Applications = Code + Markup: A Guide to the Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation (Pro

Book Description

In this book, Windows programming legend Charles Petzold covers in parallel the two interfaces that make up the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). From the outset, the reader can shift focus seamlessly between Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML) and C# to see them as flip sides of the same processes. Beginning in the first chapter, Petzold presents the general syntax of the XAML and corresponding programming code with numerous illuminating examples on how the two correspond and interrelate. The book builds on this base, providing the classic Petzold Windows user interface (UI) treatment, to show Windows developers how to create next-generation interfaces for their applications.

Customer Reviews:

very disappointing.......2007-07-20

I've been a Windows developer for around 10 years or so and have read dozens of developer books. This is only the second one I can remember returning.

I had previously read Programming Windows Presentation Foundation (Programming) (which I recommend) but was looking for more. At 900+ pages, and with the good reviews and experience of the author, this book looked like a good choice. Unfortunately, after the first 450 pages, I decided that my time would be much better spent simply rereading the the Chris Sells book instead.

The main problem is the style in which the book is written. It could easily be edited down to half its size. How many times do I need to read "Button btn = New Button()" in a code example? I know some people prefer fully functional examples over code snippets but after a while it really got ridiculous. The code examples eventually became almost useless to read because it became so much work to sort out the irrelevant and insignificant details. On top of which 90% of the code samples are examples of THE WRONG WAY to do a UI in WPF (i.e. in C# instead of XAML). I understand the second half of the book is all XAML, but spending 450+ pages on techniques you would NEVER ACTUALLY USE is a waste of my time.

A lot of bloat also came from a lack of focus on who the book is written for: experienced .NET/C# developers. I don't need to have "using" statements explained to me, I know how .NET dialogs work, etc... From the "Printing" chapter: "The Print dialog also includes a Number of Copies field. Enter a number greater than 1 in this field and the PrintVisual method prints multiple copies." Really. I never would have figured that out on my own.

There is a lot of good information here but it is simply not worth the time it takes to extract it from "Button btn = new Button()" statements. Maybe this book is a demonstration that you're never to old for an editor. I'm going back to O'Reilly books.

I appreciate this book so much.......2007-06-14

I think that Petzold was reading my mind when he wrote this book. I don't like XML, and I don't like "cheating" with XAML when you can write good clean C#. The first half of this book is entirely C# programming in WPF. I am using this book to help me write an abstraction layer above WPF. That simply would not be possible with XAML, which in my opinion places the design of the application at too low of a level. Petzold leaves no stone unturned, and whenever something seems weird, he doesn't ask us to trust him that it makes sense; he explores it in depth for us. I can't imagine that many other authors go through that kind of trouble when they're writing on tight deadlines. Petzold tells it how it is, and he includes the "why." Therefore, I recommend this book to anyone who strives to become a bit of an expert in WPF, not just a get-the-job-done programmer. I would consider this an advanced book at times because I find myself reading and re-reading sections to understand it. The explanation is there, but it's not trivial, and with so many pages in the book already, there is no room to be wordy.

WPF and XAML explained........2007-05-29

Written by a professional for the professional! This book reminds one on how things aught to be done in C# and gives an insight of WPF and its mechanics. A must have book for the serious developer and even the amature will benefit from Charles Petzold insight.

The Other Side of WPF.......2007-05-20

I purchased this book late last year, took a vacation and spent a week reading it cover to cover. Since that time I've written several production WPF applications of moderate complexity that are several generations beyond the WinForms and WebForms apps I had been writting. Several months ago, when it was released, I also got to read Adam Nathan's book on the topic of WPF. Having read both books and used WPF to produce better apps under the usual deadlines, I can honestly say that I benefited from the additional insights gleaned from both books.

When I read Petzold's book and saw the code first approach with XAML introduced later, my impression was this seemed contrary to the preference to XAML I saw espoused in other sources and beta books. As I reconciled this new technology being taught by a long tenured veteran, I got a feeling that perhaps earlier concepts around Win32 UI programming may be the lens through which the author is presenting the material on how to best apply WPF. Needless to say, I paid attention and got more value than I anticipated and beyond what I learned from his WinForms book of similar size. While Adam Nathan's book was a more efficient read for me, and one that I could appreciate in its attention and orientation to the more mainstream presentation of WPF, I think that later book in conjunction with this one is quite useful.

My real critique of Petzold's book was that it should have played more to the what may have been the author's strengths in elucidating the API and imperative coding in WPF. Such an approach may have been a great book as a complement to the many XAML focused ones to follow. I believe the API focused chapters that do exist makes Petzold's book a great contribution to WPF knowledge and application. Sure, in my day-to-day I strictly enforce the UI separation by defining a majority of UI elements in XAML. Without Petzold's book I probably would have went further in this approach. Yet, in reading his material I was reminded of and given an appreciaton for the techniques and the potential benefits of using the WPF API more explicitly to peform a range of tasks that works in concert with XAML declared elements to provide the complete solution.

For understanding the benefits and mechanisms of the WPF API this is a great complement for the many XAML dominated books out there. I rate it a 5 because I learned a greater variety of interesting details related to the WPF API than I would have been predisposed to explore or unable to find just using the MSDN documentation. For WPF API knowledge and understanding that can enhance the code side of solutions defined to a greater or lesser degree in XAML this is a great buy.

Nice cover, bad content.......2007-05-09

The writer is a guru in the field of Winforms applications.
The first part of the book is rather from this angle, the Second part discusses the markup (XAML). The book contains much code (C#), enumerations and is as a result, badly readable.
It contains no information about the technique behind the WPF, essential for understanding the new generation of applications which you can make.

If you want to learn the WPF I reccommend the book "Windows Presentation foundation Unleashed" of Adam Nathan. That one is filled with colours impressions and examples, very usefull working with markup.

Average customer rating:

All good
Ruby and Python aficionados, take this!
Best Perl book ever
Don't Write Code Without It
Get it if you program in Perl, period.

Perl Best Practices
Damian Conway
Manufacturer: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0596001738

Book Description

Many programmers code by instinct, relying on convenient habits or a "style" they picked up early on. They aren't conscious of all the choices they make, like how they format their source, the names they use for variables, or the kinds of loops they use. They're focused entirely on problems they're solving, solutions they're creating, and algorithms they're implementing. So they write code in the way that seems natural, that happens intuitively, and that feels good.

But if you're serious about your profession, intuition isn't enough. Perl Best Practices author Damian Conway explains that rules, conventions, standards, and practices not only help programmers communicate and coordinate with one another, they also provide a reliable framework for thinking about problems, and a common language for expressing solutions. This is especially critical in Perl, because the language is designed to offer many ways to accomplish the same task, and consequently it supports many incompatible dialects.

With a good dose of Aussie humor, Dr. Conway (familiar to many in the Perl community) offers 256 guidelines on the art of coding to help you write better Perl code--in fact, the best Perl code you possibly can. The guidelines cover code layout, naming conventions, choice of data and control structures, program decomposition, interface design and implementation, modularity, object orientation, error handling, testing, and debugging.

They're designed to work together to produce code that is clear, robust, efficient, maintainable, and concise, but Dr. Conway doesn't pretend that this is the one true universal and unequivocal set of best practices. Instead, Perl Best Practices offers coherent and widely applicable suggestions based on real-world experience of how code is actually written, rather than on someone's ivory-tower theories on how software ought to be created.

Most of all, Perl Best Practices offers guidelines that actually work, and that many developers around the world are already using. Much like Perl itself, these guidelines are about helping you to get your job done, without getting in the way.

Praise for Perl Best Practices from Perl community members:

"As a manager of a large Perl project, I'd ensure that every member of my team has a copy of Perl Best Practices on their desk, and use it as the basis for an in-house style guide." -- Randal Schwartz

"There are no more excuses for writing bad Perl programs. All levels of Perl programmer will be more productive after reading this book." -- Peter Scott

"Perl Best Practices will be the next big important book in the evolution of Perl. The ideas and practices Damian lays down will help bring Perl out from under the embarrassing heading of "scripting languages". Many of us have known Perl is a real programming language, worthy of all the tasks normally delegated to Java and C++. With Perl Best Practices, Damian shows specifically how and why, so everyone else can see, too." -- Andy Lester

"Damian's done what many thought impossible: show how to build large, maintainable Perl applications, while still letting Perl be the powerful, expressive language that programmers have loved for years." -- Bill Odom

"Finally, a means to bring lasting order to the process and product of real Perl development teams." -- Andrew Sundstrom

"Perl Best Practices provides a valuable education in how to write robust, maintainable Perl, and is a definitive citation source when coaching other programmers." -- Bennett Todd "I've been teaching Perl for years, and find the same question keeps being asked: Where can I find a reference for writing reusable, maintainable Perl code? Finally I have a decent answer." -- Paul Fenwick "At last a well researched, well thought-out, comprehensive guide to Perl style. Instead of each of us developing our own, we can learn good practices from one of Perl's most prolific and experienced authors. I recommend this book to anyone who prefers getting on with the job rather than going back and fixing errors caused by syntax and poor style issues." -- Jacinta Richardson "If you care about programming in any language read this book. Even if you don't intend to follow all of the practices, thinking through your style will improve it." -- Steven Lembark "The Perl community's best author is back with another outstanding book. There has never been a comprehensive reference on high quality Perl coding and style until Perl Best Practices. This book fills a large gap in every Perl bookshelf." -- Uri Guttman

Customer Reviews:

All good.......2007-09-14

This a great manual. Instead of being a reference like most books that you may only need parts of, every chapter has some interesting information and is applicable to daily coding. Since at this point you can learn a lot of Perl just on Google, textbook style manuals are on the way out. Best practices, though, is still very applicable. I wish I had read this book years ago looking back at my functional but awkward scripts.

Ruby and Python aficionados, take this!.......2007-08-17

One of the biggest asset in the Perl community is the people that form it. And Damien Conway is one of its outstanding members. Possibly the best speaker I've ever seen, he injects wisdom and wit in its books, which always take you a bit further in the path of Perl Enlightment. This one, of course, is no exception. Not only it teaches what you should do, but the many things you _shoulnd't_ do.
When will we be seeing a novel by Damien Conway? Don't let Charles Stross be the only perl monger that writes novels!

Best Perl book ever.......2007-07-15

Not only the best Perl book I've ever read, it's also one of the best programming language books, period.

If you've ever programmed C++ or Java, you'll know how revered the likes of Effective C++ and Effective Java are, a series of tips, suggestions, idioms, advice and commandments. This is the equivalent for Perl, except it's even more thorough and covers even more ground, from brace layout and statement formatting, to regexes, unit testing, documentation and command line parsing.

There's also an exceptionally good chapter on object orientation, wherein author Damian Conway guides the reader through the use of his own Class::Std module. If you're using objects in Perl, and you're still rolling your own, you're really making life unnecessarily difficult for yourself. Class::Std provides object features reminiscent of CLOS, and makes Perl competitive with the likes of Python and Ruby when it comes to objects. Class::Std has changed the way I code Perl forever, and I know I'm not the only one. Seriously, this chapter is worth the price of admission on it own.

It's hard to overstate just how much excellent stuff there is in here, there's even useful emacs and vi settings provided! And I've not even mentioned how well written it is. Damian Conway really does prove himself the master of witty examples.

Perl Best Practices is just brilliant. Absolutely essential reading - don't code Perl without it.

Don't Write Code Without It.......2007-03-11

This is a fantastic book that's valuable no matter what language you
program in. I've been writing code for three decades and have
programmed in almost two dozen languages and the priorities are always
the same when writing / reviewing code: maintainability, efficiency and
robustness. Every dictum in this book clearly advances one or more of
these priorities. If you're like me, you'll wish you had this book when
you started your software engineering career.

For development teams, this book is an instant win. With any
development team, there is always a discussion as to what coding
standards to use. Perl BP can be used to short-circuit such debate, to
the benefit of everyone involved.

Of course, not everyone will be happy with the standards outlined in the
book. Before I plunged in, I skimmed through the book and found things
that I disagreed with: K&R braces; loop labeling; no unless statements;
postfix if; etc. The arguments made in the book, however, are so
compelling that I'm now gladly writing my code to conform with them.

I always feel fortunate when I read a book that makes me want to change
my behavior for the better. Perl BP is one of these books.

Get it if you program in Perl, period........2007-02-15

This is the best collection of good ideas to make your life easier as you maintain your code and others code. I'm in Software Configuration Management, and I have to help people pickup others code all the time. If everyone in my shop used these practices, my job would be much simpler. Get it.

Knoppix Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips and Tools

Average customer rating:

Non Fiction
a useful reference
FINALLY, Answers to all my Knoppix/Linux questions
Great book for data recovery and fixing MBR
Great book, - dogeared already

Knoppix Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips and Tools
Kyle Rankin
Manufacturer: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0596007876

Book Description

Knoppix is a portable Linux distribution with a collection of hundreds of programs and utilities--a veritable Swiss Army knife in CD form. This practical and flexible Linux distribution runs on the fly from a single CD with no need to install anything to your hard drive. Knoppix's excellent hardware detection, collection of programs, and ease of use help explain why Knoppix is radically changing the face of Linux. Though Knoppix is the most popular live CD Linux distribution available, until now there have been no books on the topic. A weighty theoretical tome or a book for dummies won't do--the perfect Knoppix book, like Knoppix itself, must be as useful and clever as a Swiss Army knife. Clearly, Knoppix calls for an O'Reilly Hacks book. Knoppix Hacks is a collection of one hundred industrial-strength hacks for new Linux users, power users, and system administers using--or considering using--the Knoppix Live CD. These tips and tools show how to use the enormous amount of software on this CD to troubleshoot, repair, upgrade, disinfect, and generally be productive without Windows. With Knoppix you can:

Test drive a Linux desktop without the need to install Linux
Troubleshoot and repair Linux and Windows systems
Create a thin client network with just one CD
Replace a web server or firewall in an emergency
Perform a security audit on your entire network
Virus scan a Windows computer from the safety of Linux
Customize Knoppix for personal or business use
Easily install the popular Debian GNU/Linux distribution with all of your hardware detected and configured

Knoppix Hacks provides ingenious fixes, clever customizations, and time and resource-saving tips. If you want more than the average Knoppix user, this invaluable book is a must-have.

Customer Reviews:

Non Fiction.......2007-09-03

Firstly, Knoppix is very cool, and this takes the usefulness and niftyness of that live distribution on a disc and throws a bunch of ideas at you that you can consider using it for.

Some are of the fun stunt variety, but that is what you want in a book like this.

a useful reference.......2006-08-09

I bought this book to give me a quick boost on Linux and Knoppix as a whole. As with a number of these "Hack" books there is usually a good pearl or Hack to make the book worth while.

This book certainly does that and for someone who need quick tips this book certainly helps. I would consider this a key book for any sys admin's tool kit as it is very useful in support MS OS systems.

FINALLY, Answers to all my Knoppix/Linux questions.......2006-02-24

First, I have been trying to accomplish several things in the Linux environment that I knew could be made much easier:
- Make "kiosks" for a trade show environment
- Loading Knoppix on the hard drive
- Set up an all Thin Client network for use in public library or k-12 environments

I did all of those things (And many more) the same day I got my Knoppix Hacks book.

Knoppix has proven itself to be an excellent vehicle for promoting the "Usability" of Linux to those who still feel it is beyond the grasp of non-geeks.

The Knoppix Hacks book has proven that advanced knoppix functions are not beyond the geek.

I highly recommend this book to anyone exploring the Linux world and specifically the Knoppix distro. I still have more hacks to try, so I'll be back in a bit ;-)

Robert K. Ruby II
Founder NWSIG
www.aprinciple.org
groups.yahoo.com/group/aprinciple

Great book for data recovery and fixing MBR.......2006-01-02

I work in data recovery and this book has some great tips. It shows you how recover files from a bad disk. This book also teaches you how to repair the MBR which saved me from reinstalling Windows. Well worth the price.

Great book, - dogeared already.......2005-12-12

When it comes to Live CDs Knoppix is by far one of the most popular. So much so that many of the other Live CDs are remasters of the basic Knoppix system. This book contains a lot of hacks that can better be described as how to do all the things you were wonder if Knoppix could do. This includes booting Knoppix with cheat codes, working with the Knoppix desktop, installing Knoppix onto your desktop computer, repairing a Linux installation, repairing a Windows installation, creating your own remastered Live CD, copying the system to RAM so the CD player becomes available, using it as an emergency router, file server, or web server, using it for forensics, and scanning a Windows file system for viruses. An excellent resource and useful guide for the person who wants to go beyond the basics, Knoppix Hacks is highly recommended.

Resident Evil Code: Veronica X Official Strategy Guide

Average customer rating:

The only game in town
It really helps.
RE Code Veronica X Strategy Guide
Very good!

Resident Evil Code: Veronica X Official Strategy Guide
Dan Birlew
Manufacturer: BRADY GAMES
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0744003091

Book Description

BradyGames' Resident Evil Code: Veronica X Official Strategy Guide features a step-by-step walkthrough. Detailed area maps and expert boss tactics! Complete item and weapon rosters! Game secrets and more!

This product is available for sale worldwide, excluding Japan and Asia.

Customer Reviews:

The only game in town.......2007-09-20

Overall, this is a great guide for the price. They cover everything in the game with their walkthrough, as well as the bonus game. I would have been willing to pay for more content though. This guide won't help you get an S rank, you'll have to figure out what stuff to skip in order to do that.

It really helps........2007-07-24

This strategy guide really helps you through the game, especially when you start solving the puzzles. I really like the pictures of the monsters that you defeat in the game also.

RE Code Veronica X Strategy Guide.......2007-05-25

Great book tells you what you need to know without spoiling the game in any major way.

Very good!.......2005-06-24

This is really handy for beginners it covers everything from items to the finishing the game it's great.

Code Reading: The Open Source Perspective

Average customer rating:

Rambling dissapointment
Read your code
Works best if you have the matching skill sets of the material...
Five stars for beginners, much less for seasoned programmers
An attempt at being software engineering encyclopedia that falls short

Code Reading: The Open Source Perspective
Diomidis Spinellis
Manufacturer: Addison-Wesley Professional
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Customer Reviews:

Rambling dissapointment.......2007-07-18

The book rambles on with no seeming focus. It does contain some interesting thoughts but to get to them you must wade through a terrible book.

Read your code.......2006-10-24

I gave up reading after only 20% of this book. I had hoped it would give encouragement and easy-to-read pointers on how to quickly familiarize oneself with a large body of code. Instead, I found it to be reverse-engineering explanations of statements and structures that would better be learned from a reference manual. The code-reading exercises might be valuable, but I'd say that if you really want to practice code reading, start with real code from your company's codebase. Still, Spinellis has made a fair first attempt at writing about an activity that should be done a lot more often. I look forward to better offerings on this topic in the future.

Works best if you have the matching skill sets of the material..........2006-08-11

If you're a programmer, you are going to be reading the code that others write. It's as simple as that. But reading code is not like reading someone's novel or article. You have to figure out what the code is doing, what was the intent of the writer, how does the code fit with all the other pieces, etc. Often, all that needs to be done without a single comment, either. With that in mind, Diomidis Spinellis wrote the book Code Reading - The Open Source Perspective. There are some pretty good perspectives and techniques here that probably work best if you're familiar with C and Unix...

Contents: Introduction; Basic Programming Elements; Advanced C Data Types; C Data Types; Advanced Control Flow; Tackling Large Projects; Coding Standards and Conventions; Documentation; Architecture; Code-Reading Tools; A Complete Example; Outline Of The Code Provided; Source Code Credits; Referenced Source Files; Source Code Licences; Maxims for Reading Code; Bibliography; Index; Author Index

Some of the material is universal regardless of your platform of choice... why it's important to be able to read code, how basic program flow determines the "narrative" of the program, etc. He uses little icons in the side bar (an "i" and an exclamation point) to point out common programming idioms as well as dangerous techniques that might not work as first expected. On the flip side, a lot of the examples use C or C++ code to demonstrate some example that may only be of interest to you if you use those languages. Diving into malloc and the intricacies thereof might allow you to understand some concepts, but it might be a bit difficult to extract out the applicable material if you're not using the C family of languages. Likewise, using Perl or grep to examine source code is great if you know Perl or grep, but you may be tempted to skim large portions of those chapters if those are not your skill sets...

So would I recommend the book? Probably... but your impression of the book will likely depend on how close you match the skill sets talked about and used in the book. Even if you don't qualify as a Unix geek, you can still get value here... you'll just have to work a bit harder...

Five stars for beginners, much less for seasoned programmers.......2006-04-29

While I have absolutely no doubt that the contents of this book are extremely valuable to developers, it is difficult for me to believe that seasoned programmers would need to read it. In fact, if they are in need of this knowledge, then I truly question their competence.
For example, chapter two is titled "Basic Programming Elements" and the subsections are as follows:

*) A complete program.
*) Functions and global variables.
*) while loops, conditions, and blocks.
*) switch statements.
*) for loops.
*) break and continue statements.
*) Character and Boolean expressions.
*) goto statements.
*) Refactoring in the small.
*) do loops and integer expressions.
*) Control structures revisited.

Chapters three and four have the titles "Advanced C Data Types" and "C Data Structures" respectively. The level of difficulty of chapters two and three are generally what I cover in my introduction to programming in C class that has no prerequisite.
Chapter five is entitled "Advanced Control Flow" and covers recursion, exceptions, parallelism, and macro substitution. In a move that puzzled me, the author used Java code rather than C++ in demonstrating how to code for and handle exceptions. C/C++ code is used in the explanations of recursion, parallelism and macro substitution.
Topics covered in the remainder of the book include: revision control, testing, indentation and code formatting; reading documentation, common open-source documentation formats, architecture reuse, regular expressions and searching with the grep utility; code reading tools and code beautifiers; testing and debugging. While C/C++ is most widely used, the author uses Java on occasion, specifically when it makes the explanations easier.
I want to make it absolutely clear that I believe that the knowledge in this book is extremely valuable. However, we must be realistic here. The first three chapters are the contents of an introductory C programming class and most of the rest of the material would be defined by company coding standards. Therefore, any new hire, even if they were a programming novice, would be introduced to them in the first few months. If they went through any reasonably effective training program, then they would also be exposed to most of the material in this book.

An attempt at being software engineering encyclopedia that falls short.......2005-10-18

I agree with the two previous reviewers (Paul and Hollasch). On the positive side, the author's obviously a serious scholar. His knowledge is broad and on some subjects deep as well. The bibliography is extensive and offers good leads for further reading. However, he attempted to do too much in a single volume. The book title is "Code Reading," but the author covers everything from architecture to revision control to configuration management to documentation, with none detailed enough to be useful. Most code examples covered are in C, but he also sprinkled the book with Java, Perl, and even makefile codes. Take that makefile code as an example, if you are not familiar with makefile, you are bound to be lost in his detailed explanation of the code. On the other hand, if you already know makefile and regularly write or modify one, the explanation is isolated and gratuitous, because if necessary you would rather consult a reference book devoted to that subject. Another drawback is that the author spent too many pages stating the plain obvious, effectively drawning the few unique good points of his own. I also noticed that the author presented outdated or not-so-modern materials. For example, he mixes C with C++ and makes incorrect claims no longer applying to both. (It appears to me that the author had no idea about post-98, modern C++.) Another example is Hungarian notations, which has been discounted by Microsoft, with the advent of C# and their fancy new visual IDE tools.

Average customer rating:

Worth it's weight in gold
Specialized book that is not for everyone, but very good
Frustrating Book..
interesting
A must-read for code generation folks

Code Generation in Microsoft .NET
Kathleen Dollard
Manufacturer: Apress
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ASIN: 1590591372

Book Description

Code generation has the potential to revolutionize application development. Rather than handcrafting each piece of code, enterprises will increasingly turn to code generation, based on templates and application of business logic, to automatically generate code to perform a variety of tasks. Code Generation in Microsoft .NET presents the fundamentals of code generation. Code generation is already used extensively in Visual Studio .NET – every form-based application contains potentially hundreds of lines of "wizard" created code, which is modified as the developer sets various properties. Strongly typed datasets, XML schemas and web service proxies are also generated automatically by Visual Studio. This results in a huge cost savings and improvement in software reliability.

Developers need both the technical details of how to accomplish code generation in .NET as well as a coherent series of steps to follow to incorporate code generation into their development. Code Generation in Microsoft .NET teaches developers how to adopt these techniques in their own development efforts. To accomplish this, this book introduces a series of five steps that leverage code generation both within and between projects in the organization. The mechanics of code generation introduced in the book are organized around these steps, and provide the tools to leverage code generation for significant payback on the very first application where it is used.

Download Description

Code Generation in Microsoft .NET presents the fundamentals of code generation. Code generation is already used extensively in Visual Studio .NET - every form-based application contains potentially hundreds of lines of “wizard” created code, which is modified as the developer sets various properties. Strongly typed datasets, XML schemas and web service proxies are also generated automatically by Visual Studio. This results in a huge cost savings and improvement in software reliability.

Developers need both the technical details of how to accomplish code generation in .NET as well as a coherent series of steps to follow to incorporate code generation into their development. Code Generation in Microsoft .NET teaches developers how to adopt these techniques in their own development efforts. To accomplish this, this book introduces a series of five steps that leverage code generation both within and between projects in the organization. The mechanics of code generation introduced in the book are organized around these steps, and provide the tools to leverage code generation for significant payback on the very first application where it is used.

Customer Reviews:

Worth it's weight in gold.......2004-11-28

I agree with the author that "code generation" will grow as a dominant force in the IT industry over the next 5 years. When you hear stories about programming tasks being shipped overseas, its not the deep, creative thinking of type work that is shipped... no, they ship the redundant, grunt type of coding which could be described by an algorithm. When you find yourself writing code falling into a predictable pattern, then perhaps you should consider code generation.

Before I read the book, I was already convinced that code generation was a valuable thing to do, but the book helped reshape how I thought of code generation in the context of a large project, or even an IT department.

Here are the main points that resonated with me:
1) Code Generation should be thought of as a step in the overall project build process.
2) The biggest payoff will be gained by generated stored procedures and middle tier components.
3) Code generation allows the architect to decouple the system meta data from the technology. (eg. I can change my data access strategy by simply modifying my template)
4) It is possible to generate UI components.

Finally, the book goes beyond code generation. You will learn other interesting tidbits about Visual Studio .NET and the .NET framework. The appendices include good primers on XML/XSLT and her Code Generation harness. The freely downloadable harness is designed to orchestrate the CodeGen process, but you really need to the book to understand how it works and how it can be extended.

Specialized book that is not for everyone, but very good.......2004-09-14

I always respect authors and publishers who have the courage to publish highly specialized books such as this one. It will not be relevant to most of the developers doing general .NET development, for but those needing help with Code Generation this is absolutely required.

In general, when I see many classes that are nearly identical they can be designed in a much better way using normal OO constructs (base class with children if required for special cases to override). In general, if possible do not mark your classes as SEALED and mark each method as virtual. This gives other the ability to extend your work. There is nothing more frustrated then finding a class that is close to what you need and finding it is sealed to you resort to encapsulation (which many would argue is a better approach anyway and in many cases they are correct).

However when you have tedious classes that are different in fundamental ways (like a database layer) this can eliminate the drudgery of much of the effort.

In addition to a deep understanding of multi-threading this is one area the senior developer should understand and study.

Kind Regards,
Damon Wilder Carr, Chief Technologist and CEO

Frustrating Book.........2004-08-28

This is a very frustrating book for a couple of reasons. First contrary to what the book and some of the previous reviewers have said, there is no C# support for this book.

I quote the back of the book, "In addition to the text, the tools in the book (downloadable in both VB.net and C#)..." This is untrue. While there are some code examples in C# in the download, almost everything is in VB.net. This includes the code generation harness, which to me is the whole reason to buy the book. If you don't believe me download the code before you buy the book. There is a note in the read me that says as much.

While this might be of small significance to all you VB types, I came to MS from the Java/C world and don't know VB.

The second frustrating thing about the book is that it is about how to deploy a code generator not how to write one. There is a lot of discussion about metadata extraction, how to write good handcrafted code, etc. But the only discussion about how the code generation works is way out in Appendix C: Details of the Code Generation Harness.

Now if this is supposed to be a beginning book on code generation, shouldn't it talk about the code generator and how it works in the actual book??

I wish that someone would have told me these things before I bought it. I think down the road this may be a useful book once can get my hands around the generator. It has chapters on things metadata extraction and interface generation that look very interesting. For that reason I am giving it a 3.

interesting.......2004-07-09

Much of this book is obvious - use of XSLT to to generate code files, how to consume sql metadata. But the author does a GREAT job of presenting the information in useful context. I recommend it.

A must-read for code generation folks.......2004-06-25

This is a great book. Surely not the kind of book that you can read to relax: there are always several threads to follow, and if you skip a page, then you sort of feel that you're going to miss something, maybe a little useful practical tip, or maybe a smart design approach with lots of interesting implications. So it might take a fairly long time to read it, but it's well invested. Not only if you're on .NET: most, if not all, code generation concepts can be applied to other platforms and languages. So if you are interested in code generation this book is a must-read.

Producing Open Source Software: How to Run a Successful Free Software Project

Average customer rating:

In my case, five stars is an understatement
Required reading for Open Source project leaders
"Must Read" for Open Source Participants
Gives you a feel for the why, not just the how
sound advice for an oss project

Producing Open Source Software: How to Run a Successful Free Software Project
Karl Fogel
Manufacturer: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Software | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0596007590

Book Description

The corporate market is now embracing free, "open source" software like never before, as evidenced by the recent success of the technologies underlying LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP). Each is the result of a publicly collaborative process among numerous developers who volunteer their time and energy to create better software.

The truth is, however, that the overwhelming majority of free software projects fail. To help you beat the odds, O'Reilly has put together Producing Open Source Software, a guide that recommends tried and true steps to help free software developers work together toward a common goal. Not just for developers who are considering starting their own free software project, this book will also help those who want to participate in the process at any level.

The book tackles this very complex topic by distilling it down into easily understandable parts. Starting with the basics of project management, it details specific tools used in free software projects, including version control, IRC, bug tracking, and Wikis. Author Karl Fogel, known for his work on CVS and Subversion, offers practical advice on how to set up and use a range of tools in combination with open mailing lists and archives. He also provides several chapters on the essentials of recruiting and motivating developers, as well as how to gain much-needed publicity for your project.

While managing a team of enthusiastic developers -- most of whom you've never even met -- can be challenging, it can also be fun. Producing Open Source Software takes this into account, too, as it speaks of the sheer pleasure to be had from working with a motivated team of free software developers.

Customer Reviews:

In my case, five stars is an understatement.......2007-07-27

Just yesterday I was talking to a friend about this book and we discovered each other very glad with it. First of all, the author has a lot of experience with the theme in question. Furthermore, Karl Fogel is very compelling with words. He knows how to write down his experience in a way that is pleasant, certainly due to a lot of writes he had made through plenties of open source projects.

With this book you will be in touch with topics like the needed infra-structure to setup open source projects, the dinamics of the open source community, strategies for packaging and releasing software, common issues that arise in open source daily development and how to workaround then, a brief about licenses (with properly links for more information on this topic); just to highlight some aspects.

This book was the first hand someone land me into the open source world. It's helping me in three ways: to extract more from open source softwares that already exist, to start my own open source project, and to look at software development through a new, different, and till now better perspective.

Hope this review helps you!

Required reading for Open Source project leaders.......2007-06-19

If you have already read pretty much everything that there is to be read about why you'd want to start, manage, fund or participate in an Open Source project, but want to know everything about how best to do it, then Karl Fogel's Producing Open Source Software is the book for you.

Drawing from his extensive experience with the Subversion project, Fogel provides in this book a comprehensive overview of all aspects of Open Source software development, covering technical, social, political, economical, legal, and managerial aspects.

While the book is more aimed at medium-to-large scale projects, especially those involving some kind of corporate entity, there is much in it that is applicable to most projects, excluding maybe only those little, one-man efforts that rarely become successful. But if you are the originator of one of the latter and, should it suddenly attract a wide following, you'd better be prepared to face the unavoidable problems that popularity brings.This book will come in handy in this case.

Here are, in my opinion, the strong points of the book:

* Providing a concise, yet comprehensive, overview of all aspects of Open Source development. This is really the manual of open development.

* Demonstrating that there is much in open development that is similar to more traditional, corporate-style software development (you cannot always rely on good will and volunteers), but also much that is different, in motivation, rewards and objectives.

* Putting the accent on the human aspect of development: mutual respect between participants is often the deciding factor in determining whether a project will thrive or fail. Since even the best of intentions sometimes are not enough to foster a peaceful, productive and collaborative environment, Producing Open Source Software contains a lot of useful, practical advice that you can follow if you want to keep developers happy and motivated.

"Must Read" for Open Source Participants.......2007-04-29

It's easy to make the mistake of viewing this book as "too fluffy" or perhaps too soft to be of any use to the practical user or developer of open source software. Nothing could be further from the truth: in a classic open source way, the author has compressed man-centuries of OS community experience into a practical working guide for anyone who wants to do something serious in this area.

Gives you a feel for the why, not just the how.......2006-12-27

The book impressed me by the breadth and depth of the thinking that must have gone on before it was written. Mr. Fogel being an active open-source developer, I was at first suspicious that he might just be presenting his way of doing things as gospel. Quickly, though, he convinced me that he reflects his ways more profoundly than most other people I know, myself included. Maybe that, in itself, is a consequence of open-source development processes?

sound advice for an oss project.......2006-08-03

sound advice for an oss project

please note that the entire text of this book is avaiable online - but the paper book is ofcourse nicer to read!

Writing Secure Code for Windows Vista (Pro - Step By Step Developer)

Average customer rating:

A must read if you develop for Windows Vista

Writing Secure Code for Windows Vista (Pro - Step By Step Developer)
Michael Howard , and David LeBlanc
Manufacturer: Microsoft Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0735623937

Book Description

Get the definitive guide to writing secure code and developingmore-secure applications for Windows Vista--straight from the experts.Security is one of the greatest enhancements in Windows Vista, anddevelopers will be urged to write more secure code on the platform tosupport a growing customer base. This reference delivers the straight scoopfrom the authors who wrote the immensely popular, award-winning bookWriting Secure Code. Developers get first-hand insights into designdecisions and practical advice for solving real-world security issues. Thebook covers new features, including ACLs and BitLocker(tm), as well asenhancements to familiar concepts, such as firewalls and authentication. Inaddition, there are plenty of code samples in C# on the Web. Designed tocomplement and extend Writing Secure Code, this book is essential fordevelopers of Windows Vista.

Customer Reviews:

A must read if you develop for Windows Vista.......2007-09-23

Initially I didn't liked Windows Vista. A resource hog, some incompatibilities... But I had to use it at work so I installed it and worked with it for two months. After that, I really like the security features it has, but I felt like missing more details about specific topics... So I decided to buy this book.

Writing Secure Code for Windows Vista comes as a, mostly C++ oriented (although contains some C# examples), "how to use all new features" book. Very well structured, with lots of code examples, best practices, direct to the topic, and one thing I liked a lot: very sincere. If something is working bad, the authors state it clearly (for example, the Windows Firewall API, which has bugs), and they even provide workarounds to avoid them.

Down to the content, the book covers a lot of topics: New safer C functions, banned APIs, new APIs, UAC, token manipulation, integrity levels, code signing, virtualization, buffer overrun defenses, IPv6, Secure Socket extensions, Windows Firewall (Vista version, of course), IE7 security mechanisms & defenses (very interesting), Windows services development best practices, protected mode API and DEP, and the new CNG (Cryptography API: Next Generation).

Even if you don't usually develop with C++ I highly recommend this book. With it you will learn a lot about all the new security features of Vista. You just need some basic knowledge of standard Windows security features and some C++/API programming.

Average customer rating:

A great case for proprietary software
Snort Cookbook a second glance!
Good information overshadowed by outdated or poor advice
It's a Rough World Out There
Good but not a tutorial

Snort Cookbook
Angela Orebaugh , Simon Biles , and Jacob Babbin
Manufacturer: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0596007914

Book Description

If you are a network administrator, you're under a lot of pressure to ensure that mission-critical systems are completely safe from malicious code, buffer overflows, stealth port scans, SMB probes, OS fingerprinting attempts, CGI attacks, and other network intruders. Designing a reliable way to detect intruders before they get in is an essential--but often overwhelming--challenge. Snort, the defacto open source standard of intrusion detection tools, is capable of performing real-time traffic analysis and packet logging on IP network. It can perform protocol analysis, content searching, and matching. Snort can save countless headaches; the new Snort Cookbook will save countless hours of sifting through dubious online advice or wordy tutorials in order to leverage the full power of SNORT. Each recipe in the popular and practical problem-solution-discussion O'Reilly cookbook format contains a clear and thorough description of the problem, a concise but complete discussion of a solution, and real-world examples that illustrate that solution. The Snort Cookbook covers important issues that sys admins and security pros will us everyday, such as:

installation
optimization
logging
alerting
rules and signatures
detecting viruses
countermeasures
detecting common attacks
administration
honeypots
log analysis

But the Snort Cookbook offers far more than quick cut-and-paste solutions to frustrating security issues. Those who learn best in the trenches--and don't have the hours to spare to pore over tutorials or troll online for best-practice snippets of advice--will find that the solutions offered in this ultimate Snort sourcebook not only solve immediate problems quickly, but also showcase the best tips and tricks they need to master be security gurus--and still have a life.

Customer Reviews:

A great case for proprietary software.......2007-05-26

Have you ever wondered why some things are free and some are not free? Well, suppose you needed a firewall with intrusion detection. Or, just suppose you needed an intrusion detection system. So you get Snort and this book and then you figure out to get it to log to PostgreSQL. Fine. Then you go to page 175, 5.6 Installing and Configureing ACID. Then you follow the procedures to get ACID to analyse you Snort output. After a few attempts you discover that the "Solution" given on page 176, is incomplete. After a lot of trial and error, you finally get it to work. But then you find out that ACID itself, needs a whole lot of configuring itself. The farther you get into ACID, the more errors you find. Then you go back and forth from the configuration files until you just give up on it.

One problem when people publish incomplete procedures - probably because they themselfs could not get it to work - is something like this: "Oh, yes, well that computer over there has been broadcasting for quite some time. I guess we should have had Norton or McAfee in it". Sure, Ethereal is better than nothing, and a proprietary solution is better than what is in this book. Boooooooooooo!

Snort Cookbook a second glance!.......2005-09-29

Snort Cookbook O'reilly
by: Orebaugh, Biles & Babbin

What can I say designing a reliable detection system is a challenge at best.
This book makes it seem easy! I thought this was the best layout of a tech.book I have ever saw.
Problem > Solution > Discussion. they gave you the information in a precise way with out overloading you
with material you did not need. The Rules section was espcially useful...
The only downside is I wanted to see more on rules with samples.
Overall this was a very useful Book. I already had snort in place this made it much more useful.

Brett Hoff

Good information overshadowed by outdated or poor advice.......2005-08-09

I read the Snort Cookbook because I am always trying to learn more about Snort. I've read almost every book on the open source intrusion detection system, so I hoped the Snort Cookbook might offer advice not found elsewhere. Unfortunately, whatever good material appears in the book is overshadowed by outdated or outright bad advice. The best Snort book is still Syngress' Snort 2.1, so I recommend reading that title.

The Snort Cookbook starts poorly with ch 1, which at 50 pages is the book's largest. After repeating installation instructions covered in online resources, the book turns to dubious packet collection recommendations. Item 1.10 suggests creating a listen-only Ethernet cable but never mentions disabling ARP traffic with ifconfig's -arp option. Item 1.11 describes how to build a homebrew tap but doesn't address signal regeneration problems that could result in traffic loss.

Item 1.12 gives terrible advice: "If your Snort machine has only one network interface, using the passive tap, run both lines to a small hub. Then from another port of the hub, run a cable to your IDS. This will combine and maybe even buffer the traffic for the IDS and give a full duplex connection." Wrong -- this is a nice way to never see traffic when full-duplex packets from the two transmit lines collide in the hub.

Item 1.14 says "Snort itself is incapable of sniffing a wireless network," but it ignores the fact that while Snort doesn't understand 802.11 traffic, the sensor can join a wireless network and interpret what it sees. Item 1.15 demonstrates more ignorance of hardware issues by saying "Linux-compatible gigabit Ethernet cards are available with up to six ports. Coupled with machines that have space for three or four PCI cards, you could have as many as 24 Ethernet ports." This suggestion completely ignores the fact that a single gigabit NIC will saturate a 32 bit, 33 MHz PCI bus, and many BIOS will not be able to handle interrupts from more than about 8 NICs in a PC.

Item 1.25 says "two to four million records is the max for MySQL," which is odd. One MySQL database I use to collect session data on Sguil has over 31 million records. Item 1.25 also covers the often-repeated and incredibly naive method of having Snort log directly to a database, without utilizing Barnyard as an intermediary. Thankfully we see Barnyard covered in ch 2, but recommended for "high-speed network[s], such as 1 Gbps or greater." Barnyard is definitely appropriate when monitoring at less than gigabit speeds.

Throughout the book, the obsolete ACID Web-based alert console appears. BASE has been available since October 2004; it addresses stale code problems in ACID and should have been covered. I was disappointed to see the Sguil suite mentioned but never given any discussion, even though the older Snort 2.1 book introduces using Sguil. Item 4.2 mentions "RST scans" even though they are a fiction of one security researcher's imagination. Item 6.6 claims to offer ways to test Snort by showing three programs (Snot, Sneeze, Stick) that have had little effect on modern Snort implementations (e.g., 2001 on).

On the positive side, in many cases the Snort Cookbook properly addresses questions which frequently appear on the snort-users mailing list. Items 2.15 and 2.16 show how to send Snort alerts to email, a pager, or cell phone using Syslog and Swatch. Item 3.2 discusses rule updates with Oinkmaster. Rule issues in ch 3 were generally helpful, like dynamic rules (3.4), evasion issues (3.10), optimization (3.13), and even Spade (3.18). Perfmon coverage in items 4.6 and 7.0 help discover how well Snort is working. I also liked the policy-based IDS ideas in item 7.5.

The back cover of the Snort Cookbook says the book "can save you countless hours of sifting through dubious online advice or wordy tutorials." That online advice is frequently more correct than what appears in this book. While some of the book is helpful, often that material has already been introduced in online documentation or best covered in Syngress' Snort 2.1. Perhaps a second edition will address the concerns in this review and produce a more useful cookbook for future readers.

It's a Rough World Out There.......2005-05-26

When the Internet was being set up, who could have possibly believed just how unfriendly a place it was going to be out there. After all, it was just a concept where scientists could exchange papers. Even if you would have told the original developers where it was going to go they would have just laughed at you.

Anyway, Snort is another tool in stopping the bad guys from coming into your system. In particular it is an intrusion detector. Note the word detector. Snort monitors your system to see what's happening. It is not an anti-virus like program that detects, quarantines, deletes, etc. an infected file. Instead it watches what is going on in the system and looks for behavior that is outside the rules.

Snort watches, records and reports on what the systems in you network might be doing. On a big network, running Snort could well be a full time job. It can produce volumes of information. Some of this information regarding your employees might be considered spying on them, there are also some words (a few more wouldn't hurt) on what you can do to outsiders vs. your own people.

Good but not a tutorial.......2005-05-21

Actually, probably everything you'd need for a tutorial is in here; it just isn't put in one place up front. Therefor, for someone totally unfamiliar with Snort, the sudden jump from installation to cook-book recipes may be confusing and unsettling.

As there is plenty of material at http://www.snort.org/docs/ and as getting Snort running isn't all that complicated anyway, that's not a major flaw.

Like another reviewer here, I think the rules sections are probably the best part of the book, though I was also impressed by the attention given to the specifics of Windows and Mac OS X - it's nice to see that level of completeness.

Prog Microsoft Infopath (Programming Series)

Average customer rating:

Covers the latest features and options of InfoPath
A Clear Introduction to the Subject
Infopath for Developers
The Best Book on InfoPath for the Developer
Great place to get started

Prog Microsoft Infopath (Programming Series)
Robbins
Manufacturer: Charles River Media
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1584504536

Book Description

Create Applications that Gather, Process, and Analyze Information with InfoPath! InfoPath is one of the fastest growing products within the Microsoft Office System. It is a forms-based solution that streamlines the process of gathering, sharing, and using information by enabling teams and organizations to create, share, and work with dynamic forms. Programming Microsoft InfoPath: A Developer's Guide, Second Edition is a completely updated edition of the best-selling book that covers the new features and options of InfoPath with Service Pack 1, that center on east of use for end users and extensibility for developers. The book takes a practical and code-oriented approach to provide the essential skill set needed to develop and implement applications with InfoPath. Updated examples that clearly demonstrate the use of InfoPath with the Service Pack 1 extensions are also included. Programming Microsoft InfoPath: A Developer's Guide, Second Edition is an ideal reference for developers creating distributed applications using InfoPath with Service Pack 1.

Customer Reviews:

Covers the latest features and options of InfoPath.......2006-04-14

Thom Robbins' PROGRAMMING MICROSOFT INFOPATH: A DEVELOPER'S GUIDE appears in its updated second edition to cover the latest InfoPath solutions in the MS Office system. It updates the former book to cover all new features and options as they work with Service Pack 1, provides updated examples and insights, and will reach practicing developers with the latest forms and options which can be customized to meet user needs.

A Clear Introduction to the Subject.......2006-03-30

This is an intermediate level book aimed a the programmer/developer who is setting up a distributed application using InfoPath. If you are an InfoPath end user, this is not the book for you. If you are just starting out as an InfoPath developer, then this is the place to start.

The book begins with a bit of history and description of the basic structure of the Microsoft .NET framework, Service Oriented Architecture, and its integration into Microsoft Office.

From there it goes into the InfoPath IDE and you're off and running. The book is somewhat tutorial in nature, with screen shots showing how to do things. It also has some of the characteristics of a reference book with descriptions organized by subject rather than going through in a straight tutorial format.

This is the second edition of this book and it covers all of the changes and updates included in Service Pack 1. There is a CD with the book that includes all of the source code, figures, and projects from the book. The writing is clear and to the point. This is a good introduction to the subject.

Infopath for Developers.......2005-04-14

This book really doesn't teach you much of anything - it tells you about things, it describes concepts - but there is very little step-by-step information. If you are looking for tutorial type materials, this isn't it. If you are looking for books to supplement tutorial type materials, this is very likely your book.

The Best Book on InfoPath for the Developer.......2005-03-26

InfoPath is a new component of Microsoft Office that serves to implement Microsoft's vision of how Word, Excel, Internet Explorer, Outlook, Internet Information Server, VisualStudio.NET, Windows, SQL Server all tie together in the basic .NET environment to make an integrated business environment for the sharing of data within an organization.

Mr. Robbins is a Senior Technology Specialist with Microsoft. He appears to be an evangelist for the .NET, Web Services, XML and certainly the InfoPath approach. In this book he presents a complete introduction to InfoPath from describing what it is supposed to do, to using it's IDE to produce some intergrated solutions.

The book is said to be of beginner to intermediate level. This means beginner only so far as InfoPath is concerned. The book presumes you have a good understanding of especially Office 2003, the .NET Framework, and Visual Studio.NET 2003. You also need some knowledge of the other packages listed at the beginning. Finally, this is a book designed for the applications developer, not the end user. Consequently some programming experience may not be an absolute requirement, but a little .ASP, SQL, HTML knowledge wouldn't hurt.

This is the hands down best book on InfoPath for the developer that's been published so far.

Great place to get started.......2004-06-12

"Programming Microsoft InfoPath" is a great place to start.

The book covers how to get started and how InfoPath fits into the software developer's toolbox, from Form design thru security, and integration with SharePoint/BizTalk.

With this book and a little practice, I was able to start creating practical "Smart Client" applications on the first day.

Pat Tormey PE
Foursquare Solutions

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