Applied Microsoft .NET Framework Programming (Pro-Developer) Review

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(More customer reviews)As a highly experienced VB/COM developer, I have been making the move over the C# and .NET. I have spent hours at the book stores looking over nearly every book available. I have bought a bunch of books as well, but none have come close to this book as far as insight, depth of knowledge, and .NET fundamentals. Mind you, this book is by no means for programming or object oriented beginners. It is meant for programmers who really know their stuff, but now want to know their stuff on .NET. Expecting to create a .NET solution without thorough knowledge of the material in this book would be seriously shortchanging your app.
Each chapter of this book covers a different fundamental piece of .NET -- Methods, Events, Shared Assemblies, Exceptions, etc. Without getting too language specific, he writes thoroughly about how these fundamentals were meant to be used. It is clear that he spent a lot of time with the Microsoft .NET team, as much of the material in this book is unavailable elsewhere, to my knowledge. But this book is far from a Microsoft infomercial, as so many are. For example, he talks about C# primitive types and actually disagrees with Microsoft's C# language spec with regard to their usage.
In summary, I would highly recommend this book to any experienced programmer who is serious about getting up to speed with .NET.

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The Microsoft® .NET Framework allows developers to quickly build robust, secure ASP.NET Web Forms and XML Web service applications, Windows® Forms applications, tools, and types. Find out all about its common language runtime and learn how to leverage its power to build, package, and deploy any kind of application or component. APPLIED MICROSOFT .NET FRAMEWORK PROGRAMMING is ideal for anyone who understands object-oriented programming concepts such as data abstraction, inheritance, and polymorphism. The book carefully explains the extensible type system of the .NET Framework, examines how the runtime manages the behavior of types, and explores how an application manipulates types. While focusing on C#, it presents concepts applicable to all programming languages that target the .NET Framework.

Topics covered include:

The .NET Framework architecture
Building, packaging, deploying, and administering applications and their types
Building and deploying shared assemblies
Type fundamentals
Primitive, reference, and value types
Operations common to all objects
Type members and accessibility
Constants, fields, methods, properties, and events
Working with text
Enumerated types and bit flags
Array types
Interfaces
Custom attributes
Delegates
Error handling with exceptions
Automatic memory management
AppDomains and reflection
Includes coverage of C#

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English for the International Baccalaureate Diploma Review

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(More customer reviews)Get this book and apply everything it says and score 4 or higher on IB English. It especially helps with the oral and written commentaries. Highly recommended for those who wish to do well in English.

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This book makes the perfect companion for your Language A1 course. The chapters cover: prose, poetry and drama; writing commentaries and essays; World Literature assignments; oral work; preparing for the examinations; and the Extended Essay. Among the examples discussed are works by: Margaret Atwood, Albert Camus, Joseph Conrad, Carol Ann Duffy, Robert Frost, Ernest Hemingway, Henry James, Franz Kafka, John Keats, Sylvia Plath, Christina Rossetti, William Shakespeare, and Tennessee Williams.

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Systems Analysis and Design (Shelly Cashman) Review

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(More customer reviews)There are few things I can say after reading this book pretty much from cover to cover:
- Nowadays there are lots of critics of structured SAD, so if you're happen to be one of them, I am pretty sure you will not give this text a good grade. While it does cover Object-Oriented SAD, it is not build upon it. This text (as it seems to me) is revolves around structured SAD using SDLC.
- I liked this text because it has LOTS of colorful diagrams, screen-shots, and charts. This gives a text more alive presentation and makes it more fun to read, even though you're getting lost in terms and abbreviation.
- The text has plenty of abbreviations because SAD process integrates all system components. You can imagine how much data that is, especially considering the fact of collecting that data and organizing it.
- I thing this text by itself will not make you an system analyst. You will need to read more, but it serves well as an introduction to SAD.
The obvious negative thing - these editions that coming up new each year are costly for students, but this is a issue of all comp. textbooks, not just this.Brief contents:
-ch 1. Introduction to Systems Analysis and Design
PHASE 1: SYSTEM PLANNING
-ch 2. Analyzing the business case
PHASE 2: SYSTEM ANALYSIS
-ch 3. Requirements modeling
-ch 4. Data and process modeling
-ch 5. Object modeling
-ch 6. Development strategies
PHASE 3: SYSTEM DESIGN
-ch 7. Output and user interface design
-ch 8. Data Design
-ch 9. System architecture
PHASE 4: Systems implementation
-ch10. Systems implementation
PHASE 5: SYSTEMS OPERATION, SUPPORT, AND SECURITY
-ch11. Systems operation, support and security
THE SYSTEM ANALYST'S TOOLKIT
Toolkit 1: Communication tools
Toolkit 2: CASE Tools
Toolkit 3: Financial Analysis Tools
Toolkit 4: Project Management Tools
Toolkit 5: Internet Resource Tools


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Building on the proven pedagogy of its predecessors, with an increased focus on object modeling and project management, Systems Analysis and Design, Seventh Edition presents a clear introduction to systems analysis and design. Students will find concepts easy-to-understand through the clear writing style and full-color figures that illustrate current technology and trends. Examples and cases are drawn from actual systems projects that enable students to learn in the context of solving problems, much like the ones they will encounter on the job. This approach, combined with motivating tools such as the SCR Associates interactive Web-Based Case Study, Systems Analyst's Toolkit, the Student Study Tool on CD-ROM, and more, makes Systems Analysis and Design, Seventh Edition a wise and exciting choice for your introductory systems analysis and design class.

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Study Driven: A Framework for Planning Units of Study in the Writing Workshop Review

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(More customer reviews)Why isn't this book more widely read? Wood-Ray offers excellent direction to teachers - at all grade levels - who are seeking to improve the instruction of writing. Her central ideas are:
1.Texts should be used to mentor students to write real things in the ways real writers write.
2.Writing needs to be `studied' and not `taught.'
3.Teachers need to be writers and gatherers of mentor texts, but curriculum can not be determined before the students begin to study.
For teachers who want their students to write well, this is a text that lays out options for letting this happen. You'll want to spend a summer reading it and thinking, so that when you return, you'll be ready for superior kind pedagogy. It is rare for a book to speak so compellingly to all teachers, Kindergarten to College, but I believe that Study Driven is the wonderful exception.

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No matter what grade you teach, what state your school is in, and what level of diversity is present in your classroom, students have the right to be shown real-world examples of the kinds of writing they're asked to produce. For Katie Wood Ray, this foundational idea is also the beginning of an important way of approaching rigorous writing instruction.

In Study Driven Ray shows you that encouraging students to read closely can improve the effectiveness of your writing instruction. Detailing her own method for utilizing the popular mentor-texts approach, Ray helps you immerse children in a close study of published texts that supports their learning, leads them to a better understanding of the traits of good writing, and motivates them to become more accomplished writers.

Ray shows you how to set up your writing workshop to facilitate close study. From grounded understandings to informed practice to supportive resources, she demonstrates:
how to find a rich variety of texts that give students a clear vision of the writing you want them to do
how to strategically select texts to support whole-class learning as well as individual choice
how your teaching language gives structure to curriculum development and student learning
how good planning turns curricular standards and objectives into sensible units of study
why depth can be a more practical and effective curricular goal than breadth in writing instruction


Study Driven also gives you the ideas and resources for thirty units of study, ranging from genres to punctuation and appropriate across grade levels.

Get students into the habit of studying what they read to help them plan their writing. Give them examples of real-world texts as well as the structure, the space, the time, and the guidance to change and grow as writers. Give yourself Study Driven and find out how.

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Object-Oriented Programming in C++ (4th Edition) Review

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(More customer reviews)I took several C++ Program In Computing courses while in college, and I must say, this book did a fantastic job of turning the what was then "clear as mud" concepts to something I could understand.
Since those courses, I've learned C and a few other languages, but this book does a fantastic job of introducing OO concepts to a programmer, or a beginner who was otherwise doing procedural programs, or was just starting fresh. Lafore goes over the benefits of OO, and slowly builds on top of concepts throughout the book until you get a good overall understanding of the theory and the practice.
Two things I didn't like about the book:
1. There was very little discussion about doing things the "right way". By this, I mean, Lafore didn't really mention how certain methods of writing programs were less efficient than others. It looks like he was using the best practices in the book, so maybe that would have been overkill, but going a bit more in depth about why to do certain things certain ways would have been nice. While this is a beginner book, it certainly doesn't hurt to have sidenotes of this nature for those interested.
2. While the majority of the code in this book was portable to most platforms, it's still assumed that you're going to be on a Windows plaform, and Lafore uses several Windows-only graphics libraries to illustrate some points. Being a UNIX guy, I would have preferred that he stick to a platform neutral explanation.

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Object-Oriented Programming in C++ begins with the basic principles of the C++ programming language and systematically introduces increasingly advanced topics while illustrating the OOP methodology. While the structure of this book is similar to that of the previous edition, each chapter reflects the latest ANSI C++ standard and the examples have been thoroughly revised to reflect current practices and standards.Educational SupplementSuggested solutions to the programming projects found at the end of each chapter are made available to instructors at recognized educational institutions. This educational supplement can be found at www.prenhall.com, in the Instructor Resource Center.

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Words Their Way: Word Study for Phonics, Vocabulary, and Spelling Instruction (3rd Edition) Review

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(More customer reviews)I needed this book for a literacy class. THere are many useful ideas for encouraging literacy, teaching phonics, and building word analysis skills amongst students in primary school. However, there is nothing terribly unique about this book. I've seen many of these ideas in other publications. The CD-rom that comes with the book is difficult to navigate. WHile the CD-rom has good print outs of games and phonics sheets, the templates were embedded in a mass of advertisment and product information.
I would reccomend this book to student-teachers/teachers with little or no experience in the classroom and with little or no knowledge of language acquisition and linguistics.

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A core text or supplement for phonics and reading methods courses.Words Their Way, Third Edition is designed to help teachers address the needs of all readers and spellers, by setting out a clear way to accomodate each student's developmental level, then providing the best methods for teaching to that level. In support of this philosophy, the authors provide more than 250 ready-to-use activities for teaching word study, spelling, vocabulary, and phonics. The text is organized by developmental sequence, and activities appropriate for each level are inclusive within each chapter. Additional word sorts and directions for games are located in the Appendix.

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The Latex Companion (Addison-Wesley Series on Tools and Techniques for Computer T) Review

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(More customer reviews)First, a remark on the title: this is not a companion to theprogram, but rather a companion to some other book on LaTeX you shouldhave. I bought this book back in 1994, when it was the first book onLaTeX2e, and by now it is thoroughly worn (though the binding is still doing its job well :). However, at the time I bought it, I have already been using LaTeX for six years, and have read Lamport's guide (which is charming, and also the book The Companion intends to accompany) and Kopka and Daly's (which is better organized and more complete).

The LaTeX Companion is something between an advanced course tutorial (could just as well be named Selected Chapters from LaTeX) and a reference book. None of them was ever aimed at beginners, and this one is no exception. LaTeX comes with a rich legacy of add-on macro packages doing various useful and nifty things with lists, floats, tables, formulas, graphics, fonts, indices and bibliographies. This book covers some of them. I would love to see second edition of this book covering more of them. There is a treasure hidden at CTAN, but it is usually hard to find it. The examples are well chosen and it is easy to learn from them. I am less pleased with the index. At 36 pages, it looks very promising, but it rarely led me to the place I sought. During years of use, I mostly figured out where in a book things are, and stopped using it.

Despite the confusing index, the book is worth its (admittedly high) price and you will probably learn many useful things from it. The idea of a thin tutorial and a partly-overlapping "companion book" doesn't appeal to me, though. Personally, I would prefer one single book with a complete treatment of the topic.

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LaTeX is an accessible and effective tool for typesetting written documents. Users at all levels of experience, however, sometimes require help not readily available: techniques for defining new commands, styles for producing tables or graphics, explanations for changing fonts. This book, The LaTeX Companion, is packed with information needed to use LaTeX even more productively. It is a true companion to Leslie Lamport's original user's guide book, LaTeX: A Document Preparation System, now in its second edition, and indeed, it is a valuable complement to any LaTeX introduction. It is designed to enhance, not to replace, your basic documentation. Coinciding with the publication of The LaTeX Companion is the availability of a revised LaTeX standard LaTeX2e. This new release incorporates important LaTeX developments over the past several years and provides a common basis for all LaTeX enhancements. Some new styles, improved font handling, and a facility to produce PostScript graphics are included in the release. As part of the broad and unique coverage of this book you will find a complete documentation for all these added features.Highlights*Covers all versions of LaTeX now in use, including LaTeX2e. *Describes over 150 convenient styles for floats, graphics, tables, and much more. *Shows how to define new commands and environments. *Explains the use of PostScript. *Covers the latest extensions and programs producing pictures, indexes, bibliographies, and advanced mathematics. *Includes techniques for multi-language support. *Describes the New Font Selection Scheme. For even more information about how to illustrate documents with TeX and PostScript, see The LaTeX Graphics Companion and the Tools and Techniques for Computer Typesetting Series.All three authors have for years been involved in the support and development of LaTeX applications. Michel Goossens and Alexander Samarin, developed ideas for The LaTeX Companion while supporting hundreds of LaTeX users at CERN, and Frank Mittelbach, at the University of Mainz and Electronic Data Systems. The questions most frequently posed to them became the questions answered in this book.Mittelbach is partly responsible for the current maintenance of LaTeX and is the author or coauthor of many widespread LaTeX extension packages, such as AMS-LaTeX, doc, multicol, and the New Font Selection Scheme. He is also the manager, principal architect of the longer-term LaTeX3 project, to which half the royalties from this book are paid. 0201541998B04062001

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