Product Description
This practical guide contains a detailed set of C standards and UNIX system comparisons for the construction of highly portable software. Professionals will learn the underlying causes of portability problems as well as the techniques for creating portable UNIX system software. It shortens the software development and test cycle and enables the user to reduce the cost of long-term support. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Clarification on authorship
Cowan's only half-right. The "E" in "J.E.Lapin" is for "Eric" (as in "Eric Raymond"). The "J" is for "Jon" (as in
"Jon Tulk").The book was actually a team effort undertaken by several software engineers working at Rabbit Software in the 80s.

This book should be far better known
In addition to being everything the previous reviewer said it was, its true author is Eric S. Raymond, rather better known in the community now than he was then. ("Lapin" is French for "rabbit", as in Rabbit Software, the publishers.)So it should really be filed along with "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" and "The New Hacker's Dictionary".

Somewhat dated now, but still very worthy ideas.
First off, the composite authors name is Lapin, not Laping.

I used this book back around 1990 to develop a large software suite.The first 5 chapters are an excellent intro to portable C coding.We used the beginning chapters to design and develop our common platform headers, libraries and Make system.We did not take their examples unchanged, but used them as starting points for a our needs, which was a somewhat more comprehensive system.My team gives the book credit for helping us get us some of our 10x improvements.Still have not seen the likes of this book even today, in terms of the quality of data to use.

The last half of the book is a summary of different API calls and /bin functions available on different Unixes of the day. Interesting now, from a historical perspective. ... Read more

Product Description
The first of a series of three books on programming languages directed to undergraduate and graduate students of computer science and information technology. Explains both the basic and some advanced concepts underlying almost all programming languages, and surveys the major programming paradigms with overviews of several important languages. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Very good PL starter
I have always been interested in PL and always looking for a book whichcovers some of the fundamental issues in a concise, theritical, abstractand understandable way. I think this book is a very satisfactory answer tomy search.

High Points:

covers the fundamentals of PL that I feel mostgraduate CS students must be comfortable with. It directly addresses manysubtle issues which are always confusing when you start in a very neat way.The level of abstraction used for discussing thigs is just right. One canunderstand things reading through the book most of the times It talks aboutthe theoritical angles but again not in a manner that its too difficult toread.

I would highly recommend this book for undergraduate PL class andas a reference book for fundamental concepts. If you feel ever confusedabout difference between types/class, polymorphisms and all, understandingthe real difference between paradigms this is a nice book to go through.The choice of topics covered is also pretty good.

I would have liked tosee more on OOP in the book. Also subtype polymorphism was not covered togreat extent. But that's just me.

I am sure people will find lot to learnfrom this book. ... Read more

Product Description
This text covers what students need to know about basic Java programming in a clear, straight-forward writing style. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

thorough introduction to java
The text gives a thorough introduction to Java. Giving both the graphics and the numerical features. No prior knowledge of object oriented programming is assumed by the reader.

Hopefully you should find Java to be elegant, if you already know another language. The discourse goes into the object oriented nature of the classes. To be sure, if you know C, then having "all classes all the time" can initially seem overweight or overly complex. But the point is that Java, as an OO language, can let you code far more difficult and lengthy programs than a procedural language like C.

At the graphics level, the book lets you rapidly go into making simple programs that put up windows with various types of widgets. Straightforward. Though the layout managers in standard java are a little primitive. But at the level of treatment in the book, it may be hard to see this.
... Read more

Product Description
Volume 2 picks up where volume 1 left off, and guides C++ programmers through using the Adaptive Communication Environment (ACE), the most complete toolkit available for networked programming. Softcover. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (22)

c++ network programming
If you want to learn C++ network programming architecture , design patterns and want the source code to be portable , this is the book for you . If you cant afford to have your own copy at least suggest your company to buy it . If your in C++ network programmingand dont use ACE , think again , you might be reinventing the wheel.

Good ACE book
ACE becomes popular in the world of system programming these years because of it's portability, low difficulty by providing wrapper encapsulating the complexity of low-level thread usage. However, going on development on ACE without thorough knowledges of system level details is hazardous and therefore further readings are recommended.(e.g. Hart's book)

Quite not what I expected it to be
After reading the Vol. 1, I expected quite a bit from the volume 2. May be I am not there yet to understand what the authors are trying to emphasize here. I found some of the material from vol.1 covered to much deeper extend. But the framework from the reusability point of view is missing. Some of the topics covered here are great indeed, especially chapter 5, 6 and 7. Other than that I found this book to be a quick browse and keep it away.

Well-written book for eligant power code warriors
This is a well written book documenting many of the eligant and powerful frameworks and idioms used in the ACE library.I've been using ACE for over 7 years to implement portable, concurrent, networked, distributed applications and it's great to see a well-written book like this finally being published. I would highly recommend it as a must have reference for all serious ACE programmers who strive to develop powerful, flexible and portable networked applications.It is also an extremely valuable resource for programmers who want to get introduced and up and running on the concepts and application of some very valuable frameworks.

Open-Source Framework Facilitates Network Programming
Writing networked applications using modern operating
systems and languages looks like it should be easy, but it
is emphatically not. The na‹ve designer of networked
applications will encounter a thicket of problems including
lack of portability, distributed performance bottlenecks,
maintaining correctness during shutdown, and managing
recovery from partial failures.

"C++ Network Programming, Volume 2, Systematic Reuse with
ACE and Frameworks" by Douglas Schmidt and Stephen Huston

provides some powerful help in the design and implementation
of networked applications. This help comes in the form of
several frameworks.

A few words about the definition of "framework." The first
step up from writing applications that interface directly
with operating systems is to insert object-oriented wrappers
between the application and lower level services. These
wrappers are classes that encapsulate the low level,
functionally specified, services such as operating systems

and protocol stacks. This first step was taken in the
predecessor volume to the present book, "C++ Network
Programming, Volume 1: Mastering Complexity with ACE and
Patterns", by the same authors, where a collection of
wrappers, called the ACE wrappers, is provided that not only
raises the level of the application interface from
functional to object-oriented, but also provides portability
at the same time.

For example, consider an application that directly uses
sockets. This application would depend on the syntax and
functional details of that operating system's s operating
system's socket implementation. By inserting the ACE
wrappers, the application acquires an object interface to
socket capabilities, and in addition becomes portable across
a large number of compilers, operating systems, and
communication protocols.

But a set of wrapper classes does not solve the networked
application designer's problems, any more than a pile of
bricks is a house.

Frameworks, which are the subject of the present book, are
the next step up in power from wrappers. A framework is an
integrated set of classes into which application designers
plug code that is unique to their applications. The
frameworks described in the present book handle a large part
of the difficulty inherent in network programming, leaving
application designers to deal primary with their
applications' local functionality.

For example, one of the frameworks described in the book is
the Acceptor-Connector Framework. This framework relieves
the user of dealing with the numerous tricky details
inherent in the conceptually simple process of connecting
clients with servers, such as address formats, protocols,
initialization, and message queue locking.

Readers should be aware that the present book is not a
general-purpose text on network programming using C++; this
book is a focused exposition of the ACE frameworks. Readers
will be most comfortable reading this book if they are
already familiar with software design and architecture
patterns, including those described in "Pattern-Oriented
Software Architecture: Patterns for Concurrent and Networked
Objects, Volume 2" by Douglas Schmidt et al, and in the
famous Gang of Four book: "Design Patterns: Elements of
Reusable Object-Oriented Software" by Eric Gamma et al.

The large amount of code that implements the wrappers of
volume 1 and the frameworks of volume 2 is available for
download for free. This code is in wide use today.

Designers of networked applications, when offered a large
pile of code that purports to do a lot of what needs to be
done, must trade off the anticipated saving in design and
implementation time against the anticipated time to
understand what the offered code is intended to do and what
it actually does. This tradeoff can lead a reasonable
designer to ignore existing code in favor of hand-writing an
entire application. In the case of the ACE wrappers and
frameworks, as documented and explained by the two books
mentioned here, combined with the open-source nature of the
implementing code and its widespread employment in real
applications, make the result of this tradeoff pretty clear:
read the books, use the code. ... Read more

Product Description
Readers learn how to write, compile, and execute computer programs in this popular programming language.Written for novices and experienced programmers alike, this comprehensive "teach by example" book can help you master the unique features of the popular and powerful C language.With more than 90 program examples and helpful end-of-chapter exercises, this clearly written tutorial is all you'll need to learn how to use the standardized version of C.

• Includes a complete introduction to the C language and thorough explanations of functions that have been standardized
• Covers program looping, decision-making, arrays, structures, character strings, pointers, and bit operations
• Features a step-by-step format for compiling and writing programs in ANSI C

Customer Reviews (10)

To all other technical writers...
READ THIS BOOK and learn how it's supposed to be done! As for programming books, I've wasted money on some 'stinkers' over the past 20 years, and I've browsed through many more in bookstores that I quickly realized weren't worth buying. This book, however, is not only the best intro to C programming, it may be the most well-written programming book ever published. It's a step by step guide with concise examples that are clearly explained. No previous programming knowledge is necessary. The best part is that I'm reviewing the version from 1988 (before 'ANSI' was added to the title). I'm sure the current 2004 version is even better. I just ordered Kochans' book "Programming in Objective C" without reading a word of it and I'm not worried at all that it was a waste of money. Thanks Stephen.

The best for beginners
It's a really easy book to understand the C basics. One topic that is always confusing is pointers but not in the way that is shown here. If you are a beginner or has forgotten the language (this was my case), it's the best selection.

The best C tutorial book
This book by Steve Kochan is absolutely the best book for anyone starting out programming in C. This is an excellent introductory text with frequent examples and good text. This book makes no assumptions about the particular computer system or operating system on which the C language is implemented. This books is written for novices and experienced programmers alike. I love this book as the comprehensive 'teach by examples' book can help you master the unique features of the C language. There is complete coverage of program looping, decision making, arrays, strings, pointers and bit operations and helpful end-of-chapter exercises. This is the book I used to learn C and it really is a great book. The K&R book is really great as a reference, but not as the first book.

I reviewed this book back in 1995 on the LEARN C/C++ TODAY list and it is still the best book for learning C out there.

OK for beginners
I am a 14 year old boy taking a college course on C.I already had a fairly strong C background.Frankly, I was rather disapointed.The book is incredibly easy, and instead of offering established functions (like atoi) they make new functions to do the same thing.Overall, I guess it's ok for beginners, but this was my text book for a colloge course, come on guys, lets get a little more advanced here.

Good for beginners, but there's better books out there
I learned C by working with this book on my own. It covers the mechanics of the language fairly well, but I didn't come away with a strong understanding of pointers or the standard library. Try K.N. King's "CProgramming" or Kernighan & Ritchie. ... Read more

Product Description
The first book published that fully describes object-oriented programming in an accessible manner for a wide range of readers. This new second edition covers the changes that have occurred in Objective C version 4.0, the newest release, and the tools that assist in developing object-oriented software. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Interesting history, but that's about it
(This review is about the 1986 edition, not the 1991. I assume big changes, but either way I haven't read it.)

Okay, so you just got a Mac or an iPhone and you've noticed that the development tools you need are free (and, indeed, come with the computer). You go out and buy books, but you want to see the original book. Well, this is it. Congratulations, you've just purchased an interesting historical document that has almost nothing to do with Mac programming, in a language that is almost but not entirely unlike the Objective-C you'll be using to write your app.

The 1986 edition is truly a time warp -- for example, the choice of "acetate" as an analogy to describe a GUI view is probably going to be lost on anyone who's only ever done page layout on a computer. Cox writes comparisons of Objective-C to Ada, C++, and Smalltalk, but the comparisons are far, far outdated. Three years before the original ANSI C standard came out, Cox was still using K&R C as his substrate language. The coverage of how object-oriented GUI systems work is more or less on target, but since it's based on a very old version of X, it isn't very much like the OpenStep/Cocoa environment. But a bigger problem than its antiquatedness is the fact that (probably by necessity) it's three parts textbook, one part advertisement for Stepstone's (or at the time, PPI's) product. The grating and poorly-thought-through term "Software-IC" (for a binary object library) pops up everywhere.

Used copies, however, can be had pretty cheaply, so if you like computer archaeology it's certainly a nice little trip to the days when object-oriented programming was just going mainstream and Steve Jobs was looking for technologies to build his NeXT system on. There's also enough source code to learn a bit about writing your own Objective-C libraries, if you know how to translate to the @ syntax that ObjC has used since not long after this book came out. For the most part, though, unless you're a serious Mac or programming languages historian, it's not worth going out of your way for.

The original reference work on Objective-C
The original reference work on Objective-C; the second edition was published May of 1991.So don't expect anything about OS X or Cocoa.But it's still a good book.If you want to read about the language itself, its history, the motivations behind its design, and its relationship to other languages, this is the book for you.If you want an introduction to the concept of object-oriented programming that is not mucked up by the foulness of C++ or Java, but rather gets you started down the One True Path of Cocoa right off the bat, this would also be a good place to start.I learned Objective-C from this book, and it is still handy as a reference work.Kind of the Kernighan & Ritchie of Objective-C. Four stars instead of five because it has less and less relevance for the typical Obj-C programmer nowadays, who is almost certainly coding for Cocoa on OS X.

This book is awesome.. it explains alot.
The book is kind of small.. but its packed w/ info onobjective-c. It gives complete info on how to use the objective-c OOPextension as well the objective-c internals.

The main reference on Objective-C.
The first three chapters are conceptual, and compare various approaches to object-oriented programming.Chapters 4 until 8 are highly technical and give detailed information on the Objective-C runtime and class libraries.I find the chapter on user interfaces a bit sloppy. Interesting, on the other hand, is the final chapter with projects for extensions.

One of the best books on Object Oriented Programming
This book is a must read for anybody working in Objective-C (NextStep/Rhapsody). It basically describes Objective-C, how it works, and future directions for the language. It also has a good comparison of other OO languages. Overall, it's a great book ... Read more

Product Description
(Matthew Tagliaferri) wanted a way to introduce the important principals of OOP and .NET, and games seemed like a way to do it that everyone could appreciate and understand. I think he really succeeded.

— Dan Mabbutt, Visual Basic Guide on About.com

• Teaches object-oriented programming quickly and easily
• Game examples make for fun learning
• Shows both the wrong way and the right way through an intuitive and innovative approach to learning
• Written in a peer-to-peer language, easily accessible to young coders

Beginning programmers often motivate themselves by creating a first project in a subject that they are interested in. Many young programmers are interested in game programming. Learn VB .NET Through Game Programming is a self-paced learning tutorial designed to help any developer master the basics of object-oriented programming (OOP) with Microsoft Visual Basic .NET. Unlike other books on OOP, this easy-to-understand book provides readers with peer-level language, while illustrating concepts with definitive and intuitive game programming examples.

Customer Reviews (7)

And interesting read, but not really helpful
I bought this book on a few reviews and the price of the book. What it offers is sadly not able to run. I mean, I downloaded the source from the publishers' site, and that ran fine. However, I compared it to my hand-typed version (following the books' examples) and my program is a mirror image (it seems to me, anyway) of the authors' code. However, it continues to give me an error on something that already has a value, and it reports it as having a 'null' value.

And this is just the first program in the first chapter of the book. I

'm sorry, but if you are going to put code in a book, please make it ALL consistent with every other part, there were a few places where the compiler warned me about some names not being defined because the author got lazy and put an abbriviated name in for another variable or procedure.

I will continue to read this book and try to code it, but I will be wary of other programming books that come from this publisher.

Don't make this your first choice
I've studied from tons of books over the years and this is my least favourite ever. The subject matter is presented in what I feel is mostly a haphazard way. The author uses games to illustrate concepts about vb.net. However, if you wanted to search the book for a particular subject for reference, it would be hard to do. It does sort of build on topics, but not like a book should. The worst problem is that the first program, a cheesy dice rolling program is packed with coding errors. The errors weren't bad, but they were numerous. I did find the coding example interesting, but it did seem more like random mixture of stuff than an organized explanation. I guess my biggest complaint is that I shouldn't have to debug the code examples in the book this much. Overall, I am unhappy with the book and I'll not buy another APress book again. It seems to me that this book suffered from bad editing and rushed production.

Good concept, poor execution.
If you want to learn some game programming, its pretty good. If you want to learn .NET its not so good. I use and enjoy VB.NET and thought this would be a good way to learn game programming. It does a pretty good job of introducing that. It would be better if it had some exercises for you to try on your own, rather than just copying the book programs, thats the only way to learn something is to do it yourself. On the positive side, if you are an experienced programmer, this book does a good job of teaching VB.NET and introducing games.

If you want to learn VB.NET from scratch this book is not for you. It doesn't teach you how to get started with Visual Studio, let alone VB. If you don't already know some programming, you won't be able to follow it. Also, it has many typos and errors that break the code examples. If you are an experienced programmer, they are easy to spot. If not, you can use the downloaded code to fix them, but save yourself the aggravation, get a book that is really geared toward beginners.

Don't be fooled
The reason I'm giving this book a low score is because I don't think it does what it promises.First of all, it's very hard to learn ANY programming language(including Basic) through game programming.If you know VB.NET well, go ahead and give it a try.I, however, am a newbie to game programming, and after reading through the first few chapters and finding the text confusing and having to frequently read lines over and over because it doesn't explain itself in a fasion it should to it's target audience, still don't know how to program a game.

Good but no PacMan!
Andrew said this book was good so i am gonne get it too!! I hope it DOESN'T taste like chicken either... ... Read more

Product Description
This unusually practical introduction to numerical control technology fully explains the most recent developments in machining and programming. Logically organized, CNC Machining and Programming begins with a review of basic concepts and principles and moves on to tooling, workholding, machine setting, speeds and feeds, and part programming before concluding with a discussion of advanced techniques. Both beginning and advanced readers will find a wealth of new information in this complete overview of CNC.

FEATURES

- Offers expanded information on high-speed CNC machines and machining.
- Contains new information on linear slide drives, computer-assisted programming and 3D surfacing.
-Covers all aspects of CNC: machine construction, processing, tooling, programming, setup, and program prove-out.
-Includes an updated conversational control section with Hurco machine controls information.
-Provides actual and complete programming examples that are labeled and explained.
-Discusses processing, fixturing, tooling, and programming for computer numerical control.
-Demonstrates calculations used in CNC programming. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A well written book, but a little outdated
The book covers most of the basics, but it is poorly illustrated and doesn't deal with any of the more modern advancements in CNC technology.

Recommended- P Smid, CNC Programming Handbook

it is avery good cnc book!
This is a very useful book for me, reading and understanding its content I learn and improve my knowledge on the principles of C.N.C programming, machining, machine design and the definitons of thedifferent axis andmotion and how and wy are designed.It includes examples, drawings, andtools, inserts,carbide grades, cutting and feeds rates technical data andis very friendly ... Read more

Product Description
Here is the CORBA book that every C++ software engineer has been waiting for. Advanced CORBA(r) Programming with C++ provides designers and developers with the tools required to understand CORBA technology at the architectural, design, and source code levels. This book offers hands-on explanations for building efficient applications, as well as lucid examples that provide practical advice on avoiding costly mistakes.With this book as a guide, programmers will find the support they need to successfully undertake industrial-strength CORBA development projects.

The content is systematically arranged and presented so the book may be used as both a tutorial and a reference. The rich example programs in this definitive text show CORBA developers how to write clearer code that is more maintainable, portable, and efficient. The authors' detailed coverage of the IDL-to-C++ mapping moves beyond the mechanics of the APIs to discuss topics such as potential pitfalls and efficiency. An in-depth presentation of the new Portable Object Adapter (POA) explains how to take advantage of its numerous features to create scalable and high-performance servers. In addition, detailed discussion of advanced topics, such as garbage collection and multithreading, provides developers with the knowledge they need to write commercial applications.

Other highlights

In-depth coverage of IDL, including common idioms and design trade-offs
Complete and detailed explanations of the Life Cycle, Naming, Trading, and Event Services
Discussion of IIOP and implementation repositories
Insight into the dynamic aspects of CORBA, such as dynamic typing and the new DynAny interfaces
Advice on selecting appropriate application architectures and designs
Detailed, portable, and vendor-independent source codeAmazon.com Review
Written for the experienced C++ developer facing real-worldCORBA for the first time, Advanced CORBA Programming with C++is a useful guide to today's most popular standard for distributedcomputing.

After a quick tour of CORBA basics, the authors jumpright in with a minimum skeleton application written in C++. Fromthere, they provide truly extensive coverage of CORBA IDL, along withmany tips for using IDL data types in C++. (They cover advancedfeatures such as any, TypeCode, and DynAny laterin the book.).

Next the book unveils its sample application--adistributed climate control system. Material on the Portable ObjectAdapter and the Object Life Cycle, including garbage collectionstrategies, rounds out this section. Additional chapters examine thedetails of Object Request Brokers (ORBs), including Internet Inter-ORBProtocol (IIOP), repositories, and binding. The authors also presentCORBA's built-in APIs for Naming, Trading, and Event Services(including asynchronous event handling), which is most useful asreference material.

Final sections examine strategies for betterscalability, including multithreading and optimizing network trafficfor CORBA objects. The authors provide numerous short excerpts of C++code, though it must be said that much of this book is referencematerial rather than a hands-on programming tutorial. --RichardDragan ... Read more

Customer Reviews (30)

Great CORBA Book
This has to be one of the best CORBA books that I have read. It has helped me debug code and fix some really knotty problems. I found the exposition clear and easy to follow, and the index a useful tool. I don't think the authors intended it to be read cover-to-cover.

If I am working on a CORBA project I alway like to have this book to hand.

Excellent introduction to CORBA
For my money, this book is worth every cent and more. The authors are knowledgeable and articulate. If you know of a better book on CORBA, please let me know.....

A good book for advanced users
As the title states this is a book for advanced programmers. Not the kind of book I would recommend to someone looking to pick up a book and the learn from it. Might serve as an excellent reference source.

Advance CORBA with C++
Good book. Worth the money. There is a a lot of material here and it is pretty well organized. Some of the examples assume to much - they would be better if they showed complete code segements. If you needed to get one book on C++ and CORBA, this would be the one.

One book to buy? This'd be it..
Don't wish to wade through book after book? This book would be the one to buy! The concepts are clearly defined and the code examples are fairly easy to follow. (The thermostat example grows too complicated at the end of the book to even comprehend all pieces - authors could use other smaller constructs to show the concepts.)

The authors are well-versed in the topic and it shows in every chapter. There is no hand-waving on topics, as I have seen in other treatments of this subject.

I've been a Corba programmer for the last 3 years and this has been my bible...

Can't wait to see a second edition of this book from the authors! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

A Review of Programming Textbooks
The Elements of Programming Style, Kernighan and Plauger

The authors worked for Bell Telephone Laboratories in Murray Hill NJ, which is now out of business. This critique of programming textbooks has no mention of what is taught in classrooms. The `Preface' says the purpose of this book is to educate the reader by example. Many textbooks on FORTRAN and PL/I provided examples. People who write programming language textbooks are seldom experienced programmers. [Why are there no examples in COBOL?] The authors don't mention the rationale for "good programming style". One author said "economy is the prime desideratum", but didn't distinguish between implementation (fast to build) or maintenance (fast to change because of clarity and comments). The best programming style is a program that works correctly. Next involves clarity or comments that explain what is being done. Descriptive labels are next (ACCTNO not A). Before the 1980s most programming involved printing statements that were typed onto punched cards. These discrete cards had an effect on organization (adding new code to the end of the deck via the GOTO statement).

The fragment of code on the top of page 3 is used to advise against branching around branches. Wouldn't a DO loop be better? [Its always easy to critique another person's code.] There are some who claim the fewer statements the better. But such coding may lack clarity. It's best for another person to review code to suggest where comments are needed (p.33). But management may not want to budget for this, and prefer to defer the costs to the future (see page 126). Making assumptions is human nature.

Chapter 5 lists "Common Blunders". An un-initialized variable is likely for a beginner. Page 135 says "choose variable names that won't be confused". A variable name should always differ by at least two letters to catch typing errors. The example in Chapter 6 totally omits taxes and other charges! But it is an academic exercise. It doesn't check if the hours are greater than 99 (which could not be a mistake if travel time is counted). A 5-digit employee number? No test of rates? Documentation is left for the last chapter. It is best to be first, every program should begin with an explanation of what is to be accomplished. [Does COBOL do this?] There is no guarantee the code will match the comments over time with changes by others.

The `Epilogue' says "good programmers" are those who have learned "good style". No, "good programmers" are those whose programs work perfectly and are delivered on schedule; they are also amenable to the changes that will occur over time. Being a good programmer does not ensure your corporation will stay in business or that you will continue to be employed. Programmers are only a cog in the machine and can be replaced by others at another site. This book is oriented to FORTRAN, the first successful computer language, which is used by a minority of programmers. This may explain the few reviews here.
[The pages refer to the original 1974 edition w/ blue cover.]

Computer Science
The Elements of Programming Style, by Brian W. Kernighan and P. J. Plauger, is an influential book on the study of computer programming styles and languages. It endorses the strategy that computer programs should be written not only to satisfy the compiler, but also keep the human readers in mind. The book utilizes examples taken from actual, published programs. The book's recommendations are made in the context of the examples which are realistic rather than an academic vacuum.

Trees and Forests
On a recent programming forum, a poster asked if he should code his program as one procedure like his boss instructed.He was, of course, greeted with polite howls of protest.Everyone offered (mostly) good ideas about how one should code if one is a beginner.After a while, I realized they all could be traced back to Elements of Programming Style.I pulled out my first edition and browsed it.Still the best book on style ever.Unfortunately, some of their suggestions, like minimize your use of GO TOs, have now been taken as so many commandments that many languages have now deleted them entirely.

Their use of Fortran and PL/1 is hardly a problem.Any competent programmer should be able to read the examples easily and understand the point of the example.If it is a problem for you, I'd suggest you start with an easier book and build up to Elements of Programming Style.The style of which, by the way, is modelled after The Little Book aka Elements of Style by Strunk and White.

Many rules still apply
I dare say many rules Mr. Kernighan preached almost three decades ago are still NOT followed by the programming community at large. For examples, "Modularize. Use subroutines." "Each module should do one thing well." and "Don't patch bad code--rewrite it." A widespread, bad practice of 90% of the programmers today is still writing functions that are way too long! And they very often keep modifying existing functions--inserting new logic into them--to make already bad code even worse; they seldom give it a second thought about rewriting the whole damn crap!

Another set of rules from the book: "Make sure code and comments agree." and "Don't over-comment." Many programmers seldom do the first thing, resulting in widespread mismatches between the actual codes and surrounding comments. This applies to Java code as well. The comment style recommended by Java--that is, mixing code and comments that can be extracted into so-called self documentation--is an outright violation of the "don't over-comment" rule. (This is intended to be a criticism of Java-style comments.) Good code should document itself clearly; with perhaps a little help from judiciously added few comments that are not self-evident from the code itself.

The book uses FORTRAN and PL/I code examples. There are things that no longer apply today. But the fundamental rules and styles are still well applicable today and in the future.

This book is the source of a well known debugging quote
I haven't actually read the book, or seen it in person, so I'd prefer to refrain from rating it one way or the other. It's worth noting though that this book is the source for an extremely well known quote on writing software:

"Everyone knows that debugging is twice as hard as writing a program in the first place. So if you're as clever as you can be when you write it, how will you ever debug it?"

People familiar with that statement -- it gets cited all over the place -- may be interested in looking at this book if only to see if there are any other gems inside. Chances are, the advice given may be a bit out of date in its particulars, but will have some persistent, deep, profound observations like the one above. ... Read more

Product Description
Programming Language Pragmatics is the most comprehensive programming language textbook available today. Taking the perspective that language design and language implementation are tightly interconnected, and that neither can be fully understood in isolation, this critically acclaimed and bestselling book has been thoroughly updated to cover the most recent developments in programming language design. With a new chapter on run-time program management and expanded coverage of concurrency, this new edition provides both students and professionals alike with a solid understanding of the most important issues driving software development today.

• Classic programming foundations text now updated to familiarize students with the languages they are most likely to encounter in the workforce, including including Java 7, C++, C# 3.0, F#, Fortran 2008, Ada 2005, Scheme R6RS, and Perl 6.


• New and expanded coverage of concurrency and run-time systems ensures students and professionals understand the most important advances driving software today.


• Includes over 800 numbered examples to help the reader quickly cross-reference and access content.

Topics covered: A survey of today's programming languages, compilation vs. interpretation, the compilation process, regular expression and context-free grammars, scanners and parsers, names, scopes and bindings, scope rules, overloading, semantic analysis, introduction to computer architecture, representing data, instruction sets, 680x0 and MIPs architectures, control flow and expression evaluation, iteration and recursion, data types, type checking, records, arrays, strings, sets, pointers, lists, file I/O, subroutines, calling sequences and parameter passing, exception handling, coroutines, compile back-end processing, code generation, linking, object-oriented programming basics, encapsulation and inheritance, late binding, multiple inheritance, functional and logical languages, Scheme and Prolog, programming with concurrency, shared memory and message passing, and code optimization techniques. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (25)

Comprehensive Programming Language reference

Well written and organized text with in depth history and explanation for Programming Language Pragmatics.

good book
I am currently using this book for a class in programming semantics.The book is clear in its explanations and diagrams.I also like the additional content on the CD... this is the first book CD that I have used more than once!In my opinion great book.

a fine text
I have found this book to be useful as a means of becoming familiar with the considerations that one needs to keep in mind when designing programming languages. I found that I needed a supplementary book on theory of computation, as those topics are relevant, but not covered in this book. On the whole, it's a well-written book, but certainly not one that teaches how to program, nor how to implement a compiler. Look elsewhere for those
kinds of practical details. This book moves too fast for that.

Required Reading for Debugging and Memory Dump Analysis
Every debugging engineer needs to know how the code is interpreted or compiled. Debugging complex problems or doing memory analysis on general-purpose operating systems often requires understanding the syntax and semantics of several programming languages and their run-time support. The knowledge of optimization techniques is also important for low-level debugging when the source code is not available. The following book provides an overview of all important concepts and discusses almost 50 languages. I read the first edition 6 years ago and I liked it so much that I'm now reading the third edition from cover to cover.

Thanks,
Dmitry Vostokov
Founder of DumpAnalysis Portal
Editor-in-Chief of Debugged! MZ/PE magazine

Excellent book, but will not do the intended job
I enjoy the book very much. The author gives an over all introduction to the basics of the programming languages. It does not, however, dig deep into any specific area. To master in a specialized subject, one will have to seek help from other books.

As the author has stated, to learn all the subjects the book is covering, one will have to spend years (taking different courses in computer science). This book has include all the material to give an overall view of the big picture and the students are suppose to learn the material in 2 semesters.

I personally tend to think that the book is better suited for the experienced programmer for the reviewing purposes. Students that never have real world experience probably will feel the book to be very dry. ... Read more

Product Description
This multivolume work on the analysis of algorithms has long been recognized as the definitive description of classical computer science. The three complete volumes published to date already comprise a unique and invaluable resource in programming theory and practice. Countless readers have spoken about the profound personal influence of Knuth’s writings. Scientists have marveled at the beauty and elegance of his analysis, while practicing programmers have successfully applied his “cookbook” solutions to their day-to-day problems. All have admired Knuth for the breadth, clarity, accuracy, and good humor found in his books.

To begin the fourth and later volumes of the set, and to update parts of the existing three, Knuth has created a series of small books called fascicles, which will be published at regular intervals. Each fascicle will encompass a section or more of wholly new or revised material. Ultimately, the content of these fascicles will be rolled up into the comprehensive, final versions of each volume, and the enormous undertaking that began in 1962 will be complete.

Volume 4, Fascicle 0

This fascicle introduces what will become by far the longest chapter in The Art of Computer Programming, a chapter on combinatorial algorithms that will itself fill three full-sized volumes. Combinatorial algorithms, informally, are techniques for the high-speed manipulation of extremely large quantities of objects, such as permutations or the elements of graphs. Combinatorial patterns or arrangements solve vast numbers of practical problems, and modern approaches to dealing with them often lead to methods that are more than a thousand times faster than the straightforward procedures of yesteryear. This fascicle primes the pump for everything that follows in the chapter, discussing first the essential ideas of combinatorics and then introducing fundamental ideas for dealing efficiently with 0s and 1s inside a machine, including Boolean basics and Boolean function evaluation. As always, the author’s exposition is enhanced by hundreds of new exercises, arranged carefully for self-instruction, together with detailed answers.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

TAOCP: Volume 4 - Fascicle 0
I bought this book after a class I had in "Boolean Functions" and I must admit that the content was superb. Many interesting subjects about boolean functions, an extensive range of problems with solutions, and certainly a great deal of "food for thought" for further applications or research. All in all, a highly recommended book, and I am only wondering why volume 4 is not published in its final version (assuming that the rest of fascicles are in the same form). If you are interested in the field, just buy it.

the richness of Boolean functions
Nobody should read this book lightly. It continues the decades-long practice of Knuth's series, by furnishing a huge set of exercises in the computational field. Yet ones where the emphasis is not on writing computer programs, though he does have some problems where you are asked to do this. Instead, you have to nut out puzzles in what you might term applied number theory. A key trait of the book, and of the entire series, is that the reduction of an algorithm to source code is a relatively minor aspect.

The book differs from the first 3 volumes in the surfeit of problems. Perhaps in part because decades have elapsed since those volumes came out. During which, Knuth accrued ever more problems that he now gives us.

The focus of this book on Boolean functions can be an eye opener to some readers. You might think, naively, how difficult could the theory of Boolean functions be? Knuth shows that there is a vast level of complexity and conceptual richness lurking in such apparently simple functions. The typical computer science text that mentions Boolean functions might devote some space to examples of these. But it rarely goes deeper than explaining how to optimise, say, ORs of ANDs, where this is used for in turn optimising circuit layouts on a chip. Knuth goes way beyond this.

Granted, those are introductory CS texts, and this is not. But the average computer programmer or chip designer rarely goes beyond those in mathematical depth. And so is unlikely to have seen the material in this book.

A fresh introduction to combinatorial thinking
For those interested in combinatorial thinking, ranging from combinatorial card game puzzles to how to count the number of ways to do something, this is a great re-introduction. In this first part of the long-awaited Volume 4, Knuth tells you why he loves combinatorics and computer algorithms, and why it took him so long to publish volume 4.

Hearing it from Knuth, the fascicle basically reassured me in my personal dance with mathematics and algorithmics: there is no problem if you love these things!

I highly recommended this to few friends who were computer science students, and they really liked it. They could not stop reading it during a party at our home!

Disclaimer: This review is based on the preview version that was made available on Knuth's home page. I believe not much is changed, except that some errors should be corrected. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

Light reading and funny content
Be aware not to expect this book to be serious or to contain deep thougths; but instead, if you read it with an open mind, knowing that it tries to be humorous+smart more than it tries to be wise, you will find it a pleasant reading. Probably no experienced programmer will see anything he doesn't already know, but this won't prevent him from having a joyful reading - and a quick one, the book is very thin with just a few phrases per page.

BUT if you seek real deep knowledge or enligtenment, you should definitely look for another book.

listen to the master
This little book is full of things you either know because you are the master, or are figuring out because you are the novice. All presented in a tongue-in-cheek style that I found very funny (and enlightening).

Some people may not find value in this book. Truly they are not at one with the Tao: "Master, it repeats things that are obvious and we all know, therefore it is of no value" "My young programmer, do you not appreciate fine paintings of landscapes, gardens and people? These have worth on many levels. So too with this author's teachings of the Tao. Are you not supposed to be in a code review right now?"

Get this book and enjoy it.

Don't waste your money and time
I returned this book. It's a piece of junk to waste your time and money. I bought this and the Zen of programming. There is chinese words on one left page and the right is some annoying stories about things you already know. Nothing you won't know after doing just some programming in your lifetime. I give a bad review for the Zen of programming too. I returned this book and the Zen of programmming.

Need patience to understand the true meaning.
Found this book interesting....it is so small that i read it start to finish just before sleeping.

The Good:
Pretty straightforward....nicely explained principles with simpl examples

The Bad:
Falls short of completion. Too small a book.


Food for thought:
This book..however small it really is...should be read more than once to understand the deeper essence the author is trying to convey to you. If u just hover through it...you will certainly find it a "READ ONCE" material.

a mainstay
This book is a nice little read for programmers and philosophers. Not to be taken too seriously but a great buy at this price. Good bathrooom reading. Its like a "chicken soup for the soul book" for nerds. ... Read more

Product Description
Want to tap the power behind search rankings, product recommendations, social bookmarking, and online matchmaking? This fascinating book demonstrates how you can build Web 2.0 applications to mine the enormous amount of data created by people on the Internet. With the sophisticated algorithms in this book, you can write smart programs to access interesting datasets from other web sites, collect data from users of your own applications, and analyze and understand the data once you've found it. Programming Collective Intelligence takes you into the world of machine learning and statistics, and explains how to draw conclusions about user experience, marketing, personal tastes, and human behavior in general--all from information that you and others collect every day. Each algorithm is described clearly and concisely with code that can immediately be used on your web site, blog, Wiki, or specialized application. This book explains:

• Collaborative filtering techniques that enable online retailers to recommend products or media
  
• Methods of clustering to detect groups of similar items in a large dataset
  
• Search engine features--crawlers, indexers, query engines, and the PageRank algorithm
  
• Optimization algorithms that search millions of possible solutions to a problem and choose the best one
  
• Bayesian filtering, used in spam filters for classifying documents based on word types and other features
  
• Using decision trees not only to make predictions, but to model the way decisions are made
  
• Predicting numerical values rather than classifications to build price models
  
• Support vector machines to match people in online dating sites
• Non-negative matrix factorization to find the independent features in adataset
  
• Evolving intelligence for problem solving--how a computer develops its skill by improving its own code the more it plays a game 

Customer Reviews (59)

Popular Web Algorithms Explained in Detail
He makes very good pointers sometimes I lose him through all the math. Don't buy this if you are not willing to pick up phython or if you don't have an extensive math background.All his examples are written in python. I wish he had a PHP version.

Excellent Resource, Clear and Concise
Excellent resource for beginners and experts alike. I was impressed with the organization and the concise explanations that nonetheless explained what you need to know to understand the methods in practical statistical programming being used today. The fact that all examples are given in working code ensures that everything you need to start programming your own applications is provided for you.

The only minor fault in my mind is that it could have been easier to explain some of the hairier concepts with mathematical formulas (which the author avoids, for legitimate reason) in an appendix. An appendix is provided with seemingly similar purpose, but is underdeveloped. This is a minor issue, as all concepts can be supplemented with a simple web search.

Great sample code in Python
A fun, fast read.Good depth, but still concise.The code is well written, broadly applicable, and easy to modify.This book is the opposite of A New Kind of Science.

Bold New Writing plus best O'reilly book ever
This book is spectacular, I love the way that the Author approaches a "new middle" ground of writing books.That is a book that is somewhere in between pure theory, and pure practice. That observation and follow through is simply genius.Python is an excellent choice for this as it can be easy to read.I had to study Python a little before I could totally digest the code.The book is around 300 pages but it is very dense, if someone else wrote it, it would be 600 pages.
Most O'reilly books are boring, useless documentation that you could find on the internet.This book is full of useful examples, showing you how to use "real" data, even how to get the "real" data. For that reason if you are not fond of O'reilly books, don't worry this one is different.

The downside: this book has over 1000 proposed errors and not 1 accepted errors on the O'reilly web site.Some of the code simply does not work as it's written in the book.You can download the code examples but even those do not work 100%.Check the O'reilly site to get the latest code updates.Also the book was published in 2007 and the internet has changed since then so the API's are a little out of date.By not updating this book they are doing the community and they author a huge disservice.

Intuitive and motivating book
I am not completely finished reading it but I already think it's a great introductory book which is strongly committed with transmitting intuition and comprehension of its material (machine learning) usually hard for regular people. It focuses mainly on implementation and application but some general coverage of the underlying theory is done to motivate inexpert readers. Examples are taken from the Web domain so this text can be very useful for people interested in combining BI and AI, among others. Personally, I approve using Python, which is not (yet) my favorite language, I consider it actually as a plus because it complements very well author's intention of simplicity which is all over behind the book design. This book seems to me like an excellent old school teacher among those ones who really take the right timing and words for carefully explaining you something probably difficult in an easy way so that you really will want to learn more about it. ... Read more

Product Description
This reprint of the 1969 book of the same name is a concise, rigorous, yet accessible, account of the fundamentals of constrained optimization theory. Many problems arising in diverse fields such as machine learning, medicine, chemical engineering, structural design, and airline scheduling can be reduced to a constrained optimization problem. This book provides readers with the fundamentals needed to study and solve such problems. Beginning with a chapter on linear inequalities and theorems of the alternative, basics of convex sets and separation theorems are then derived based on these theorems. This is followed by a chapter on convex functions that includes theorems of the alternative for such functions. These results are used in obtaining the saddlepoint optimality conditions of nonlinear programming without differentiability assumptions. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Learn how to write a clear and didactic math book
This book addresses only Nonlinear Programming Theory.
You will not find any algorithms, so that this book is not very practical. I also think the choice of topics could be better.

So, why 5 stars ?

Because of the writing style.

That is, what I like most in this book is the way that Mangasarian wrote it. References to all important equations, definitions, etc. No use of english to explain math subjects but well defined equations. Concise exposition and proof of theorems using math simbols. That is: Math simbols to explain mathematics. Very clear style.

A very good example of how to write an excellent, didactic, precise and clear math book. ... Read more

Product Description
ColdFusion has enjoyed widespread use among developers as a powerful, easy-to-learn platform for creating and deploying dynamic web applications.ColdFusion's simple, tag-based language makes it easy to handle basic tasks, like processing form data and querying databases, but the language is also powerful enough to deliver highly scalable, robust applications.And now that Macromedia has integrated ColdFusion into its MX family of technologies, ColdFusion is capable of interacting with Flash MX applications, which opens up even more possibilities.The first edition of this book has been praised as "the best reference book available on the subject."This new edition, Programming ColdFusion MX, 2nd Edition, goes even further, documenting new techniques for using ColdFusion MX 6.1 to develop and serve dynamic web page content.This exhaustive guide covers everything from the basics to advanced topics, with numerous examples that you can use for your own applications. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (17)

Still the Best reference!
While it seems only adobe makes coldfusion books of any quality anymore this is still the reference book to get.this book combined with the adobe livedocs and you should have no problems easily finding most of your coldfusion programming answers.

though you can buy the latest Web Application Constuction kits, the are good, but honestly much of them are the same book only updated, so once you have one you really have them all, plus the latest books are half online anyway so your better off with the older ones, like mx7.

however for a solid reference you just can't beat orielly..if only we could get them to release another coldfusion book...

Great general purpose book
This takes you from the basics to more advanced topics.It's a great reference!

Posted on behalf of the Salt Lake ColdFusion User's Group (SLCFUG)
-as read by member Kelly Young
This book assumes some advanced knowledge of coding techniques and advanced Web-based topics, which is fine for its targeted audience.Use of SQL examples I found very useful. I very much like the appendix references Tag Reference, Function Reference, Cold Fusion Resources. The author delivers a well-structured, systematic reference to ColdFusion; just what a developer needs to get the job done, also a handy reference to keep near the keyboard.

Incredible Coldfusion book for Beginners or Pros
This book seems to bring a whole new perspective on Coldfusion.I have been programming CF for approximately 2-3 years, and this just opened up more doors of CF functionality. For example it displays one of the best "homegrown" login examples I have ever seen. It also really goes into great detail on more advanced topics that other books seems to skate around.Once again, an incredible book for beginners and pros!!!

Excell Adv. technical content, not instructional or complete
Overall the better of the dozen or more books on coldfusion mx in terms of development-quality reference material.

Almost all of the other books on the topic do a poor job of explaining ColdFusion MX in terms of an instructional blow-by-blow get from step 1 to step 30; where 1 is an architectural overview and by step 30 you have been "instructed" on the development of a featurable product.

This book assumes some advanced knowledge of coding technicques and advanced Web-based topics, which is fine for its targeted audience. It is not a complete Bible or Courseware-level instructional offering, by any stretch of the imagination.

Many CF MX offerings are too lite. This one is certainly not lite - it is rich in content that it does showcase, but I was disappointed when they got into the coding examples for T-SQL, but fell short by ending the topic prematurely. It also failed to give real-world examples of how SQL databases can be created, implemented and administered in a virtual capacity - as is the case with a lot of company's who do not host their own servers and do not Co-locate them either. Many, including ourselves, use a datacenter that offers industrial-grade servers that we share, and where the licensing doesn;t require me to sell my shild on the black market or a second-mortgage to pay for it

Many CF/DW texts fill their weak offerings in those subject areas (often cursory at best) with other Macromedia Applications, specifically Flash - and even these are cursory categories at best. If you don't grasp the underlying mechanics of how CF MX works, and how DW MX interfaces directly as an excellent WebDev toolset, Flash becomes so far outside the box as to make that content worthless as a resource.

All of these Macromedia offerings have their own (several hundred page) books devoted to them intimately, and still often fall short. Very few printed offerings (including this one) explicitly discuss combining DW MX for advanced design work (read: uber graphics, layout AND Database / e-commerce development/interaction...and I don't mean Access), along with DW MX's interfacing technologically with ColdFusion MX and T-SQL / SQL Server. My investigation required 2 resources: DreamWeaver MX Advanced (Towers, et al., PeachPit) and ColdFusion MX with DreamWeaver MX (David Golden, New Riders) - these were overall the "best" offerings I could find for this subject matter, although once under my belt, I will most certainly be looking forward to utilizing this book.

Hopefully someone will put all of the respective pieces together ( CF MX / DW MX / Database integration / e-commerce development). There are few (if any) that do so, or do it well - the material is just too broad and deep for most audiences. Macromedia's Web site and Developer Forums continue to be the goods in terms of supporting this - the best quality materials I have seen in a software development product to date, and a far superior approach from a content-finding and "usability" standpoint. Still difficult to find good server-level DW/CF/DB materails, with a focus on e-Commerce, though - even on the manufacturer's website. Macromedia is still tops in my book, though. Microsoft take note: If you want people to use your products and do it effectively to saturate the market and develop your IT Development base, you need to make your product offerings rich but workable at a basic level AND you must post up real-world examples that can be used as templates and starting points for that educational process - not just White papers and written (non-technical) case studies... Macromedia has this nailed, and it shows through the support and uber-cool feature sets, and in its real-world implementation guide by professional users of the technology that run it, use it, help develop it and teach it openly. Technology isn't supposed to a technical or administrative nightmare - which is sort of how I feel about Visual.Net at the moment. Adobe could also take a cue from Macromedia - it has probably the closest suite of product offerings that are usable, rish, and increibly flexible - and Version Cue is cool, but alas, GoLive sucks when it comes to DB integration and there is no Server infrastructure (or product available) to support scalability the way Macromedia's products do. If Adobe ever gets their ducks in a row in this regard, they will directly be a competitive force to be reckoned with, but until then ColdFusion MX reigns supreme, and if you know what you're doing, this book will pave the way to glory.
... Read more

Product Description
Develop and fine-tune your programming skills the easy way - by example! For beginning and intermediate users, SAS Programming by Example guides you, with a series of annotated examples, through basic tasks to more complex ones. Problems and solutions are provided to make the most of the programming tools available in base SAS software. Conversational in tone, this book is useful both as a tutorial for learning programming and as a convenient quick-reference filled with tips and strategies for solving your programming problems. Among the clearly explained examples are models that show you how to build SAS data sets, use SAS functions for data translation, program more efficiently, relate information from multiple sources, and chart and plot data. You will also learn to work with SAS date values, produce descriptive and summary statistics, and write reports.

Supports releases 6.09E and higher of SAS software. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Perfect for New Users and Reference
I have been writing SAS code off and on for quite some time and this is my favorite go-to reference book.If you are new to SAS, I recommend you start with "The Little SAS Book".This book would be my second purchase, and finally, I would also pick up "SAS Functions by Example".Between these three books and learning a strong fundamental knowledge of SQL, you should be able to do about 95% of what you'll ever need to do in SAS (unless you are doing hard-core stats).

Along with these books the most valuable concepts I have learned in SAS are 'by group' processing, and the first. and last. statements.

I also recommend not attempting to memorize programming statements or syntax; keep examples of code that you may find useful in the future and keep good reference books - like this one - don't try to memorize what you can look up.

Finally, my recommendation is to KISS....Keep It Simple Stupid.You can do many things in SAS (actually almost anything), often in many different ways; some are very straightforward, and some are convoluted.I go with straightforward any day as you never know who will inherit your code for review or maintenance (believe me you'll often curse the code you'll soon inherit from someone else!).My experience is that programmers by nature often want to complicate code by using by using obscure techniques(remember, this is their 'art'!), avoid that trap and do everyone a favor.

Good luck and I hope you enjoy using SAS as much as I have!

Replacement for SAS Programming by Example
This book, while very useful when it was written, is now replaced by a more update book containing approximately twice the material as the old book.I recommend that you look at Learning SAS by Example before you buy this book.Here is a link:
Learning SAS by Example: A Programmer's Guide

Good book for data restructuring algorithms
Hi,

There are times when you may get data sets that were entered in formats that are not compatible with the PROC you are using. In terms of teaching one how to use arrays and loops to restructure data sets, this book is a gold mine. If you analyze data from PROC SQL against databases then you probably won't need all of what is in this book. I have used this book for several consulting engagements and even if you program in SPSS, this s a great book to have in your arsenal.

SAS Programming
I enjoyed the book by Cody and Pass. It is very "user-friendly" and even though it may not be as comprehensive as other comparable books on the subject, I did find it excellent. It clarified many concepts which I was not able to from anywhere else. The authors may consider adding PROC REPORT, a very important and powerful tool.

Ok--rather above average
On the whole, the book is very good in that in general it consists of short self-contained programs: the input, the code, and the output, with discussion. Unfortunately, later in the book the authors got tired of the above and in many cases do not provide the output.

Also, the authors indulge in numerous parenethetical asides that are supoosed to be humorous but are just silly and interruptive.

Still, on balance it is a good (though outrageously overpriced) book. ... Read more

Product Description
This title teaches programmers problem solving and programming techniques with Java. Readers are introduced to object-oriented programming and important computer science concepts such as testing and debugging techniques, program style, inheritance, and exception handling. The bookalso covers the Swing libraries and event-driven programming. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Savitch is Awesome!
I have been using Walter Savitch textbooks since the early 1980's.Yes, I am old.He is a great writer for programmers and his book chapters flow beautifully.I would highly recommend this text.I use it for my IB Computer Science class.

The best book about programming I've ever seen-
and I've seen a lot of programming books(Computer Science student)This book will have you learning Java almost effortlessly. I'm the kind of person that needs to read something several times to fully understand it, but with this book, I immediately understood the material. The author's writing stlye and simple explanations of complex problems make this book a pleasure to read. Also, you not only understand what the author says, you remeber it as well, unlike other textbooks, where you've forgotten the material 2 seconds after you close the book.

He makes the subject matter so simple and easily understood, you will know how to write Java programs after only an hour of reading. They'll be small, simple programs, but you'll be a programmer. And when you do get to more complex topics, you'll breeze through those as well.

I wish there had been a Java compiler( a compiler is what you use to write programs) included with the book, but a Google search will give you some sources for free Java compilers you can download, so no big deal.

Great book; unethical publisher
This book is excellent. The author writes about programming in a clear and concise way that makes Java make sense. While Java may not be the simplest language to start with, it is widely used throughout the industry and provides a solid stepping stone to other languages. Savitch provides many examples of code and explains how it works, step by step. Too many programming books assume the reader will fill in missing pieces. Finally, an author who fills them in for us!

But buyer beware: the access code to the website that the book promotes as free is missing. If you go to the website you will find that you actually have to pay for the privilege. Sounds like the classic bait and switch to me, and in a book this price, it's a real disappointment.

I exchanged many emails with the publisher, Pearson. Finally they admitted that some booksellers do not include the access code in their books. Well, why can't they make this clear in the book and on the website, instead of luring people to spend money for what is supposed to be free access?

So it's the same old story: the author is excellent but the publisher, Pearson, is unethical.

Best Written Java Book
The author, Savitch, writes some of the best-written, easy-to-read computer language books.The fourth edition is a concisely-written, enjoyable book with excellent examples and coverage of Java 5.0, which is the newest, latest revision as of January '06.

I used this book to supplement a Java course on Game Programming and got an A in the class.

The "Absolute Java" book, also written by Savitch, is a bigger book and probably more comprehensive.However, I enjoy reading this one more.

1st edition review
I have just completed (i need only two more chapters) the first of edition of this book.While not as exhaustive as the the edition for sale here I can tell you the author is good at what he does.I haven't decided if I am going to purchase this edition but let me say that the author's prose style reminds me of the best computer programming books I read while I was an undergraduate at the University of Florida in the early 90's.This book is suitable for teaching a first or second year class of computer science students at a university.Unlike those silly "Teach yourself Java programming in 24 hours" this is the kind of programming book that really teaches you something. ... Read more

Product Description
This is the second edition of John Zelle's Python Programming, updated for Python 3.This book is designed to be used as the primary textbook in a college-level first course in computing. It takes a fairly traditional approach, emphasizing problem solving, design, and programming as the core skills of computer science. However, these ideas are illustrated using a non-traditional language, namely Python.Although Python is used as the language, teaching Python is not the main point of this book. Rather, Python is used to illustrate fundamental principles of design and programming that apply in any language or computing environment. In some places, I have purposely avoided certain Python features and idioms that are not generally found in other languages. There are already many good books about Python on the market; this book is intended as an introduction to computing.Features include the following:*Extensive use of computer graphics.*Interesting examples.*Readable prose.*Flexible spiral coverage.*Just-in-time object coverage.*Extensive end-of-chapter problems. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (42)

python programming
When I ordered the book I expected it to come a little worse then what was advertised because the price was so low. However, I was pleasantly suprized when I recieved the book and it was still in it's original srink-wrapped package.

Beautiful and deep introduction to programming for the very first beginner

Zelle's "Python Programming" takes you smoothly and slowly through the art of programming and you also learn a little computer science. He uses a modern object oriented script language (Python) for this purpose: a surprisingly good choice for a first language. Python is clear and powerful and does not require you to learn bad habits too early.

If you are more advanced and just wanted to learn Python you will probably find the pace of Zelle way too slow. If you are the brilliant type you might want to read Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs - 2nd Edition (MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science). For all others I can fully recommend this Zelle's "Python Programming".

Great book...
For my whole life I've been meaning to "get around" to programming.But online tutorials could not teach me anything useful, and the introductory texts I had acquired through the years all told me one thing: that I shouldn't bother.Zelle, though, has written an outstanding introductory text to not only Python but also programming.He emphasizes what many authors do not - that programming is as much a way of thinking as it is a set of languages.To program effectively, one must problem solve.It is an obvious point oft ignored by other authors.Zelle hammers it home.After studying his book for just one week, I was able to code my own set of non-trivial and useful programs with minimal reference to his book or to a guide elsewhere.

What I don't like is that Zelle's discussion of graphic design relies upon a module of his own design (graphics.py) and NOT a standardized toolkit that a user would benefit from learning.Zelle's logic is that toolkits can overwhelm the beginning programmer and that any introductory text must include heavy discussion of graphic design (because graphic design is what interests most people).So he must figure out a way - and he writes a very good module - to teach GUI design to beginners.While I see Zelle's point, it was frustrating to use a module that Zelle himself admitted wouldn't be of much use down the road.

Ultimately, though, I highly recommend this book for beginners, as it will teach you to think like a programmer, and understanding that thought process is more important than mastering the syntax of any language.

not good for an introductory course in programming
I am a professor of computer science and specialize in teaching intro programming courses. I am currently considering several Python books for use in an introductory course with no prerequisite programming knowledge. I just read chapter 1 of this text and have already decided NOT to use it for my class.In chapter 1, the author manages to introduce machine code (never really explained), binary storage (never explained), the eval and input functions, for loops with "in" and mathematical chaos theory, all with little or no explanation and quite a few "we'll put this off until later" remarks, along with "this is complicated but don't worry if you don't understand it yet" statements.I can just imagine what my students would think of this.This book may be great for those who have *already* taken at least 1 programming course, or for graduate students who have a certain level of intellectual sophistication but don't know how to program yet, but for undergraduates in an intro course with no pre-reqs - there is no way I would subject my students to this level of confusion.There is a basic principle in teaching: before you can teach B, you must teach A to the level of understanding.

Update to a classic
I teach high school computer science and greatly welcomed the new edition to this classic book.Zelle has written a book that manages to serve two purposes quite well: 1) a good introduction to computer science, and 2) a good introduction to Python.

Sure, you could say that it could be better in one way or another, but any changes would push it more towards one of those purposes, and not really serve the other.As it stands, I believe this is the best book available for a high school computer science class.Zelle teaches good programming and encourages students to learn a "software development process" that will serve students well as they further explore programming and computer science.The clarity of Python ("pseudocode that runs") allows Zelle to focus on a strong programming foundation that will allow students to move on to other languages, including Java--the current language for the AP Computer Science exam.

Zelle has updated his graphics library for this edition, and this book covers Python 3.x.His graphics library is a great supplement to any class teaching Python to beginning programmers, and there is a nice reference to it in this text.The library module is, as always, released under an open source license (GPL).

Highly recommended. ... Read more

Product Description

Sams Teach Yourself Beginning Programming in 24 Hours, Second Edition explains the basics of programming in the successful 24-Hours format. The book begins with the absolute basics of programming: Why program? What tools to use? How does a program tell the computer what to do? It teaches readers how to program the computer and then moves on by exploring the some most popular programming languages in use. The author starts by introducing the reader to the Basic language and finishes with basic programming techniques for Java, C++, and others.

Customer Reviews (26)

Required Text Book
Needed it for school, it is what it is, not sure i would buy it if i didnt need it.

I'd like to re-review this and improve the rating.
Well, after dedicating a solid month, I can say I finally have figured it out. This is a great book with only some typos. The beginning is far too basic even for a pre-teen, but if you dont know this info, you shouldnt continue in the book.

I'm happy to say I can write simple programs now, and even made one for next April Fools!

teach yourself programming
That's exactly what is written on the cover. It's a good book for the people who know noting about programming and want to enter in this exiting field. The book is well written and gives you good idea about computer programming and teach you to program in Liberty Basic Which not the best choice from my point of view but it's free.

Words from a "wannabee programmer"
As many other people in this world want to do, I want to program video games in the future. The only problem was that I had no idea how to start or where to turn to for advice. I had tried to learn over the summer of this year on how to create video games, but the books that I had borrowed from my local library said that I needed to have an understanding of C/C++. And when I borrowed a C/C++ book, I didn't really read it. So I decided to give programming up... for a while at least.

About a month ago, that itch to create video games came back to me when I was grounded. So I went back to my library and looked for a programming book that fit my needs. During my search, I stumbled upon "Sams Teach Yourself Beginning Porgramming in 24 Hours". And so I decided to read the introduction if I met the books requirements. When I learned that I did, I borrowed the book and began to read the book.

The book mainly covers a language called Liberty BASIC (which is probably is as easy a programming language as it gets). Right out of the gate, the book lets you program your first BASIC program, a rocket launch countdown. I was suprised how easy it was to program in Liberty Basic. To me, it felt like dumbed down English. When you are finished with the Liberty BASIC training (11 hours worth), you should have a good understanding of Liberty BASIC.

The book also gives you a detailed introduction to Java, but the first two chapters are only text and no examples. Those two chapters do help with the basics of Java and C/C++ (C is Java's "mother" language). When you do get to the programming part of the Java in the book (four chapters of Java in the book), you use Forte for Java (it already gives you the main code for your project). Unfortunately, I found Forte a bit intimidating at first, but when I played around with Forte a bit and got an understanding, I went through the chapters with ease.

The book also gives you a taste of other languages out there (Visual Basic, C/C++, HTML, Pascal, Javascript, and .NET) I say taste because it goes over the fundamentals of each of the languages entered there. You will find C/C++ easier to understand because of your work in Java.

There were some problems with the book that I found. First, there were some coding errors that I found. I found the most errors in Chapter 10, "Having Fun with Liberty BASIC". Most of the code I found put down on BASIC and ran could not run. How can you have fun with the program if you cannot run the code? More like "Getting Frustrated with Liberty BASIC". Also in Chapter 11, there is a sample code that seems to be bugged but isn't. When you get to the code that seems bugged (I forget which sample it was in the chapter) just expand the width of the window to get the result you want.

There were also many dry spells in the sample code for you to write down and practice. The ones that have little or no examples in them are Chapters 2-4, 12 & 13, and 16-24.

In my opinion, I would reccommend this book to anyone who is considering to explore the world of programming (either regular programming or video game programming) or anyone who wants to program but doesn't know where to begin. This book will not mold you into a good programmer, but it will lay down the necessary building blocks to becoming a regular or video game programmer.

I reccomend this book for video game programmers because it will give you a basic understanding of C/C++, the typical language of game programming (this information will be useful for other books that you have your sights on and if you get another C/C++ book, you will understand some of the subjects being talked about (arrays, literals, operators, basic C/C++ procedures, etc.)

Now I just need some help on what to do next...

What you would learn.... IF you took a class
Reads like an extended course description. Very few examples. Code examples are often incomplete so they cant be run. No real 'projects' to test any skills.

Comes with Liberty Basic (shareware) (you can download this seperately and learn more from its own help/tutorials). For the most part, you dont even need a computer to read this book. The code examples are only excerpts so you have to study them from the text in the book anyway.

What gets me more than anything is I found about 5 errors in code and text that are important! Things like mislabeled variables that would confuse anyone trying to learn. Although I guess finding the mistakes is a lesson in itself.

OK, that was the bad part, but I didnt give it a score of 1 because it is easy to read (fast). It does mention a wide range of topics, and it comes with a useable version of Basic (but only limited shareware, also there is a later version online). For a real beginner, this is one way to start off slow. It is disappointing because it could have been much better with only a little more effort. A few larger examples, and a few more actual coding projects instead of just saying'if you want to create a text box in your program, type the following line....',

and then moving on to the next lesson.

This review relates to the 2nd edition. ... Read more