Editorial Review

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Reviews (16)

Amazing book
This book uses an easy way to explain system patterns. I think every software developer has to read this book; it's a nice reference to help software architects doing a well-done job. Another great reference that you may have in your list of references is the classical book "Design Pattern", also at Amazon.com.

#2 best book about patterns ? yes.
A lot of the reviewers have said that this is the #2 best book about patterns : just trust them. I have bought it with the hope to learn more about patterns, finally it has given me a larger point of view about the subject and has improved a lot my creativity during software designing processes.
The second best pattern book
Second best isn't bad when the #1 book changed forever the way software architecture is talked about.GoF is not only well-written, but it covers all the basic, most-used patterns.Everybody thereafter is going to have to either re-hash GoF, criticize it, or come up with new patterns which are not as fundamental.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Architecture    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer Graphics    4. Computer software    5. Computers - Languages / Programming    6. Development    7. Programming - Software Development    8. Programming Languages - General    9. Computer architecture & logic design    10. Computers / Programming / Software Development    11. Software engineering   

Reviews (10)

Best beginners supplement to product manual
Although I had a lot of experience with CAD programs, I struggled with Illustrator 8. I finally upgraded to v. 10 and bought Classroom In a Book for that version. You CAN teach yourself Illustrator with the manual and this book in a few weeks. ICIAB is a good supplement to the manual, which for reasons that always baffled me, has too few illustrations for information aimed at visually oriented people. Tutorial style book for creating illustrations, artwork, etc
After first determining why I needed Illustrator when I already had Photoshop, I picked up this book because of my positive experience with another book from this Classroom in a Book series (Photoshop 7.0). And this book does not disappoint in the least bit either. If you're going to criticize someone...
This book came highly recommended by an Illustrator 10 instuctor.It's an excellent resource for a very powerful software application.One doesn't need to be very technically oriented to get the most out of this book.Read more

Subjects:  1. Adobe Illustrator    2. Adobe Illustrator (Computer fi    3. Adobe Illustrator (Computer file)    4. Computer Books And Software    5. Computer Graphics - General    6. Computer Graphics - Illustrator    7. Computer graphics    8. Computers    9. Computers - Desktop Publishing    10. Desktop Publishing - General    11. Microcomputer Graphics    12. Computer graphics software    13. Computers / Computer Graphics / General   

Reviews (6)

This is a fabulous book!
I bought this book several months ago, but only recently found the time to spend a little time with it.This is a fabulous book!It is impeccibly well-organized and presents in a crystal-clear manner the topics that are the most important.Each major section of each chapter includes an exercise for which all of the necessary files are readily available on the included CD.Each exercise is explained (in the usual crystal-clear fashion) in the book, and by going through the steps that it involves yourself, using the supplied images, you quickly develop a solid understanding of all of the essential ideas that are covered in the corresponding section of the book.

Great PhotoShop book!
Photoshop CS2 is the pretty much standard in web graphic design and digital photograph editing now and is a great tool to know.The author assumes no prior knowledge on knowing Photoshop or any other graphic editing tool.So if you're a novice (like me) or have used other graphic editing tools in the past, this is a great book for you.The other thing that is great about this book is that each chapter includes video tutorials from [...] as well as exercises to work on that review each topic covered. Throughout each chapter there beautiful, color screenshots of what is covered as well.
Excellent resource
I had to purchase this book for a class I'm taking and the book is incredibly helpful. It has easy demonstrations to follow--which really help if you're a "hands on" learner, as I am. The book comes with a CD-ROM that has files you can use for the demonstrations as well as demo movies that you can watch. I also had no previous Photoshop experience and still had no problem. I highly recommend it! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Graphics - General    3. Computer Graphics - Photoshop    4. Computers    5. Computers - Other Applications    6. Interactive & Multimedia    7. Internet - General    8. Internet - Web Site Design    9. Microcomputer Graphics    10. Computers / Computer Graphics / General    11. Photoshop   

Reviews (24)

This wow book really wows
Lots of tips and tricks on how to perfect your photoshop project. This book suits various levels of users: from begninners who just want to touch up their digital photos to users who want to have professional results on their media projects. Lots of how to's and detailed steps to achieve your final goals.

Get Wow CS2 published!!
Jack Davis:If you are reading this, please release your next book, CS2!!!My version of Wow 7 is worn out!THis is the book I carry everywhere.If I get stuck or forget a technique, I just open to that page and relearn it in under a minute.Photographs, artwork, webdesign artwork, typography, it's all there with plenty of illustrations.Just one to four pages on each issue, no need to read on and on.It's absolutely the best, (and I have almost every book on Photoshop published) book about Photoshop, regardless of version.But an update is greatly needed!!!

WOW! What else CAN you say?!
Jack Davis keeps surprising us with great effects and techniques for Photoshop, in this great step-by-step, easy to learn book. This was required in an advanced Photoshop class and it's one book I'm going to KEEP! Awesome! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Adobe Photoshop    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer Graphics - General    4. Computer graphics    5. Computers    6. Computers - Languages / Programming    7. Desktop Publishing    8. Electronic Publishing    9. Image processing software    10. Microcomputer Graphics    11. Programming Languages - General    12. Computers / Computer Graphics / General    13. Photoshop   

Editorial Review

One would think that the title of Tomas Moller's and Eric Haines's book, Read more

Reviews (32)

Everything I was looking for
I acually read this book cover to cover theres alot of information in the book and its a great book to refer back to. Its really good as a companion with OpenGL. theres some directx stuff in it too but there seems to be more with OpenGL references.

High level presentation of rendering techniques
This is not a book of algorithms on computer graphics methods. Instead, it is a comprehensive high-level survey of rendering techniques for making the graphics appear to occur in real time. This book has a very academic tone to it, and with the exception of chapter 3 which is on matrix transforms, it has precious few implementation details. Some reviewers have called it a successor to Foley and Van Dam's classic text, but I find this misleading. That book is primarily about computer graphics techniques, and is not that concerned with real-time issues. The bibliography of this book is extensive and impressive, and if you are doing research on the subject it is probably essential, especially if you are interested in the subject of virtual reality where real-time presentation is a must. However, if you are just looking for pseudocode or more "cool effects" to insert into a game or graphics program you are writing/programming you would do best to look elsewhere.

Decent survey/reference book
I was greatly disappointed with the first edition of this book. There is nothing new herein that cannot be culled from the latest presentations/whitepapers posted on NVIDIA/ATI websites, from the standpoint of real time graphics.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Animation    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer Graphics - Game Programming    4. Computer Graphics - General    5. Computer graphics    6. Computers    7. Computers - Desktop Publishing    8. Programming - General    9. Real-time data processing    10. Image processing: computer animation    11. Image processing: graphics (static images)    12. Image processing: video   

Reviews (8)

An unusually clear book -- and great for OCR researchers.
This nifty book is unusual in several respects: it is written in an extremely clear and simple style; it presents good clear code, both in print and on the accompanying CD; and it presents a variety of different methods for achieving each given goal. For example, the book presents a half-dozen different algorithms (usually with code) for edge-detection, for thresholding, and for skeletonization. For the most part, the book does a good job of explaining the relative merits or suitabilities of the different algorithms.
Outstanding source of implementations of image processing algorithms
This book is a great source of code for the implementations of common and not so common algorithms used in image processing and computer vision. It is not meant to be a textbook on either subject. For that I suggest you turn to "Digital Image Processing" by Gonzalez and Woods for the subject of image processing and to "Computer Vision" by Linda Shapiro for computer vision.
I like this book
It has source C code available, which I found is very helpful. It would be better if its code is written in C++. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Algorithms (Computer Programming)    2. Computer Graphics - General    3. Computer algorithms    4. Computer vision    5. Digital techniques    6. Discrete Mathematics    7. Image Processing (Engineering)    8. Image processing    9. Imaging Systems    10. Optics    11. Technology    12. Technology & Industrial Arts    13. Computers / Computer Vision    14. Mathematical theory of computation    15. Signal processing   

Reviews (5)

One of the better books on OOP for Flash
I think this is a beginner friendly book to learning and developing Flash 8 Object Oriented code.The book is an easy read and has a pretty good introduction to Flash.It even goes into like 4 design patterns which if you are an OOP developer is generally the next step in design and architecture.
Excellent book for beginners in OOP
I finally decided to take the plunge into OOP after I realized that is where Flash is headed.With the advent of ActionScript 3.0 around the corner (or out now if you're already dabbling in it), you just know that everything is soon going to be class based.This book is a great start to your journey, as someone who originally started to read Colin Moock's Essential ActionScript 2.0 will tell you.It is a LOT easier to read than EA2.0 as I'm not well versed on theory nor do I, at least at this point, really care that much about it.I'm one of those people who want to dive in and learn the syntax/usage, and then I'd like to figure out where it all stems from, not the other way around as it just makes it harder for me to learn that way.
Take your Flash developing to the next level!
Before reading this book I thought that OOP meant writing a class and applying it to as many objects as I wanted. Was I ever wrong! This book not only gives you thorough explanations of what OOP is, it also provides detailed explanations on why you should use it. It's hard to explain the misconceptions that many people can pick up by trying to learn OOP by reading random articles around the web. This gently leads you through all the elements of OOP and clears up any of the misconceptions you may have previously had. It even teaches you programming techniques and design patterns such as how to separate the data and control from the style as well as how to manage multiple styles, colors, sounds, etc. with one class and dynamically apply them to whatever objects you want.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Web Programming    2. Computer Graphics - Flash    3. Computers    4. Computers - Desktop Publishing    5. Flash (Computer file)    6. Flash (Computer software)    7. Internet - Web Site Design    8. Internet - World Wide Web    9. Programming - Object Oriented Programming    10. Image processing    11. Multimedia   

Reviews (4)

Essential Reading to make the most of Camtasia
If you are serious about getting a proper understanding of Camtasia, then you definitely need this book.As far as I'm aware, it is the only such book available.Sure you can try using the Help material supplied with Camtasia, but it is difficult to learn well enough that way.
More than Camtasia
If I could give 10 stars I would.THis book is the definitive guide to Camtasia and much, much more.The Camtasia part doesn't even start till Chapter 5.You spend the chapters before that learning about the how-to and why of 1) training, 2) marketing and 3) demo presentations.It's a Camtasia book and a How-To-Do-Great-Presentation book in one.And all done in an entertaining by the author's warm personable conversational style.
Comprehensive, yet Comprehensible
The first thing I saw about this book was the thickness -- and I try to stay away from thick books that I never get the time to read. But I was needlessly scared -- the language that Daniel uses in this book is conversation style, it's easy to understand, and you don't even need to read the full book from cover to cover because almost everything is self contained.
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Subjects:  1. Application Software    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer Graphics    4. Computer Graphics - General    5. Computers    6. Computers - General Information    7. Interactive & Multimedia    8. Multimedia systems    9. Computer graphics software    10. Computers / General    11. Image processing: video   

Reviews (13)

Not intended for the web design novice
I am completely new to web design and found this book extremely overwhelming.The series title, "Visual Quickstart Guide", appears to be aimed towards beginners such as myself, however it is probably aimed at people with experience with older versions of Dreamweaver looking to upgrade their knowledge.There is so much talk about the old dreamweaver, new ways of doing things etc. and I'm not really interested in that.Other clues that this book is not designed for a beginner is the lack of glossary (mentioned in another review) and the amount of space devoted to setting one's preferences of Dreamweaver.As a novice, how am I supposed to know what I prefer when I don't even know where to begin?

Confusing for the Novice
While I have a background in graphics programs, I'm entirely new to Dreamweaver.This book looked like it would be a sole resource.It wasn't.Too often terms are mentioned without definitions (a glossary would be a help).More than once a process was described without a basic first step that would seem obvious to experienced users, but only confused novice users.I wound up having to use other resources to make sense of this book.I wouldn't recommend it to first timers like myself.

comprehensive and specific at the same time
This is a great book, though I have used DreamWeaver for several years, I wanted to see how DreamWeaver 8 was going to deal with CSS.I took the time to read most of the chapters, and picked up a lot of tips.The book is comprehensive and specific at the same time.Concepts are interlaced with keystroke instructions.Well worth the price and a great reference. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer - Internet    2. Computer Animation    3. Computer Books: Web Programming    4. Computers    5. Internet - Web Site Design    6. Computer graphics software    7. Computers / Internet / Web Site Design    8. Image processing    9. Multimedia   

Editorial Review

Macromedia's Dreamweaver MX 2004 is the leading software tool for the creation of Web sites and other HTML interfaces. It's remarkably capable, able to deal intelligently with everything from fonts and images to JavaScript for client-side data validation and embedded Java applets. In most cases, Dreamweaver will save you time over hand-coding--and yield better-looking pages to boot. The program's learning curve, though, isn't trivial. That's why Read more

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Reviews (27)

Very good manual
So many software books are so confusing and difficult to understand, I really appreciateone that is clear and truly helpful, which this one is.

Fantastic
I have read this book cover to cover.You can read it in front of your computer and perform the tutorials or you can simple read an look at the illustrations.Both provide you with a very accurate experience.The online web site allows you to download all of the necessary files to perform your labs if you desire.It is simple, elegant, and well thought out book.You can't walk away from this book and not say that you did not truely learn to use Dreamweaver MX 2004. I struggled to learn this program, after reading the book, I have built several complex websites, complete with dynamic database integration.This book is that good!

The Dreamweaver Missing Manual Rocks!
I admit I'm biased because I've had Dave as a teacher and he's a great one, but his book is like his teaching -- clear, comprehensible, practical and most importantly, funny. Who wouldn't want to work on the National Exasperator pages? His tutorials are excellent, easy to use and fun. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Authoring programs    2. Computer - Internet    3. Computer Books: Web Programming    4. Computers    5. Design    6. Desktop Publishing    7. Desktop Publishing - General    8. Dreamweaver (Computer file)    9. Internet - Web Site Design    10. Web site development    11. Web sites    12. Computer / Internet    13. Computer Software Packages    14. Computers / Internet / Web Site Design    15. Internet   

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Reviews (46)

Simply the best!
I can keep this review real short.. this book still applies even in Flash 8. It has great concepts, holds nothing back and exposes the reader to the intense power and capabilities of Flash.
The Source for Actionscript
This book has just about everything I could have ever wanted in an Actionscript book.It covers the ins and outs and tiny details overlooked by so many other `quick tutorial' type books.This book is touted as the primary source for learning Actionscript and undoubtedly it is.You really need to get a good handle on movieclips, levels, timelines, depths, and classes so you're not banging your head later or chasing your tail for hours asking yourself, "What is going on here? This Flash Actionscript is really doing odd things with my movieclips (objects), none of which I expected to happen."Moock dispels all uncertainty about Actionscript with Flash.
This book is by far the best book on AS!
I have many many books on both AS and Flash and this book is by far the most informative, well written and most comprehensive book on ActionScript for beginning to intermediate developers that I have found. Colin Moock clearly knows his stuff and he has a teaching style that is rare with authors this day and age. It is very clear that Mr. Moock loves what he is doing because his love for AS gleems through the perfectly written tutorials of this book. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Animation    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer Graphics - Flash    4. Computers    5. Computers - Desktop Publishing    6. Programming - General    7. Programming Languages - General    8. ActionScript (Computer program language)    9. Computer graphics    10. Computers / Computer Animation    11. Computers / Computer Graphics / General    12. Computers / Desktop Publishing    13. Computers/Computer Animation    14. Computers/Programming Languages - General    15. Design    16. Flash, MX, programming, ActionScript    17. Interactive multimedia    18. Internet languages    19. Multimedia    20. Multimedia systems    21. Web sites   

Reviews (9)

Decent overview but light on examples
I am an experienced SolidWorks user who was looking for supplemental information to build my knowledge base and help me transition from SW 2005 to SW 2006.This manual is a decent general reference but it lacks any detailed examples and the CD that comes with it is mostly SW promotional stuff.I bought it because of the low price ($20)Also, there is no information on advanced features such as surface modeling

Do not recommend
I wanted a book that would provide a high level of overall understanding of SW quickly.I am new to SW.I've been teaching AutoCAD for over 4 years.I purchased this book with an understanding of the Dummy series.I was very disappointed with the lack of information for the new user.It seems that the book is targeted towards a user which has a basic understanding of the Software and that needs to understand the changes between the last version and now. I was not amused or informed.

Good book, recommended by Cadalyst too
I really liked this book and though that it was a funny and interesting way to learn a lot more about SolidWorks.It was very clearly written (but not boring) and had a lot of very specific examples you could follow along with.
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Subjects:  1. CAD-CAM - General    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer graphics    4. Computer-aided design    5. Computers    6. Computers - General Information    7. Engineering models    8. Computer aided design (CAD)    9. Computers / CAD-CAM / General   

Reviews (2)

Take your OpenGL skills to the next level
Since its first release in 1992, OpenGL has been rapidly adopted as the graphics API of choice for real-time interactive 3D graphics applications. The OpenGL state machine is easy to understand, but its simplicity and orthogonality enable a multitude of interesting effects that require more room than can be accommodated in the OpenGL "Red Book". The objective of this book is to demonstrate how to generate more satisfying images using OpenGL in general, and how to achieve some sophisticated results in particular. There are three general areas of discussion: basic OpenGL concepts, basic techniques, and advanced techniques.
A new review (again)
I posted a review before, but I decided again to change it. Everything I said I will repeat more or less.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Graphics - Design    3. Computer Graphics - Game Programming    4. Computers    5. Computers - Other Applications    6. Image processing    7. Programming - General    8. Computers / Programming / Software Development   

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Reviews (21)

Solid read.
Disagree with him on some points, but it's an interesting read.Note, this book is not really about how to make games you create fun, so much as it is a rambling discourse about the nature of fun itself.

Koster's Pitch for Gaming Theory
Koster's argument for serious critical approach to gaming is taut and well-thought.He acknowledges gaming to be "fun," while at the same time clearly states why games aren't elevated to artistic status in culture, despite their status in the entertainment marketplace - more economically lucrative than cinema.Until gaming attains the ability to create play that reflects the human condition, like cinema, it will not be classified or regarded as artisitic expression.If I had one criticism of the book, it is a lack of commentary on the economics of the gaming industry, but alas, Koster is a game developer, not a publisher, so this omission is understandable and does not take away from the book's value.I recommend this book for anyone desiring a short theoretical overview of gaming, and historical context.It's laconic, well-written, and offers nice illustrations done by Koster himself.

Very few ideas in too many words.
Raph Koster is clearly a man in love with his own ideas. His writing is full of self-indulgent babbling about very simplistic ideas. He seems to think that he's the only one who's ever thought about games and the way people play them.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computers - Games    3. Design and construction    4. Games    5. Games/Puzzles    6. Programming - Software Development    7. Software Design    8. Video & Electronic - General    9. Computer games    10. Computers / Computer Graphics / Game Programming    11. Computers / Games    12. Games / Video & Electronic    13. Multimedia   

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Reviews (27)

Excellent CSS Walkthrough Guide
This book is/has become my guide when something just isn't functioning properly or when I don't want to remember some hack. I quickly found myself learning all sorts of best practices, and tips that resulted in many hours shaved off my development time... all of this resulting from this very book.
Tips, tricks and hacks
You have to already know and understand CSS. There is a small introduction, but after that, 101 "How do I..?" Perfect book if you are alredy familiar with the subject.

Good Book
Very objective reference about CSS. The book has a small introduction on CSS's Structure and part immediately for practical examples.
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Subjects:  1. Cascading style sheets    2. Computer Books: Languages    3. Computers    4. Computers - Computer Security    5. Design    6. Programming Languages - HTML    7. Security - General    8. Web sites    9. CSS, HTML, Web Design, DHTML, Accessibility, Standards Compliance, Web Site    10. Computers / Computer Security    11. Computers / Programming Languages / General    12. Computers / Security    13. HTML   

Subjects:  1. Computer - Internet    2. Computer Animation    3. Computer Books: Internet General    4. Computer Graphics - General    5. Computers    6. Internet - Application Development    7. Computer / Internet    8. Computers / Computer Graphics / Design    9. Computers / Internet / Application Development    10. Internet languages    11. Macromedia Flex, MXML, Flex Framework, RIA, Rich Internet Applications, ActionScript, CSS, Xorn   

Reviews (2)

Not Worth the money, but still pretty good
I've been in a fight w/ Apple and Peachpit over this 'new' version of DVDSP4.
Not updated for DVD Studio Pro 4
While this book is probably the best DVD Studio Pro guide currently available, be aware that it doesn't contain any information about the new features in DVD Studio Pro 4 (e.g partitioning GPRMs and allocating menus to VTS folders). In fact, some of the statements made in this book, while true for DVD Studio Pro 3, are factually incorrect for DVD Studio Pro 4 (e.g. 1 GB limit for menus). Since I already have Martin Sitter's excellent Visual QuickPro Guide for DVD Studio Pro 3, this book was a waste of money for me. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Apple And Macintosh Graphics And Sound    2. Computer - Apple/Macintosh    3. Computer Books: Operating Systems    4. Computers    5. Interactive & Multimedia    6. Miscellaneous Software    7. Operating Systems - Macintosh    8. Computers / Interactive Media    9. Multimedia   

Reviews (2)

Total Package for the beginner
The SolidWorks 2006 Tutorial is a must have book for your arsenal, if you are a new user to SolidWorks or an Instructor teaching a first year class using SolidWorks.