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Product Description

LINQ is the Project name for a set of extensions to the .NET Framework that Provide a generic apProach to querying data from different data sources. LINQ will premier in Visual Studio 2008, and will become the next must-have skill for .NET developers.

Pro LINQ: Language Integrated Query in C# 2008 is all about code.

Literally, this book starts with code and ends with code. In most books, the author shows the simplest example demonstrating how to use a method, but they so rarely show how to use the more complex Prototypes. Pro LINQ: Language Integrated Query in C# 2008 is different. Demonstrating the overwhelming majority of LINQ operators and Protoypes, it is a veritable treasury of LINQ examples.

Rather than obscure the relevant LINQ principles in code examples by focusing on a demonstration application you have no interest in writing, Pro LINQ: Language Integrated Query in C# 2008 cuts right to the chase of each LINQ operator, method, or class. However, where complexity is necessary to truly demonstrate an issue, the examples are right there in the thick of it. For example, code samples demonstrating how to handle concurrency conflicts actually create concurrency conflicts so you can step through the code and see them unfold.

Most books tell you about the simple stuff, while few books warn you of the pitfalls. Where Pro LINQ: Language Integrated Query in C# 2008 returns your investment is in the hours, and sometimes days, spent by the author determining why something may not work as expected. Sometimes this results in an innocent looking paragraph that may take you a minute to read and understand, but took days to research and explain.

Face it, most technical books while informative, are dull. LINQ need not be dull. Written with a sense of humor, Pro LINQ: Language Integrated Query in C# 2008 will attempt to entertain you on your journey through the wonderland of LINQ and C# 2008.

What you'll learn

• How to leverage all the new LINQ relevant C# 2008 language features including extension methods, lambda expressions, anonymous data types, and partial methods.
• How to use LINQ to Objects to query in-memory data collections such as arrays, ArrayLists, and Lists to retrieve the data you want.
• Why some queries are deferred, how a deferred query can bite you, and how you can make deferred queries work for you.
• How to use LINQ to XML to revolutionize your creation, manipulation, and searching of XML data.
• How to query DataSets with LINQ to DataSet so you can co-exist with legacy code and use LINQ to query databases other than SQL Server.
• How to query Databases with LINQ to SQL, write your own entity classes, and understand how to handle concurrency conflicts.

BuZZ from Customer Shopping

LINQ: More than an ORM
When I first heard someone describe LINQ, I thought "Oh, another ORM... that doesn't sound very exciting".

Upon further research I discovered that LINQ is actually quite a bit more than just "another ORM", in fact, I would say it is one of the more interesting things from Microsoft lately.

The book Pro LINQ does a very good job of covering this new technology, and it does so in a way that you would expect for a "Professional" level book.

For example, I found it immediately appealing that Chapter 1 starts with a code example before ever getting to any regular text. The rest of the book follows suit. There are plenty of explanations, but sometimes seeing the code & result Provides the clearest view.

The author does a good job of explaining the technology in detail, why it is useful, and very practical tips on how to make the most of it. The book covers using LINQ to query Objects, XML, DataSets and finally SQL.

I have used the book as an introduction to the topic, and for that it has done an excellent job. It appears that the book is comprehensive enough to also serve as a working reference book, but I have not personally had the chance to use it as such yet.

Code, Code, and then More Code... Excellent
This book claims to be about code, code, and then more code. I completely agree with the author's claim, it is code from front to back.

The book covers every feature of Linq in great detail, but one of my favorite parts of the book is chapter on the C# 3.0 Language features and other parts of the book that show how to take advantage of the Linq language features in everyday application code.

The author goes into great detail in every part of the of the book. The author also has a great companion site that is being updated with the latest new features coming out, like LINQ to XSD.

The accompanying code is very usable and well organized.

The only thing lacking would not be a legitimate complaint, since the authors claim code level detail and not architectural level guidance, but I will mention it anyway. I would have like to have seen more guidance on architecture and how Linq fits into the big picture. That is not covered, but like I said, they didn't claim to, so I can't ding them. The point of the comment.... 2nd edition ...hint, hint.....

If you want to get into the guts of Linq, this book is definitely for you. I highly recommend it for every .NET 3.5 Programmer.

Best book on LINQ so far
LINQ is one of the coolest ideas to come out of MS in the past few years. Its tight integration with Visual Studio 2008 makes data access more intuitive and we can FINALLY drop the "SQL as strings" syntax in favor of something that can actually be validated at compile time instead of "blowing up" at run-time.

I've spent a fair amount of time researching LINQ and even played with it somewhat. This book would be great for those who at least know the basics of LINQ and what its purpose is. I honestly can't think of a topic about LINQ that was not addressed in some detail in this book. The writing was complete with lots of examples to illustrate the points. An earlier reviewer has said they "stopped at chapter 4" because of the lack of detailed query language syntax descriptions BUT I don't understand because there is an exhaustive definition of the language in chapter 2. I think their 1 star review was unfair and borderline malicious.

Until something comes along better, this would be my pick for the best LINQ book on the market.

About Pro LINQ: Language Integrated Query in C# 2008 detail

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5934 in eBooks
• Published on: 2007-11-19
• Format: Kindle Book
• Number of items: 1

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Product Description

Ruby is perhaps best known as the engine powering the hugely popular Ruby on Rails web framework. However, it is an extremely powerful and versatile programming language in its own right. It focuses on simplicity and offers a fully object-oriented environment.

Beginning Ruby is a thoroughly contemporary guide for every type of reader wanting to learn Ruby, from novice programmers to web developers to Ruby newcomers. It starts by explaining the principles behind object-oriented programming and within a few chapters builds toward creating a genuine Ruby application.

The book then explains key Ruby principles, such as classes and objects; projects, modules, and libraries; and other aspects of Ruby such as database access. In addition, Ruby on Rails is covered in depth, and the books appendixes provide essential reference information as well as a primer for experienced programmers.

BuZZ from Customer Shopping

Superb book for the novice programmer
Beginning Ruby is easily one of the most readable and clearest technical texts I have encountered in a while. I am not a professional programmer just an experienced web designer. That means that I've been exposed to some programming in the form of Perl, PHP and JavaScript but don't really know them. At the urging of a knowledgeable friend I've decided to learn to program with Ruby.

I've tried the online version of the Pickaxe book to start learning the process and found that it makes too many assumptions about programming skill for me. Not so Beginning Ruby. It is well written and assumes little programming background, not zero background but little. Perfect.

Peter Cooper has managed to introduce topics in a logical and non-intimidating manner. Explanations are clear. The writing is conversational but neither wordy or pandering. After working through about a third of the book I am feeling positive about gaining a practical working knowledge of Ruby. I don't think it actually will bring me to a truly professional level. That will take years of practice and study.

The first half or so of the book covers Ruby at the command line and text file levels. The focus of the second half moves towards using Ruby on the web. Ruby on Rails gets a more than cursory section and using Ruby without Rails in CGI is covered too, as is working with HTTP and other internet but not directly web content programming topics.

Absent is coverage of any kind of GUI programming for Ruby. That's okay because making regular installed programs not my interest. Though with OS X now offering Ruby integration with its programming environment I may eventually want to learn more.

But no one book can cover everything. If you are comfortable with hand editing code or using the command line then you should find Beginning Ruby a friendly text, part tutorial, part reference and at the introductory to intermediate levels excellent. I can't speak for the pros. Look for their reviews.

Excellent book for novice Ruby programmers
This is an excellent book for anyone getting started with Ruby, or who has been using Rails for a little while and feels they need stronger Ruby skills (which, I suspect, describes a great number of Rails programmers, myself included).

Despite its title, this is not just a beginner's book. It does start at the Beginning, and it is written without assuming a lot of background, but it is not a simplified, dumbed-down treatment. I found it to be very easy to read, and it follows a natural progression from language basics through a variety of advanced topics.

The author is a very experienced Ruby programmer, and his insights shine throughout the book. (Among many other things, he's the creator of Feed Digest, Ruby Inside, and code snippets, which he sold to DZone.

In addition to an exposition of the language that builds nicely over the course of the book, there's chapters on the Ruby ecosystem, how to design an application, and network programming. There's also a chapter that covers many of the useful libraries and gems.

There is one chapter that summarizes Rails, but this is definitely a Ruby book, not a Rails book.

Any Ruby book will inevitably be compared to Dave Thomas' Programming Ruby (commonly known as "the Pickaxe" for the image on its cover), which has been the standard reference for the language since its debut and won't lose its spot as a reference work. I found Beginning Ruby to be easier to absorb, however, and I thought the examples were especially clear and useful. If you're already deep into Ruby, you probably don't need this book. But if you're relatively early in the learning curve, I highly recommend it.

Great programmer's introduction to Ruby
When I was learning Ruby what I really wanted was a well-structured book that began with the assumption that I already knew how to program and then guided me quickly through the special features of Ruby. At the time such a book did not exist. Now, with the publication of Peter Cooper's "Beginning Ruby", it does.

The book is well written, nicely laid out, the explanations are clear and the code examples are useful. In short, if you already have some programming experience and want an accessible introduction to the world of Ruby, this is the book to get.

About Beginning Ruby: From Novice to Professional detail

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7410 in eBooks
• Published on: 2007-03-26
• Released on: 2009-05-04
• Format: Kindle Book
• Number of items: 1

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Product Description

Item #: N91428. Microsoft Expression Web gives you all the tools you'll need to produce high-quality, standards-based Web sites the way you want them. Take advantage of the best of dynamic Web site design, enabling you to design, develop, and maintain exceptional standards-based Web sites.Unleash your creativity and bring your Web sites to life with sophisticated CSS design features including visual designers, specialized task panes, and tool bars that give you precise control of page layout and formatting.Reduce complexity and ease integration of data by using powerful task panes and design tools, which allow quick incorporation of XML data. Seamlessly integrate Web design and development teams with Expression Web and Microsoft Visual Studio, by taking advantage of superior support for XML, ASP.NET and XHTML.Create dynamic, interactive pages and sites that leverage the power of the Web to deliver compelling user experiences. Easily design to standards and optimize your sites for accessibility and cross-browser compatibility with built-in support and validation for Web standards. Product Description: Microsoft Expression Web - ( v. 2.0 ) - complete package
Category: Creativity application
Subcategory: Creativity - web design / publishing
Version: 2.0
License Type: Complete package
License Qty: 1 workstation
License Pricing: Standard
Language(s): English
Platform: Windows
Distribution Media: DVD-ROM
Package Type: Retail
Customers also search for: Discount Microsoft Expression Web - ( V. 2.0 ) - Complete Package, Buy Microsoft Expression Web - ( V. 2.0 ) - Complete Package, Wholesale Microsoft Expression Web - ( V. 2.0 ) - Complete Package, 0882224659406, UCQ-00551, Developer Software

BuZZ from Customer Shopping

Adobe needs to watch out
I have been using both Dreamweaver and Frontpage for a long time and have watched both grow. With Expression 1.0 Frontpage grew up and became a serious web tool, with Expression Web 2.0 it leaves Adobe playing catch up. There is simply no better tool out there that will help you create and manage your sites. Perhaps Adobe will make Dreamweaver CS4 better but for now this is the new leader in WYSIWYG web design

Good, bad, similar
Expression Web 2 is very similar to Dreamweaver 8. 'EW2' handels CSS code very well and has a good Design Window. FrontPage did a poor job viewing CSS web pages. I miss the Review button. Now you have to press F12 key to view through the browser, same as 'DW8'. Overall, I like Expression Web 2, but I suggest buying a good manual to review the newer menu system, creating CSS, and publishing to the web. A good FTP program is suggested too. MS made just enough improvements to keep up with Dreamweaver 8. My give Expression Web 2 a positive review.

Better than Microsoft Front Page
I have used Microsoft Front Page for many years for auctions and other things and thought that Microsoft Front Page was the best out there in terms of creating websites and other things like that. I lost my Microsoft Front Page and was looking online for another one when I came upon Microsoft Expression Web 2 and decided to try it. When I got it loaded and was toying with it I thought "wow, this is so much better than Microsoft Front Page.

About Microsoft Expression Web 2 detail

• Amazon Sales Rank: #475 in Software
• Brand: Microsoft
• Model: 45117G
• Released on: 2008-05-26
• Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows XP
• Format: CD-ROM
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 1.50" h x 5.30" w x 7.50" l, .70 pounds

Features

• Only design tool on the market that combines the power of design and development with Microsoft Visual Studio compatibility and support for ASP.NET 3.5 including ASP.NET AJAX and PHP
• Build sites according to today's standards, including XHTML, CSS, XML, and XSLT; enjoy better rendering in browsers, more relevant indexing in search engines, enhanced productivity, and more
• Design-focused tools simplify complex web technology and put you in complete control
• Expression Web 2 switches from standards to quirks rendering, depending on the doctype in use; have confidence that your designs will translate perfectly from your design tool to the browser
• Working visually with XML data has never been easier; now you can easily include, filter, and sort data from any XML source

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Product Description

Turn your vision into reality with Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition, a complete set of development solutions. Build applications for the web, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, the 2007 Microsoft Office system, SQL Server 2008, and Windows Mobile devices. Create applications faster than before, from start to finish: designing, debugging, and right through to packaging. Make application-building more integrated and seamless than ever before.

Integrated support for unit testing Build Software for Windows - program against core Windows APIs, Microsoft Foundation Classes, the. NET Framework, or any of several software development kits (SDKs) Build Software for the Web - build stunning Web sites or connect distributed systems using Web services Build Software for Microsoft Office System - integrate the front office and back office, making the information in ERP, CRM, and other enterprise systems directly accessible from within everyday business processes Build Software for Mobile Devices - put the capabilities and information that you need at your fingertips when you are on the move

BuZZ from Customer Shopping

Finally project conversions that are not from Hell
Visual Studio 2008 is the latest version of Visual Studio. Visual Studio is Microsoft's primary IDE. It can be used to develop console applications, Graphical user interface applications, web sites, web applications, and web services in both native code as well as managed code for all platforms supported by Microsoft. It contains four major products Microsoft Visual C++, Microsoft Visual C#, Microsoft Visual Basic, and Microsoft Visual Web Developer. However, it is possible to integrate additional products like IronPython and IronRuby. I've integrated Microsoft Robotics Studio and the CCR (Concurrency and Coordination Runtime) libraries with my Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008 (I also enhanced Visual Studio 2005 by downloading .Net 3.5).

Among the major enhancements to Visual Studio 2008 (as compared to Visual Studio 2005) are the .NET Framework 3.5, WPF, WCF, WWF, LINQ, and the language extensions in C# 3.0. The .Net 3.5/3.0 is really the item that provides most of those other components and Studio 2008 provides support and IDE. For us it is the language extensions in C# 3.0, for example, LINQ, and the more concise syntax to get lambda expressions to work that matters the most (the new "=>" operator). WCF (Windows Communications Foundation) is a new great programming framework that is used to build applications that inter-communicate. However, we are using CCR instead for that purpose. The CCR primitives are very easy to use and great for multi-threaded applications with, for example, autonomous agents. As I understand CCR is scheduled to be included with Visual Studio 2010/2011 but you can start using the CCR library now with Visual Studio 2005/2008.

Visual Studio 2008 Professional is targeted towards Professionals (software engineers, small development companies, etc.). If you are a student or a hobbyist you should instead down load the four Express editions of the products which you get for free. However, for serious programmers they are not enough. The four express editions are Visual Basic Express, Visual C++ Express, Visual C# Express, and Visual Web Developer Express. I will put a link for the free downloads in a comment that I will add later, and I will also give links for free .Net 3.5 download and CCR/DSS.

It should be noted that the Express Editions have significantly reduced functionality. They only include a small set of tools, and libraries. There is no remote database support for data designer, no extensibility, no class designer and several other tools, no Microsoft SQL Server integration, no support for plug-ins. x64 compilers are not available for the Visual Studio Express edition and there is only a smaller express edition of MSDN. Missing C++ related items are, for example: C++ Name undecorator, Spy++, ATL trace, MASM, Visual C++ Web deployment tool, Server Explorer, no create GUID tool, CRT debug library, CRT source code, ATL, MFC, OpenMP, C++ Support library, etc. Naturally Visual C# and Visual Basic are also scaled down. The standard edition have somewhat reduced functionality and is targeted towards rich and serious students/hobbyists and poor professionals.

I currently have Visual Studio 6.0, Visual Studio 2003, Visual Studio 2005, and Visual Studio 2008 on my computer. I am using mostly Visual C++ and Visual C#, and on rare occasions Visual Web Developer. For that reason I believe that I can contribute some information regarding the difficulty related to upgrading.

It was not too difficult to convert Visual Studio 2005 C++/C# code to Visual Studio 2008 C++/C# code and the interface changes from Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008 were minor simple improvements and added community components, which was nothing to cry about. When I went from Visual Studio 6.0 to Visual Studio 2003 and then to Visual Studio 2005, there were a lot of interface changes to get used to and some of my favorite tools were no longer available (class wizard), and the project file extensions were also different. Some of the projects I worked on also had problems with syntax errors that appeared only after the conversion.

When I converted a medium sized Visual C++ project (65,000 lines) from Visual Studio 2003 to Visual Studio 2005 I got more than 500 syntax errors due to changes in variable (from wrong to correct) and due to changes in what kind of declarations was allowed (from wrong to correct). We also had problems with run time errors that appeared only after conversion from Visual Studio 6.0 to Visual Studio 2003. The reason was that Visual Studio 6.0 executables often were able to execute bad code, like functions returning pointers to stack variables. The problem was really Visual Studio 6.0 not Visual Studio 2003/2005, but when you converted from Visual Studio 6.0 to Visual Studio 2003 the bad code caught up with you. Goofy project settings could also not be converted. It was a lot of work to clean this up.

When I converted the same medium sized Visual C++ project mentioned above from Visual 2005 C++ to Visual 2008 C++ I got no syntax errors and it ran fine the first time. When I converted a much larger application containing several projects with mostly C# code but also managed C++ code that loaded dynamic link libraries built using un-managed Visual 6.0 C++ code, it built and ran problem free instantly. The Visual Studio 2008 Conversion Wizard is also nice. However, there was a small gotcha. If you are doing the conversion offline (without access to configuration control management) and you answer yes, to the question that you do want to have the project files made writable, then this might actually not happen, with the result that the conversion fails. The failure to change the read-only status of the project files happened only for the projects containing both managed and un-managed C++ code (in a mostly Visual C# application). I don't know if that was a coincidence, or if I goofed.

So it seems like the conversion from Visual Studio 2005 to Visual Studio 2008 is much less painful then previous conversions used to be. However, if you convert a Visual Studio 6.0 project to a Visual Studio 2008 project then you might have all the issues mentioned above as when converting to Visual Studio 2003 and Visual Studio 2005. However, this does not mean that Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008 are similar. There are a lot of new and very useful components that have been added to Visual Studio 2008.

I already mentioned the language extensions in C# 3.0 (as compared to C# 2.0), for example, LINQ (querying data bases) which allows you to build strongly typed query expressions. Personally I am hoping that C# will in time more or less replace both C++ and Java. Another component I already mentioned is Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF); a new GUI toolkit that allows you to build extremely interactive and media-rich front ends (2D and 3D graphics and animations) for desktop applications (and web applications). The WPF Designer also provides a split view and snap lines for aligning controls and text. Windows Communication Foundation which allows you to build distributed applications (but we are using CCR instead). WWF allows you to define, execute and monitor workflows to model complex business processes, IntelliSense has been significantly improved and now supports JScript authoring and ASP.NET AJAX scripting. There is a Report Wizard, a class designer extension for unmanaged code, Object Browser improvements, and MSBuild recognizes when a system has multiple processors and uses all the available processors to reduce the build time.

I should add that I have bought two copies of Visual Studio 2005 Professional with MSDN from Amazon (actually my wife did) and I was happy with the price and the delivery. However, I did not get my Visual Studio 2008 from Amazon. As I am become more familiar with Visual Studio 2008 and gain additional experience from using I will probably edit or add to this review.

Microsoft is the best of the best of the best.
I've been using Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Professional for about 2 months. Its IDE works great for multiple languages like C++, C# and Visual Basic. The IntelliSense greatly improves coding and productivity when creating Applications. The automagic controls alignment makes forms editing and designing visually easier. In addition, there is a vast wealth of online help, content and code samples to help in creating new software.

Students take note!!!
Students can get the full NON Express editions for free, direct from Microsoft.

https://downloads.channel8.msdn.com/

You will have to reside in a supported country and be a student at an accredited university.

This is not a review of this product, but a note to students that I thought they should know about.

About Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Professional detail

• Amazon Sales Rank: #193 in Software
• Brand: Microsoft
• Model: C5E-00245
• Released on: 2007-12-17
• Platforms: Windows 2003 Server, Windows Vista, Windows XP
• Format: CD-ROM
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .0" h x .0" w x .0" l, .60 pounds

Features

• Build applications for Windows, the Web, the Microsoft Office system, the .NET Framework, SQL Server, and Windows Mobile with integrated drag-and-drop designers; be part of a community of millions of developers
• Visual Studio integrates Visual Basic, Visual C#, and Visual C++ to support a wide variety of development styles; Editor features simplify the cycle of designing, developing, and debugging an application
• Deploy client applications easily with ClickOnce, which enables developers and IT Pros to deploy an application and its prerequisites and then ensure that the application remains up-to-date
• Build applications which target the .NET Framework, shortening development time by reducing the need for infrastructure code and helping to enhance application security
• Use ASP.NET to speed the creation of interactive, highly appealing Web applications and Web services. Master Pages allow developers to easily manage a consistent site layout in one place

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Product Description

The TI-Nspire CAS handheld and computer software has all the functionality of TI-Nspire technology plus built-in CAS (Computer Algebra System) capabilities. Explore, evaluate and simplify expressions, numeric problems and variables symbolically. Experience all the functionality of TI-Nspire technology plus built-in CAS capabilities, which provides the ability to explore, evaluate and simplify expressions, numeric problems and variables symbolically. The TI-Nspire CAS handheld does not include the snap-in TI-84 Plus Keypad, which is compatible exclusively with the TI-Nspire handheld. White box.

BuZZ from Customer Shopping

Great Potential - Needs Work

I've been working with this calculator for more than two months. My advice? Wait! Wait for updates and upgrades. First, I have to agree with another reviewer who was so angry with the documentation: it's awful. Harks back to the early 1980s when the only way to know what a computer could do was to try it. Trying to figure out how to do even the simplest of operations sometimes required an hour's worth of searching, at times with no resolution. The most helpful thing I've done so far is to print out the entire function manual and read through it page by page, but even this won't help you with specific button operations. Also, if I call technical support and they say they'll have to call me back, I expect to be called back. I don't expect to never hear from them again. Very, very annoying. Lacks class and corporate integrity.

I'm also unhappy with the screen. Although it has excellent resolution, it is very difficult to see unless the ambient light is bright, if not you have to tilt it at just the right angle to see anything. I don't know if it's technologically possible, but backlighting might help significantly. Also, they might want to work on providing 3D graphics.

There are also some operating system tweaks they need to make. For example, in the calculator mode Tab key will move you to the next part of the expression, but in graphing mode it appears to function the same as the Enter key and prematurely enters the expression.

There is also an operating system bug. It appears that if you "grab" something and you allow the calculator to auto power down it locks up. Doing a "soft reset" by pressing the button on the back will not unlock the system. You have to do a "hard reset" by removing a battery.

So what do I like? Almost everything else. I love the wysiwyg interface! It's as if you could actually do calculations with the MS equation editor. I haven't had a problem using the buttons. Also, the calculator is incredible powerful, there are a huge range of functions and operations. Final word: wait for them to solve the problems I've outlined above and then buy one.

Stick with the TI-89
This is a calculator with tons of potential, however it is not nearly as user friendly as every other TI graphing calculator is. I'm an AP Calculus teacher and ordered one of these through school funds to test out. It can do everything that the TI-89 does and has much more potential than the TI-89, but the thought of teaching my students to use one of these just scares the bejesus out of me.

Pros:
1. Large screen with good resolution.
2. little green letter buttons make it easier to enter commands.
3. WYSIWYG typing means you don't have to remember calculator syntax. It's much easier to enter a definite integral or limit.
4. Graphing window allows you to graph rectangular, polar, and parametric equations simultaneously.
5. Click and drag feature on the graph screen is nice.

Cons:
1. The letter buttons are always in the way while I'm trying to enter numbers.
2. Screen can be difficult to read.
3. There is not a model that hooks up to a TI presenter. It does come with software where you can use a computer version of the calculator (assuming you have an LCD projector), but it's much slower than simply hitting actual buttons.
4. Finding max, min, roots, and intersections takes longer than on the TI-89.
5. When you do find the things from my #4 con, the calculator displays them right in the middle of the graphing screen, so you have to click and drag them out of the way to continue viewing the graph.
6. The "y=" screen is included as part of the graph screen, taking up graphing space.
7. Viewing a function table isn't difficult, but I can't figure out how to view a window containing ONLY the function table. It splits the screen with the graph on the left and the table on the right. This keeps you from being able to see several function values at the same time. Also I can't figure out how to close the table. I'm sure there's an easy way, but due to the completely inadequate user manual I have no idea what it is.
EDIT: I figured out how to view a function table on a different page/tab in the calculator, so the split screen problem is solved and it's much easier to close the function table. It still is not very intuitive at all and if I weren't very tech savvy I'd have never figured it out.
8. I have yet to find a differential equation graphing mode, and internet searches lead me to believe there isn't one. Why in the world would TI include this with the TI-89 and not with their new, supposed top-of-the-line model?

I may edit this as I find more pros or cons. I've had this calculator for 3 or 4 months and I do get it out on occasion to give it another shot, but each time I'm just as disappointed as the last. I keep think it just has a steep learning curve and I'll eventually catch on but it's not happening. That being the case, I have a feeling that if I tried to get my students to use this calculator I would be spending too much time just teaching them to use it.

If this calculator was only $50 and the TI-89 Titanium stayed at about $150 I'd still encourage my students to get the 89.

The Best Graphing Calculator +
I've been teaching for over 10 years and have used the TI-82,83,84, and 89 in my math and science classrooms. Finally, there is an upgradable learning tool that has better resolution and dynamic linking capabilities that is perfect for every high school (and beyond) math class, INCLUDING geometry. I could go on for some time about all the things that I like about it, but space doesn't allow. Clearly, the first and possibly favorite feature students will notice is that the input actually looks like the mathematics in the textbook. It has "pretty print" on the input as well as the announcement. "Parentheses errors" will become a thing of the past; no more getting the wrong answer because you entered it in wrong.

About TI-Nspire CAS Graphing Calculator detail

• Brand: Texas Instruments
• Model: NSCAS/PWB/1L1
• Dimensions: 2.00 pounds

Features

• Advanced graphing calculator ideal for classroom use
• See multiple representations of a problem individually or together on a single screen
• Dynamically link representations of a problem to see how changes to one affect others
• Grab and move graphed functions in real time to observe relationships and patterns
• Can be used on the PSAT and SAT college entrance exams and on AP tests

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Product Description

The leading book in its field, this guide focuses on the design, development and coding of network software under the UNIX operating system. Provides over 15,000 lines of C code with descriptions of how and why a given solution is achieved. For programmers seeking an indepth tutorial on sockets, transport level interface (TLI), interprocess communications (IPC) facilities under System V and BSD UNIX.

BuZZ from Customer Shopping

21st Century? Yes, buy this book.
Great book, I've read it cover to cover. But why buy it when the author has newer versions out? Because (1) it is more concise and (2) it has info not in the other editions. I recommend you read this one cover-to-cover and buy the others as more detailed reference. His 3 other books (Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment, Unix Net. Prog.,2nd Ed., Vol.1; Unix Net. Programming, 2nd Ed., Vol.2) are far more detailed and worth having, but each is very thick. AND, the author died without finishing Unix Network Programming, 2nd Ed., Vol.3 (Applications). You have to buy this older edition to get the applications. It's easier to read 1 book 700 pp. long than to read 3 books, each 700 pp. long. Time is money.

Astonishing and Readable! Simply let knowledge flow in you!
Okay, this is the story. I have not bought this book, but got it from a university library, for a short term of a week. It is an amazing book, Richards simply is a magician, when ever it comes to displaying and explaining data. There are 2 kind of books, one that you read 50 pages of, and start randomly select pages to read out of it, and one that you read fully, continuesly, and never noticed you have spent a whole day reading it. Richards casts a spell on you with his books, they are magically clear, and vastly informative so that you will surely understand with every meaning of that word!. This is the second kind of a book! A MUST on every shelf, unfortunatly i am still desperately looking for this book!. For the "data" in it: Robust explanation of UNIX, Richards goes from the OS view and dives deeply into the internals, providing vast and clear explanations for _everything_. Throw all other books away, this is THE book.

Readable, well-indexed and complete
This is undoubtedly one of the finest computer books I have ever owned. It is readable enough to use as a textbook, but well-indexed and complete enough to use as a reference. I bought my copy in 1991, and it is almost falling apart. Colleagues are constantly borrowing it, and they usually go out and get their own copy (after I tell them that they may NOT take it home). When Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment came out, a co-worker and I both decided that we would, on faith, "plunk down the 50+ bucks to own it, too". It has also proven to be readable and useful. I took a week-long class in network programming shortly after I bought the Unix Network Programming book, and I took it along, thinking I might need it. The instructor saw the book, picked it up and said "This is THE definitive reference on network programming in Unix. Any problem I have had, I have been able to find a solution in this book!" (All of this was before Steven's series of 3 volumes came out). Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go arm-wrestle one of our student interns for my copy of Unix Network Programming...

About Hardcover, Unix Network Programming detail

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1520706 in Books
• Published on: 1990
• Binding: Hardcover
• 772 pages

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Product Description

Edit and create RSS feeds with easy to use RSS software. Feedforall allows you to open existing rss feeds, repair news feeds, export feeds as HTML, and syndicate your content with just a few steps. Feedforall also allows users to create podcasts and iTunes compatible podcasts. Easily create, edit and publish rss feeds and podcasts. New RSS feeds and podcasts can be quickly and easily created with Feedforall. Advanced features enable you to create professional looking rss feeds and podcasts quickly and efficiently. Existing RSS feeds can be repaired and enhanced with Feedforall. Feedforall supports enclosure tags along with all other RSS specification fields allowing users to make complete feeds with feature rich content. RSS feeds generated by other means can be automatically repaired, so that they conform to the RSS 2.0 specification. Existing feeds can be enhanced to contain advanced feed properties including audio and video files, and give them a more professional look. Day to day feed maintenance can be handled simply with Feedforall. Features such as automatic publication date handling and field defaults enables users to keep their feeds up to date with minimal effort.

BuZZ from Customer Shopping

Even I can use it!
I'm not exactly a computer expert. Actually 'computer expert' and my name should probably not be used in the same sentence. When I decided I wanted to create an RSS feed for my website, I was prepared for a long and painful journey. I had seen Feedforall mentioned in a few RSS forums, so I gave it a try. In less than one hour I had my RSS feed up and running!!!

Programs that do EXACTLY what they should, and are SIMPLE to use are sometimes hard to find. If you need an RSS feed for your website, it just doesn't get any better than Feedforall.

Cool Software for Podcasting
I created a podcast in just a few seconds with Feedforall. They have a great podcasting tutorial, and information support section on their website. I was even able to use the free RSS to HTML php script to display the podcast on a website. I was really impressed with the software's ease of use. Kudos to this group for a job really well done. I'm very impressed.

Great way to learn RSS technology for internet businesses!
You've seen RSS feeds used by big commercial websites like Yahoo, CNet, NY Times, and the BBC.

If you are selling anything online, then you need to keep up with this technology. You can syndicate your feeds and get lots of publicity for your products or services.

Don't do what I did and use one of the blog packages available online. The one I tried worked fine, but it was a complicated mess with zillions of files that left my website open to hackers too.

After it crashed for the fifth time I finally took the time to learn to do it the right way.

Using Feedforall I was so pleased to have a basic understanding of the process and created my first feed in one half hour. Now I'm kicking myself for not doing it right from the beginning.

Feedforall is a great buy. Get it today - you won't regret it!

About Feedforall Windows Software - Edit and Create RSS Feeds -Open RSS Feeds, Repair News Feeds, Export Feeds As Html, Syndicate Your Content, Create Podcasts and iTunes Compatible Podcasts detail

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9522 in Software
• Brand: NotePage, Inc
• Format: CD

Features

• Customize FeedForAll: Easily choose from an assortment of interface skins to personalize the look and feel of FeedForAll to suit your personal taste. A pleasing interface can increase user productivity.
• Download Any Feed: FeedForAll can easily download existing RSS feeds from the Internet. This will allow you to easily modify, enhance, and update existing feeds.
• Flexible Interface: FeedForAll has a simple yet powerful user interface that makes feed creation easy for both beginners and power users.
• Load Existing Feeds: FeedForAll can open existing RSS feeds from disk. This will allow you to easily modify, enhance, and update existing feeds, from local or network drives.
• Automatic Feed Repair: FeedForAll automatically repairs all malformed feeds that it opens. This enables FeedForAll to open feeds that other programs are unable to open. This also ensures that all feeds saved with FeedForAll are in a valid format.

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Product Description

ASP.NET 2003 represents an important technology for building enterprise level web applications. Learn the basics of ASP.NET development as you watch a DVD on your TV or laptop DVD player. This 8 hour two-disc set contains 19 lessons that provide you instruction the core techniques required to build high quality web applications. The lessons cover all aspects of ASP.NET, from basic syntax to important web constructs. Samples within each lesson demonstrate essential concepts and techniques such as ASP syntax, events, HTML and Web Form controls, session management, ADO.NET data access, delegates, debugging and tracing, web services, and much more. All sample presentations include a live demonstration and a code review. Replay segments from more difficult lessons as many times as necessary to master the content. The DVD set includes the full video presentation, slides, all code samples, and every lab - already completed for you.

BuZZ from Customer Shopping

Poor production quality
The content was good but it was painful to watch and listen to. The code samples are not available. The web site doesn't exists.

Great DVD!
This DVD was great. Unlike what other reviewers say, this is a very good introduction to NEW Asp. As you all know, Microsoft is pushing C# as their new top language. So, if you are a programmer and want to prolong you stay in the U.S for at least 2 more years, you better switch to C#. Why? Because it's a new language, and it gives you a better chance of competing with out-sourced programmers who heavily use Vb.net. All in all, if you want to learn CASP# by tomorrow, buy this one.

Content very good, audio quality bad
Very good to get an overview over ASP.NET with C#. The only downside is the really bad audio quality. If your time is worth more than $5 an hour, buy this DVD. It can save you a lot of time.

About Beginner's ASP.NET in C# 2003 on DVD detail

• Amazon Sales Rank: #126682 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-06-20
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, Digital Sound, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 480 minutes

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Product Description

When the first edition of this book was written, XML was a relatively new language but already gaining ground fast and becoming more and more widely used in a vast range of applications. By the time of the second edition, XML had already proven itself to be more than a passing fad, and was in fact being used throughout the industry for an incredibly wide range of uses. With the third edition, it was clear that XML was a mature technology, but more important, it became evident that the XML landscape was dividing into several areas of expertise. Now in this edition, we needed to categorize the increasing number of specifications surrounding XML, which either use XML or provide functionality in addition to the XML core specification.

So what is XML? It’s a markup language, used to describe the structure of data in meaningful ways. Anywhere that data is input/output, stored, or transmitted from one place to another, is a potential fit for XML’s capabilities. Perhaps the most well-known applications are web-related (especially with the latest developments in handheld web access—for which some of the technology is XML-based). However, there are many other non-web-based applications for which XML is useful—for example, as a replacement for (or to complement) traditional databases, or for the transfer of financial information between businesses. News organizations, along with individuals, have also been using XML to distribute syndicated news stories and blog entries.

This book aims to teach you all you need to know about XML—what it is, how it works, what technologies surround it, and how it can best be used in a variety of situations, from simple data transfer to using XML in your web pages. It answers the fundamental questions:

* What is XML?

* How do you use XML?

* How does it work?

* What can you use it for, anyway?

This book is for people who know that it would be a pretty good idea to learn XML but aren’t 100 percent sure why. You’ve heard the hype but haven’t seen enough substance to figure out what XML is and what it can do. You may be using development tools that try to hide the XML behind user interfaces and scripts, but you want to know what is really happening behind the scenes. You may already be somehow involved in web development and probably even know the basics of HTML, although neither of these qualifications is absolutely necessary for this book.

What you don’t need is knowledge of markup languages in general. This book assumes that you’re new to the concept of markup languages, and we have structured it in a way that should make sense to the beginner and yet quickly bring you to XML expert status.

The word “Beginning” in the title refers to the style of the book, rather than the reader’s experience level. There are two types of beginner for whom this book is ideal:

* Programmers who are already familiar with some web programming or data exchange techniques. Programmers in this category will already understand some of the concepts discussed here, but you will learn how you can incorporate XML technologies to enhance those solutions you currently develop.

* Those working in a programming environment but with no substantial knowledge or experience of web development or data exchange applications. In addition to learning how XML technologies can be applied to such applications, you will be introduced to some new concepts to help you understand how such systems work.

The subjects covered in this book are arranged to take you from novice to expert in as logical a manner as we could. This Fourth Edition is structured in sections based on various areas of XML expertise. Unless you are already using XML, you should start by reading the introduction to XML in Part I. From there, you can quickly jump into specific areas of expertise, or, if you prefer, you can read through the book in order. Keep in mind that there is quite a lot of overlap in XML, and that some of the sections make use of techniques described elsewhere in the book.

* The book begins by explaining what exactly XML is and why the industry felt that a language like this was needed.

* After covering the why, the next logical step is the how, so it shows you how to create well-formed XML.

* Once you understand the whys and hows of XML, you’ll go on to some more advanced things you can do when creating your XML documents, to make them not only well formed, but valid. (And you’ll learn what “valid” really means.)

* After you’re comfortable with XML and have seen it in action, the book unleashes the programmer within and looks at an XML-based programming language that you can use to transform XML documents from one format to another.

* Eventually, you will need to store and retrieve XML information from databases. At this point, you will learn not only the state of the art for XML and databases, but also how to query XML information using an SQL-like syntax called XQuery.

* XML wouldn’t really be useful unless you could write programs to read the data in XML documents and create new XML documents, so we’ll get back to programming and look at a couple of ways that you can do that.

* Understanding how to program and use XML within your own business is one thing, but sending that information to a business partner or publishing it to the Internet is another. You’ll learn about technologies that use XML that enable you to send messages across the Internet, publish information, and discover services that provide information.

* Since you have all of this data in XML format, it would be great if you could easily display it to people, and it turns out you can. You’ll see an XML version of HTML called XHTML. You’ll also look at a technology you may already be using in conjunction with HTML documents called CSS. CSS enables you to add visual styles to your XML documents. In addition, you’ll learn how to design stunning graphics and make interactive forms using XML.

* Finally, the book ends with a case study, which should help to give you ideas about how XML can be used in real-life situations, and which could be used in your own applications.

This book builds on the strengths of the earlier editions, and provides new material to reflect the changes in the XML landscape—notably XQuery, RSS and Atom, and AJAX. Updates have been made to reflect the most recent versions of specifications and best practices throughout the book. In addition to the many changes, each chapter has a set of exercise questions to test your understanding of the material. Possible solutions to these questions appear in Appendix A.

Part I: Introduction: The introduction is where most readers should begin. The first three chapters introduce some of the goals of XML as well as the specific rules for constructing XML. Once you have read this part you should be able to read and create your own XML documents.

Chapter 1: What Is XML?: This chapter cover some basic concepts, introducing the fact that XML is a markup language (a bit like HTML) whereby you can define your own elements, tags, and attributes (known as a vocabulary). You’ll see that tags have no presentation meaning—they’re just a way to describe the structure of the data.

Chapter 2: Well-Formed XML: In addition to explaining what well-formed XML is, we offer a look at the rules that exist (the XML 1.0 and 1.1 Recommendations) for naming and structuring elements—you need to comply with these rules in order to produce well-formed XML.

Chapter 3: XML Namespaces: Because tags can be made up, you need to avoid name conflicts when sharing documents. Namespaces provide a way to uniquely identify a group of tags, using a URI. This chapter explains how to use namespaces.

Part II: Validation: In addition to the well-formedness rules you learn in Part I, you will most likely want to learn how to create and use different XML vocabularies. This Part introduces you to DTDs, XML Schemas, and RELAX NG: three languages that define custom XML vocabularies. It also shows you how to utilize these definitions to validate your XML documents.

Chapter 4: Document Type Definitions: You can specify how an XML document should be structured, and even provide default values, using Document Type Definitions (DTDs). If XML conforms to the associated DTD, it is known as valid XML. This chapter covers the basics of using DTDs.

Chapter 5: XML Schemas: XML Schemas, like DTDs, enable you to define how a document should be structured. In additio...

BuZZ from Customer Shopping

Excellent straightforward way to learn XML from scratch
Having read quite a few XML books from Wrox (5-6), I think that this book will be able to touch the biggest audience. It contains a very good approach to learn about XML well-formed documents, CSS for XML, XSL(T), DTD, and it also have some nice Case-Studies that goes along. Hey, you even have an introduction to ASP and another one for HTML; for those of you new to the Internet.

Most of the XML books (straight one, not XML for VB for example) contains the same TOC but this one has the best approach so far.

If you are new to XML, take this one.

If you know a bit of XML (and PROGRAMMED it), you can take the Professional XML which will go a little bit more in depth (not that much)

If you know what you are doing with XML and wants to learn more about XSLT, get the XSLT Programmer's Reference(great book) from Wrox.

If you want a very good Case-Study, take the Professional XML Design and Implementation (also good).

Then you are off with ASP XML, VB XML, or Java XML.

Happy XML hunting.

A Great Beginning Book for the XML Novice
One thing to remember about this book before you buy: It is a "Beginning XML Book," NOT a "Beginner" book. You are going to need some knowledge of data management, file management, and web page development to understand the groundwork for XML development.

However, if you do have basic ASP, SQL, and HTML skills like I do, then this book is a great start if you want to add XML to your skillset.

As with all Wrox books published over the last two years, this book is well-structured, well-written, and well-indexed. It will teach you more than you need to know for XML basics, and you can use the book as a reference down the road.

I waited for this book to come out all summer, and it was well worth the price and time I put into it. Good job, Wrox!

A Candy giving Headaches
No doubt this is a must for beginners in XML, and after a long time the GODs at Wrox decided to grace us poor programmers who are not gurus with a Beginning book. The way they had been churning out Professional series out of their factories I had already prepared my obituary for the Beginning series.

About the book. One of the best on the block for XML. Language is simple, easy to understand, and handles complex topics like XSLT very deftly.

Downside. Very very wordy. This is the first time I see in a Beginning series the author spending so much ink and pages on simplest of topics. Strangely enough some complex topic are written off in half a page. Examples in XSLT dont work. Inspite of downloading the XT program which the author recommends, more than half of the examples of the book don't work, leaving you depressed and confused, you then tend to re-read the pages, trying to find if you missed anything... XML applications arent covered in a greater detail and neither are practical examples for XML use shown.

In my opinion even with its faults this book is still, one of the better ones on the block, try skimming thro the earlier pages a bit faster if you don't want to be put to sleep. Don't waste too much time if the books XSLT examples don't work, just buy this books to get your basics covered and made strong.

Lastly, as I have mentioned again and again, Wrox Beginning series are no longer what they used to be, and if anyone at wrox is reading this, I pleade them to get back on their earlier motto of providing quality books like the Beginning asp/asp databases/javascript series, or end up losing their fans like me.

About Beginning Xml detail

• Amazon Sales Rank: #884077 in Books
• Published on: 2000-05-31
• Format: Bargain Price
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 822 pages

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Product Description

Lua is the language of choice for anyone who needs a scripting language that is simple, efficient, extensible, portable, and free. Currently, Lua is being used in areas ranging from embedded systems to Web development and is widely spread in the game industry, where knowledge of Lua is an indisputable asset.

"Programming in Lua" is the official book about the language, giving a solid base for any programmer who wants to use Lua. Authored by Roberto Ierusalimschy, the chief architect of the language, it covers all aspects of Lua 5---from the basics to its API with C---explaining how to make good use of its features and giving numerous code examples. "Programming in Lua" is targeted at people with some Programming background, but does not assume any prior knowledge about Lua or other scripting languages.

This Second Edition updates the text to Lua 5.1 and brings substantial new material, including numerous new examples, a detailed explanation of the new module system, and two new chapters centered on multiple states and garbage collection.

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Let the revolution begin
The Lua Programming Language has been around for a while but this book by Roberto Ierusalimschy will be a mark in its history. The book managed to surpass every expectation I had for it, and I was eager! From someone with no Lua knowledge to those with Lua klocs in their backs, this book will be a great companion in a nice to read trip down the Lua 5.0 lane.

The book begins with the basic Lua elements and structures and then advances through control structures, functions, iterators and coroutines. Iterators and coroutines are one of those language features that may confuse the first timers, but the author manages to show the concepts and inter relations between them in a way that clarified the issues even for a seasoned Lua programmer. Alas, make no mistake, the whole first part is totally worthwhile for non beginners.

The second part of the book shows one of Lua biggest assets: tables and metatables. I've seen people sneer at Lua at first glance and then convert themselves to Lua evangelists simply for the features of tables and metatables. The author does his magic and makes a whole set of apparently complex concepts flow by the reader as fluid and logical as they can be.

By the way, fluency is arguably one of the major benefits of this book. The reader is taken from substrate to substrate of the Lua way of life without even taking notice. Every end of chapter left me with the satisfaction of having been presented with one more facet of Lua and with the tranquility that everything was falling in place at the right timing.

After tables and metatables, the book presents the concepts of Packages and Object Orientation in Lua. If you had any doubt ever that Lua was able to sustain "real" Modular/OO Programming, be prepared to replace your dogmas. The book not only clarifies how to do it in Lua but also shows how easy and clear the coding gets.

The author ends the second part of the book with a great chapter on Weak Tables. I have to admit that I was somewhat refractory to Weak Tables before I read this book, but after this single chapter I was converted. May the name "weak" not influence your judgment on those Weak Tables. They are great, and the book showed more about them than I was expecting.

The third part of the book focuses on the standard libraries. Those would be the Table, String, I/O, Operating System and Debug libraries. Instead of repeating the contents of the Lua reference manual, the author manages to show lots of new information about the libraries by the use of examples and clear explanations. There are some points in Lua that can indeed be quite idiosyncratic at a glance, but this book is more than enough to clarify every one of them.

The fourth and last part of the book brings us the Lua C API. For the beginner Lua programmer this part will probably be skipped, but for the average programmer and most of all for the hardcore Lua explorer, this part will be pure delight. C Programming is not for the faint of heart, but having a Lua interface for your C library is akin to the jackpot of embedded languages in my opinion.

This part of the book shows that the task of wrapping C code for Lua is not only feasible, but easily done once you grasp the fundamentals. Have one thing in mind, this was no small task for the author. Describing such an plethora of resources and how to use them in six chapters demands a clear yet straight to the point approach, and once again the book shines through.

Step by step the author shows how to deal with the Stack, to get arguments from and return values back to Lua, to handle tables (even those big ones), to call Lua functions from C code, to call C functions from Lua code, to handle strings, to handle state (using the registry, references and upvalues), and last but not least to use userdata types and metatables in C.

The last chapter of the book brings two examples of the use of the C API, one offers a directory iterator and the other a really nice example of binding an existent library (expat) for Lua use. Lots of my questions on the C API were dismissed with those two examples.

I should also reserve a praise for the book index. Not only I've found it complete but it is easy to understand some details of the Lua structure only by glancing at the index pages.

Conclusion

Being one of the first readers of this book was not only a great honor but also a great surprise. As a Lua old timer, I wasn't expecting to be presented to so many novelties, subtleties and jewels of Programming in almost every chapter. Was I wrong...

If you have not seen Lua until now, this book is THE starting point.

If you are acquainted with other versions of Lua but have not studied version 5.0, this book is a great shortcut for your new endeavors.

Finally, if you think Lua is your native language and no book could teach you something worthwhile, think again. I was grateful I didn't skip not even one paragraph.

We've got the language. We've got the book. Let the revolution begin... :o)

A valuable multi-level book
Lua is a free scripting language with an interesting development history. It is a language that is gaining wider acceptance thanks to small size, readable syntax, expressive power, efficiency, ANSI C portability and easy two-way integration with C and C++. It is also useful as a data-description language that can be tailored to one's needs.

Written by the chief architect of the language, this book is aimed at programmers whishing to approach or to better understand Lua and the (often unsuspected) capabilities offered by a fully dynamic language.

Despite its deceptively small size (260 pages) and a plain, readable style with an eye-resting typesetting, "Programming in Lua" packs an impressive amount of information peppered with small, clear code examples to help digesting it; it reminds me of my favorite Programming book: the K&R (Kernighan and Ritchie's "The C Programming language"). It is a multi-level book that always gives something new at every reading.

Rather than offer a catalogue of functions (left to the downloadable reference manual), the book's four sections introduce capabilities, concepts and interesting techniques that may surprise programmers used to static languages.

The first section is devoted to the language itself, including not-so-common subjects like dynamic typing, multiple results, first-class functions, closures, iterators and coroutines. The following section shows how to build all sorts of data structures, from simple arrays and lists to packages and objects, using Lua's "tables" and the powerful idea of "metatables" that makes the language easily customizable.
The third section introduces the standard libraries (they are actually optional, e.g. in microcontroller applications) with special emphasis on the simple but versatile pattern matching capabilities.

The fourth and last section is different: aimed at system programmers, it explains in detail how to interface Lua and C, both to add new functions to Lua and to use Lua inside a C program (possibly called from programs written in other languages).

"Programming in Lua" covers version 5.0 of the language, which is now mature and stable. I am using Lua both as a general-purpose 'light' language for system tasks or small programs, and as an embedded language inside C++ applications: the combined power of the two languages is impressive. I liked this book a lot, I learned much from it and I've done it the honor of a place besides my well-thumbed K&R.

Excellent book
Lua is a gem among Programming languages. Its designers have commendably placed a high value on keeping the language small, readable and portable. The diminutive size and simple syntax of Lua, however, belie a very rich, highly factored and stable architecture. It is a fun language in which to program. Lua dovetails beautifully with lower level languages by means of a C interface, and its drum tight language processor and libraries are right at home in event-driven graphical applications as well as console programs.

The excellent book "Programming in Lua" by Roberto Ierusalimschy provides developers with a broad summary of the language. The author includes a myriad of small examples, each of which is well focused and easily grasped. Different solutions to a given problem are often accompanied by benchmark figures. Prof. Ierusalimschy has an educator's gift for finding the appropriate level at which to write, and readers will appreciate the conversational nature of his writing. Unlike many Programming language books, "Programming in Lua" has a strong content-to-fluff ratio throughout.

The book provides valuable explanations of language and library features which even the careful reader of the Lua reference manual might miss. In addition, over twenty C library entry points are discussed (and, thankfully, indexed) which are not mentioned in the reference manual.

It is hard to conceive of a software project which would not benefit from using Lua, both as an embedded component and as a standalone interpreter of scripts. The book "Programming in Lua" is valuable for anyone with an interest in this lovely language.

About Programming in Lua, Second Edition detail

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29040 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 328 pages

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Have a Nice Days!
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Product Description

SMIL (Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language) is an XML-based language, which facilitates the construction of multimedia applications for the internet and mobile devices. SMIL 2.0 - Web and Mobile Interactive Multimedia gently introduces you to the Web multimedia standard SMIL 2.0. Written by world-renowned SMIL experts who helped to develop the language and software for it, this book covers all aspects of the standard in a knowledgeable yet accessible manner: the overall concepts, the technical details and the many facets of SMIL's current and expected use. It is written to serve as an introduction, a full manual and a detailed technical reference. The authors will maintain an additional website, with download areas for code examples, among others.

BuZZ from Customer Shopping

An essential reference for authors and implementers
This is a remarkable book, and by far the most authoritative guide available for the SMIL languages. It serves a broad audience, and combines a readable style with complete expertise in the subject matter.

For authors, the book provides an easy-to-understand explanation of the language principles and syntax. Many useful examples illustrate the features, and provide useful authoring templates. Bulterman and Rutledge's experience with multimedia authors and authoring comes through in the many tips and hints for addressing real-world issues and avoiding potential pitfalls. All examples are provided online as well, along with demos and other resources.

For the serious student or implementer, the book provides detailed explanations of the underlying models for layout, timing and animation. These sections benefit from the combined experience of the book's authors as leading members of the W3C standards group that developed the SMIL languages. Their understanding of the details is clearly beyond that of most other authors on this subject.

The book design itself is interesting and fun. Graphics in the margins mark the chapters, with key chapters featuring flipbook-like graphic "animations". It has a comfortable layout and organization and an excellent index. If I have a complaint, it is that I do not find the graphics summarizing syntax features to be very intuitive. Fortunately, the text and examples provide sufficient syntax reference.

Authors of web multimedia as well as academics and professionals integrating or implementing SMIL language features will find this an invaluable addition to their reference bookshelf - I strongly recommend it.

Comprehensive, clear, and attractive
This is a colorful and attractive book that tells you everything you may ever need to know about creating multimedia presentations using SMIL 2.0, the second release of the World-Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language Recommendation. SMIL is an XML language for creating multimedia presentations, integrating media, temporal control and interactivity. A SMIL presentation can contain a combination of any types of media. SMIL itself is media "agnostic", and includes most media types by referencing their URL's rather than embedding them in the SMIL file itself.

The authors, Bulterman and Rutlege, are respected multimedia researchers and were key contributors to both the SMIL 1.0 and SMIL 2.0 Recommendations. They were personally involved in drafting and testing a significant portion of the standard, and the company that Bulterman used to lead, Oratrix, developed one of the first full implementations of the SMIL 2.0 language, Grins. So these guys know what they are talking about.

While the W3C SMIL 2.0 Recommendation (http://www.w3.org/TR/2005/REC-SMIL2-20050107/) is primarily written for SMIL implementors and XML language designers incorporating SMIL features into their XML-based language, the book is written for multimedia content authors. The book begins with an overview of SMIL 2.0, with six example presentations that show how SMIL can be used, some history, and a guide to the organization of the SMIL 2.0 standard. The next chapter gives a brief but useful introduction to SMIL 2.0 code including the major components of the language: structure, media, layout, timing, linking, and control.

Further chapters go into each of these areas in much greater depth, explaining all of the options and features in each component (terms module in SMIL 2.0) of the language. And there are many! To support fully featured, interactive, and attractive multimedia features that allow infinite flexibility in the look and feel of a multimedia presentation, SMIL 2.0 has a ton of features and options. In addition to the components already listed, there is animation (my favorite), transition effects, media clipping, advanced layout, extended control, and metadata. Bulterman and Rutlege do a good job of presenting a lot of material in an organized and attractive manner, with lots of examples.

By and large, the features in SMIL 2.0 are straightforward and intuitive to use, However, as is true in any standard developed to meet the needs of many separate groups (SMIL 2.0, for example), SMIL 2.0 is a large language with some potential pitfalls, and there are some also "doozers" and "gotchas". By necessity, the SMIL timing model is complex. While usually intuitive, in some particular cases the timing elements and attributes can interact in initially surprising ways. For another example, there are two kinds of SMIL XML for representing transitions, and all transitions may not be available in all platforms. The authors calmly guide the reader through all this. Backward compatability between versions of SMIL, including the oddly named 'skip-content' attribute is another complex subject clearly presented.

This book is both more comprehensive and much more attractively presented than any other book on SMIL that I have seen. The "insiders" view of SMIL that authors have is used to round out the explanations and rationale for things to good effect. Overall this is a great book for any multimedia content developer who is using or considering using SMIL 2.0. It will also be useful to SMIL implementation developers as another source of information when reading and implementing the recommendation documents. Lastly it should be of interest to students studying multimedia as an in-depth guide to a specific comprehensive multimedia presentation architecture.

Aaron M. Cohen
Chairman of the W3C Synchronized Multimedia Working Group (produced the SMIL 2.0 Recommendation)

About SMIL 3.0: Flexible Multimedia for Web, Mobile Devices and Daisy Talking Books (X.media.publishing) detail

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1459073 in Books
• Published on: 2004-06-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 439 pages

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Product Description

As a techie, you're a special breed, with special challenges facing you in the job search. Your competition is smart, tech-savvy, and highly resourceful. Expectations among employers are higher. Your competition will run you over if you're not up to the challenge. Land the Tech Job You Love gives you the background, the skills, and the hard-won wisdom to bypass the mistakes of those who don't prepare.

You might not think you need this book. Conventional Wisdom has it that finding a job is simple: send some resumes, go on some interviews, and take the offer that sounds best. But that's only the start. You've got the background and skills to work the Web and other resources that the general job seeker doesn't. This book shows you how to take advantage of those skills or be left behind by competing techies who do.

It all starts with an examination of you, your strengths, and where you want your career to take you. Without a roadmap, you'll wind up in any old job. Life's too short to spend in a job that you don't love. From there, you'll see how to find the job you want that fits you and the employer, using your technical and web savvy to find the hidden jobs that never make it into the classifieds or Monster.

"Marketing" is not a dirty word, and you'll learn how to present yourself, your skills, and your background in the way that shows the hiring company that you're the right person for the job. Create a resume that tosses out conventional wisdom, write cover letters that sell your background, and assemble a portfolio of work that will wow the interviewer.

Social networking has been the darling of the Web in the past few years, but it's no substitute for the sort of personal interaction that makes relationships that help in future careers. As one manager said, "One recommendation is worth a million resumes." This book shows you how to make and maintain the connections that will drive your future career moves.

Land the Tech Job You Love pulls no punches and lays out the details for what gets you an interview, and gets you hired in a job in the technical world that makes you happy.

BuZZ from Customer Shopping

A Useful Resource
I'm very happy that I purchased this book. It gives a sensible, clear rundown of the steps to take to put yourself in the best position possible to get the job that you want.

The book touches on finding a job that you actually WANT, preparing your resume and cover letter, researching a company, and the interview process--you know, the stuff that seems incredibly simple until you actually sit down to do it. The advice given is practical and could apply to most fields, although the author does address specific concerns for those applying for tech jobs. I enjoyed the clarity of the author's writing.

My husband's a programmer--I purchased the book with him in mind--and thus far the book has been very helpful in his ongoing job search.

Highly recommended.

Reading the Book You Love
Andy Lester comes at this topic from a unique perspective - that of a manager, and that of a programmer. He's in a unique perspective to discuss both what the programmer is looking for in a position, and what a manager is looking for in an employee.

This book moves step-by-step, beginning with figuring out what you want. From there, you move on to resumes, your online presence, portfolios, job listings, interviews, and keeping on top of your game.

Andy does a great job of covering it all step by step, so that younger coders who may be newer to the process catch all the right information, but in a cheerful and friendly tone that doesn't patronize more experienced professionals for whom some of the content might be a healthy review.

Buy this book. Andy Lester provides useful and practical information, while inspiring confidence and reassuring you that you are quite in control when it comes to the job hunt. Enjoy!

About Land the Tech Job You Love (Pragmatic Life) detail

• Amazon Sales Rank: #81825 in Books
• Published on: 2009-06-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 225 pages

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Product Description

Packing the power of desktop applications into a small mobile device, the iPhone SDK offers developers the ability to create dynamic, visually-appealing, and highly-capable mobile applications, using the same APIs and tools that Apple uses for its own applications.

However, harnessing that power means learning new tools, new APIs, and even a whole new programming language.

iPhone SDK Development is a Pragmatic guide to get you started developing applications for iPhone and iPod touch. With it, you'll get a complete understanding of the tools and techniques needed to succeed on the platform:

* Use the XCode IDE to manage your source code, images, sounds, database files, and other application resources, building your app and deploying it onto your own device for testing.

* Develop your user interface the visual, code-free way, with Interface Builder.

* Master the iPhone's unique user interface components, including tables, tab bars, navigation bars, and the multi-touch interface.

* Connect your iPhone to the outside world with networking, exploit the power of a relational database with SQLite, and rock out with first-class support for audio and video.

* Make use of the iPhone's unique mobile APIs, like geolocation and the motion-sensing accelerometer

* Use XCode's powerful performance and debugging tools to eliminate memory leaks, zombies, and other hazards.

* Understand the process for packaging your application for end-user distribution through Apple's App Store.

With explanations of the big picture and an eye to the little details that you'll need, _iPhone SDK Development_ will help you succeed on today's most important mobile platform.

About iPhone SDK Development detail

• Amazon Sales Rank: #282229 in Books
• Published on: 2009-09-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 350 pages

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Product Description

As a Java developer, you want to leverage your knowledge and the wealth of Java libraries and tools. But when it comes to web development, many frameworks seem over-engineered and too complex. They have a steep learning curve, and it's just too difficult to get them to do exactly what you need because of their "closed-box" design.

Stripes brings simplicity back to Java web development. You'll be up and running in minutes, and can go a long way with just a few simple concepts. You'll spend your time developing your application, not maintaining gobs of configuration. Because Stripes is very transparent, you will understand exactly what is going on from request to response.

The popularity of Stripes keeps increasing because of its clean design and extensibility. With this complete tutorial and reference, you can master Stripes and take advantage of its productivity in web application development. You'll tailor the framework to your requirements, not the other way around!

This book is packed with explanations and examples so that you learn practical problem-solving techniques. You'll be able to "wrap your head around the framework" and fully understand how Stripes works. When a client requests a feature, you'll answer "yes" with confidence because you're using a framework that lets you get the results that you need without getting in your way. Because of its open design, Stripes lets you easily integrate your favorite tools: tag libraries, AJAX frameworks, ORM solutions, dependency injectors, and more.

BuZZ from Customer Shopping

5 stars for Stripes, 5 stars for the book
I received this book few days before Christmas, and I'm now really impressed: in few weeks, following this beautiful manual, I got all the necessary information and skills I need to start using the Stripes Framework for my own projects!
I successfully implemented also the Stripersist library and Hibernate, and everything is working fine from the beginning.
Stripes is a recent tool, but we are lucky because the official website is rich of useful information and the documentation is very accurate; we are lucky because Stripes is very powerful but also extremely simple, and Frederic Daoud did a fantastic work writing this book!
It's very well organized, introducing components and arguments of the framework in a logic and developer-friendly way.
Chapters on Layout Reuse, Custom Messages and Persistance are absolutely stunning, definitively one of the best tecnical book I have read in the last year!
On the Pragmatic Programmer's web site you can find the zipped source code with all the book's examples: it's useful to keep everything under control, looking at the entire class code, following the changes introduced in the book.

A one stop shop for all your Stripes needs
I just finished this book and I have to say that it is one of the best written programming books I've ever read. The thing that wasn't so clear to me before I bought the book was how comprehensive it was--after having read it, it is by far, one of the most comprehensive, end-to-end books I've ever read.

I've been involved w/ web application development for over a decade, and no other framework has piqued my interest like Stripes. In addition to being "new" and not carrying over the baggage other frameworks have from prior versions, Stripes is a refreshing change.

In addition, the Stripes user community is just absolutely fantastic! Post a question to the mail list, and you'll have an answer back quicker than you'd expect--and the depth of knowledge of those on the list is both wonderful and amazing.

This wonderful framework combined with a great user community and now this excellent book makes Stripes worth learning, and Daoud's book is a bible to learning everything from the fundamentals and basics to advanced topics. I can't praise it enough! VERY well written!

Excellent Book on an Excellent Tool
I purchased the pre-release of this book, and was delighted when my book finally arrived. This book covers stripes end to end and various integration points between stripes and other important enterprise frameworks such as hibernate/JPA and Spring. It explains a beautifully simple framework thoroughly and carefully pointing out other tools that work well with the stripes core such as stripersist and stripes-security. This book is concentrated knowledge laid out clearly and concisely. If you want to do web development in Java, and you don't need a heavily component based framework, stripes is for you, and this book is great for stripes. The examples and topics are clearer and cleaner than what is given on the stripes website and has with it resources that can help you get a complex website up and running in a very short amount of time. I have rarely read a book that was this easy to understand and follow, and it has become my reference bible for stripes since beginning with the framework. I only wish the other frameworks I've worked with had such good documentation.

About Stripes: ...and Java web development is fun again (Pragmatic Programmers) detail

• Amazon Sales Rank: #305285 in Books
• Published on: 2008-10-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 396 pages

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Product Description

Learning a new language and a new framework can be daunting. What you need is a guide to help leverage your existing knowledge and skills, and show you just what you need to know to get up and running with a new system quickly.

You're already a .NET developer; we'll help you get up and running as a Ruby on Rails developer on any operating system: Windows, Mac, or Linux. We start with a gentle introduction to the object-oriented Ruby language with examples and direct comparisons to C#, so you'll quickly feel at home writing Ruby code for the first time.

We then get to the heart of Rails development by showing how to tackle everyday tasks in Rails compared with typical ASP.NET implementations, with a tutorial focus. You'll build a sample airline reservation system using Rails, learning essential techniques along the way. You'll come to learn the joy and power inherent in the "convention over configuration" philosophy, the natural elegance of the MVC architecture, and the essence of REST-based design as you develop applications that accommodate web browsers, handheld devices, and even XML web service clients with unparalleled ease.

Along the way, you'll see good agile development practices, explore test-driven development with Rails. You'll be prepared for real-world application deployment, and we'll give you a taste of how Ruby and Rails are reshaping the Microsoft application landscape, including a look at IronRuby.

BuZZ from Customer Shopping

Great Resource for .Net Developers Wanting to Learn Rails
I've spent the last 4 years developing web applications in the Microsoft .Net framework. After hearing about Rails for the past year or so I've tried getting up and going on my own but Rails is such a different beast than .Net I've always gotten frustrated. Being a .Net developer, I'm working on a Windows machine and I've very familiar with how .Net applications are developed and deployed, not so much with the *nix systems and deployment prevalent in the Rails community.

Enter Jeff and Brian's book.

I loved the way they contrasted Rails and .Net with code from each showing a single topic. It really helped me walk through what was happening in a language I was familiar with and still get the ideas behind the Rails conventions. Also their focus on a windows development environment helped tremendously in the initial install process.

I can see now that the hardest part of all is going to be learning Ruby and they did a great job giving an intro to the language and syntax to someone not familiar with dynamically typed languages.

I've already recommended this book to co-workers and for my boss to buy a copy for the office. Its definitely a resource I plan on referring to during my upcoming development projects.

Also good for Rails developers that need to work with .NET folks
I'm a software developer who uses Rails frequently to complete projects, so I'm not _exactly_ the target audience for this book, however, I recently had to work with on a Rails project with a handful of .NET developers. This book helped me better understand where they were coming from, and helped us all communicate more effectively.

The Rails app that we collaborated on ultimately ran on Linux, but was backed by SQL Server. The process of learning one another's platforms would have been significantly more difficult without this book guiding the .NET devs and myself on each other's platforms. Great book!

Better than some straight Ruby on Rails only introductory books
Rails is so different from classic ASP.Net in many ways that I was skeptical this book would be worth buying, much less recommending to newbies, instead of, say, a straight Ruby on Rails (RoR) only introductory book. Now that I've finished reading it, I can say that this book explains Rails concepts better than some straight RoR only introductory books. Additionally, if you're trying to figure out how easy it would be for your Windows-only shop to integrate and deploy Rails applications into your environments, you'll be glad to know the authors have included code samples demonstrating how .Net can consume Rails services and vice-versa, and reference materials on efforts by Microsoft and others to make Windows a friendlier platform for Ruby and Rails than it has been so far. As LINQ, IronRuby, ASP.Net MVC, ADO.Net Entity Framework, and REST Support in Windows Communication Foundation become more widely adopted within the .Net community, and as work of some within the Ruby/Rails community to offer something similar to LINQ progresses, I hope there would be a follow-on edition or book to report on next steps in the evolution of these two sets of technologies. Kudos!

About Rails for .NET Developers (Facets of Ruby) detail

• Amazon Sales Rank: #546057 in Books
• Published on: 2008-11-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 277 pages

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Product Description

Developing Facebook Platform Applications with Rails leads you through the steps necessary to build your first application. You'll get hands-on experience with Facebook technologies such as FBML and FQL, and master messaging and news feeds.

You'll do more than just study the Facebook API-you'll get practical tips from an experienced Facebook developer. We'll cover advanced techniques such as AJAX and asynchronous messaging, and you'll see how to slash development time with facebooker, the leading Ruby library for Facebook Platform development.

Together, we'll build Karate Poke, a real Facebook Platform application, from configuration to deployment. You'll get deep into Facebook requests right off the bat. From there, you'll build the core of Karate Poke and then get a detailed look at the Facebook canvas and social features. We'll finish by looking at advanced features and tips for handling millions of users.

Developing for the Facebook Platform can seem like a different world at first. Developing Facebook Platform Applications with Rails is your tour guide.

BuZZ from Customer Shopping

Helpful and timely tutorial for the moving Facebook target
This book serves up a helpful and timely tutorial for the Rails developer contemplating authorship of a first Facebook application. No prior Facebook API or development knowledge is assumed, although those with some familiarity may find the reading less tedious. The text assumes use of the Facebooker plugin as the mediation layer between Rails 2.x (you should plan on using Rails 2.1) and the Facebook platform (API, FBML, etc.).

Michael writes in a clear, conversational prose that leaves the focus on the task at hand: To learn how to write a Rails Facebook application by following an example coding project from installation to functional coding to "socialization" and performance optimization. The simple-to-grasp Karate Poke application serves the reference need well, and the working code available enables the reader to see "how it works" as the book moves from topic to topic.

Rails-to-Facebook is much more than an "API". Michaels does a good job of showing how to leverage and use the various Facebook integration points. If there's one flaw that keeps reappearing, it is that Facebooker itself is so new and poorly documented. This book would be a 5-star rating if there was an Appendix A that mapped the Facebooker classes to the various Facebook fbml tags and API methods. Such would save the laboring reader many trips into the bowls of Facebooker code.

Finally, the author clearly put out a superhuman effort as he entered what typically is the final editing phase: This book covers much of the (as of late Summer, 2008) New Facebook Profile. It contains the best description of how to code Rails applications for the new FB platform that I've found anywhere. It is worth the price simply for the time it will save you trying to figure out how to get your soon-to-be Top Ten Facebook Application's Profile Box to show up in a Facebook user's Wall.

Quick way to get feet wet without going over my head.
Excellent job of bringing the increasingly higher levels of programming abstractions down to earth a little bit. Expects some familiarity with Rails MVC, and sometimes challenged me to figure out which file was changing as we went along. But written with solid explanations of not only what to do to build an application but also why a variety of design decisions are made.

Mangino hits on a lot of important features of the API as he walks you through the model application. And the reader gets a couple bits more than just the book, the author is continuing activity in the git community with Facebooker, discussion boards, mailing-list etc.

Very useful book
I used this book to write three different facebook apps using the FBML option (instead of iframe). I've already been programming in Rails for the past year so I was looking for the quickest way to learn about the Facebook platform and the Facebooker plugin.

A bonus feature of this book is the author. He is very active on Github (where the source code is stored) and the Facebooker mailing list. Without him I don't think Facebooker would be where it is today.

I highly recommend this book if you are looking to develop a Rails app on Facebook. I also recommending joining the mailing list and subscribing to Mike's RSS commit log on Github.

About Developing Facebook Platform Applications with Rails (Pragmatic Programmers) detail

• Amazon Sales Rank: #392964 in Books
• Published on: 2008-10-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 196 pages

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Product Description

Tired of getting swamped in the nitty-gritty of cross-browser, Web 2.0-grade JavaScript? Get back in the game with Prototype and script.aculo.us, two extremely popular JavaScript libraries, that make it a walk in the park. Be it AJAX, drag and drop, auto-completion, advanced visual effects, or many other great features, all you need is write one or two lines of script that look so good they could almost pass for Ruby code!

Web applications are getting richer and richer, with more interaction baked in every day. But JavaScript, DOM, CSS and a full host of other Web standards are quite complex, and the result isn't always browser compliant.

The Prototype and script.aculo.us libraries are veritable treasure troves, smoothing over all the usual nitty-gritty differences between browsers, and making most common features a breeze to implement. With this book, you can quickly wield the whole power of these extraordinary libraries.

Dive into Prototype, the library that makes JavaScript so much more powerful, and it looks a lot like Ruby code. Exploring the DOM, handling events, taming AJAX, and radically simplifying most of your scripting code: it all becomes easy-and very portable-with Prototype.

When it comes to advanced UI features, script.aculo.us is every web developer's dream come true: whether you need to create auto-completed text inputs, implement in-place editors, provide customized drag-and-drop behaviors, capture your users' attention with visual effects or simply build DOM fragments more efficiently, it's all there, and lightweight too.

This book guides you through all the details of these features, letting you use many technologies on the server side, such as PHP, vanilla Ruby, and Ruby On Rails, in countless examples illustrating every aspect. Power users will also learn the design philosophies of the libraries, and how to contribute to them and augment them for their own needs.

BuZZ from Customer Shopping

Excellent "Up to Speed" Introduction to the Prototype library
This book was a fantastic overview of all the various bits of the Prototype library. Clearly written and filled with useful examples this really helped catapult me into more professional Prototype usage.

The Pragmatic Programmer's have a solid (although short) history of turning out amazing books on the latest development technologies and techniques loooooooong before other publishers even start looking for authors on the subjects. I own about a dozen Pragprog books and have yet to be disappointed.

Just month or so before the release of this book Prototype 1.6 came out (with some major changes to Hashes and Events). I was beyond impressed with the book was updated to reflect these changes. Most publishers would have released the older version and come out with the 1.6 version of the book just in time for 1.7! This is the type of quality service you can expect from these folks.

My one major beef with the book is the topic of building custom classes. I really think this is where most developers are headed when working with unobtrusive javascript. "Classes" (really a abstraction created for programmer convenience since javascript isn't a class-based language) is the major advantage Prototype has over some other javascript libraries. Creating reusable classes for dealing with common, repeating parts of your site that you want to enhance with javascript is an excellent way to cut down on the amount of javascript you write.

Classes get only 8 pages attention, otherwise this book would have been a perfect 5.

Now I Use Prototype
I had heard of Prototype before, but had not begun using it until this book. I bought it after seeing the recommendation on the official Prototype site and I am glad I did. Book provided an excellent learning pace, practical examples, and an extensive resource in a very concise and easily readable way. Good buy for a developer's collection!

Starts Without Explanation
I approached this book with the expectation that it would teach me in the traditional gradual fashion. You start with some accessible portion and build on the rest. Well, he just starts out of the blocks at a full dash--full complexity--and you really don't know where to begin to understand what he's showing you. So, though I'm sure I could have taken some of his examples and used them, I feel like I did not really get an understanding of the WHY you do it this or that way. So, the ironic effect is that you will benefit the most from this book if you already know how to use these libraries. If you have never used them, then you will be on your own. So, this is NOT an introductory book.
Frankly, I have a good ten years experience using JavaScript and walking the DOM. So, I know my way around client-side scripting. I just felt like the introductory chapters were missing. You're expected to jump right into the hard-core stuff with no buildup, no gradual accumulation of the basics of this library. He was trying to prove how cool the Prototype and Scriptaculous libraries were and so he skipped the actual bones of the book. He skipped to the end and omitted the buildup. Buy this book wtih that caveat, in my opinion.

About Prototype and script.aculo.us: You Never Knew JavaScript Could Do This! (Pragmatic Programmers) detail

• Amazon Sales Rank: #308299 in Books
• Published on: 2007-12-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 436 pages

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Product Description

Erlang solves one of the most pressing problems facing developers today: how to write reliable, concurrent, high-performance systems. It's used worldwide by companies who need to produce reliable, efficient, and scalable applications. Invest in learning Erlang now.

Moore's Law is the observation that the amount you can do on a single chip doubles every two years. But Moore's Law is taking a detour. Rather than producing faster and faster processors, companies such as Intel and AMD are producing multi-core devices: single chips containing two, four, or more processors. If your programs aren't concurrent, they'll only run on a single processor at a time. Your users will think that your code is slow.

Erlang is a Programming language designed for building highly parallel, distributed, fault-tolerant systems. It has been used commercially for many years to build massive fault-tolerated systems that run for years with minimal failures.

Erlang programs run seamlessly on multi-core computers: this means your Erlang program should run a lot faster on a 4 core processor than on a single core processor, all without you having to change a line of code.

Erlang combines ideas from the world of functional Programming with techniques for building fault-tolerant systems to make a powerful language for building the massively parallel, networked applications of the future.

This book presents Erlang and functional Programming in the familiar Pragmatic style. And it's written by Joe Armstrong, one of the creators of Erlang.

It includes example code you'll be able to build upon. In addition, the book contains the full source code for two interesting applications:

A SHOUTcast server which you can use to stream music to every computer in your house, and

a full-text indexing and search engine that can index gigabytes of data.

Learn how to write programs that run on dozens or even hundreds of local and remote processors. See how to write robust applications that run even in the face of network and hardware failure, using the Erlang Programming language.

BuZZ from Customer Shopping

A programmer's library must-have
The computer language Erlang is mature and impressive, with primitives for concurrent, fault-tolerant, and distributed Programming that make it a natural for internet applications. So why isn't Erlang more popular in America? The lack of recent accessible introductions in English is probably one reason.

This book fills that void. If you've been wondering what Erlang is about, you need to get this book. It's very readable and does not require any prior experience with functional languages to make headway. It's packed with examples and the book encourages experimenting with them; in fact the first chapter explains how to get an installation of Erlang.

My one complaint is that some areas are omitted or only lightly treated, for instance mnesia and parse transformations. However there is extensive documentation on the internet available for these and other advanced Erlang features. This book will get you to journeyman level and allow you to leverage those online resources.

Even if you never plan to use Erlang, you should read this book, since Joe Armstrong's wisdom on how to build fault-tolerant software is sprinkled throughout (of course, why implement half of Erlang in a bug-ridden fashion in some other language, when you can get the real thing).

Good, But Not Great
There aren't a lot of Erlang books out there, so if you want to learn Erlang, you need this book.

However, I found the writing style a bit preachy. The organization of the book needs work, as the author is constantly referring to topics he hasn't covered yet. I also found that the index needs a lot of work, as it's missing quite a few topics that I know are in the book. The API reference also is missing some functions, which I thought was odd.

This book does a good job in promoting Erlang's ability to do concurrency well. I was hoping to get more functional Programming style and mind set from the book, though.

All in all a good book to have if you want Erlang, but you'll need more if you want to really dive into functional Programming or if you want a complete Erlang reference.

Are you already familiar with functional Programming?
Erlang really appears to be an interesting language, and the author's enthusiasm for the subject shows - which is good. It helped me to keep going, when at times the code was a little hard to follow.

The book does a good job of introducing the language. In particular later chapters give emphasis to the topics of concurrency through multiple processes, multi-cores and distributed programs. All very timely subjects for a world that is connected to the Internet, and where even laptops have multi-core processors

I gave the book a 4 star rating because I feel the author somewhat forgot who his audience is.

On page 5 he starts out with a description that fit me almost perfectly, and probably many other readers: "Once upon a time a programmer came across a book describing a funny Programming language. It had an unfamiliar syntax [...] it wasn't even object-oriented. The programs were, well, different....Not only were the programs different, but the whole approach to Programming was different."

After reading the book I don't feel like the "Erlang Master" that the road map described (pg 9). While the syntax is now familiar, I still look at the Erlang code and it feels foreign. I still have to "decipher" the code instead of read it.

I would have liked the book to more fully address the items from the "Once upon a time" paragraphs. Being that "the whole approach to Programming" is different than the OO that many readers are used to, I would have liked to have seen a chapter (or three) on how to best get into that mode of thinking.

I do think the book is a good jumping off point. It gives you more than enough to get started.

However, if you are unfamiliar with languages where functions accept functions which also accept functions as parameters and return another function as a result, you may end up feeling (as I did) that you only have half the puzzle.

About Programming Erlang: Software for a Concurrent World detail

• Amazon Sales Rank: #131826 in Books
• Published on: 2007-07-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 536 pages

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Product Description

Android is a free, open source, Java-based mobile platform developed by Google. Unlocking Android prepares the reader to embrace the Android mobile platform in easy-to-understand language and builds on this foundation with reusable Java code examples. It's ideal for corporate developers and hobbyists who have an interest, or a mandate, to deliver mobile software.

The book first covers the big picture so the reader can get comfortable with the Android approach to the mobile applications. Then the reader learns to apply Android by following the many practical examples. The book concludes with two deep and hands-on examples.

Unlocking Android addresses the Android application framework, its graphical capabilities and media support, data storage, communications capabilities, phone interactions, and notifications.

Unlocking Android covers Android SDK 1.x

BuZZ from Customer Shopping

Must Have for Android Developers
This is a must have book for anybody doing Android development. It is definitely targeted at developers who are new to Android -- which describes most Android developers out there given what a new platform it is. However, the level of depth on many topics and the clarity provided behind many key concepts in Android are so well done that this book will benefit anyone working on Android applications.

The book is divided into three sections. The first section is called "What is Android? -- The Big Picture." I have to admit, I thought this might be fluff, but it is definitely not. The overview is good, but what the real value is the explanation on getting your development environment setup. This is something that many books fail to mention at all, as it can be a tricky topic to illustrate in a book. It is well done here, and can definitely be a big time save for new developers. More of this kind of "how to" material is also presented in the appendices.

The second part is called "Exercising the Android SDK" and is the real meat of the book. It takes a very practical, top-down approach to Android application development. It starts off by explaining UI concepts, then intents and services. It then dives into excellent detail on some of the key aspects of mobile application development: working with data, using the Internet, telephony, notifications, graphics, multimedia, and GPS. I would recommend that you immediately read the chapters 3-6 (UI, intents, services, data management, Internet) as these are really the building blocks of any mobile app that is not a game. The other chapters are great too, but you can probably read them as needed. Maybe you don't need GPS today, but need it three months from now. Just read chapter 11 at that time, and you will have no problem. The chapters are self-contained enough for this, while there is still a nice flow of thought between them as well.

The last part of the book is called "Android Applications." It starts off with a very nice example of creating a very "full" application. It really drives in all of the previous material, and is a veritable cookbook of sample code. There are a lot of clever little things you might want to do in your application that you can find an easy to follow sample of in this chapter. I found myself thinking "oh I'm going to rip this off and re-do some part of an existing app." The last chapter is title "Hacking Android" and is all about writing an application in C to run "closer to the metal" on Android. This is probably not that useful to most developers, but I imagine it would be invaluable if you actually did need to do something like this. If nothing else, it is a good read and reveals fascinating aspects of Android's internals. It certainly demonstrates the technical mastery of the authors.

Not all its hyped up to be
Review omitted for brevity... Thats how I feel about the code examples. Whatever happened to the good ol' days when code examples were long but complete. If someone is a beginner, they don't know how to complete the code that the authors decided to leave out.

If you use this book as a supplement to the developer.android.com documentation, you will be better off than depending on this book as a source.

Nice
As late to the game as this book was, I was a little disappointed that there was no examples of the latest build ("Cupcake"). A good book overall. A good book to have on the shelf

About Unlocking Android detail

• Amazon Sales Rank: #85826 in Books
• Published on: 2009-05-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

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Product Description

LLINQ, Language INtegrated Query, is a new extension to the Visual Basic and C# programming languages designed to simplify data queries and database interaction. It addreses O/R mapping issues by making query operations like SQL statements part of the programming language. It also offers built-in support for querying in-memory collections like arrays or lists, XML, DataSets, and relational databases.

LINQ in Action is a fast-paced, comprehensive tutorial for professional developers. This book explores what can be done with LINQ, shows how it works in an application, and addresses the emerging best practices. It presents the general purpose query facilities offered by LINQ in the upcoming C# 3.0 and VB.NET 9.0 languages. A running example introduces basic LINQ concepts. You'll then learn to query unstructured data using LINQ to XML and relational data with LINQ to SQL. Finally, you'll see how to extend LINQ for custom applications.

LINQ in Action will guide you along as you explore this new world of lambda expressions, query operators, and expression trees. As well, you'll explore the new features of C# 3.0, VB.NET 9.0. The book is very practical, anchoring each new idea with running code. Whether you want to use LINQ to query objects, XML documents, or relational databases, you will find all the information you need to get started

But LINQ in Action does not stop at the basic code. This book also shows you how LINQ can be used for advanced processing of data, including coverage of LINQ's extensibility, which allows querying more data sources than those supported by default. All code samples are built on a concrete business case. The running example, LINQBooks, is a personal book cataloging system that shows you how to create LINQ applications with Visual Studio 2008.

BuZZ from Customer Shopping

This book is a pure pleasure to read...
This book is a pure pleasure to read. The presentation of content is awesome. They breakdown code in a new refreshing way that I have not seen before. Maybe it is done in all the Action Books from Manning, but this is the first I have read. They use code annotations to show what the code is doing at all the key points, highlighting important concepts. The beginner will benefit greatly from this, as will the experienced developer getting into the new C# language features.

The book presents both VB.NET and C# code examples. This is definitely cool. It is something that has been lost with many publishers. I guess the publishers know they can possibly sell 2 of the same book if they make one for each language. Yeah, yeah, I know... you should be able to easily bounce back and forth between languages with no effort. Well since I don't allow VB.NET on any of my projects, I rarely get to see it since books no longer present both languages. So this is a refreshing change. I still have to deal with inherited projects, so it is nice to have a book that contains my language of choice, but makes available the VB.NET syntax incase I need it.

The book has an awesome introduction covering the history of LINQ, which also presents all the problems that LINQ solves and the design goals of LINQ.

The book covers ever new feature in the .NET 3.5 languages (C# and VB.NET) that were needed in order to implement LINQ. They include Implicitly typed local variables, Object initializers, Lambda expressions, Extension methods, and Anonymous types.

The book covers LINQ to XML, LINQ to SQL, and LINQ to Objects in great detail. They also offer a bonus chapter from the Manning Site for LINQ to Datasets.

One of my favorite sections was Performance Considerations. They do a great job covering tradeoffs.

The book winds down with a chapter on extending LINQ and how link fits into an n-tier architecture.

The downloadable code is very well organized and is very usable. The authors have a great support site.

I highly recommend any developer moving into .NET 3.5 add this book to their library. It will arm you with everything you need to produce production level code.

Why this book?
Why should you get this book?
I started following the LINQ development while it was in beta stage and I was trying to find bits and pieces, here and there to make sense out of this technology. LINQ is something different than other technologies when it comes to learning it. It's like walking down a slope. If you don't follow the proper path, you can slip, in any moment. What do I mean by that? For MSFT to develop and build LINQ, they had to build and evolve a series of other technologies that will be used in LINQ. LINQ is developed on the top of a series of other technologies within .Net framework and the C# (VB also) language to be able to do what it does.
The sequence you learn these other technologies is as important as learning LINQ in the first place. By properly learning the foundation correctly, you will then see how sweet and powerful LINQ can and will be.

Now, why this book? Among all the materials and books I've read on this subject, this is the only book that truly follow this path. You follow the book, you learn LINQ. It's as simple as this!

I was involve with the "Early Access" program on this book and I saw how these three authors worked to make it better and better. They listened to readers and made it better. I wish other authors would take the time to write their book as well as this book. I give it Five stars!!!

An excellent in-depth tour through LINQ
The book is very well-written and very comprehensive. The authors made a great job at writing a book that can be read from cover to cover. The book begins with some reminders on LINQ history to understand where LINQ is coming from and why it is making life as a .NET developers more easier. Then come the language explanations, the part where you will see how C# and VB.NET have been tweaked to support LINQ syntax (btw, the book covers both C# and VB.NET LINQ and it is great to compare the different choices made). This part is really essential if you are considering using LINQ. Indeed, LINQ is coming from functional languages, something that most of us are not acquainted with, and it is disturbing at the beginning to understand things such as deferred execution. I found that a lot of energy has been put in pedagogy for readers that come with a classical OOP background.

Then comes the Part 2 on LINQ to object. This part is also vital because you will quickly realize that LINQ is about to definitely change the way your C# or VB.NET code looks like. Most of the algorithms we code rely intensively on collections and LINQ to object represents an incredibly powerful syntax to work with collections. Here also the authors worked really hard to explain properly the 'why/when/how to' things and to anticipate just in time the questions you might have.

Then comes part 3 and 4, on the 2 major LINQ flavors: LINQ to SQL and LINQ to XML. They represent a great opportunity to see some real-world use of what you've learnt in the 2 first parts. What I really liked here is that the authors anticipate the various scenarios (both common and advanced) you will face by using these 2 implementations of LINQ.

Then comes the great final, the part 5 that focus on how to extend LINQ to your own needs. LINQ is coming with several different extension points, from the single operator rewriting that will take you 2 minutes to write to the complete query framework that will take months to be written. This part explains and compares all these possibilities and can, alone, motivate you to buy the book if you plan to extend LINQ. LINQ extensibility is followed by another great chapter named 'LINQ in every layer' that put up together all knowledge presented until there to see how real-world applications are impacted by LINQ.

Something I would like to underline is that authors kept an objective eyes on LINQ. They warn you about the temptation to use LINQ for everything. What is awesome is that in a wide range of cases, LINQ represents both a new powerful syntax and also offers optimal performance. But for some other cases LINQ will execute much more slowly than a good old foreach style programming.

I highly recommend learning and using LINQ now because a lot of things is going to happen soon with LINQ, with things such as Parallel LINQ (PLINQ, to write queries that will execute on several threads at a time) , LINQ to Xsd (to write strongly typed XML queries), the ADO.NET Entities Framework (the Microsoft answer to O/R mapping) and more...

About LINQ in Action detail

• Amazon Sales Rank: #58641 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 600 pages

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