australian). When you withdrawl money from an ATM, it has to go out and validate you have enough funds to meet the withdrawl, reserve those funds, and dispense cash - all within the same transaction. If the ATM failed after your bank account had been debited but before you'd gotten your money, you'd be very upset; conversely if the cash was dispensed but the debit procedure failed, the bank would be very upset. Ted provides very amusing analogy for this using a wedding ceremony but you can read that in his book.

There's a whole lot more to transaction processing beyond ACID and the ATM example, including two-phase commit (TPC), high-availability, massive concurrency, and crash recovery. To find out about all of these topics, read the book. One thing to remember though is that most application developers will never have to deal with the extremely complex details of providing a working and robust transaction management implementation, but like any technology it's important to understand the technology's fundamental principles and mechanics to effectively use it.

The book itself is extremely dense. The content of the book is "only" 324 pages long but covers a large amount of ground in a good amount of detail. Definitely read in a quiet place free of interruptions with a strong cup of coffee.

One shortcoming of the book is that it was written in 1997 so it doesn't cover TP implementations in Java (e.g. JTA, EJBs, etc.) but it was nice to finally find out what the heck IBM's CICS and IMS products are.

Interestingly enough, I have never had to deal with complex transaction processing (i.e. two-phase commit) in my short IBM career. This is probably because I've worked on business-to-consumer (B2C) applications where only one data source is involved rather than a business-to-business system where multiple data sources are involved. I'll have to ask the B2B guys if they get heavy into two-phase commit or if it's not an issue.

The reason I read this book is because I've always been a bit mystified by Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs). When I joined IBM, I knew the word, but I was not familiar with such topics as object-relational persistence, object remoting, and transaction processing, so to me EJBs were simply things that took four classes/interfaces to do what I could do in one simple POJO. Ted Neward, in a very interesting web interview on the Serverside.com mentioned that he used to think EJBs were completely worthless, but during the process of writing Effective Enterprise Java came to realize that they were not worthless but rather over-marketed. He said that they should have been called Transactional JavaBeans rather than Enterprise JavaBeans because transactions are what EJBs did very well. So, hearing this from Ted I decided to read a book on fundamentals of transaction processing, so that I could understand EJBs better. Now that I've read all about TP principles, I pick Richard Monson-Haefel's book again, and all of a sudden EJBs start to make a lot more sense.

great book, a must have! if you do not have this book you are not a C# developer! =)

The "In a Nutshell" series has long been my favorite's. I am glad they did C# again with .NET 3.0. The format of the book changed quite a bit with a much better format and lenghthy explainations and demonstrations. I truly hope they redo ADO.NET in a nutshell as that was my favorite as well.

This book is all you really need on C# and .NET framework. [I have many others, but always find myself coming back to this, and for good reason]

Pure awesome - if you're a good programmer already and want the skinny on what's new (or even great explanations on what you already think you know), spend the $10-$15 and buy this book. I love it and I buy every version they put out. There just aren't enough people like Joseph and Ben writing tech books!

sits on my desk as a reference when I encounter something I cannot remember or just need to brush up on!

For those who has experience with object-oriented programming, this is an excellent book both for learning C# and for being used as a reference book on the desk. The examples are carefully designed in general but can be made better in a couple of places.