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Product: Book - Paperback
Title: Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference (2nd Edition) Publisher: O'Reilly Authors: Danny Goodman Rating: 5/5  Ok, picture this: You get off an airplane after a 10 hour flight. Get 2 hours of sleep because you are jet lagging so bad you feel like you have been smoking ... all day. You are then informed that what you thought was a routine API programming assignment is now a Cross Browser support nightmare. I mean I had to create Javascript that would work with both Netscape 4.X - 6.X and IE 4.X - 5.X and in many ways mimic Server Side error handling on the Client. Frantically searching the web for references and materials for some form of stratedgy to start coding I came across this book. I have read Danny's Javascript Bible and decided to give this book as shot. In terms of DOM reference and listing what does and does not work in Netscape and IE I was able to develop a pretty decent API in 5 days. This is not a HOW to BOOK. This is not for beginners. Will have to know how to code. This is a DHTML reference with some decent generic code examples. Combine this with the Javascript Bible and you got all the weapons you need to tackle Cross Browser DHTML. A must have for anyone forced to support various versions of browsers.
Product: Book - Paperback
Title: Sams Teach Yourself Visual Studio .NET 2003 in 21 Days Publisher: Sams Authors: Jason Beres Rating: 1/5  I just purchased Teach yourself Visual Studio .NET 2003 in 21 days from Amazon. In the introduction the book advertises itself as a book for novices: "nothing is taken for granted in any of the days"... this is clearly misleading as upon reading the book I have found that the content of the book is quite obviously targeted to experienced VB programmers who have previously built windows forms apps. As a professional teacher I am appalled at this ruse and at the instructional design of this book. I think it is misleading (read dishonest) to positionf this book as something for beginners. The lessons do not progress from simple to advanced as should be the case... but jump from beginner to advanced to intermediate in random order. For example.. object lifecycle is an intermediate concept that should be dealt with after a learner has mastered more basic ideas and yet it is covered on day three. This concept is covered at a MUCH later time in all the other tutorial materials I have purchased and seen. There are too many other examples of this haphazard approach to instruction to mention... Instructional design flaws aside, I have found glaring errata. For example..Figure 3.14 shows a web form instead of "Multiple MDIchildren open in an MDIparent form". Most of the code samples imple don't work. Did anyone actually proofread this book before it went to press? I have to say I was surprised to be disappointed this way. Sams usually provides much better books than this. At any rate, I have resigned myself to simply using this book as a pointer, or introduction to things that can be done in Visual Studio. To this end I needed the code samples which were also advertised in the book. I had hoped to gain access to the code samples and errata on the web site advertised by the author in the introduction: www.vbasp.net This address routes to a 403 error... I cannot go to the site. From looking at other reviews I see that many others have had the same problem. Mr. Beres purports to be a .NET evangelist... he does a disservice to the .NET community by producing such misleading and flawed material and targetting it to beginners. Bottom line... if you are an experienced programmer you'll find the flawed code samples frustrating and unprofessional. If you are a beginner you'll wish you hadn't wasted your money.
Product: Book - Paperback
Title: Statistical Analysis with Excel For Dummies Publisher: For Dummies Authors: Joseph Schmuller Rating: 5/5 This book is excellent for seasoned Excel users and people who were taught (but didn't learn) statistics in your average graduate school program. I have never seen statistical concepts so briefly and at the same time well explained. Actually applying the concepts adds another level of learning. I highly recommend this book.
Product: Book - Paperback
Title: XSLT 2.0 Programmer's Reference (Programmer to Programmer) Publisher: Wrox Authors: Michael Kay Rating: 3/5  I have three main problems using this book for the last few weeks on my first serious attempt to use xslt on a non-trivial problem. The first is the most minor and is that the graphics are really poor. This is true for almost every one in the document, but if you have a chance to look at the book, check out page 56 for example. They are not what I would consider production-quality graphics. The extreme amount of aliasing makes the small font used in these diagrams almost unreadable. I don't understand how this could have been judged acceptable by the publishers. Second is that it is very hard to find things in this book. Chapter 5 is the alphabetical reference for the xslt elements. The header at the top of the page does not list the element that is being described on the page. Also the font and style for the element headings are no different for their subheadings. This means there is no easy way to navigate this 300+ page section by flipping through it to find what you need. Whenever you want to find something, you have to go to the index first... which is the second problem with trying to find things. The index itself is poor. When I first got the book, I read it from cover to cover (except for chapters 5 and 7 which are alphabetical reference sections). As I have been trying to use this book as a reference, I remember paragraphs or tables that I want to look at again, but I can't find them from the index. For example, I knew there was a table somewhere that listed all the different axes and I wanted to find it to get the exact name of an axis I wanted to use. The word "axis" (or "axes") is not in the index at all. I am using this book daily and am finding myself frustrated every day with similar problems trying to find something that I know is in the book, but can't get to directly from the index. More than once I have resorted to flipping page-by-page through the book to find what I am looking for. At nearly 900 pages, it gets old really fast. My third problem with the book stems from his statement in the introduction that "Since XSLT 2.0 has such a strong dependence on XPath 2.0, you really need both books..." where he is referring to his XPath book. He is not joking when he says that. It doesn't say that explicitly on the cover or on the web page description. But you can't go far in the book without finding a statement that what you are looking for is explained in a chapter of his XPath book. Maybe that is more true for me, as a newcomer to both, but it is different from his previous edition and something you should be aware of. On the positive side, the book is comprehensive (within the bounds of its purposeful exclusion of XPath). I do not recommend it as an introductory text. The introduction acknowledges it is not meant as a tutorial. From my experience, it is downright unfriendly to xslt newbies. I was able to get "The XSL Companion" by Neil Bradley from my library and found it to explain things better. I have read good things about Jeni Tennison's books and am waiting to check out her upcoming "Beginning XSLT 2.0".
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