Category Archives: Reviews
List
Abstract
One+AbstractReview: In Code
A Mathematical Journey: A Mathematical Adventure, By Sarah Flannery
An inspiring and encouraging book
This is an inspiring book, telling the story of a young woman’s introduction to, and enamourment with, of all things, mathematics. In an era where enthusiasm for the sciences is often seen as "uncool", it is delightfully encouraging to read the story of a family, and in particular the author herself, who understand both the value and the pleasure of such interests.
The book balances two quite separate elements. On the one hand there’s the story of how Sarah became interested in mathematics, did an interesting science project, and got a lot of attention when as a seventeen year old Irish girl she nearly invented a powerful new cryptographic system. On the other hand there’s a very clear introduction to the mathematics underlying modern cryptography, presented using a range of interesting examples, puzzles and clear explanations.
Review: Digital Fortress
By Dan Brown
Mr Brown should stick to what he's good at
It’s not often I give up on a fiction book part-way through, but I just couldn’t take any more of this.
If you’re going to write a thriller about cryptography, where the central characters are code makers and code breakers, then you have to have a passing understanding of the subject – Dan Brown clearly doesn’t.
Review: Modeling XML Applications with UML
Practical e-Business Applications, By David Carlson
An excellent book covering an important niche
Like many web-related technologies XML and its many derivatives have evolved much more quickly than the support from traditional modelling and development tools. As a result many developers creating XML-based applications are doing so with the crudest of tools, and find it very difficult to either exchange ideas with more traditional developers, or to benefit from the strengths of more powerful tools and modelling approaches. This book sets out to address that issue, and it does an excellent job.
At the same time, the book provides a valuable introduction to a range of XML and e-Business technologies for those more familiar with traditional approaches. I found it answered a lot of questions I had about XML which had not been addressed by reading more typical “how to” books, so this book bridges the divide both ways. Read the full review 
Review: More Secrets of Consuting
The Consultant, By Gerald Weinberg
Very good, but a harder read than "Secrets"
The original “Secrets of Consulting” is probably one of the most important books in my collection, and I had great expectations of this follow-up volume. However, where the first book focuses outwards, largely on what a consultant does, the second book focuses in, much more on what a consultant is, and to my mind makes much less comfortable reading.
Don’t get me wrong. This is not in any way a bad book: it’s still as well written and humorous as Weinberg’s other books, and chock full of amusing stories and “laws” derived from them. Anyone involved in consulting of any sort will still get a great deal out of it. But if, like many men, you’re uncomfortable talking and reading about “feelings” you may find this less easy to read.
Review: The Secrets of Consulting
A Guide to Giving and Getting Advice Successfully, By Gerald Weinberg
One of the most important books for any consultant
This is a little book with some big messages. As the subtitle says, it’s a book not only for those who give, or sell, their advice, but it’s also for those who are taking or buying it. It’s a book both for those who help to manage change, and for those undergoing change themselves. Many people should read it.
That said, the main focus of the book is on those who produce the advice and ideas. If you are a consultant as I am, this may be one of the most important books in your collection. I have read it cover to cover twice, and parts of it many other times.
The book is written with a light, humorous touch, illustrated both with many funny stories and some very apt cartoons and quotations. From each discussion he abstracts multiple “laws” and reminders, which on their own should prompt you to remember the key points he discusses.
Review: Business Modelling with UML
Business Patterns at Work, By Hans-Erik Eriksson and Magnus Penker
A very good guide to business-level modelling with UML
One of the weaknesses of the Unified Modelling Language is its relatively limited support for modelling at the Enterprise level, especially to accurately model business processes. The UML purists believe that everything should be reduced to Use Cases, while these authors recognise that much more is necessary.
Review: The Elements of UML Style
By Scott Ambler
An excellent little "bible" for modellers
Like Strunk & White’s "The Elements of Style" for writers (which it flatters by imitation), or Edward Tufte’s "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information" for statisticians, this book is destined to become a "bible" for those using the Unified Modelling Language.
Like those other books, it combines a sound set of standards for the experienced user with good guidance for those with less advanced skills. The focus is clearly on how to get the message across most efficiently and effectively, by understanding what you should leave out just as much as what you should include.
In just over 120 bite-sized pages Scott takes you through each of the main techniques in UML, identifying why you might want to use each one, how to draw the diagrams, how to construct names and descriptive text, with a number of clear "dos" and "don’ts" for each technique. It’s bang up to date, covering most of the new diagram types in UML 2.0 as well as the latest conventions for the more established diagram types. The writing and examples are concise, so that you can read much of the book at a single sitting, but always complete enough that you fully understand.
Review: Adobe Photoshop Elements
A Visual Introduction to Digital Imaging, By Philip Andrews
Beautifully produced, clear introductory book
If you’re new to digital imaging, and trying to get to grips with Photoshop Elements (or any of its relations including its big brother Photoshop) it’s often difficult to understand some of the concepts, and how all the different pieces fit together. If that describes your situation, this book is a very good place to start.
Review: Why Buildings Fall Down
By Matthys Levy and Mario Salvadori
A clear and entertaining book
Such is our morbid fascination that this book is inevitably more attractive than one called “Why Buildings Stay Up”. That said, I think I have not only learned more about structural engineering than I would have done from a positive counterpart, but I have also learned vastly more about the other factors, human and natural, that influence the ultimate success or failure of structures.
Review: Software Architecture Organizational Principles and Patterns
By David Dikel, David Kane & James Wilson
An excellent book on how to make architectural changes work
This book is about how to make architectural changes across an organisation. It’s very much about the softer aspects of selling ideas, getting buy-in, and then seeing changes through. It has wider applicability than the title and very focused text might suggest: although it’s written in terms of "architecture", "architects" and "product lines" it could equally easily apply to "strategy", "strategists" and "portfolio".
This is a practical book, who’s authors have realised that software architecture is about people and processes, not standards or definitions. Maybe it reflects the growing maturity of the field, but this book gets down to the meat in a way that most earlier books didn’t. The book includes some useful material for any architect trying to sell his efforts, particularly real business examples where major businesses succeeded or failed because of the quality and timing of architectural investments.
Review: ASP.NET for Developers
By Micael Amundsen & Paul Litwin
A Good Introduction
This book is a clear and well-written introduction to the latest version of Microsoft’s Active Server Pages. It is written how technical books should be written: no messing about, no unnecessary repetition, and a lot of material covered clearly in just over 400 pages. A clear target audience (experienced ASP and VB6 developers), and clear objectives help – the book’s intention is clearly to communicate the essentials, and the practitioner will then get more detail from other sources.
The book clearly presents the VB.NET language, the new ASP architecture, how to develop using server-side and user controls, and supporting technologies such as Web Services and ADO.NET. However, there are some omissions. For example, the book states that you can’t raise standard events from User Controls, not only is this possible, but the standard MSDN documentation has a very simple example of how to do so.
If I have a major complaint, it’s that the book was not developed around Visual Studio. Instead the examples are mainly pure text, similar to old server pages. This has two drawbacks: it fails to support the new paradigm of web development which Microsoft have finally raised above hacking with a copy of notepad; and it’s sometimes difficult to relate the text-only examples to code generated by the Visual Studio design tools, and vice-versa.
Another weakness is shared with many other books on web-based development, especially in the Microsoft arena, with very little focus on how to properly structure code and solution components. I have had to resort to Java-based architectural pattern books, and I think there’s a major gap in the market here.
This won’t be the only book you’ll buy on .NET: I also purchased "VB.NET for Developers" by Franklin, and "the Visual Basic Programmer’s
Guide to the .NET Framework Class Library" by Powers & Snell, both in the same series from Sams. However, I can recommend it as a good clear introduction to ASP.NET, which doesn’t require you to read thousands of pages.
Review: VB.NET for Developers
By Keith Franklin
How Technical Books Should Be Written
The trouble with most books on technologies like .NET is they try to be all things to all people, and end up being either too shallow or far too long.
This book is a very welcome exception. This is how technical books should be written: no messing about, no unnecessary repetition, but all the material is covered clearly in about 250 pages. A very clear target audience (experienced VB6 developers), and clear objectives help – the book’s intention is clearly to communicate the essentials, and the practitioner will then get more detail from other sources. It’s one of the few books of its type which can be read from cover to cover.
The book isn’t perfect: I spotted a few proof-reading errors (in an early copy based on the Beta version of VS.NET); some examples are a little difficult to follow, and some topics inevitably rather sketchy.
However, I can thoroughly recommend this book, although I suggest that the serious VB developer will probably need other volumes as well: I also purchased "ASP.NET for Developers" by Amundsen & Litwin, and "The Visual Basic Programmer’s Guide to the .NET Framework Class Library" by Powers & Snell, both in the same series from Sams.
Email me
Others
Thoughts on the World (Main Feed)
Main feed (direct XML)