Software Books

This book provides excellent coverage of the subject. I found it to be accurate and to contain the details I needed.

I have little to add to the effusive praise of previous reviewers. This is a one-of-kind book. An instant classic.

Beware, however. As others have noted, this is definitely an _advanced_ book. If you're not comfortable with arcane command syntax, bits and bytes, and such this will be painful to incomprehensible for you. On the other hand, I dare say you will never be a true Master Debugger until you have a good grasp of this material.

You would do well to start with Debugging Microsoft .NET 2.0 Applications or the now-unavailable Debugging Applications for Microsoft .NET and Microsoft Windows. Both will give you an easier introduction to WinDbg. The latter, older volume has much more information on native code debugging than the newer version. As they also cover the Visual Studio debugger in detail, most developers need go no further than one of these.

Note that WinDbg _can_ be used with SOS and ADPlus to do some pretty fancy .NET debugging that isn't possible with Visual Studio alone. For that matter, the .NET CLR on Windows is implemented using the same Windows API as any native application. I've seen WinDbg used to trace bugs through C# application code down to find that the defect was actually in the CLR or Windows itself. John Robbins (author of the previously mentioned books) states in Chapter 6 of the latest version that "in our consulting work at Wintellect, which as you know works on the toughest bugs, we use WinDBG nearly 70 percent of the time."

Don't ignore this book just because you program in .NET!

Watch out for the font used in the listings though. Not being a master myself, I've been stumped for quite a while because the letter 'l' looks like the number '1' in the font they use. (I've been assiduously following the examples line-by-line).

I also recall being stumped because of an error or two in the text, though I admit I can't find them now. These as you can imagine could be a serious problem given the arcane and undocumented nature of quite a bit of the material. Just make sure you check the errata periodically. Ironically, the errata web page for the book is not functioning at the moment...

Chapters on debugging heap/stack corruptions are simply invaluable. Worth reading even if you think you know everything about those issues, this book will easily prove you wrong.

A very good hands on book with many gems of knowledge. It walks you through the processes of different debugging techniques with easy to follow screen shots. I definitely recommend this to anyone writing Windows OS dependent code and it is even a very good book to read even if you are a .Net or Java developer on the windows platform. Even if you consider yourself advanced in this area you will still find a few new tricks.

This book has completely smashed every possible expectation I had when I set out to read it.

Let me put it simply. There comes a time in every software developers' life when he contemplates the age old question of, "If I were to be stranded on an island and I could bring only 3 things with me, what would they be?" Well, this would be one of the 3 items. (The other two would be Windows Internals by Russinovich and some other obvious classic like the Windows via C/C++ by Richter, or UNIX Network Programming by Stevens). This book is easily on the same playing field as such classics as those, and its only flaw is that it is not 1,000 pages because when a book like this comes along, you really just don't want it to end. There is so much useful information in here.

The chapter on LPC debugging is worth the price of the book alone, as LPC is completely undocumented and you literally will not find this type of information anywhere else. Every single chapter in this book is filled with gems, and with the plethora of average books being released recently, it really took me by surprise to read such a well thought out book that hits all the right topics in all the right ways.

That being said, it is advanced. Yes, I realize the title says it, but too many books come out with the word Advanced in the title that are merely Intermediate. You need some assembly language, you need to be comfortable with native code, you need to not be frightened at the thought of debugging something for which you have no source code. But for those that meet the pre-requisites, this is a must-have in every sense of the word for the serious developers' bookshelf.

This fall I learned that Priscilla Maine was a distant cousin. In the course of getting to know her, I learned she was an author. Being curious about her work, I requested "Angels Unaware" as a Christmas gift. I sat down with my autographed copy and couldn't put it down! Priscilla's characters became so real to me that I began feeling what they felt. I found myself frustrated with the people for not accepting Rebecca, angry at the attitude about unmarried nurses (I am a nurse myself), and ready to strangle the haughty Reverend. Angels Unaware is a vacation for the soul. Share it with someone you love. As for me, I can't wait to read "Journey of the Eagle".

Priscilla Maine is a gifted writer who breathes life into her characters in this beautiful book. ANGELS UNAWARE provides escape from the here and now, whisking readers back to an earlier time. The hardships of the period are drawn in such detail that it makes one appreciate the convenience of running water and electricity. Having read this book, I eagerly anticipate Maine's next, which I have now purchased, JOURNEY OF THE EAGLE.

Angels Unaware is one of the best books I've read in a very long time. The characters are unforgetable, and the story is very interesting. Details from that time period add to the continuity of the story, and it is obvious that Priscilla Maine did a lot of research before writing this work. The theme of having faith in God is not lost; neither is it pounded in. Rather, it is woven into the fabric of this book. I look foreword to reading the next book by this author.

Angels Unaware, by Priscilla A. Maine, is a powerful, well-researched historical novel. The author's own spirituality shines through as she recounts the strength and determination required of a woman, alone, who takes her medical skills and strong religious beliefs to the hill country of southeastern Oklahoma. Rebecca Rice isn't satisfied to live out her life in the manner expected of a middle-aged widow in the 1890s. Much to her brother and sister's consternation, she ventures into the backwoods to serve people who have no access to adequate medical care or spiritual guidance. Rebecca relishes the challenges of her mission, eagerly casting away a way of life that leaves her "empty and unfulfilled." After several days of travel, she arrives at her new home--a dilapidated, vermin invested cabin. But making the cabin habitable is the easy part of Rebecca's new life. She encounters hill people resistant to her offer of service, people who harbor deep-seated prejudices and fears. For the first many months, Rebecca's only friends are a young woman who at first appears to be retarded; an old, gnome-like woman, accepted as a healer in the backwoods; and an orphaned wolf cub who becomes her constant companion and protector. She teams up with "Ole Woman" and accompanies the healer when she makes her rounds to families in the area. Although largely ignored by the hill people, Rebecca at last feels as though she is moving toward her goal of faith healing. Throughout this insightful book, Angels Unaware brings the reader to an understanding of the hardships endured in this isolated hill country where superstitions and ignorance often prevail making health improvements and spiritual development a slow, arduous process. I found myself aching with Rebecca's effort to help people so resistant to her faith healing and rejoicing with each hard-won acceptance. Angels Unaware weaves spirituality, medicine and the complex lives of hill people into an unforgettable story of grit and courage. I highly recommend this entertaining novel.

Mary E. Trimble Reviewer

"Angels Unaware," by Priscilla A. Maine takes its title from the Hebrews Biblical text 13:2 "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." The theme's in Maine's book serve this homily well, as her characters learn what it means to untangle old hates and prejudices in order to extend their gifts and create a community together.

"Angels Unaware" shows us lives of strength, courage, and grace laced with ingenuity and hardwork. Almost every character goes through convincing change throughout the course of the book--even the villain of the piece (you'll have to read to find out this surprise).

Priscilla Maine says, "My great-grandmothers came West with a wagon load of dreams. They birthed and buried their infants alone, plowed fields, outlived husbands, tragedies, and trumphs that inspire my writing." Those fore-mothers, reading over Maine's shoulder must surely be proud of how she continues their heritage.

--Janet Grace Riehl, author Sightlines: A Poet's Diary

I bumped into this book by way of "Head First PMP", also written by Stellman and Greene. Because I liked the PMP resource so much, I thought I should give this book a chance and I was not disappointed. Packed with useful information, case studies and examples, this book is a resource any technical project manager will want to have in their collection.
One bonus I did not count on was the companion website which includes downloadable templates, PPT slides and other electronic assets.

Highly recommended!

This is a nice book, everything about it is so neat and nice. I am glad I purchased this book from Amazon.

Applied Software Project Management
Reviewed by Steven D. Sewell, PMP
Project Management Institute, Tampa Bay Chapter

Having been peripherally involved as a software release project team member in the past, I knew enough to get my piece of the puzzle delivered. The information in this book allows me to broaden my perspective and actually comprehend the picture I see on the puzzle box cover. The book is written in a straight ahead manner. If you are one who like examples of what is being discussed, then this book is for you. The use of clear definitions makes each topic understandable and the analogies make them memorable. Tables and scripts are used throughout to exemplify each tool and technique. Most useful in practice are the sections that aid in the diagnosing of problems that can be encountered. This book definitely hits its goal of delivering a practical guide into the hands of a software project manager. The only improvement would be to have "handbook" or "guide" placed somewhere on the cover.

This book covers concisely all the modern aspects os software project management, without the complexity found in more formal PM sources like the PMBOK. Moreover, the job of translating the broad and general concepts covered in the PMBOK to practical day-to-day scenarios is the major benefit from buying it. It won't, however, cover an specific issue like estimation to the level that enables you to be an estimator (this subject, for instance, is only 17 pages long), but will provide you the guidelines and references to additional material to do so.

Do you work for a software organization who where there are chronic problems producing software on schedule and without defects? If you do, then this book is for you! Authors Andrew Stellman and Jennifer Greene, have done an outstanding job of writing a practical book that describes the specific tools, techniques and practices that a project manager needs to put in place in order to run a software project or fix an ailing one.

Stellman and Greene, begin by showing you the vision and scope document. Then, the authors cover the wideband delphi estimation process. They continue by covering project schedules. Next, the authors show you how to do an inspection. Then, the authors discuss use cases. Then, they show you how to do configuration management. The authors continue by showing you how to test plans. They also introduce you to practices, tools, and techniques to your organization's culture. Next, the authors show you why it is important to understand responsibility, authority and accountability. Then, they show you how to prevent the most common sources of failure in outsourced projects. Finally, the authors show you why it's important to understand when process improvement is useful and when it isn't.

A project manager can use this most excellent book to diagnose and fix the most serious problems that plague software projects. More importantly, this book contains essential project management tools, techniques and practices, which have been optimized to be as straightforward and easy to implement as possible.

This is a very comprehensive, and well-organized security assessment book for Software engineers. Yes, it has everything - all done well. If you are into security assessment and testing and live by it every day, you are still bound to learn a lot, to re-evaluate the things you know, and to genuinely improve your results. If you are a software engineer, it *will* help you build superior applications. If you are just an security enthusiast, you will genuinely enjoy the time spent with this book, and you will find this brick handy more often than previously imagined.

This book is absolutely amazing. The amount of detail they go into for so many subjects -- it's incredible. I particularly enjoyed the section on network protocols. I recommend this to any software engineer -- not just those in security specific positions.

Great job, and I hope to enjoy more material from these wonderful authors!

A must have. Being a security researcher for almost ten years now, and already a CISSP holder, there are times you believe you have seen most of the things, and you know the best of them. This book opens a new way of thinking, it's detailed and accurate and goes in depth on every subject.

A real must have.

Nicolas Krassas, CISSP

This book is The Bible for anyone in the security vulnerability research or security software engineering field. I haven't bought a book and studied it so much before ever. This is one book that will never be off my desk.

The authors of this book are some of the most respected in vulnerability research and theory, and have found many bugs that were years ahead of their time. As expected, they deliver on their prior reputation in this great and incredibly expansive book of knowledge and insight.

If you're tired of reading high-level theoretical books about "building security in" written by people who have no clue what a bug is or how to prevent them, this book is the ideal alternative.

For a hobbyist, it will guide you through practical methodologies about how bug hunting is done and teach you to think like a great vulnerability researcher.

For a developer, it will open your eyes to security oversights in most of the pieces of code you have ever written. Read hard, these bug classes affect the products you are shipping today.

For the security professional, this likely goes not only broader but deeper on lots of issues than you have ever looked, and far beyond any book I've seen. It can be used as page to page read, or a great reference. I personally use it all the time, and have definitely learnt from it. Great job guys!

P.S. Try and spot the 0day.

Like my title of the review reads, if you have computer science background and just starting with PERL, this is the book for you. It teaches PERL the way computer science people are taught programming languages like C, FORTRAN etc. Starts with basics and proceeds in systematic and logical way. It is an easy read and will get you up and running in less than 2 days.

I know several programming languages and wanted to use Perl on my website. Within days I was able to take existing scripts and modify them to use on my site. I was able to generate several program to help maintain the site within weeks. Great book!

This is the first and from what I found "ONLY" book for a novice. I have read numerous titles on Perl and was always left with basic questions. If you want to understand Perl, read this book.

I read Beginning Perl, 2nd Ed (BP2E) to gain some familiarity with Perl 5. I do not plan to really write anything in Perl, but I find myself using other people's code quite a bit! In those situations I would like to know how the code works. I also enjoy being able to make small changes if the code does not work as expected. Perl is basically everywhere, so it pays to understand it to some degree.

James Lee's book is excellent from start to finish. I found his explanations very clear and his writing style lively. He covered just about everything I hoped to read in a book of roughly 400 pages. The book is ideal for the self-educated since it contains exercises with answers in the back. I personally enjoyed learning more about regular expressions in Ch 7, since PCRE is an important part of several network security tools.

It is easy to take a good programming book for granted. I have started and stopped reading several other books written to teach programming because their style is terrible and the assumptions they make confuse the beginner. BP2E is always conscious of what the reader has already seen. The author makes it clear when a briefly mentioned topic will be more thoroughly explained later in the book. Plenty of technical authors could learn from this example.

Even if you plan to read the author's new book -- Beginning Perl 6 (or BP3E) -- you may want to read BP2E. Perl 5 will be with us for many more years, so it pays to understand the material in BP2E. (It's possible that BP3E could demonstrate Perl 5 and 6 syntax, but I doubt it.)

Beginning Perl is a great introduction and resource. It does assume the reader has some basic prior programming experience, but either way it is very logical and easy to follow. The book is well-organized so that you can easily find what you need. There are tips and shortcuts strategically placed throughout the book to help you along the way.

I bought this book very recently, having no prior experience with Perl. I had seen a couple of scripts that other people had written, but since I have minimal programming experience I could only somewhat figure out what they were intended for.

I read the first chapter of Beginning Perl (11 pages), and read bits and pieces of the second chapter (37 pages). Then I began writing my first Perl scripts, using the book primarily for reference. It makes a great reference tool because the index is very thorough and the examples are easy to understand without necessarily reading the entire book in order. About 3 hours ago I couldn't have told you what a subroutine was or how to create a hash, but now I have completed my first interactive program using subroutines, hashes, various types of loops, error-checking, etc. That would have taken me weeks to learn if I had not discovered this book.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning Perl.

This is an excellent book on debugging. Whether you're debugging mechanical systems, electrical circuits, or software, the methodology presented is extremely practical and systematic. The author presents nine debugging rules that can be applied to any problem. The text is well-written, engaging, and humorous. The author also included a wealth of war stories that are worth the price alone. Highly recommended.

This Book Demonstrates How you could debug SOMETHING systematically, from most important principle to least important principle.(All 9 As the Book name said.) The Examples covers software, hardware, electrical, mechanical debugging. It is just amusement to read the example. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Quite liked it. I now have a game plan for approaching bugs in a nonrandom manner (including intermittent bugs):


Understand the System
- Read all related documentation
- Draw a system diagram and understand how things are connected
- Know the capabilities of your debugging tools


Make It Fail
- Start from a clean initial state
- Consider automating lengthy steps
- Make it fail in situ; don't waste time simulating the environment
- For intermittent bugs: list possible factors and try varying them one at a time; output a logfile and look for patterns


Quit Thinking and Look
- Watch it fail
- Use Remote Desktop / VNC
- Add logging and monitors
- Don't start thinking until you've limited the number of possible causes


Divide and Conquer
- Binary search
- Use test data with an easily identifiable pattern
- Start at the failure point and work backwards
- If you discover other bugs that may be related, fix them before continuing your search


Change One Thing at a Time
- Don't panic
- Back out changes that have no effect
- Compare the logfile with that of a good system
- Check earlier versions


Keep an Audit Trail
- Keep a detailed written log


Check the Plug
- D'oh!
- Have the components been properly initialized?


Get a Fresh View
- Try explaining the problem to someone (or something)
- Ask an expert: co-workers, the vendor, documentation, bug database, the web
- Report symptoms (including possibly unrelated observations), but not your theories


If You Didn't Fix It, It Ain't Fixed
- Fix the root cause
- Make the problem happen again by undoing your fix

I worked with Dave Agans for over 10 years and I can tell you first hand the man knows what he's talking about. From developing hand-held controllers in the late eighties to single-board OS/2-based videoconferencing products to software collaboration tools, we have debugged problems of every ilk. Whether the problem was an FPGA bug, a faulty component in a board, a race condition in a device driver or a dangling pointer in a DLL, Dave always approached the problem with his same set of debugging rules, and they never let him down. Read this book. It's engaging and fun to read. But more importantly it will make you a better debugger, whether you're debugging hardware, software or your lawnmower.

This book is absolutely indispensable for anyone working in any job where things occasionally work in an unexpected manner. It's concise, funny, well-written, and full of immensely useful tips on how to go about debugging problems.

One of the great things about this book is that it's generalistic in nature, not specific. Agans's decades of troubleshooting experience has given him great insight on how to go about debugging in all sorts of environments, so he lays out nine rules for approaching any problem:

Understand the System
Make it Fail
Quit Thinking and Look
Divide and Conquer
Change One Thing at a Time
Keep an Audit Trail
Check the Plug
Get a Fresh View
If You Didn't Fix It, It Ain't Fixed

[...]

Debugging isn't an art performed only by folks with some odd genetic disposition, it's a critical craft which can and must be learned. I was fortunate to have some good troubleshooters as mentors during my days working radar inflight in the Air Force, but I've fallen out of many of the good practices those folks beat^H^H^H^Hinstilled in me. Agans's book is helping me pull out of the thrash and churn mode of debugging.

This book's only 175 or so pages long and is well-worth adding to your library. Actually, substitute "a critical addition" for "well worth adding". I'm also going to make sure this book gets added to the professional development reading list I'm working on creating.

Target Audience
Java developers who want to learn how to use the Eclipse IDE or how to develop enhancements for the Eclipse framework.

Contents
This book is a comprehensive coverage of the Eclipse framework, both from the perspective of using the tool and writing extensions to Eclipse.

The book is divided into 3 parts:

Part 1 - Running Eclipse - Getting Started; Using Eclipse; Using Java Development Tools; Debugging Java; Teaming Up With Eclipse; Eclipse Configuration Management

Part 2 - Extending Eclipse - Overview Of The Eclipse Architecture; Getting Started: Plug-in Development; Action Contributions: The Integration Fast Track; The Standard Widget Toolkit: A Lean, Mean Widget Machine; Dialogs And Wizards; Views; Editors; Perspectives; Workspace Resource Programming; Managing Resources With Natures And Builders; Resource Tagging Using Markers; Contributions Revisited; Advanced Plug-in Development; Creating New Extension Points: How Others Can Extend Your Plug-ins; Serviceability; Developing Features; Providing Help; OLE and ActiveX Interoperability; Swing Interoperability; Extending The Java Development Tools; Building A Custom Text Editor With JFace Text

Part 3 - Exercises - Using Eclipse; Using The Java Development Tools; Debugging Java; Using CVS With Eclipse; Modifying Your Configuration With Update Manager; Using The Plug-in Development Environment; Feature Development And Deployment

Review
As an IBM software developer using Domino and Notes, I'm hearing more and more about WebSphere Studio Application Developer. That's the IBM WebSphere Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that is built upon the Eclipse framework. But just what is Eclipse, and why is it so important to you as a developer? This book will help you answer those questions.

The book serves two purposes. Part 1 of the book will allow you, as a Java developer, to understand how to use the tool to code and test your programs. They also devote coverage to how CVS, the open source version control tool. Even if you're not interested in extending the Eclipse tool for your own use, this first part of the book would be worth the purchase.

Part 2 gets into how the Eclipse framework can be used to write your own tools to integrate into the environment. Granted, this part of the book won't necessarily appeal to everyone, as some of you will only want to use the core functionality of Eclipse as an IDE. But you can think of this section as a lesson on the internal architecture of Eclipse. The more you understand about the tool, the more effective you can be with it.

And finally, you have the third part of the book that consists of a number of exercises to bridge the gap from theoretical to practical. Taken as a whole, working through this entire book will give you a solid foundation in Eclipse.

And for Notes/Domino professionals... I think a case could be made that you should seriously consider buying this book to prepare for your future. ND8 is projected to be a rich client built on this platform. By reading up on it now, you'll be prepared for what's coming. And if you're a business partner who builds tools for the Notes/Domino client, you'll need this information to start to figure out how you can transition your business in the future. Don't let it sneak up on you.

Conclusion
If you're thinking about diving into the Eclipse world, get this book. And if you're already an Eclipse user but want to make changes to your environment, this book will give you the information you need to start down that path.

Learning Eclipse, the open-source IDE and tool platform, can be a
daunting task. While a plethora of on-line resources exist for
learning.... knowing where to start, and
remembering what you've read, can be challenging. Finally a book
with much of this in one place: The Java Developer's Guide to Eclipse.

As a long-time lover of books, expecially Java books, I find that
learning from online resources on the web can be sufficient, but
often it's hard to know what you've read, where you stopped, where to
find something, etc. Especially when you're learning something very
new, or very complex, having it all in your hands can be comforting.
(And you don't have to close the book during takeoff and landing.)

Written by Eclipse experts with experience using *and teaching* other
developers in its use, the chapters and exercises are well thought
out. The authors are instructors with experience in teaching Eclipse
to software developers, so have a good knowledge of Eclipse and how
to present and explain it.

This book contains three parts: Using Eclipse as an IDE for
Java developement, Extending Eclipse with plug-ins, and exercises
for all of the above. While a few other books are available on using
Eclipse as an IDE, this is by far the most comprehensive
book on extending it by developing plug-ins.

This book is unique in its thorough coverage of plug-ins (extending
Eclipse: want a new popup menu? code reformatter? Write it yourself!)
but don't overlook its good introduction to using the
Eclipse IDE itself for developing Java code, as well as a great
chapter on using CVS and the Eclipse interface to CVS
code respository that is part of the standard download.

The exercises on using Eclipse and building plug-ins are great, and often walking through the exercise
(resources included on the CD with the book) reinforces or sheds
additional light on what is covered in a chapter. At times
I jumped directly to the exercise after only briefly reading
the associated chapter information, and the hands-on learning
accomplished in this manner was great for this impatient Java
developer.

I took the IBM class with the same name as the book, and found
the exercises in the book similar, if less extensive than, those
included with the course. But the basics are there, including
the exercise that introduces action sets etc. that I referred
to several times in my first plug-in development. A lot of my
code started with the exercise code and grew from there. As I worked
through subsequent chapters and exercises, I came to a clearer
understanding of what had been done in the previous code imported
in the exercises, yet I was already up and running in terms of
developing my plug-in.

The book is written to Eclipse 2.0, with a few comments regarding
changes for version 2.1. While it would be nice to have the minor
2.1 changes reflected in the book, I know the authors had to stop
somewhere to get published. This was the first Eclipse book
published, I understand.

Excellent, and highly recommended for all Java developers wanting
to use Eclipse, and especially for those wanting to develop
plug-ins for extending Eclipse to their own applications.

This helpful and extremely well-written book is really many books in one. The Java Developer's Guide to Eclipse provides a coherent, organized, and well-written reference for using the Eclipse platform and developing plugins. In addition to the basics, the book covers such advanced topics as Eclipse Configuration Management and Providing Help. One section of the book provides a comprehensive set of exercises that enable you to get hands-on experience working with Eclipse.

The book is organized into three sections, each geared towards a different level of experience with Eclipse. While you may make use of all three sections, the organization of the book helps you to quickly find and focus on the material that you need.

The information provided with Eclipse and the Web sites that support it is considerable. The great aspect of this book is that it offers so much usable content in one convenient source, while providing additional information to supplement the online help already provided with Eclipse.

I was initially disappointed that this book did not cover JUnit and that it was based on Eclipse 2.0; however those issues aside this book is a great resource on Eclipse written by folks on the development team. I am using Eclipse 2.1.1 and there are some differences for some things, but most are minor. The book is divided into three parts with Part Two having two sections. Part One focuses on the Eclipse development environment. In this section, there some very good tips about using Eclipse. I particularly liked the chapter on using CVS with Eclipse. There was some practical advice given about how to deal with issues one would encounter in projects while using Eclipse and CVS.

In chapter one, the authors challenge Eclipse veterans to read it with "bet you didn't know how to ...". There are some great keyboard shortcuts and other features of Eclipse that surprised me. There is a blind programmer on our staff that will get great mileage out the keyboard shortcuts.

Part Two is about creating plug-ins for Eclipse. At first, I was moderately interested in some plug-ins, but after digging into this section, I already have a couple of plug-in ideas that I want to pursue. The authors make it seems like a very natural thing to do. Part Three is composed of exercises on using Eclipse for Java development, with CVS, for debugging, for updating your Eclipse, for Plug-in Development Environment (PDE), and for feature development. The exercises are step-by-step instructions relating to certain chapters in the previous parts. Read the chapters first, but do these exercises!

If you are using Eclipse for development, this book has a wealth of information from those in the know. After all, WSAD is basically a bunch of Eclipse plug-ins.

Back in 80's when unix network programming was a black art, Stevens book on Unix Network Programming showed the way to common programmers about how to write something magical in unix/c/sockets. I can only compare this book with the same spirit.

By reading the book and practicing the exercises in the accompanying CD, it is almost guaranteed someone will not only become a good java programmer but it will also help to extend and share the knowledge of creating tools. Writing good code in java is not simple. This book clearly explains what is really needed from a user perspective to become a good programmer and team-oriented productive resource using eclipse.

The first part explains what a freely available Eclipse can do for you. This is the most comprehensive introduction I have seen so far. It will teach you the smartest way to deal with java projects from a life cycle perspective - create, test, debug and maintain. Each chapter is clear and concise. Tips and tricks are every where.

The second part explain that extending and customizing eclipse is no rocket science. It is hard in a way but definitely manageable even for a starter. Referencing eclipse api is a must while reading this part. I wish some concise reference (like O'Reilly's "...nutshell" book style) would have helped the programmer a lot.

The third part is a gem. Added to the explanation of materials of each chapter, it went far beyond. Just by practicing the examples will take the user to a commanding position. This part also makes the book a handy desk reference on using eclipse tools. I'd also recommend the reader to take a look at the eclipse.org site to check the plug-ins. A lot of them are very useful and free too.

Overall, this book is excellent. In my opinion, this book is one of the major contributors to the community in the increasing the popularity of using eclispe tools, customizing and enhancing it.

Mr. Baxley has an insightful perspective illustrated in his "Universal Model of a User Interface." He simplifies the process of moving from conceptual to concrete interface design by deconstructing applications into two separate layers. The top layer contains the structure, behavior & presentation & the bottom layer contains more granular aspects of the top three. By explaining the key factors in designing each of these layers he makes it easier to understand & integrate all the aspects critical to interface design. If you don't have time to read Rosenfeld & Morville's Information Architecture, be sure to read this book as he covers a lot of key IA issues too, though he prefers to call it the "organizational model" behind an application.

This book is tattered from referencing it and has many passages underlined. Unlike some usability books it is organized in a manner that moves you through the design problem space. It begins with setting definitions and examining the possible forces behind these projects. Then Baxley dives into the meat of the design process through a 3 layered approach. He covers all the bases - from the user point of view to navigation, Help systems, forms, layout and shows how it alI fits into the models within the layers. It is well written, making points clear without repetitive passages. I would recommend this book for beginners and old hands. It is a great book, written following the usability rules he is propounding.

A well-written and coherent overview of the web design process and the specific requirements of web application design.

Some of the useful features of this book are
- well-selected examples
- a description of the product development process
- an excellent description (with examples) of how to develop and use "personas"
- guidelines for when and how to use specific models of interaction in a product
- simple, bullet-pointed summary guidelines for solving interaction and display design problems
- case studies at the end which are evaluated using criteria the author has developed throughout the book

I am a designer working in this field and this is the guide I would recommend for exploring and understanding the practice of web-application design.

The back cover of the book states: "Most people involved in the design and specifications of Web applications, whether they're visual designers, engineers, or product marketers do not have a method for understanding or prioritizing design issues." I agree - however, I would add that those of us who are involved in usability testing / user research should also be added to the list. As a consultant working in the field of user research, I give my clients this book - the main reason being that it gives us a common vocabulary and way to think about how to conduct usability testing or user research at any stage of the Web development process. While not written to do so, the book actually provides a "template" for what needs to be tested / researched at each stage. This type of organized thinking can only help those of us in the trenches provide meaningful feedback. One request of the author - a sequel entitled "Applying the Principals of Making the Web Work to User Research" - (while not necessarily the best title - you get the idea!)

An impeccably-organized encyclopedia of web design.

If I had to base an entire web design class on a single book this would be the one. Bob Baxley's "Making the Web Work" is easily the most comprehensive manual for applying good design to create a great user experience on the web. This book has both breadth and depth-just look at the table of contents. Regardless of your level of web design proficiency you will find more than your money's worth of useful insight here (even if you have already read just about every other web design book!).

One thing I especially like about this book is that Bob doesn't provide a single solution for a design challenge, but takes time to present and evaluate (pro/con and why) several alternatives. He doesn't just feed you the "right" answers the way Jakob Nielsen does in his "Designing Web Usability." Bob's approach will help you gain a thorough understanding of the options and make informed design decisions.

The two case studies of Amazon and Ofoto included at the end of the book are the most comprehensive I have seen: they're about 30 pages each!

About the only gripe I have is that Bob takes the liberty of using lesser known versions of some terms without providing their more known synonyms. For example, while Lou Rosenfeld and Peter Morville have all but established the terms "ambiguous" and "exact" for the two types of classification schemes, Bob prefers to call them "subjective" and "objective," respectively, without providing the alternative terms. Similarly, "organization scheme" is replaced by "classification scheme", and "organization structure" with "model of association." My IA students have enough difficulty keeping one set of terms straight!

Overall, however, this one serious web design book. Highly recommended. Other books I liked: "Interface Design for Ecommerce Applications" by Paul Gokin (search for this one on the web), "Designing Web Site Interface Elements" by Eric Eaton, and "Submit Now: Designing Persuasive Websites" by Andrew Chak.

I got this book because i need it when i am working in my intern. This book is good for beginners and little above. It is easy to understand and the quality is great. It worth more than it cost.

This is an excellent book! Stanek's Pocket Consultant books go far beyond the typical. He always uses his comprehensive knowledge to weave a fabric that balances the aim of a program with the fiddling details that drive admins crazy. As soon as I had skimmed the IIS book I set it aside and read one section a day. Nothing escapes his eye, every section clears up something that I had always wondered about. Great stuff!

One of the good books in the market about IIS 6.0.

People who are interested MUST have a look at

MCPMAG(Redmondmag) IIS 6.0: Step-By-Step Mega-Guide, Part I & II as a quick reference.

This book is really worth every penny it costs. It is packed with useful information, well written, intelligent, and enjoyable to read. Just the chapters on IIS applications, side by side .NET configurations, and pooling are worth the whole book: it goes through every detail.

The in-depth coverage of every other subject is as accurate as it gets. I particularly appreciated the chapter about customization. But the book goes as far as covering in perfectly understandable terms the metabase, and more. Not to mention the incredibly accurate chapter about optimization.

This is an easy to read book with the detail you would expect from a pocket consultant. The author doesn't waste time with the basic chit-chat and does a good job of laying out the useful material.

Content includes initial setup, backup, performance monitoring/tuning and more advanced features such as registry and metabase settings. Advanced readers will eventually want to search for further information on some of these topics (scripting for example), but this is to be expected. The books leaves you feeling comfortable with what you've learned and with a good feel for where you might want to expand your learning in the future.

Most of my computer books end up getting re-sold or trashed, but I'll be keeping this one on the shelf for myself and others to use in the future.

This book is a MAINSTAY in my reference library. Though I do only limited back-end development in the applications I work on, this is the first book I look for when I need to be pointed in the right direction. I highly recommend it!

I bought this book as a complete Oracle novice, transitioning from Microsoft T-SQL to PL/SQL. I was worried about the transition being difficult until I read this book.

It is one of those very rare books that presents advanced concepts in a context understandable by users of all experience levels. The author often throws in tips about Oracle PL/SQL quirks to watch out for, as well as some very applicable information about how Oracle works internally.

I've since become more comfortable with PL/SQL, and the book also serves as a great reference. I highly encourage you to read this book straight through.

I recommend this well-written book to anybody wanting to learn PL/SQL, as well as anyone needing a great reference.

Although the information was accurate and useful, I think the strength of this book was it's clear and logical presentation. It is easy to read and very helpful. For example, I needed to know how to dynamically build the "where" clause for select statements and his chapter on DBMS_SQL gave me the tools to accomplish my task at work.

This is definitely an excellent book. No one should rank it less than 5 stars just because it was published in 1996. Please do some research before talk. Actually, Scott Urman has wrote a book, "Oracle8 PL/SQL Programming", which was published in 1997. Buy this one if you want to learn PL/SQL 8.0.

Oracle 8 is out and in this book it only covers to Oracle 7. It is a very well written book. It is a valuable reference however it was published in 1996. Still looking for Oracle SQL Plus 8.0 AND the PL/SQL Programming. I hope the author steps up to the plate and updates his work.