Editorial Review

The second edition of Jeff Prosise's Read more

Reviews (79)

Comprehensive and understandable - really learn MFC
I purchased this book a number of years ago when I started a new job which required me to program using MFC.I had never done any programming for Win32, let alone using MFC (which wraps around the Win32 API).Coming from this state of ignorance, it only took a short time of working with Prosise's book for me to gain enough confidence to start writing MFC programs on my own.
Truly beautiful work BUT........
no practical programs. Both "Windows programming" of my boss,Charles Petzold and the book taking draw, game programs to demonstrate.
who says it takes longer?
I managed to muddle my way through simple dialog-box based applications with hardly any documentation -- just advice from colleagues. When I got assigned to write a real live multi-threaded, multi-document app, I tried the books lying around the office which had helped me considerably with the simpler apps, but which left me much confused about things like device contexts. Why all of a sudden CClientDC instead of CPaintDC? And what is a DC anyway exactly? They say, "See, if you do this and this, then you can draw an ellipse that wiggles around." So I do that, and then try changing parameters, and am left only able to draw that ellipse. I can't make it purple.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books And Software    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. Microcomputer Operating Environments    5. Microsoft Windows (Computer fi    6. Microsoft Windows (Computer file)    7. Microsoft foundation class lib    8. Microsoft foundation class library    9. Object-Oriented Programming    10. Operating systems (Computers)    11. Programming - Software Development    12. Programming Languages - C++    13. Computer Programming    14. Computers / General    15. Microsoft Windows   

Reviews (22)

This book has changed my life
This is a must-read for any Perl programmer.You are only as good as the teachers you have, and if your teachers use stuff like $|++, you are screwed.In this case, Conway would tell you to Use English;, and then you'd know what a $| is.A sampling of other tips:
Books is getting worn out
I came to Perl from C. Some of the good things I learnt in C (using K&R coding style), and some of the bad things, were both dealt with in this book.
Good Coding Methods to Improve Your Perl
I have to admit that I can bristle at books that try to preach, so Perl Best Practices was on a hiding to nothing when I came to review it. I also have to admit to being torn about the author -- after all, he is one of those poor fools who insist on living in cold, unenlightened Melbourne, while I live in vastly superior Sydney. On the other hand, how can I dislike a man who manages to place a quote that involves my favourite character, Lady Bracknell. from my favourite comic play, 'The Importance of Being Earnest,' in the first few pages of his book?
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. Natural Language Processing    5. Operating Systems - Linux    6. Perl (Computer program language)    7. Programming Languages - CGI, Javascript, Perl, VBScript    8. Programming Languages - Perl    9. Computers / Languages / Programming    10. Computers / Programming Languages / CGI, JavaScript, Perl, VBScript    11. Computers / Programming Languages / Perl    12. Internet languages    13. Perl, PBP, modules, parrot, 6, code layout, naming conventions, data structures, control structures, program decomposition, interface design, Damian Conway   

Editorial Review

In this eagerly awaited second edition, Grady Booch draws upon the rich and varied results of those projects and offers improved methods for object development and a new, unified notation.With numerous examples implemented in C++, Booch illustrates essential concepts, explains the method, and shows successful applications in a variety of fields.Booch also givespragmatic advice on a host of issues, including classification, implementation strategies, and cost-effective project management.A two-time winner of Read more

Reviews (32)

Best OO book on the market.
This explains every facet of OO design and analysis.I bought this book years ago and have used it to reinforce many conversations about OO design.What I have found is that the old timer C and COBOL programmers have a very difficult time even thinking like this.This book should be on every developers book shelf.Many of the topics are so common in todays programming disciplines that many students do not even realize they are following it.Many of the patterns and concepts are now so common place in languages like Java and C# that the new developer just thinks this way.

Great , tough Book, not for beginners or Non C++ programmers
Mixed opinions about the book. The author never claims that beginners can easily understand nor he warrants that you need not know C++. It may take sevaral months or years to read this book. If you say you know this book for 100%, you are only few steps away from Booch's level. His process is great if we have the time, patience and comfort to follow it and apply it. You should have some prior knowledge of OO to understand Booch's language. Of course C++ basics. Though the chapter on Booch Notaion is dated, you still need to read it to follow the remaining chapters. But if you have read UML, booch notation is not tough to understand. I wish he re-writes with additional Java examples and gives some business applications like banking/insurance examples rather than Gardening Sensors and Heaters, and also drop notations chapter and assume that readers know UML. It will be great if he guides us how his process fits into the internet era within tons of frameworks/patternsaround.

A classic well worth the read
This is a very good book on the subjects of OOA/OOD. It emphasizes concepts and has a strong academic flavor, which I appreciate "accidentally." Although the particular C++ programming language is not the focus, you need to know a least some C++ to understand the example code snippets, which helps you grasp the concepts.Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computers - Languages / Programming    3. Object-Oriented Programming    4. Object-oriented programming (C    5. Object-oriented programming (Computer science)    6. Programming - Object Oriented Programming    7. Programming Languages - General    8. Computers / Programming / Object Oriented    9. Object-oriented programming (OOP)    10. Systems analysis & design   

Reviews (14)

Good for beginners and transfers
Despite some of the negative comments on this book, I bought it anyway. The remarks that this is not a reference manual is unjust. Chapman never claims that the book is supposed to be a reference manual, so don't expect one. The book is written for those who begin to learn Fortran 95 or want to upgrade their skills to make the transition from Fortran 77.
Excellent text for modern programming
It is outrightly silly to rate this excellent book one star and insinuate that it is a terrible write-up. Is it the thin index that makes it so bad, or the explanation of do loops using sin(x) series expansion, according to the first reviewer? If you are a scientist or an engineer (the target audience of the book) you'll probably see the wisdom of such an example instead of counting from 1 to 10 as if we are inside a grocery store.
Horrible as a reference.
This is probably one of the worst programming books I have ever used. The index is terrible, which turns finding any random info into a page by page scavenger hunt. There are very few tables which give nice breakdown of parameters and what not, as the author prefered to scatter information about a single function call through two or three chapters. The "scientific and engineering" aspect of programming is so spoon fed it really does nothing to enhance understanding of the subject.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. Engineering - Electrical & Electronic    5. FORTRAN 90 (Computer program l    6. FORTRAN 90 (Computer program language)    7. FORTRAN 95 (Computer program l    8. FORTRAN 95 (Computer program language)    9. Fortran (Programming Language)    10. Programming - General    11. Programming Languages - FORTRAN    12. Programming Languages - General    13. Mechanical engineering    14. Technology / Engineering / General   

Reviews (8)

There is better
I thought this book would help me learn Java when I first bought it, but I thinkthe examples are skimpy. A more complete reference and tutorial is Cay Horstman's and Gary Cornell's 7 ed. of Core Java 2: Volumes 1 and 2. These 2 volumes have great examples, and go more in-depth into Java. Skip Schildt's book, and buy the Core Java Volumes even if you need just a reference. You will be happier, and learn more.

Very good book
Very good book if you are a beginner. It gives you the basics for everything you need. I havent given it 5 stars because it lacks some of the advanced stuff, you end up referring to some other books for that.
Great Book to start Java
This book as the name suggest gives you complete overview for learning and understanding Java. It clearly points out the differences between Java 1.4 and Java 1.5 (J2SE 5.0). It highlights the important points and gives introduction to Swings, Servlets and a good financial application using java.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. Java (Computer language)    5. Java (Computer program language)    6. Programming - General    7. Programming Languages - Java    8. Computers / Programming Languages / Java    9. Java & variants   

Reviews (3)

Study a good self improvement software engineering method
The book is good, every argument weel written with simple language and lesson tailored. PSP is a good set of processes to use in software development. If you wish to self study PSP it is good but you have to download a lot of material from the SEI website (exercises, workbooks and so on). Humprey write about process extensions but not so much as needed in practice. Also a more detailed description about PSP processes isn't present on the book so you haveto read about on SEI website material.

Applies well in some but not all situations...
As an IT professional and software developer, I'm all for standards and processes.PSP - A Self-Improvement Process for Software Engineers by Watts S. Humphrey (Addison-Wesley) outlines a personal methodology for improving your development efforts.But it's definitely not applicable to all environments...
review before compiling?!
The intent is to reduce the defect rate in software. With an emphasis on doing this when we have several million lines of source code. All the more so if the application might involve safety issues or be critical to its company's bottom line.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. Programming - Software Development    5. Software Engineering    6. Computer Programming    7. Computers / Programming / Software Development   

Editorial Review

Optimizing compilers, which turn human-readable programming languages into the smallest, most efficient machine code possible, are among the most complex pieces of software ever written. Building a compiler is both science and black art and demands an intimate knowledge of data structures, algorithms, high-level programming languages, and processor architectures and their instruction sets. Read more

Reviews (14)

Confusing at best
I've seen chapter 14 of this book referenced (by a university professor giving suggestion to his students, not by a random guy) as:
Good for seasoned compiler writers, bad for CS students
Ok, let's be fair. This book provides a broad coverage of useful optimizations and it will be useful in case you work writing compilers AND have some experience.
Excellent
Advances in compiler design do not get much press these days. The reasons for this are unclear, but no doubt the perception that compilers need no further improvement has something to do with this. This book, written by one of the leading experts on compilers, certainly dispels this belief. Once readers get used to the idiosyncratic ICAN (Informal Compiler Algorithm Notation) invented by the author and used throughout the book, they get a comprehensive overview of compilers, especially that of optimization. Compilers for the SPARC, PowerPC, DEC, and Pentium architectures are treated in the book. The predominant emphasis of the book is in optimization, and so a few more recent and important topics in compiler construction, such as partial evaluation, are not discussed. Readers are expected to have a prior background in elementary compiler theory. My primary interest in reading the book was to gain insight into the compilation issues that arise in symbolic programming languages such as LISP and Prolog. Read more

Subjects:  1. Compilers    2. Compilers (Computer Science)    3. Compilers (Computer programs)    4. Computer Architecture - General    5. Computer Books: Operating Systems    6. Computers    7. Computers - General Information    8. Programming - Software Development    9. Systems programming (Computer    10. Systems programming (Computer science)    11. Compilers & interpreters    12. Computers / Programming / Software Development   

Reviews (3)

weighing tickoo and toogood
i have both beginner books tickoo's and toogood's
go for sham tickoo
This book is ok for starters. Just about ok.
Problems, Problems and more Problems
Problems, Problems and more Problems.This is the way I would describe the book. This is my view, and I am expressing it as a practicing design engineer.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computers    3. Programming Languages - General   

Reviews (24)

Book has all you need to Quick start ABAP objects learning
The Book is good to learn abap quickly. Its practical approach is the key. The software that comes in CDs is self sufficient to execute the examples...no developer keys are necessary from SAP. Installation is smooth. I dont have previous versions of MS SQL server.
An excellent guide.
For those who beggin programming with ABAP within a OO perspective, I think is the perfect guide. Of course itsn't a reference book but it's a excellent point of start ABAP having in mind an OO point of view.

BUYER BEWARE
In order to use the programs in this book you will need to obtain a developer key from SAP. In order to get a developer key you *must* have a SAP customer number ... if you do not already have a customer number buying this book will not get you one and so there is no way to work through the exercises illustrated.
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Subjects:  1. ABAP/4 (Computer program langu    2. ABAP/4 (Computer program language)    3. Client-Server Computing - General    4. Client/server computing    5. Computer Books: General    6. Computer Programming Languages    7. Computers    8. Computers - Languages / Programming    9. Distributed Computer Systems    10. Information Technology    11. Management Information Systems    12. Programming - Object Oriented Programming    13. Programming Languages - General    14. SAP R/3    15. Computers / Business Software / General    16. Object-oriented programming (OOP)   

Reviews (16)

An fantastic book in my opinion
Most of the previous comments are either very favourable to the book (i.e. 4 or 5 stars) or completely against it (1 star).
terrible, Terrible, TERRIBLE
As a software engineering undergrad, I read pools of books, and as far as the study of programming languages go, there are many terrible books on the subject: this is one of them. I checked this out from our school library, got home, began to read and didn't make it past the first 3 or 4 pages in the first chapter.
Just because it's challenging doesn't mean it's bad
I hated this book when it was the assigned text in my programming languages course. But having just graduated with a BS in CS, I wentback and looked thru this book after seeing the negative reviews here. After taking courses like compiler and multi-threaded programming, I feel the book does an excellent job of showing how programming languages evolved, and why. Some of the examples are a little abstract(i agree that the quilt example is too hard to follow, andis spread over too many pages), but for a book that is trying to show the reasons languages evolved it does a good job. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming    2. Computer Books: Languages    3. Computer Programming Languages    4. Computers - Languages / Programming    5. Programming Languages - General    6. Programming languages (Electro    7. Programming languages (Electronic computers)    8. Programming languages   

Subjects:  1. Certification Guides - General    2. Computer Books: Languages    3. Computers    4. Computers - General Information    5. Database Engineering    6. Database Management - General    7. General    8. Programming - Software Development    9. Software Design    10. Computers / General    11. Database software    12. SQL   

Reviews (16)

Try getting useful information out of this thing
Organization? Perhaps in a Faulkner stream-of-consciousness sense. "Applications" is _chapter 14_. The topic emphasis has little to do w/ the needs of most developers. You get two entire chapters on "Design Time Integration", whereas you get a small (two page) subsection on "Keyboard Handling" and likewise "Scrolling". Gee, how about if I want to handle the _arrow keys_!? Maybe you could explain scrolling in more than a paragraph of English text? How about an example? To top it off, it's in a narrative & chummy style. Yuck.

The Things You Need to Know to Write a Great Windows Forms Application
The basics of Windows forms programming are fairly obvious.You drag controls from the toolbox onto the design surface, set the properties as necessary, and wire code to the events.For simple apps this is all you need to know and you typically don't need to bother with the documentation.
Try MSDN Instead...
What a disappointment. I went in to this book knowing almost nothing about Windows Forms. After reading it, I think I know less now than when I started.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Operating Systems    2. Computer software    3. Computers    4. Computers - Languages / Programming    5. Development    6. Microcomputer Operating Environments    7. Microsoft .NET Framework    8. Operating Systems - General    9. Operating Systems - Windows    10. Programming - Software Development    11. Programming Languages - General    12. C & Visual C    13. Computers / Programming Languages / General   

Features

• Illustrated

Reviews (26)

Indispensable Reference
Large books, by their very nature, can have good points and bad points. After all, if you have a couple or several hundred pages worth of material, you are bound to get some things right and some things wrong.
Exactly what it is supposed to be ..
Great little reference book.It is not intended to be a learning tool.If you want that, try the Head First book on HTML/XHTML/CSS that O'Reilly also publishes.
Works like expected.
I've used this pocket reference for a long time now and I love it. It's a great way to refresh your memory when you can't seem to remember a property and/or its value.
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Subjects:  1. Cascading style sheets    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer Graphics - General    4. Computer Programming Languages    5. Computers    6. Computers - Languages / Programming    7. Design    8. Desktop Publishing    9. General    10. Internet - Web Site Design    11. Programming Languages - HTML    12. Web sites    13. Computers / Internet / Web Site Design    14. Computers / Languages / Programming    15. Computers / Programming Languages / HTML, SGML, VRML, XML    16. Computers/Internet - Web Site Design    17. HTML    18. Publishing on the Internet   

Reviews (6)

Loved it
This is THE book to get for Oracle Discoverer.What more can I say, it's well written, clear with good examples.

Complete, comprehensive coverage
Oracle Discoverer is a complex tool and much more than a single understanding of the functionality is required to use it effectively for business intelligence.
Outstanding Resource!
I am a neophyte to Discoverer, having just accepted a position where the primary assignment is to learn discoverer and develop a library.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. Programming - General    5. Computers / Programming / General    6. Oracle   

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. JavaServer pages    5. JavaServer pages (Computer software)    6. Programming Languages - Java    7. Java & variants   

Reviews (4)

Worth it for the Exchange section alone
I picked this up after noticing it in a book shop (sorry Amazon!).I'm an Exchange administrator and this book gave me some great scripting tips for managing and monitoring my environment.I haven't gone much beyond that since, to my regret, but the concept of packaging scripts was news to me, and I would love to find the time to try out some of the other more elaborate techniques in there.But of course, I am an Exchange Administrator ;-)

As good as they say
This is an excellent follow on book to "Microsoft Windows 2000 Scripting Guide," ISBN: 0735618674, which was my previous bible. I had long ago advanced past much of what is written in that excellent foundation book for VBScript, and this advanced volume really fills in the gaps. After purchasing numerous VB and VBA references that are nothing more than syntax libraries, I feel I finally have the big picture on the capabilities of this technology with this book. It is all clear.
Delivers what it promises
It never ceases to amaze me how many scripting books, including this one, start off telling you that you should already have intermediate to advanced scripting skills before you read, yet spend an initial chapter explaining what an array or an object is.It leaves me feeling that their definition of what "advanced" is will differ greatly from mine.I am also always a little dismayed when throughout, a book plugs a costly script development studio and spends time pointing out why your chosen script editor isn't good enough for your projects.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. Microsoft Windows (Computer file)    5. Microsoft Windows (Computer software)    6. Programming - General    7. Programming Languages - CGI, Javascript, Perl, VBScript    8. Programming Languages - Visual BASIC    9. VBScript (Computer program language)    10. Computers / General   

Reviews (20)

Lots of code but little explanation
The explanations are cursory and tend to overlook many of the points to be considered before applying one of their examples to real problems. While good at providing source code for an experienced signal processing engineer or mathematician, this book can be dangerous for those in search of a quick fix without the background to evaluate what they are really doing.

Obligatory book
What can I say? I think that I only want to say that this book is the best of the best when you talk about numerical methods. A lot of code and a great mathematical background. It's an obligation to have this book.