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MariaDB Crash Course
by Ben Forta


Addison-Wesley Professional
1 edition
September 2011
304 pages

Reviewed by Mohamed Sanaulla, December 2011
  (8 of 10)



This book is a nice introduction to using MySQL/MariaDB. MariaDB is a database server which offers drop-in replacement functionality for MySQL. One can quickly get started on various SQL concepts and start implementing it using MariaDB. This book also provides a very good introduction to SQL.

Various salient features of the book are:
- Concepts explained with the help of examples, which give the reader an opportunity to try out and understand the concepts in a better way.
- Each example has been analysed to explain its functionality thereby letting the reader know why and how it works.
- Chapters are short and concepts have been divided nicely into different chapters. Reader wont get bogged down by lengthy chapter or by overdosage of information.
- Almost all the SQL concepts have been covered and the chapters have been arranged in increasing order of complexity of the topic.
- Hints have been provided at required places to provide tips to the user.

The only downside is that the stored procedure related topics haven't been covered in much depth and the syntactical details of various control structures is short of explanation.

I would recommend this book for anyone who would want to get started with MariaDB.

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Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for writing this review on behalf of CodeRanch.

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Java Programming
by Poornachandra Sarang


McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
1 edition
January 2012
672 pages

Reviewed by Mohamed Sanaulla, March 2012
  (9 of 10)



Caution: Dont get bogged down by the number of pages. As The books is more of hands on, most of the content is code samples and their explanation. This book explains the concepts by using examples. This is exactly how one can learn the language and its vast libraries. Each topic is supported by an well explained example, and the examples are not trivial. Something that which reminds me of examples in Core Java book.

The book starts with Arrays, as the basic syntactical chapters are available online. Topics like Generics are given their due share (unlike in Core Java book, very less of Generics was covered). Interesting to see that advanced concurrency related concepts are also covered and not to forget the new features introduced in Java 7 are also covered as and when required. The "Notes" and "Cautions" are quite useful and informative.

Reading the book doesnt bore you provided you sit with the Terminal and a Editor open. I would strongly recommend to code the examples and try to compile and run them. As always one should befriend the API and documentation for help in the long run. Anyone looking for books other than Head First Java can get a copy of this book.

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Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for writing this review on behalf of CodeRanch.

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Sams Teach Yourself Java in 24 Hours (Covering Java 7 and Android) (6th Edition)
by Rogers Cadenhead


Sams
6 edition
October 2011
432 pages

Reviewed by Mohamed Sanaulla, May 2012
  (5 of 10)



If you are starting out learning Java, then this book is NOT for you. If you have programmed quite a bit in java then this book is NOT for you.

With the introduction above, let me start with the good points about the book:
1. A good amount of effort put in for Swing and AWT related concepts.
2. There are some exercise questions to follow after each chapter.
3. Gives some introduction on Android. This I think is good because as a beginner its appealing to know the adaption of Java language.

Now to the not so good parts:
1. Uses/Encourages the use of NetBeans IDE. Whereas beginners are not encouraged to use IDEs as they never allow you to fail.
2. No chapters on Generics and Collections. Threading covered in terms of Swing which is not the right way to cover it.
3. No try-with-resources feature of Java 7 mentioned in the exception handling section.
4. The chapter on creating Web Services using JAX-WS, parsing XML were not really required. Moreover there has been mention of REST in the JAX-WS chapter where as its using SOAP.
5. No real value added examples to back the content.
6. No good coverage of OOP concepts.

The bottom line is if you are serious about learning Java, then this book is not recommended. The content is simple to understand, but it really doesn't teach Java the right way.

And on a closing note, one can learn a language only when they spend some time learning and trying out the examples and for a language like Java learning about its API is also important.

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Scala for the Impatient
by Cay S. Horstmann


Addison-Wesley Professional
1 edition
March 2012
384 pages

Reviewed by Mohamed Sanaulla, July 2012
  (8 of 10)



- The book covers almost all of the concepts in Scala in a very concise format.
- More emphasis on learning by doing.
- Lot of exercise problems at the end of each chapter. It is highly recommended to try them out.
- The concepts have been divided into varying difficultly levels and the chapters have been arranged so as to facilitate good understanding.
- The initial few chapters help Java programs to get onto programming in Scala by not scaring with Functional style of programming.

Some of the not so good things:
- You dont get to see lot of idomatic scala code. Unlike Core Java where the examples gave the reader an idea of how to organise code. It is acceptable considering the size of the book.
- The questions dont have solutions so its difficult to evaluate if your code follows best practices.

This would not be the last book you would read, I am sure once you finish this book you would be in a better position to read other Scala books and try to grasp the advanced scala concepts and also learn to write idomatic scala code.

The ideal approach to read this book is to practice the exercises and also keep the Scala API documentation handy.

Being a newbie with lot of failed efforts to learn Scala, I found this book to be easy to pick scala concepts and also familiarize with the code.

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NoSQL Distilled: A Brief Guide to the Emerging World of Polyglot Persistence
by Pramod J. Sadalage, Martin Fowler


Addison-Wesley Professional
1 edition
August 2012
192 pages

Reviewed by Mohamed Sanaulla, December 2012
  (10 of 10)



This is a must read book for all those who have worked with Relational Databases and want to explore the NoSQL world. One can argue that why a read a book on NoSQL when there is so much material on the web. Believe me lot of the NoSQL content on the web would be biased towards recommending NoSQL. But the authors of the book take a neutral stance towards NoSQL and clearly explain where NoSQL wins over RDBMS and where it doesn't.
People familiar with UML Distilled would be the first one's to pick this book because there's so much information packed in just about 200 pages.
The book is divided into 2 parts. The first part deals with explaining concepts related to distributed systems in simple way with examples and illustrations. It would be a refresher for someone familiar with distributed system concepts and a good introduction to someone who is not. The depth covered is just enough to appreciate the features of NoSQL dbs.
The second part deals with explaining different NoSQL implementations (not different NoSQL db vendors) and picking one NoSQL DB vendor for each implementation. This part builds on top of the concepts in the first part there by stressing the need for clearly understanding the concepts in first part.
There are a few chapters dealing with picking the right db, exploring alternatives apart from NoSQL and also short introduction to schema migration in both RDBMS and NoSQL.
Some of the things I liked about the book:
- Short chapters, less number of pages and no compromise on content quality and depth.
- Good introductory coverage on Distributed concepts because NoSQL is a great solution for clustered environments.
- The implementation part of the book picks one db vendor and explains various characteristics as well as its usage advice which is really helpful for someone who wants to get a quick overview of which db to use.
- Complicated concepts like Map-Reduce explained in a simple way using illustrations.

One possible problem with this book is that if you are very new to distributed system concepts, the first part might take sometime and effort for you to understand it well. So my advice for such readers is to take time and understand the concepts in first part and not hurry to read the Part 2 which deals with implementation.

Bottomline: Highly recommended NoSQL material for anyone who wants to learn about NoSQL and be a part of the buzz being generated by it.

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WebSockets
by Scott Mattocks


Developer.Press
1 edition
October 2012
24 pages

Reviewed by Mohamed Sanaulla, April 2013
  (5 of 10)



This book is a very short one with around 18 pages of real content. It immediately starts with the history of Web/HTTP and then somehow manages to introduce the concept of WebSockets and its importance. I dont think the history was necessary. Author could have started from Ajax and then introduced Comet and then WebSockets.

And in the introduction chapter there is an example of Pirates which made me a bit confused about my understanding of the WebSockets. In all the introduction occupies close to 50% of the book.

Then when it comes to the real content- there's nothing much useful. In no way I could run those examples without the Server running. And there was no mention of how to go about creating the server for trying out the example code given.

This book on WebScokets is not worth buying because one can find lot of better articles for free on the web. I would not recommend this for buying.

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Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for writing this review on behalf of CodeRanch.

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The Object-Oriented Thought Process (4th Edition) (Developer's Library)
by Matt Weisfeld


Addison-Wesley Professional
fourth edition
March 2013
336 pages

Reviewed by Mohamed Sanaulla, May 2013
  (8 of 10)



If you were to ask me a book to understand the Object oriented concepts in a practical way- I will surely recommend "The Object Oriented Thought process".

These are some of the good things I found:
- the author tries to be independent of the programming language while explaining the concepts. You can see few Java examples to make things more clear, few C# examples and a mention of Objective C here and there.
- there has been use of UML class diagrams in a simple way and a dedicated chapter to understand UML class diagrams.
- in the first part of the book i.e upto around chapter 10 the code examples are fairly simple.
- some introduction to few advanced concepts in OOP like serialization, persistance, client-server, design patterns.
- the author tries to explain any new concepts right at the place where they were introduced.
- the author uses simple language to explain concepts.

These are some of the not so good things:
- the code examples in the application chapters are a bit overdose. They are a bit complicated for a newbie in Java, but the stress is not on the code but on the concepts.
- illustrations in few places were not required.
- code exmaples in XML chapters are not so clear and at few places the code is not indented correctly.

Bottom line is: Recommend this book to anyone who wants to get a good understanding of basic OOP concepts without much intervention of a programming language. Not much recommended to someone who's already been doing OOP development for quite sometime.

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The Clean Coder: A Code of Conduct for Professional Programmers (Robert C. Martin Series)
by Robert C. Martin


Prentice Hall
1 edition
May 2011
256 pages

Reviewed by Jeanne Boyarsky, June 2011
  (9 of 10)



Yes, "The Clean Coder" is a sequel to Uncle Bob's "Clean Code." This is a great book and drills what being a professional developer really means as delivered by a well respected source.

The book is very readable and contains advice mixed with stories from the author's past and dialog. I like the use of dialog to show communication issues like saying "done" or over committing. Even the foreword was a story.

I think there was too much repetition of the stories across chapters. Almost like the chapters were written in standalone form. I felt like I read about the same employer (introduced from scratch) a few times. It was interesting hearing about the punchcard world with lessons and how things have changed. Same for FitNesse. I get that it has unit tests.

The advice is excellent. My favorite three (that were fairly unique for computer literature):
1) difference between performance and practice
2) TDD on offense vs defense
3) focus manna on time management

The only advice I felt strongly against is being in the "flow" being a bad thing. As long as you define the problem out of the flow, I don't see the problem with isolating yourself from the big picture temporarily.

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Prentice Hall
1 edition
May 2011
256 pages

Reviewed by Mohamed Sanaulla, December 2011
  (10 of 10)



I would say that this is a must read book for all the programmers. Its packed with much needed advice in the current scenario. If you aren't much exposed to the industry (may be you are freshmen), I dont think the book might make much sense. Because lot of ideas discussed in the book would directly apply to your daily activities. We always think that programmers are professionals, but author in the book clearly mentions what it takes to be a professional programmer.

Author takes us along each chapter using either anecdotes related to his life and work or by using conversations between key people relevant to the topic. This way you dont get bored while reading through the topics and can understand the possible type of implementation of the idea.

Author has covered testing and its related strategies over 3 chapters, this shows how important testing is for a product. I got to know in detail about TDD, and other testing strategies and now I can connect these ideas to my work.

Not only technical aspects but also personality development related topics are covered in the book giving the reader a possible all round development.

I found the anecdotes were a lot repeated, but its makes sense because few of them had lot of lessons to be learnt. Few specifications of computers were hard to understand, but it helped me to imagine the skill of the programmers in those 70s and 80s when the technology was still at a nascent stage.
I learnt a lot of new tool names, new testing techniques and few tips for improving my productivity at work and also to learnt the importance of continuous learning and practicing. Overall it was a really good read, managed to complete most of the chapters in one sitting

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Element Design Patterns
by Jason mcSmith


Addison Wesley
edition
2012
323 pages

Reviewed by Wendy Gibbons, May 2012
  (1 of 10)



I am not sure who this book is aimed at. The introduction feels like it is aimed at experienced developers, yet the actual body of the book states facts that are so basic anybody who has done OO for more than 6 months should already know it.

The introduction uses the decorator pattern as example for some of his concepts, it presumes you already know what the decorator pattern is.
Then he moves onto describing the Elemental Design Patterns, one of these is "create object", you may think I am talking about a new variant of the factory pattern but nope he means [code]new object()[/code] How about the "Retrieve" pattern, hopefully you have set your ideas low enough now to realise this is get something from another class.

Then he moves onto using his elemental design patterns into "intermediate design patterns" one of these is the "Fulfill Method" this is writing the method details for an interface method.
I have to confess I gave up at this point, as everything else seemed to be appendices.

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Addison Wesley
edition
2012
323 pages

Reviewed by Mohamed Sanaulla, June 2012
  (6 of 10)



The Elemental Design Patterns are a result of the System for Pattern Query and Recognition(SPQR) project. Having roots in a research project the book tends to have a research thesis like attention to detail and this kind of puts off the developer who looks to gain quick knowledge or a a quick benefit out of the reading.
If you want to learn design patterns, then this is NOT the book for you.

This book:
- is all about decomposing a pattern into its components until it gets to basic part.
- reading about the basic aspects of OO like Objects, Inheritance, Abstractions.
- contains few examples of using the basic components to derive patterns.

The bottom line is- You get to learn what it takes to derive a pattern and also understand the components of existing patterns.

Some things I against the book:
- Too much of theory to read, the quantity of text might be because the author has tried to explain the concepts in detail.
- Might be irrelevant for a seasoned developer.
- Not really different from the book which explains the design patterns.
- PIN diagrams make things unnecessarily complicated.
- Basic concepts have been presented with some complicated names.
- Code Examples are predominantly in C++ with some samples in Java, Objective C, Python.

You would read this book:
- If you want to understand everything below a pattern. Something like applicable to a research student in patterns.

I wouldn't recommend this book to any developer interested to learn about the patterns. They might be misguided by the title, but for sure its not something you would find useful for your day to day coding work. Lot of Design Patterns books which cover these patterns do explain how they are derived and people pursuing learning of patterns should have already been familiar with basic OO Concepts.

I would give 6 out of 10 for its research content, new techniques like PIN diagram and effort to automate the identification of patterns in the codebase using the concepts of EDPs explained in the book.

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Murach's MySQL
by Joel Murach


Mike Murach & Associates
edition
May 2012
612 pages

Reviewed by Mohamed Sanaulla, June 2012
  (10 of 10)



If you ever wanted to learn to use MySQL, write SQL queries, create database elements then this is the book to pick up.

Some of the salient features of the book:
- The usual Murach's style of code mixed with concepts. Its really useful because you are not only reading but also trying out the code. Its Learning by Doing.
- It starts with the importance of the formatting and structure of the SQL queries and follows them right through out the book. By the end of it you would be naturally using the convention.
- Clear division of the book into sections and the right ordering of these sections, this helps to plan the reading of the book accordingly.
- Good coverage of procedural programming, Normalisation concepts as well as basic db Administration concepts.
- The importance of the use of tools (MySQL WOrkbench) is also explained, but you dont find it overstressed anywhere in the book. They have introduced the tools as and when necessary.
- Exercise questions at the end of each chapter to test your understanding.

I know lot of you would say that with the ORM frameworks and frameworks which provide DSLs to create database structures (like migrations in Rails) such a book exclusively on a particular database might be redundant. But to really understand how these frameworks work, one has to be aware of SQL language and also be familiar with using the db. I think these frameworks may not be of much help in cases where we would have to write complex queries or a stored procedure to perform complex calculations.

The intended audience:
-Any one new to SQL/new to MySQL.
-For someone familiar to SQL but not MySQL might find initial few chapters easy to read.
-Any one who wants to do some advanced procedural programming in MySQL.

I couldn't find anything which I didnt like. Though I might be tempted to say the size of the book, but considering the content it is packed with, the code examples, the exercises, the size shouldn't be of much concern.

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Mike Murach & Associates
edition
May 2012
612 pages

Reviewed by Rob Spoor, June 2012
  (9 of 10)



The book follows the Murach style - on the left pages there is text, on the right pages there are screen shots, code snippets, and short summaries of the text on the left. For experienced database developers it's tempting to skip the entire left pages and focus on the right pages only.

I really like this book. It starts with the obligatory introduction which doesn't really add anything, but after that the good stuff follows. The book shows most of the queries you need - not just the four basic ones, but also stored procedures, functions, triggers, events and transactions. I believe that after reading the book you can do most of the things you will need in your everyday job. And if you don't like the command line, no problems; the book also shows you how to use the MySQL workbench.

If that's not enough, there is also an entire section about database administration. With this book you won't just learn how to be a database developer, you also learn how to manage security and backup and restore MySQL databases. What more do you need?

Summarizing, this is one of the best books on MySQL I've read. It's less useful if you want to work with other database systems since a lot of it is specific for MySQL, but then you wouldn't have bought this book, would you?

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Core Java, Volume II--Advanced Features (9th Edition) (Core Series)
by Cay S. Horstmann, Gary Cornell


Prentice Hall
9 edition
March 2013
1152 pages

Reviewed by Mohamed Sanaulla, May 2013
  (9 of 10)



I always liked the approach Cay S. Horstmann takes in the examples in his Core Java books. He tries to follow good practices in all his examples which includes better naming convention, documentation and comments, identifying right classes. This book, Core Java Volume-2, is no different. You find examples which are in themselves mini applications. You dont find toy programs which illustrate the feature and do some printing on the console. The examples themselves include different concepts across Java.

There are very interesting topics covered in this book like: Steams and Files, XML processing, JDBC, Network Programming, Scripting and Annotations, Security, JNI, Advanced Swing and AWT. I see that few chapters which were originally in Volume-2 have been moved to volume-1 namely multithreading and collections. I see a very exhaustive coverage on Swing and AWT, what I feel missing is the coverage of JavaFX features for which I think a chapter would suffice. Not to forget this book covers the Java 7 features as well.

Otherwise this book covers lot of stuff and I would recommend to use it as a reference to pick chapters as and when you want to explore those features. Reading end-to-end may not be necessary because most likely we would not be using all of those features in one place together. Reading end-to-end might be an overkill as well owing to the number of pages.

Bottom line: Highly recommend book in your bookshelf of Java references.

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Prentice Hall
9 edition
March 2013
1152 pages

Reviewed by Campbell Ritchie, September 2013
  (9 of 10)



I would always advise readers to try before they buy; look at the contents and sample pages on Amazon or similar. There you will find you get 1117 pages, 115 more than in my 2005 edition. That's even more of a change when you remember the threading chapter moved to Vol I. That extra space is full of information, in the inimitable Horstmann & Cornell (H&C) style. They teach object‑oriented programming throughout, with good coding style and emphasise correctness. The book has been updated and uses Java7 constructs throughout, even though the odd use of StringTokenizer escaped updating. And GridBagConstraints appears once instead of GBC (see volume I).
This book makes no pretence to comprehensiveness. There is relatively little about servlets, for example, and no design patterns; as I said about Vol I, they assume readers know patterns already.
The points for C++ programmers still appear; they are interesting but only of relevance to people coming from C++. Those points are probably important because there are many points where the apparent similarities between the two languages obscure differences.
I found the chapters about security and native methods particularly interesting.
The index is comprehensive. There are suggestions for further reading, e.g. about advanced graphics. When H&C are unhappy about something in the Java? platform, they say so without hesitation (policytool is criticised on page 833).
The only weakness I perceive is the lack of a proper bibliography, which I believe would enhance this book greatly. There is one place where it looks as if a reference had been forgotten.
Still, H&C has been a favourite of mine for a long time, and remains a favourite.

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Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams (3rd Edition)
by Tom DeMarco, Tim Lister


Addison-Wesley Professional
third edition
June 2013
272 pages

Reviewed by Mohamed Sanaulla, October 2013
  (9 of 10)



Peopleware is a must read for Managers who want to explore and learn about different managerial responsibilities and learn about what not to be done while executing those responsibilities. The content is presented with a touch of humour so you need not be surprised if you are found laughing while you are reading. The authors have penned in their experience and what the have seen and learnt about managing people over the years. The book deals identifying right metrics to enable efficient management of IT projects citing the major factor deciding the fate of IT Projects is the people involved in it and not much due to the technological factors.

If you are not a manager yet- you will find some of the chapters/sections of the book interesting and helps you to know how things work at a managerial level. But there are other chapters which make you feel bored like the section on arranging office furniture.

There are lot of one liners through out the book which are really catchy. Few of which I have noted in the first few chapters of the book are:

- The main reason we tend to focus on the techincal rather than the human side of the work is not because it's more crucial, but because it's easier to do.
- People under time pressure don't work better- they just work faster.
- Quality is free, but only to those who are willing to pay heavily for it.

To conclude Peopleware is a MUST read for IT Projectr Managers and I will recommend this along with another great book: "The Mythical Man month".

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Addison-Wesley Professional
third edition
June 2013
272 pages

Reviewed by Greg Charles, November 2013
  (8 of 10)



Murach's Android Programming is a good introductory course to Android development. Its style is dry and matter-of-fact, and lacks the visual punch of something like the "Heads First" series, or the conversational tone of various other texts. However, it is clear and accurate, and the many downloadable examples are well integrated into the text, which makes it easy to follow along and try out the techniques as they are presented.

Mr. Murach assumes basic to intermediate Java programming abilities, but otherwise the prerequisites for this book are very low. In addition to covering Android specific topics, he gives thorough explanations of how to set up and use Eclipse, how to work with XML files, and even about event handling and listeners. Seasoned developers will find themselves skimming some of the early sections, but that is certainly better than being lost.

I was disappointed with the Eclipse tooling for Android development and found it very difficult to work with. That's hardly the fault of this text, but I would have liked to see more coverage of alternate tools or at least clearer explanations of how the Eclipse tools are organized, and some discussion of known bugs and advice for workarounds.

In short, this book will get you from no knowledge of Android to being able to write moderately complex apps and deploy them to Android devices. It won't be the only book you'll read if you decide on an Android career, but it will set you down the path.

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Java Application Architecture: Modularity Patterns with Examples Using OSGi
by Kirk Knoernschild


Prentice Hall
1 edition
March 15, 2012
384 pages

Reviewed by Amit Ramchandra Ghorpade, December 2012
  (7 of 10)



When we speak of architecture of Java applications, be it desktop or web, we start with the high level specifications, impart service level or functional patterns and move on to the UMLs.
I have rarely seen any design worrying about modules in the system since we take for granted that our design decouples them implicitly.
This book was my first encounter with modules with Java and I was surprised to read the importance of modularity in Java applications.
The first section introduces to the modularity concepts. If you are already familiar with them, you can directly head to patterns in section 2 after taking a brief look at chapter 7.
The section 2 on patterns is divided into types of patterns making it easy for the reader to focus on what exactly he needs.
Most of the base patterns stuff I believe is imparted by the design itself, even if its not given special treatment. Module facade was a totally new thing for me, I always thought facade is meant for some service.
The next section talks of OSGi, which was interesting again because my view of OSGi was that its more into services.
To put it together it is a good book, with real world examples for novice through intermediate readers and a handy reference for experts. One go-through of the book will certainly bring up better designs and add another facet to the application architecture.

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Prentice Hall
1 edition
March 15, 2012
384 pages

Reviewed by Mohamed Sanaulla, January 2013
  (8 of 10)



This book consists of two parts:
1. Deals with the basic concepts related to modularity
2. Patterns dealing with modularity.

The book deals at the architecture level and the patterns described therein are more suited to building a good architecture and also a great class design.

The first part deals with building the base for understanding the patterns described in the later part of the book. It doesnt require any prior experience in OSGi and there are around 2 chapters which are very specific to OSGi. The patterns are well described and each has a description, consequences, sample implementation of the pattern.

The content is quite easy to understand and all the concepts are very well depcited using informative images.

I would not recommend this book for someone not well versed with basic OOP concepts, code level design patterns. If you have quite a bit of experience and are in a mid-senior level developer then you can really appreciate the content of the book. And its not necessary for you to read through all the patterns in depth, but its useful if you are aware of what patterns are available so that you can refer to it when ever required.

In short this book tries to bridge the gap between architectural design and the class level design in Java based applications.

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Essential Skills for the Agile Developer: A Guide to Better Programming and Design
by Alan Shalloway, Scott Bain, Ken Pugh, Amir Kolsky


Addison-Wesley
edition
2011
234 pages

Reviewed by Matthew Brown, October 2011
  (9 of 10)



This book is aimed at developers beginning to work in an agile way, and lays out a set of principles and practices for design and programming that will help them succeed. Although really, most of them are more generally applicable than that: this is all about "good design", with an emphasis producing code that is easy to change. As a developer with relatively little experience of agile methods, I was a bit surprised how much of this was relevant to my own work. The main difference that the agile focus seems to make is when to do things, not how.

Key subjects covered include: programming by intention, separating use from construction, and acceptance-test driven development. Encapsulation is a theme running through the book, and they take a wide view of what this actually means, interpreting established design patterns as encapsulations of some particular concept so that it is easier to adapt. The book isn't tightly coupled to a particular programming language, although it's usually considering an object-oriented approach. Examples are generally Java/C#, with occasional comments about other languages, but most of the time it's talking about more general principles. The examples are clear and easy to understand.

It's certainly readable and useful. My one real criticism is that it's occasionally a bit repetitive. Sometimes that's simply a natural result of way the different concepts under discussion interact, but there are times it seems unnecessary (one small example: a comment about the origin of the "extends" keyword in Java appears twice). Perhaps that's a danger in a multi-authored book? But that's a small fault in an otherwise excellent book.

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Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for writing this review on behalf of CodeRanch.

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Addison-Wesley
edition
2011
234 pages

Reviewed by Mohamed Sanaulla, February 2012
  (9 of 10)



This book does justice to its title and subtitle- it clearly tells you the basic design principles to write good code which is easy to read, debug and extend. At first glance the title may seem misleading as it uses the word "Agile Developer" but there isn't much specific to agile in the book, though familiarity with terms like Scrum or Kanaban or TDD would be an added advantage.

Salient features of the book:
- Emphasis is on the basic design principles like Cohesion, Coupling, Encapsulation, Redundancy, Coding to Interface. These are further built upon to introduce/redefine the ideas.
- Covers each concept in depth and with the aid of repetition of concepts helps in grooving them into the developers mind.
- References to other Books which cover a referred concept in depth which can help in in-depth study.
- Appendices with extra information to aid in better understanding.
- Concepts explained with simple examples to drive home the concept.

Few gotchas:
- People not familiar with coding/new to it might not find the book very appealing, hence I would recommend the book to someone who has worked on a large codebase and may be some legacy code (not dating back to 80s).
- Suggestion would be to read the Appendix first, might help for people who are not familiar with UML notation. Basic design principles are also explained there.
- Familiarity with GoF design patterns is a PLUS, as these have been referred all over the book.
- One can visit the references provided in each chapter to read up more.

So, if you are thinking of picking this book- I would say go ahead, you can always re-read it to refresh the concepts.

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Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for writing this review on behalf of CodeRanch.

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Addison-Wesley
edition
2011
234 pages

Reviewed by Ankit Garg, February 2012
  (8 of 10)



This is a very good book for anyone who has to makes design decisions in development. It describes different approaches to design and development and the pros and cons of each approach. For example the book tells you where to use inheritance and where to use delegation. Its not a design patterns book, rather it describes different programming methodologies and techniques which are required in Agile development. The book covers a wide variety of topics which will increase your knowledge by many folds. If you have been in development for some time, you might be familiar with some topics covered in the book as you might already be following them. The techniques described in the book are extremely practical and useful.

The book is easy to follow on most places. There are however some chapters which are a little confusing. Specifically the examples in the Needs vs Capabilities interface are not easy to follow and relate to in real life scenario. It also took me some time to figure out what Shalloway's Law described in a chapter meant. Other than that all other chapters are easy to understand with the examples and diagrams. The Appendixes are also useful for beginners.

Overall this is a very good book and is a very good read for any developer who has some experience in development.

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Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for writing this review on behalf of CodeRanch.

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Murach's HTML5 and CSS3
by Zak Ruvalcaba, Anne Boehm


Mike Murach & Associates
edition
December 2011
656 pages

Reviewed by Jeanne Boyarsky, February 2012
  (9 of 10)



"Murach's HTML5 and CSS3" covers HTML and CSS from the ground up. It's a great book for starting out as it shows basic constructs. It's also a decent book even if you know "old" HTML and CSS. The repetitive parts are easy to find/skim. Granted the book is heavy (600 pages) for skimming. There are good guidelines/tips on browser compatibility, SEO and accessibility.

The book has a bit of an identity crisis on whether you should know JavaScript. They say you don't need to know it. Then they show a bunch of JavaScript. Then they say it is ok if you don't know it. Then they talk about how to debug it. I think they meant you can copy/paste without being able to write your own.

I do learn some things from the book and the material was well presented. Unsurprisingly, it uses the standard Murach style. One side of the book is text and one side is examples/bullet points. I also like that the book used HTML 5 and CSS 3 properly rather than tacking it onto an older book as an afterthought.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for writing this review on behalf of CodeRanch.

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Mike Murach & Associates
edition
December 2011
656 pages

Reviewed by Mohamed Sanaulla, March 2012
  (8 of 10)



This book covers all the aspects of web development- HTML, CSS, Javascript, Hosting, tools. The coverage of HTML5 and CSS3 has been blended into the existing approaches of HTML and CSS, so you may not find HTML5 being discussed in a special section. This way one can get an hold of how the HTML5 enhancements can be used with the existing HTML.

The book takes a more practical approach which is what is expected from web development. The code sample is given on one page and the explanation on another- this might be a bit annoying while reading a ebook as one would have to scroll up and down repeatedly.

If you are familiar with HTML, CSS, Javascript then lot of sections might be redundant, but there are lot other content which can be used as a reference. So the initial sections are good for those starting new with HTML and then few sections in jQuery which can be read on demand basis.

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Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for writing this review on behalf of CodeRanch.

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Mike Murach & Associates
edition
December 2011
656 pages

Reviewed by Rob Spoor, March 2012
  (8 of 10)



The book follows the Murach style - on the left pages there is text, on the right pages there are screen shots, code snippets, and short summaries of the text on the left. Unlike the previous Murach books I've read, I was never tempted to read only the right pages, as it's all just very good to read.

Although the title is "HTML5 and CSS3", it doesn't limit itself to those new techniques, instead covering large portions of both old and new HTML and CSS versions. That makes the book good for both beginning and experienced web developers. Where needed it also mentions how to create workarounds for browsers that don't support HTML5 and CSS3.

Though in general HTML5 is discussed pretty well, it does fail in a few chapters. These all require knowledge of JavaScript, yet the authors claim this isn't is necessary. I disagree with them. The sections on GeoLocation and Canvas are nowhere near as complete as the previous HTML5 book I've read, and that's really a shame. The JQuery chapter is by far the worst, showing several snippets of code but explaining very little. I'm an experienced programmer, and I once was really wondering what the code was doing because it wasn't explained properly. Surprisingly, the JQuery Mobile chapter is a lot clearer, but that's probably because it actually contains very little JavaScript as JQuery Mobile does a lot under the hood. All in all, I'd definitely suggest getting a proper JavaScript / JQuery book to fill these gaps.

Finally, one thing really annoyed me. The introduction section looks very familiar. It looks as though it's a required section of Murach books about web development. Having already read a few Murach books it really felt repetitive.

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Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for writing this review on behalf of CodeRanch.

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Murach's Android Programming
by Joel Murach


Mike Murach & Associates
edition
September 2013
702 pages

Reviewed by Jeanne Boyarsky, October 2013
  (9 of 10)



"Murach's Android Programming" follows the style we've come to expect from a Murach book. One side of the page is text description. The other is images, tables and bullet points. This approach lets them deliver on the same book being for both training and reference.

The only pre-requisite listed for reading the book is basic Java. This is true - the book explains everything else - XML, databases, etc. Chapter 1 moves fast to give an overview, but the book circles back and covers everything in depth.

I particularly liked the parts on how to debug and use the emulator. There was very strong coverage of core concepts throughout. I liked that the database overview covered SQL injection. The screens of layouts and widgets were a good use of pictures.

The only thing that didn't feel smooth to me was that I couldn't find a picture of a D-Pad. Or rather I couldn't find one that was labeled that way. (The first reference to a D-Pad was on page 54.) This is minor and it's good when your biggest gripe about a book is something trivial!

"Murach's Android Programming" is a great way to learn how to write your first Android app. You'll get started quickly and then have a reference when you need idioms or how-to's for that app and later ones.

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Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for writing this review on behalf of CodeRanch.

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Mike Murach & Associates
edition
September 2013
702 pages

Reviewed by Greg Charles, November 2013
  (8 of 10)



Murach's Android Programming is a good introductory course to Android development. Its style is dry and matter-of-fact, and lacks the visual punch of something like the "Heads First" series, or the conversational tone of various other texts. However, it is clear and accurate, and the many downloadable examples are well integrated into the text, which makes it easy to follow along and try out the techniques as they are presented.

Mr. Murach assumes basic to intermediate Java programming abilities, but otherwise the prerequisites for this book are very low. In addition to covering Android specific topics, he gives thorough explanations of how to set up and use Eclipse, how to work with XML files, and even about event handling and listeners. Seasoned developers will find themselves skimming some of the early sections, but that is certainly better than being lost.

I was disappointed with the Eclipse tooling for Android development and found it very difficult to work with. That's hardly the fault of this text, but I would have liked to see more coverage of alternate tools or at least clearer explanations of how the Eclipse tools are organized, and some discussion of known bugs and advice for workarounds.

In short, this book will get you from no knowledge of Android to being able to write moderately complex apps and deploy them to Android devices. It won't be the only book you'll read if you decide on an Android career, but it will set you down the path.

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Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for writing this review on behalf of CodeRanch.

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Mike Murach & Associates
edition
September 2013
702 pages

Reviewed by Mohamed Sanaulla, December 2013
  (10 of 10)



Murach's books are more oriented towards practical learning and this one's no different. The book covers the topics in an order and has grouped topics in accordance to their level of complexity and use. The author has chosen appropriate examples to explain these different groups of topics. The examples are not mere use this component that component and print out something, instead they are quite useful and closer to real-world applications.

This is a complete guide to Android programming and I would strongly suggest anyone who wants to learn Android programming to pick this book. The screenshots showing the application layout, IDE options are all very clear. Also there is a very clear appendix which I found to be really useful to setup your Android Development environment. I found the state diagram explaining the states of an Activity to be very clear and it didn't require me to read anything more to understand it.

This book though assumes that you are already familiar with Java, so if you want to learn Java you can pick Murach's Java Programming or any other famous books like Head First Java.

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Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for writing this review on behalf of CodeRanch.

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Mike Murach & Associates
edition
September 2013
702 pages

Reviewed by Rob Spoor, December 2013
  (8 of 10)



"Murach's Android Programming" is a good introduction into Android programming. The book requires only basic Java knowledge, and it shows at times. The book sometimes spends a bit too much time explaining code snippets that should be clear for anyone experienced in Java.

The chapters discuss several controls and techniques, using good example apps. Unlike the previous Android book I read this book doesn't stop at the UI, but also explains how to write back-ground services and listen to broadcast events. After reading this book you will be able to write small-scale programs without much trouble.

That said, there are two things that annoyed me about this book:
1) When discussing releasing apps, the book mentions several billing options but then only descrives publishing free applications. When referring to in-app billing or adds, the book literally says "To learn how to add XXX to your app, you can start by searching for "XXX" in the Android documentation". I expected a bit more coverage for these topics. The book might as well not even mentioned the possibilities.
2) The first 16 chapters discuss several topics for creating apps. Chapter 17 then discusses publishing these apps, only for chapter 18 to follow with another possible feature to apps (map support). It's like "you now can create and publish any app you want. Oh wait, here's one thing we forgot". Chapter 18 doesn't refer to chapter 17 in any way, so it wouldn't have been hard to swap the two around. That way, the book first discusses all technical aspects followed by publishing. That would have made more sense to me.

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Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for writing this review on behalf of CodeRanch.

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The Bunkhouse administrator is Ankit Garg.