Editorial Review

COM (Component Object Model) forms the foundation of OLE and ActiveX as well as Microsoft's vision for componentized, distributed computing. Read more

Reviews (96)

An excellent book on COM
This is much more than a COM book. The book spends a lot of time in the first half talking about the more general concept of interfaces, which is more of a software design topic. Then he shows how to implement those interfaces using C++ abstract classes and gives a very good discussion of inheritence, polymorphism, and virtual function tables. Everything is done in pure C++ so you can see what is going on. No wizards or macros to hide the details. The diagrams were very helpful.
Technical, clear and succinct
I have been using COM for a while, then finally decided to dig further into its design paradigm and some implementation details. This book assumes knowledge of C++ and a lot of understanding of polymorphism. If you don't understand polymorphism, then it will be very hard to understand this book - but if you do, you will really enjoy reading it.
Great book uses simple C++ coding style for presenting COM
This is an excellent COM starting book. The author progressively builds knowledge and uses a C++ style that does not require you to memorize by heart the function, macro or template presented in page X or in windows.h. This simple, no distractions approach facilitates focus.
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Subjects:  1. C++ (Computer program language)    2. Computer Books And Software    3. Computers    4. Computers - Languages / Programming    5. Object-Oriented Programming    6. Object-oriented programming (Computer science)    7. Programming - Object Oriented Programming    8. Programming Languages - General    9. Computer Hardware & Operating Systems    10. Networking packages   

Reviews (2)

Up To Date View of the State of the Art
This book is a collection of forty-seven articles around the common theme of shading images in real time. Many of these effects have been common in the movie world for many years, but in that application the shading can be done on very expensive machines and the time it takes to produce an image is not important because the resulting image is to be shown on screen rather than immediately on a display. Now, with the increasing power in the PC's in widespread use, these techniques are being brought down to the standard desktop.
A comprehensive collection of ready-to-use techniques
Shader X3: Advanced Rendering With DirectX And Open GL compiled, organized, and deftly edited by Wolfgang Engle (Senior Special FX Engineer at Wings Simulations) is packed from cover to cover with 630-pages of insightful new techniques, innovative approaches to common problems, as well as practical tools and tricks that will help in all areas of shader programming. All of the articles comprising Shader X3 evolved from the the working experiences of industry professionals, and all of the sections were expertly edited by shader programming experts. This comprehensive collection of ready-to-use techniques will enable even the most novice programmer to get up to speed quickly, and the more experienced programmers will find a wealth of insights and techniques to improve efficiency and avoid redundancies. Shader X3 is an essential, "user friendly", and highly recommended instructional reference for shader programmers.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Graphics - Design    3. Computer Graphics - Game Programming    4. Computers    5. Computers - Games    6. Video & Electronic - General    7. Art / Graphic Arts    8. Computer graphics software   

Reviews (51)

This book is GREAT!..
Apart from the fact that so many customers gave 5 stars to this book, there's another indicator of its value: it looks like nobody wants to resell it after they are done reading it. I, for one, intend to keep it for reference...
outstanding
I NEVER write reviews; however Mr. Troelsen for this effort has earned it.He has written by far one of the best written tech books on C programming I've ever read, and for COM/ATL this book makes writing interfaces for VB both understandable and accessible.Coverage and background is sufficient, and equally important for those who don't do this every day for a living, the depth in setting up projects in Visual Studio is also there so one unfamiliar with technical setup issues involved in setting up an ATL COM project are enabled to create their own.All I can say is well done, please keep up the good work, very much appreciated.Looking forward to your next releases.
Classic COM and ATL book
Describe low level COM and then ATL internals and interfaces which can let reader easily understand such complex mechanism. Though the book is a little bit old, it can still be served as a good reference. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Active template library    2. COM (Computer architecture)    3. Computer Books: General    4. Computer software    5. Computers    6. Computers - Languages / Programming    7. Development    8. Hardware - Personal Computers - General    9. Microcomputer Application Software    10. Object-Oriented Programming    11. Object-oriented programming (C    12. Object-oriented programming (Computer science)    13. Programming - Object Oriented Programming    14. Programming - Software Development    15. Programming Languages - Visual C++    16. Computer Software Packages    17. Computers / General    18. Object-oriented programming (OOP)    19. Personal computers   

Reviews (15)

The best UNIX programming book that I know of
What's more to say, the title say's it all...Buy it!

Good Coverage
This is an exceptional introduction to Unix features that most people won't see in every-day programming. The feature that Rochkind starts with may be the most problematic: portability. There have historically been dozens of Unices (sp?), all slightly different from each other. Even today, there are a number of different implementations in use, with small but maddening incompatibilities between them. Rochkind not only addresses the more common ones, he shows the standards-based ways of dealing with their differences.
Just right
This book starts at the beginning, assumes very little, and takes you quickly to the essentials you need to know about unix. The text is clear but too verbose - you can actually finish this book, which I find important for programmers who want to get a sound introduction and then get to coding. The new edition is updated for modern unix-like systems. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Web Programming    2. Computer Programming    3. Computers    4. Computers - Operating Systems    5. Operating Systems - UNIX    6. Programming - General    7. UNIX (Computer file)    8. Unix (Operating System)    9. Computers / Operating Systems / UNIX    10. Unix, Unix Linux & Unix TCL/TK   

Reviews (7)

Good, but problematic....
I just passed my 70-271 exam and I do believe this book was an important factor in my score. However this book is problematic.
Don't use this book as a primary study guide
There's a lot of unnecessary info in this book that you won't even see on the exam.The practice questions in the book are way too wordy and confusing.Exam Cram has helped me in the past, but not this time.

Don't buy this book, it's awful.
I believe my email to the editor explains it all.I have copied and pasted it below.
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Subjects:  1. Business Software - General    2. Certification    3. Certification Guides - General    4. Computer Books: General    5. Computer Books: Operating Systems    6. Computer technicians    7. Computers    8. Computers - Accounting Packages    9. Desktop Publishing    10. Electronic data processing personnel    11. Examinations    12. Microcomputer Operating Environments    13. Microsoft software    14. Operating Systems - Windows    15. Study guides    16. Tests    17. Computers / Technical Skills    18. Microsoft Windows   

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. Programming Languages - General    5. Unicode (Computer character set)    6. Computer Programming    7. Computers / Programming Languages / General   

Reviews (17)

Lots of fluff, not much meat
The first half of the this book (200 pages) explains what the registry is and how to change the settings.The next 150 pages give some detail, but misses some very important registery keys.No where in this book does it explain how to turn off autoplay on the CD-ROM.

Microsoft Windows XP Registry Guide
The Registry guide is chock full of tweaks for fine tuning the registry. If you are advanced in computers this should be the book for you. I advise you though to backup anything you do with your registry because you can really mess things up.The book points this out and gives you a better understanding of the inner workings of your computer's registry.I do think some of the concepts could have been more elaborated on but it is clearer than some books I've encountered.
Not For Beginners, Mandatory for Systems Administers
Not for the beginner or the faint of heart. The registry is that thing down at the bottom of the operating system that controls what the Windows XP operating system does.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Operating Systems    2. Computer operating systems    3. Computers    4. Computers - Operating Systems    5. Microcomputer Operating Environments    6. Microsoft Windows    7. Microsoft Windows (Computer fi    8. Microsoft Windows (Computer file)    9. Operating Systems - Windows    10. Operating Systems - Windows XP    11. Operating systems (Computers)    12. Computers / General   

Reviews (3)

a road not taken
There is a whiff of "what-might-have-been" about this book, using the benefit of hindsight. Minix is thoroughly described as a small and impressively documented operating system. It is small enough that if you took the time, you could understand every nook and cranny. From a pedagogic standpoint, it is of great help in nailing down abstract design concepts. Amazingly, the kernel spans only 4000 lines. Nothing at all, compared to linux or other operating systems.
A great introduction to operating systems
This book is written by Tanenbaum, the main guy behind Minix, which is what Linux was based on.It provides good overviews for basic OS concepts like memory management, file systems, processes, etc.The concepts in this book book are intimately tied to examples of the Minix OS, which is a good thing.
Not the best basis for Operating System design
While this book is good explaining theory and demonstrating it in the author's operating system, MINIX, MINIX is an insanely small OS. Now there's nothing wrong with that by default, just keep in mind that any OS you were to write in industry, etc would be way more complex.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Operating Systems    2. Computers    3. Computers - Operating Systems    4. MINIX    5. Operating Systems - General    6. Operating systems (Computers)    7. Computer Hardware & Operating Systems    8. Computers / Operating Systems / General    9. Operating systems & graphical user interfaces (GUIs)   

Reviews (4)

Awesome book for anyone looking to learn low-level
This book fills in most gaps you might encounter while learning about the low-level BSD/Mach aspect of Mac OS X and Darwin.Mach and BSD iokit is described in detail, and there are tons of useful code examples all over the book.This book even explains ipc and pipes very well, and isn't the size of the bible, like other books.It gets to the point as soon as you get past the TOC.

Read This Book
If you're a Mac OS X developer and want to get serious about it, this book is mandatory. It is always on my desk right by the computer, and really is that perfect reference. Nothing really compares to this book, the previous Aaron Hillegass book is rather basic but is more of an introduction. I have a BS degree in CS and even though a lot of this has been covered, the rest of it is done in graduate school. So if you're looking for that little bit extra, give it a shot.

Probably more helpful for people with no/little Unix experience
Although this book is well written in concept, the editing of the final product is awful.There are a great deal of grammatical errors which seemed to me a basic word-processor would have caught.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computers    3. Computers - General Information    4. Programming - General    5. Reference - General    6. Computer Programming    7. Computers / Operating Systems / Macintosh   

Reviews (5)

Some clarification from the author
As the author of Symbian OS Explained, I'd like to clarify the purpose of the book and explain the rationale behind the example code.
Good Reference but don't follow the examples
This book can be used as a good reference but it does not serve the basic purpose.
Nice Reference
This book is great as a reference to help understand various concepts, code constructs and conventions.
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Subjects:  1. C++ (Computer program language    2. C++ (Computer program language)    3. Computer Books: General    4. Computer programs    5. Computers    6. Mobile communication systems    7. Networking - General    8. Operating systems (Computers)    9. Computers / Networking / General    10. Networking packages   

Editorial Review

Networks just aren't homogeneous anymore, despite the best efforts of operating system vendors to bring about the contrary. Many network administrators need to know how to get around in half a dozen operating systems or more; itinerant consultants find themselves in the same boat. Read more

Reviews (12)

Not worth the money
This book portends to be a universal command guide, and in all fairness they managed to get a good number of commands in the text. Unfortunately the ones the missed are significant (e.g. UNIX tar, which is universal in UNIX and Linux). I would not recommend this book for someone looking for help in distinguishing the difference in Linux and BSD commands.

my review on this book
The book is amazing, it has all the commands i need, from windows to UNIX, but the downside of this is it doesn't have the HP-UX version. i hope they release an updated version of this book with the ones they're missing. One more thing is the pages of this book are too thin, one false move might cause the page to break. I hope the next release should more physically better. I hope you release a universal database version too. And for all the authors of this book out there... keep up the good work.

UCG book in research and teaching
I had waited a long time for a book that could serve me as "manual pages" for different operating systems.Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Operating Systems    2. Computer Operating Systems    3. Computers    4. Computers - Operating Systems    5. Interactive & Multimedia    6. Internet - General    7. Networking - General    8. Operating Systems - General    9. Operating systems (Computers)    10. Computer Communications & Networking    11. Computers / Networking / General    12. Operating systems & graphical user interfaces (GUIs)   

Reviews (9)

Very nice and complete introduction book
Before I encountered this book it was quite a bit of frustration in attempt to learn BSD and UNIX to the point I can really use it. For some reason there so many good books in a subject with one of two inclinations: or the book is too theoretical and very little of the real workflow provided or it is too down to earth and it is difficult to understand what is behind the sophisticated command line zingers.
Highly recommended for learning how a kernel works in practice
First of all you should be warned that this is not an introduction to get started with UNIX kernel programming. The Design of the UNIX Operating System by M.J. Bach provides a good general introduction to UNIX kernel programming. The design and implementation of the FreeBSD operating system is an excellent book to deepen knowledge of the UNIX kernel by looking how a current UNIX is implemented in practice. Even if you plan to write code for another kernel, working through the FreeBSD kernel with this book as a guide is a good excercise to become consious of the fundamental problems and solutions in kernel design. FreeBSD (or any of the other BSDs) is a good starting point, because the BSDs have relatively stable kernel subsystems and APIs due to the long cycles in BSD development.
The OTHER freeOS explained
A BSD Bible. I never could read the Bible. I do Believe ...
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Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming    2. Computer Books: Operating Systems    3. Computers    4. Computers - Languages / Programming    5. Free computer software    6. FreeBSD    7. Miscellaneous Software    8. Operating Systems - General    9. Operating systems (Computers)    10. Computers / Operating Systems / General    11. Unix, Unix Linux & Unix TCL/TK   

Reviews (3)

Good at what it does
What it does: lead the reader through the basic concepts of classic operating systems: processes, synchronization, memory, virtual memory, file systems, IO, and security. Each section alternates between text and answered problems, as is usual for a Schaum's Outline. That's very helpful - putting a concept to use on one problem drives the point home better than a hundred pages of reading. The reader who completes this book, working a good number of the problems, will have seen most of the topics presented in a one-term OS class. No problem there.
Excellent supplement
I have over 10 Schaum's guides for my various courses.I would say this OS guide is perhaps the best one along with the Seymour Lipschutz's erudite "probability" (not to be confused with Murray R. Spiegel's befuddled attempt for Schaum's). Mediocre book, disappointing
I was looking for a rigorous review to supplement my Operating Systems course and I found that this book certainly fell short of that.I wanted more practice for the kinds of questions we would get on exams, but many of the topics addressed were treated at too simplistic of a level.Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Operating Systems    2. Operating Systems - General    3. Operating systems (Computers)    4. Study Aids    5. Study Guides    6. Computers / Operating Systems / General    7. Operating systems & graphical user interfaces (GUIs)    8. Study guides, home study & revision notes   

Reviews (7)

Good book.
If you want to learn what is openGL and how to create 3d graphics using this library, this book is perfect. But if you need more, such as collision detection, 3d engine design, game programming ..., you should choose another book.

Required reading for all OpenGL programmers
This is a concise, easy to read tutorial and reference for OpenGL programmers.The examples are easy to reuse and short enough that they don't bog you down in irrelevant details.The book is well organized.You can read it cover to cover or just skip right to the topic that you're interested in.
An Excellent Beginning Reference for OpenGL
When learning computer graphics, theory relies upon some sort of actual rendering environment to make life a lot easier for the programmer.This text helps to alleviate these problems by making the OpenGL architecture available in a structured way.The most positive aspects of the text are its pure devotion to teaching OpenGL as well as its copious, yet succinct examples provided for the presented topics.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Other Applications    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer Graphics    4. Computer Graphics - General    5. Computers    6. Computers - Other Applications    7. OpenGL    8. OpenGL (Computer software)    9. Computers / Computer Graphics / General   

Reviews (12)

Very good introduction to operating systems
If you are a fan of the other Deitel books, you will probably like this one as well.I used this book in an undergraduate operating systems course and found it to be very useful.I later used the "dinosaurs" book (Silberschatz et al.) in a graduate course and was quite disappointed by the lack of detail.
Good intention != good implementation!
As many other reviewers have mentioned, this book has good content and very well written. However, the plethora of ancilliary information and cliche side-notes, mini-case-studies make what could've been a bar-non primer into a dreadful book. Even though I particularly think that OS is one of the bastions of computer science and thus I think it's a very interesting field, the authors totally missed their target audience insofar as design and layout is concerned! Additionally, this book is peculiar in that it tries to teach some OS examples using (of all possible languages) Java! What gives? Even my teacher (who usually defends this book) was upset about that one. And little by little the author manage to get a book you liked at the beginning of the semester into this horrendous text you don't even want to glance into. I gave three stars, because I do think that the content in the first five six chapters is really well explained and supported...overall...buy it if you must!

Well written, but overstuffed with unnecessary material
There are some good things to say about this book.It's written in clear, plain language, with helpful illustrations and code examples.Key terms are highlighted and defined concisely.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Operating Systems    2. Computer Operating Systems    3. Computers    4. Computers - Operating Systems    5. Operating Systems - General    6. Computer Hardware & Operating Systems    7. Computers / Operating Systems / General    8. Operating systems & graphical user interfaces (GUIs)   

Editorial Review

Earlier editions of O'Reilly's Read more

Features

• Illustrated

Reviews (124)

Great new to intermediate level book
The Running Linux book is expanded and updated regularly and is designed to bring the casual and new user up to speed with using Linux as well as updated information.This is all done is a distribution-neutral context which makes it one of the better guides available.Of course that also presents problems when a particular distribution does something a little bit different from the norm.If you are a serious Linux enthusiast and have been for some time you will find the book too elementary for your needs but those new to Linux will find it a great introduction.The one real problem that I have with the book is that at times leaves out too much detail and as a result you can't really understand how to use something.An example is the entire section on MySQL and PHP.Then again, there are many excellent books available on these subjects and this is still more of an introductory guide so letting the reader know what can be done and then letting them seek out an appropriate text for the details is appropriate.Not to mention if it included all the details on all the subjects discussed then this would be a multi-volume work.
Authors are so smart, they're dumb
This book is pitched, at least in part, to Linux beginners. But it fails in small, maddening ways when speaking to this audience. After a lot of discussion of disk partitioning and install, page 65 tells you to run the "man" command in a shell session. It offers no clue that the only way to terminate a "man" command is the letter Q - a completely unintuitive action. So a new user can flounder forever, or at least until they get frustrated and reboot. But I don't mean to slam just this book. That same problem exists in most other beginning Linux books, even O'Reilly's pocket guide. All these knowledgeable authors seem to think that noephytes will somehow magically gain access to information that the authors have in their heads, but haven't committed to paper.
KEEP YOUR LINUX RUNNING
Are you a programmer who is increasingly using Linux because of its extensibility and low cost? If you are, then this book is for you! Authors Matthias Kalle Dalheimer and Matt Welsh, have done an outstanding job of writing this 5th edition of a practical guide that provides you with an overview to Linux as a desktop and a back-office system.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Operating Systems    2. Computers    3. Computers - Operating Systems    4. Linux    5. Linux (Computer software)    6. Operating Systems - Linux    7. Operating systems (Computers)    8. Computers / Operating Systems    9. Computers / Operating Systems / Linux    10. Running Linux, Linux, regular expression, GNOME, KDE, nautilus, package dependency, bash shell, modules.conf, diag tools, network security, user accounts, scripting, kernel, administration, Matt Welch, Kalle Dalheimer    11. Unix, Unix Linux & Unix TCL/TK   

Reviews (8)

Good work
This is a great reference guide to use when programming on Windows CE. The examples are good to use as templates. The author is good at explaining and for sure the information covered in the book is relevant. There were several pages in the book that hadn't been printed, but luckily the whole book also came in digital format on a CD with the book. The book is quite thick but I can't say there is any nonsense in it. Now I'm just waiting for an update to Windows Mobile 5.0. Hey Doughlas, get busy!
.net and CE
Looks can deceive (title). It's a good book to learn all (almost) about windows CE but it's a pitty that only the last chapter treats a small piece of the .net approach. So if you are interested in learning windows CE in using the last visual studio 2005 beta this isn't the book need !

Excellent book.
This book is awsome! This book is for someone that has a strong C++ background but does not have to have experience with the windows api in order to begin programming on a CE box. If you know the windows API a lot of this book might be review. The book also does not go into a lot of depth about the architecture of windows CE. It also only skims over sections about bluetooth, smartphone, pocket pc and other technologies that you may want to use on your ce box. Along with this book you will probably want a reference book specifically on Embeded studio and on whichever technologies you are using. For the price and the coverage this cant be beat. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computers    3. Computers - Operating Systems    4. Microcomputer Application Software    5. Microcomputer Operating Environments    6. Microsoft .NET    7. Microsoft Windows (Computer fi    8. Microsoft Windows (Computer file)    9. Operating Systems - Windows    10. Operating systems (Computers)    11. Programming - General    12. Computers / General    13. Microsoft Windows   

Reviews (13)

Good reference book
I found couple good infomation in this book, which is not cover in other books. It is a good book again!

Excellent Guide for S60 Applications Development
This is a very good guide for S60 devlopement. Some of the
Good for Series 60 Programmer
I am begunning writing our first Sy