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Architecture & Microprocessors
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 Customer Reviews
One seminal essay. The rest, repetitive and out of date., 29 Jan 2008
For sure the Mythical Man Month was a seminal essay back then. This is worth reading for sure. But the rest of the book is very out of date, and very repetitive. It gets a bit wearing too hearing the old line that hardware has advanced a thousand fold and software hasn't. Er, played any computer games lately?
I'd recommend reading the Mythical Man Month elsewhere if you can find it online and save the time, money, and effort reading the whole book.
Time better spent reading a book on Agile, or XP I would think. A bit outdated..., 01 Aug 2007
Bought this book on the recommendation of a friend, bought "Debugging the Development Environment" on the recommendation of my boss and would probably recommend neither for todays fluidic environments. Mythical Man Month contains a somewhat outdated view of software development, more suitably apt for an age when only long time development projects for mainframes existed and Web/PC development had not been heard of.
Still relevant in parts to large waterfall based development projects, not helpful with RAD/Extreme and other more modern, small team development methods and probably only a useful read if you are new to project teams and/or have not worked in an IT environment Orinal text is brilliant, 03 Apr 2007
The 1975 text is genius like essay No Silver Bullets at the end part of the book. At the very final essay is completely different.
At the final pages (207 and onwards) for some reason Mr Brooks felt that he needs to start defending his original text against critics. Fighting with critics is pointless and makes one me only to feel a shamed behalf of Mr Brooks. The "absolute must read" in software engineering, 29 Aug 2006
I was working for several years in software development, exposed to systems engineering context before reading this book. I think Brooks was so right so long ago that this is "the absolute must read book" on software engineering for anyone interested.
Brooks writes in each chapter about different concerns that affect Software Engineering. The chapters include experiences the author had during his work in IBM back in the 70s. This makes it even more interesting since you actually learn about history of the craft. Note that the main content was written a while ago, but, much of it still applies in today's environment.
This edition includes the original essays and adds new content that comment on the book, the evolution of the field and what the author thinks is still applicable and what not.
As a whole it is very readable and many times fun to read. IMO this is a must read for anyone working in software engineering. A genuine classic - a truly seminal work, 17 Dec 2004
One of the best books ever written about software development and computing in general. Yes, it has dated in places but even so it is still very interesting and often incredibly insightful. The title essay (about how throwing additional people at an already late project simply makes it even later) and the essay about Second System Syndrome at particularly good. It ought to be (but rather sadly is not) a must read for everybody working in IT.
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Customer Reviews
One seminal essay. The rest, repetitive and out of date., 29 Jan 2008
For sure the Mythical Man Month was a seminal essay back then. This is worth reading for sure. But the rest of the book is very out of date, and very repetitive. It gets a bit wearing too hearing the old line that hardware has advanced a thousand fold and software hasn't. Er, played any computer games lately?
I'd recommend reading the Mythical Man Month elsewhere if you can find it online and save the time, money, and effort reading the whole book.
Time better spent reading a book on Agile, or XP I would think. A bit outdated..., 01 Aug 2007
Bought this book on the recommendation of a friend, bought "Debugging the Development Environment" on the recommendation of my boss and would probably recommend neither for todays fluidic environments. Mythical Man Month contains a somewhat outdated view of software development, more suitably apt for an age when only long time development projects for mainframes existed and Web/PC development had not been heard of.
Still relevant in parts to large waterfall based development projects, not helpful with RAD/Extreme and other more modern, small team development methods and probably only a useful read if you are new to project teams and/or have not worked in an IT environment Orinal text is brilliant, 03 Apr 2007
The 1975 text is genius like essay No Silver Bullets at the end part of the book. At the very final essay is completely different.
At the final pages (207 and onwards) for some reason Mr Brooks felt that he needs to start defending his original text against critics. Fighting with critics is pointless and makes one me only to feel a shamed behalf of Mr Brooks. The "absolute must read" in software engineering, 29 Aug 2006
I was working for several years in software development, exposed to systems engineering context before reading this book. I think Brooks was so right so long ago that this is "the absolute must read book" on software engineering for anyone interested.
Brooks writes in each chapter about different concerns that affect Software Engineering. The chapters include experiences the author had during his work in IBM back in the 70s. This makes it even more interesting since you actually learn about history of the craft. Note that the main content was written a while ago, but, much of it still applies in today's environment.
This edition includes the original essays and adds new content that comment on the book, the evolution of the field and what the author thinks is still applicable and what not.
As a whole it is very readable and many times fun to read. IMO this is a must read for anyone working in software engineering. A genuine classic - a truly seminal work, 17 Dec 2004
One of the best books ever written about software development and computing in general. Yes, it has dated in places but even so it is still very interesting and often incredibly insightful. The title essay (about how throwing additional people at an already late project simply makes it even later) and the essay about Second System Syndrome at particularly good. It ought to be (but rather sadly is not) a must read for everybody working in IT.
Good survey, but recent development trends burdons, 27 Jul 2007
Good book. Covers a lot of ground and gives a good survey of the field. Time is on its back, however. The use of web frameworks such as Struts or Spring, and the use of ORM tools such as Hibernate or JPA makes much of the book "redundant". Such tools although solving a lot of practical problems, also introduces many new ones. Maybe a new edition of the book should cover such ground.
Useful but J2EE biased, 30 Jul 2006
I'm a .NET developer and, since the book advertises the fact that it covers .NET as well as J2EE I had high hopes. By and large it lived up to them but in some places I think it let itself down.
In particular the majority of the code is in Java. I don't mind mentally mapping from Java to C#, however its the differences between the framework libraries that creates the problem as I simply cannot do that mapping.
Despite this the book is OK, if you concentrate on the patterns themselves then your fine but I think Java developers will get far more from it as they're going to learn not just the patterns but details you need to be aware of when applying them.
key book for enterprise patterns, 29 Jul 2006
Even if you find enterprise stuff immensely dull, dealing with databases and web pages is a pretty common task, most of the action in software development revolves around it, and who wants to be completely ignorant of the the alphabet soup of various technologies the IT blogs, books and websites are floating in?
So if you must immerse yourself in this area, what better than a Martin Fowler book? The code is mainly in Java, with a fairly large smattering of C#. It would probably help if you understood some basics of enterprise development in those languages, e.g. servlets and JDBC for Java.
The patterns in this book cover organising domain logic, database mapping and access, web presentation, concurrency, and the book finishes by covering base patterns, a mixture of lower level abstractions of the sort covered in Fowler's first book Analysis Patterns (e.g. Money) and those that bear a close resemblance to the classic vanilla Gang of Four patterns, with an enterprise twist (e.g. Plugin and Gateway). Nearly all the other patterns refer to these, so I don't know why these didn't appear first. Apart from that though, the book is very well organised. And the opening essay, that discusses the trade offs of every pattern and how they fit together in an application, is immensely helpful.
Wizened enterprisers looking for new material will not find much new here, but surely the point of patterns catalogues are to get down on paper the practices of those same wizened enterprisers, not to strike off in new directions. Therefore, an experienced developer should see this as a way to organise what they already know, and maybe in doing so, reveal some new insights.
A newcomer to enterprise development will definitely get a lot out of this, as the underpinnings to the plethora of modern enterprise applications are laid bare. You're not going to become a Hibernate, Struts or EJB expert from this book, but you should at least have a clue about what problems they're trying to solve.
As usual, Fowler manages to be a model of clarity, while still injecting regular touches of wry humour, quite an achievement given the potentially bone-dry material. If you want to know the basics of enterprise software, start here.
Save time! Pragmatic, simple and effective, 15 Mar 2006
A very well written and pragmatic book about software architectural patterns. For all the different approches, defines clearly the context of the solution, and, in a critical and structured way, shows the differences among then. Is a book about structured and patronized solutions for typical problems in every day life of all programmers. So instead losing precious hours in front of a computer trying to reinvent the wheel, read this book and learn the some of the best practices from some of the best programmers in the world.
Good for high level summary. Not complete picture though, 08 Jun 2004
Don't really like the way book describes a method in one class then a method in another, then switches back to first class after some explanatory text. Would have much preferred to see complete listings, with section headings and explanatory text with same section headings. It's only when you assemble everything together you find there are a lot of missing pieces that are never described. I dived right in to O/R Mapping section and found a lot of method calls and classes that were not discussed further making for only half the picture.
Plus I was a bit disillusioned that author now states on his web site he doesn't have time to respond to emails, so I'll think twice before purchasing another of his books.
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Customer Reviews
One seminal essay. The rest, repetitive and out of date., 29 Jan 2008
For sure the Mythical Man Month was a seminal essay back then. This is worth reading for sure. But the rest of the book is very out of date, and very repetitive. It gets a bit wearing too hearing the old line that hardware has advanced a thousand fold and software hasn't. Er, played any computer games lately?
I'd recommend reading the Mythical Man Month elsewhere if you can find it online and save the time, money, and effort reading the whole book.
Time better spent reading a book on Agile, or XP I would think. A bit outdated..., 01 Aug 2007
Bought this book on the recommendation of a friend, bought "Debugging the Development Environment" on the recommendation of my boss and would probably recommend neither for todays fluidic environments. Mythical Man Month contains a somewhat outdated view of software development, more suitably apt for an age when only long time development projects for mainframes existed and Web/PC development had not been heard of.
Still relevant in parts to large waterfall based development projects, not helpful with RAD/Extreme and other more modern, small team development methods and probably only a useful read if you are new to project teams and/or have not worked in an IT environment Orinal text is brilliant, 03 Apr 2007
The 1975 text is genius like essay No Silver Bullets at the end part of the book. At the very final essay is completely different.
At the final pages (207 and onwards) for some reason Mr Brooks felt that he needs to start defending his original text against critics. Fighting with critics is pointless and makes one me only to feel a shamed behalf of Mr Brooks. The "absolute must read" in software engineering, 29 Aug 2006
I was working for several years in software development, exposed to systems engineering context before reading this book. I think Brooks was so right so long ago that this is "the absolute must read book" on software engineering for anyone interested.
Brooks writes in each chapter about different concerns that affect Software Engineering. The chapters include experiences the author had during his work in IBM back in the 70s. This makes it even more interesting since you actually learn about history of the craft. Note that the main content was written a while ago, but, much of it still applies in today's environment.
This edition includes the original essays and adds new content that comment on the book, the evolution of the field and what the author thinks is still applicable and what not.
As a whole it is very readable and many times fun to read. IMO this is a must read for anyone working in software engineering. A genuine classic - a truly seminal work, 17 Dec 2004
One of the best books ever written about software development and computing in general. Yes, it has dated in places but even so it is still very interesting and often incredibly insightful. The title essay (about how throwing additional people at an already late project simply makes it even later) and the essay about Second System Syndrome at particularly good. It ought to be (but rather sadly is not) a must read for everybody working in IT.
Good survey, but recent development trends burdons, 27 Jul 2007
Good book. Covers a lot of ground and gives a good survey of the field. Time is on its back, however. The use of web frameworks such as Struts or Spring, and the use of ORM tools such as Hibernate or JPA makes much of the book "redundant". Such tools although solving a lot of practical problems, also introduces many new ones. Maybe a new edition of the book should cover such ground.
Useful but J2EE biased, 30 Jul 2006
I'm a .NET developer and, since the book advertises the fact that it covers .NET as well as J2EE I had high hopes. By and large it lived up to them but in some places I think it let itself down.
In particular the majority of the code is in Java. I don't mind mentally mapping from Java to C#, however its the differences between the framework libraries that creates the problem as I simply cannot do that mapping.
Despite this the book is OK, if you concentrate on the patterns themselves then your fine but I think Java developers will get far more from it as they're going to learn not just the patterns but details you need to be aware of when applying them.
key book for enterprise patterns, 29 Jul 2006
Even if you find enterprise stuff immensely dull, dealing with databases and web pages is a pretty common task, most of the action in software development revolves around it, and who wants to be completely ignorant of the the alphabet soup of various technologies the IT blogs, books and websites are floating in?
So if you must immerse yourself in this area, what better than a Martin Fowler book? The code is mainly in Java, with a fairly large smattering of C#. It would probably help if you understood some basics of enterprise development in those languages, e.g. servlets and JDBC for Java.
The patterns in this book cover organising domain logic, database mapping and access, web presentation, concurrency, and the book finishes by covering base patterns, a mixture of lower level abstractions of the sort covered in Fowler's first book Analysis Patterns (e.g. Money) and those that bear a close resemblance to the classic vanilla Gang of Four patterns, with an enterprise twist (e.g. Plugin and Gateway). Nearly all the other patterns refer to these, so I don't know why these didn't appear first. Apart from that though, the book is very well organised. And the opening essay, that discusses the trade offs of every pattern and how they fit together in an application, is immensely helpful.
Wizened enterprisers looking for new material will not find much new here, but surely the point of patterns catalogues are to get down on paper the practices of those same wizened enterprisers, not to strike off in new directions. Therefore, an experienced developer should see this as a way to organise what they already know, and maybe in doing so, reveal some new insights.
A newcomer to enterprise development will definitely get a lot out of this, as the underpinnings to the plethora of modern enterprise applications are laid bare. You're not going to become a Hibernate, Struts or EJB expert from this book, but you should at least have a clue about what problems they're trying to solve.
As usual, Fowler manages to be a model of clarity, while still injecting regular touches of wry humour, quite an achievement given the potentially bone-dry material. If you want to know the basics of enterprise software, start here.
Save time! Pragmatic, simple and effective, 15 Mar 2006
A very well written and pragmatic book about software architectural patterns. For all the different approches, defines clearly the context of the solution, and, in a critical and structured way, shows the differences among then. Is a book about structured and patronized solutions for typical problems in every day life of all programmers. So instead losing precious hours in front of a computer trying to reinvent the wheel, read this book and learn the some of the best practices from some of the best programmers in the world.
Good for high level summary. Not complete picture though, 08 Jun 2004
Don't really like the way book describes a method in one class then a method in another, then switches back to first class after some explanatory text. Would have much preferred to see complete listings, with section headings and explanatory text with same section headings. It's only when you assemble everything together you find there are a lot of missing pieces that are never described. I dived right in to O/R Mapping section and found a lot of method calls and classes that were not discussed further making for only half the picture.
Plus I was a bit disillusioned that author now states on his web site he doesn't have time to respond to emails, so I'll think twice before purchasing another of his books.
A good place to start but you need to do some other work too, 16 Oct 2008
This is a good book, it gives an excellent overview of the requirements for taking the 70-236 Examination and covers all the main points in a clear and consise manner.
The exercises are very useful and I would definitely recommend that you do them when doing your studies. My copy had a 64bit evaluation copy of Exchange 2007 but I had to download the 32 bit evaluation copy from Microsoft's website to work on my home virtual environment.
As well as this book I would heartily suggest that you use Microsoft's Technet Library and webcasts to get the complete picture and to cover everything you need.
Good enough for the 70-236 cert, , 08 Feb 2008
First the negatives
+ Loads of mainly minor editing mistakes everywhere, the main body of the text and Q+A at the end of every chapter,
+ The additional tests on the CD are pretty good, but annoyingly the Q+A are not alligned with the book. In most cases you have to go through 2 chapters before being able to test yourself.
+ In the last chapter LCR is not taken through its logical conclusion.
+ The online site does not provide an errata/corrections list.
Postives
+ Covers the material well enough
+ Each chapter has at its end a Q+A section, to re-enforce learning.
+ You get Exchange 2007 32bit+64bit on to DVD plus additional questions on a CD.
+ loads of screenshots, text pretty easy to read
I used this as my main study tool and passed with 96%, so it does what it says.
I would give it 5 stars, if it didnt has so many annoying errors. I think it is unfair and too harsh to lose more than a single star, as
1. This is a technical book and it has a limited life span (3 years max).
2. The authors and publisher are in a race to produce the book for people like me, I rather have the book now with a few errors rather than wait for another 3 months.
3. Most of the errors probably will be corrected with time.
books ok - needs software, 10 Nov 2007
the book was okish....i feel its not enough just to read the book. You need to have a copy of the software to practice on. NOT SUPPLIED! i thought iwas getting the software with it.
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Customer Reviews
One seminal essay. The rest, repetitive and out of date., 29 Jan 2008
For sure the Mythical Man Month was a seminal essay back then. This is worth reading for sure. But the rest of the book is very out of date, and very repetitive. It gets a bit wearing too hearing the old line that hardware has advanced a thousand fold and software hasn't. Er, played any computer games lately?
I'd recommend reading the Mythical Man Month elsewhere if you can find it online and save the time, money, and effort reading the whole book.
Time better spent reading a book on Agile, or XP I would think. A bit outdated..., 01 Aug 2007
Bought this book on the recommendation of a friend, bought "Debugging the Development Environment" on the recommendation of my boss and would probably recommend neither for todays fluidic environments. Mythical Man Month contains a somewhat outdated view of software development, more suitably apt for an age when only long time development projects for mainframes existed and Web/PC development had not been heard of.
Still relevant in parts to large waterfall based development projects, not helpful with RAD/Extreme and other more modern, small team development methods and probably only a useful read if you are new to project teams and/or have not worked in an IT environment Orinal text is brilliant, 03 Apr 2007
The 1975 text is genius like essay No Silver Bullets at the end part of the book. At the very final essay is completely different.
At the final pages (207 and onwards) for some reason Mr Brooks felt that he needs to start defending his original text against critics. Fighting with critics is pointless and makes one me only to feel a shamed behalf of Mr Brooks. The "absolute must read" in software engineering, 29 Aug 2006
I was working for several years in software development, exposed to systems engineering context before reading this book. I think Brooks was so right so long ago that this is "the absolute must read book" on software engineering for anyone interested.
Brooks writes in each chapter about different concerns that affect Software Engineering. The chapters include experiences the author had during his work in IBM back in the 70s. This makes it even more interesting since you actually learn about history of the craft. Note that the main content was written a while ago, but, much of it still applies in today's environment.
This edition includes the original essays and adds new content that comment on the book, the evolution of the field and what the author thinks is still applicable and what not.
As a whole it is very readable and many times fun to read. IMO this is a must read for anyone working in software engineering. A genuine classic - a truly seminal work, 17 Dec 2004
One of the best books ever written about software development and computing in general. Yes, it has dated in places but even so it is still very interesting and often incredibly insightful. The title essay (about how throwing additional people at an already late project simply makes it even later) and the essay about Second System Syndrome at particularly good. It ought to be (but rather sadly is not) a must read for everybody working in IT.
Good survey, but recent development trends burdons, 27 Jul 2007
Good book. Covers a lot of ground and gives a good survey of the field. Time is on its back, however. The use of web frameworks such as Struts or Spring, and the use of ORM tools such as Hibernate or JPA makes much of the book "redundant". Such tools although solving a lot of practical problems, also introduces many new ones. Maybe a new edition of the book should cover such ground.
Useful but J2EE biased, 30 Jul 2006
I'm a .NET developer and, since the book advertises the fact that it covers .NET as well as J2EE I had high hopes. By and large it lived up to them but in some places I think it let itself down.
In particular the majority of the code is in Java. I don't mind mentally mapping from Java to C#, however its the differences between the framework libraries that creates the problem as I simply cannot do that mapping.
Despite this the book is OK, if you concentrate on the patterns themselves then your fine but I think Java developers will get far more from it as they're going to learn not just the patterns but details you need to be aware of when applying them.
key book for enterprise patterns, 29 Jul 2006
Even if you find enterprise stuff immensely dull, dealing with databases and web pages is a pretty common task, most of the action in software development revolves around it, and who wants to be completely ignorant of the the alphabet soup of various technologies the IT blogs, books and websites are floating in?
So if you must immerse yourself in this area, what better than a Martin Fowler book? The code is mainly in Java, with a fairly large smattering of C#. It would probably help if you understood some basics of enterprise development in those languages, e.g. servlets and JDBC for Java.
The patterns in this book cover organising domain logic, database mapping and access, web presentation, concurrency, and the book finishes by covering base patterns, a mixture of lower level abstractions of the sort covered in Fowler's first book Analysis Patterns (e.g. Money) and those that bear a close resemblance to the classic vanilla Gang of Four patterns, with an enterprise twist (e.g. Plugin and Gateway). Nearly all the other patterns refer to these, so I don't know why these didn't appear first. Apart from that though, the book is very well organised. And the opening essay, that discusses the trade offs of every pattern and how they fit together in an application, is immensely helpful.
Wizened enterprisers looking for new material will not find much new here, but surely the point of patterns catalogues are to get down on paper the practices of those same wizened enterprisers, not to strike off in new directions. Therefore, an experienced developer should see this as a way to organise what they already know, and maybe in doing so, reveal some new insights.
A newcomer to enterprise development will definitely get a lot out of this, as the underpinnings to the plethora of modern enterprise applications are laid bare. You're not going to become a Hibernate, Struts or EJB expert from this book, but you should at least have a clue about what problems they're trying to solve.
As usual, Fowler manages to be a model of clarity, while still injecting regular touches of wry humour, quite an achievement given the potentially bone-dry material. If you want to know the basics of enterprise software, start here.
Save time! Pragmatic, simple and effective, 15 Mar 2006
A very well written and pragmatic book about software architectural patterns. For all the different approches, defines clearly the context of the solution, and, in a critical and structured way, shows the differences among then. Is a book about structured and patronized solutions for typical problems in every day life of all programmers. So instead losing precious hours in front of a computer trying to reinvent the wheel, read this book and learn the some of the best practices from some of the best programmers in the world.
Good for high level summary. Not complete picture though, 08 Jun 2004
Don't really like the way book describes a method in one class then a method in another, then switches back to first class after some explanatory text. Would have much preferred to see complete listings, with section headings and explanatory text with same section headings. It's only when you assemble everything together you find there are a lot of missing pieces that are never described. I dived right in to O/R Mapping section and found a lot of method calls and classes that were not discussed further making for only half the picture.
Plus I was a bit disillusioned that author now states on his web site he doesn't have time to respond to emails, so I'll think twice before purchasing another of his books.
A good place to start but you need to do some other work too, 16 Oct 2008
This is a good book, it gives an excellent overview of the requirements for taking the 70-236 Examination and covers all the main points in a clear and consise manner.
The exercises are very useful and I would definitely recommend that you do them when doing your studies. My copy had a 64bit evaluation copy of Exchange 2007 but I had to download the 32 bit evaluation copy from Microsoft's website to work on my home virtual environment.
As well as this book I would heartily suggest that you use Microsoft's Technet Library and webcasts to get the complete picture and to cover everything you need.
Good enough for the 70-236 cert, , 08 Feb 2008
First the negatives
+ Loads of mainly minor editing mistakes everywhere, the main body of the text and Q+A at the end of every chapter,
+ The additional tests on the CD are pretty good, but annoyingly the Q+A are not alligned with the book. In most cases you have to go through 2 chapters before being able to test yourself.
+ In the last chapter LCR is not taken through its logical conclusion.
+ The online site does not provide an errata/corrections list.
Postives
+ Covers the material well enough
+ Each chapter has at its end a Q+A section, to re-enforce learning.
+ You get Exchange 2007 32bit+64bit on to DVD plus additional questions on a CD.
+ loads of screenshots, text pretty easy to read
I used this as my main study tool and passed with 96%, so it does what it says.
I would give it 5 stars, if it didnt has so many annoying errors. I think it is unfair and too harsh to lose more than a single star, as
1. This is a technical book and it has a limited life span (3 years max).
2. The authors and publisher are in a race to produce the book for people like me, I rather have the book now with a few errors rather than wait for another 3 months.
3. Most of the errors probably will be corrected with time.
books ok - needs software, 10 Nov 2007
the book was okish....i feel its not enough just to read the book. You need to have a copy of the software to practice on. NOT SUPPLIED! i thought iwas getting the software with it.
A great book! If you have an Arduino then buy it, 29 Aug 2008
I've recently got into the Arduino microcontroller, it's a really useful little gadget and I'd mastered the basics of it: turning on LEDs, simple serial communication with an LCD display and other basic electronics but I thought I'd bitten off more than I could chew when I bought a bluetooth module to hook the arduino up wirelessly with my computer.
Not so! This book is brilliant and one of the projects early on in the book covered exactly what I needed to know. The projects are detailed and all the code is provided (although it would be better if it was on a CD as well). It has really pushed me to the next level!!
Cracking book, 25 Jun 2008
Although this isn't a manual for the arduino (or related microprocessors) this book will really help if you are doing anything with them. The theory is well presented, well explained Computer Science ... a very good book.
Electronic Fun Without Soldering, 08 Jan 2008
This is a lovely book. It is packed full of projects for building embedded controllers which use almost every practical form of interface technology: lights, motors, switches, blue-tooth, rfid, USB, etc. Just about anything you might like to try. Then the book's three great strengths emerge: you don't need to solder, electronics modules are low-cost, and the software is free. All of the projects are assembled using breadboard and wires, removing one difficulty in this age of surface mount chippery. The Arduino controller is advertised in Europe for 22 euro's, and the software is available as Open Source. Together these put projects into the price range of smart, dextrous 10 year olds with doting parents. The projects are very well illustrated with circuit diagrams and close-up pictures showing the details of assembly. For anyone who wants to go beyond the constraints of lego mindstorms, or just build computer control then have it disappear inside every day objects this is the book of experiments and techniques to get. I think every Computer Science or Engineering undergrad. should take a course using this book. Excellent value. Amazon should sell the controller and key modules to make the whole experience seamless.
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Customer Reviews
One seminal essay. The rest, repetitive and out of date., 29 Jan 2008
For sure the Mythical Man Month was a seminal essay back then. This is worth reading for sure. But the rest of the book is very out of date, and very repetitive. It gets a bit wearing too hearing the old line that hardware has advanced a thousand fold and software hasn't. Er, played any computer games lately?
I'd recommend reading the Mythical Man Month elsewhere if you can find it online and save the time, money, and effort reading the whole book.
Time better spent reading a book on Agile, or XP I would think. A bit outdated..., 01 Aug 2007
Bought this book on the recommendation of a friend, bought "Debugging the Development Environment" on the recommendation of my boss and would probably recommend neither for todays fluidic environments. Mythical Man Month contains a somewhat outdated view of software development, more suitably apt for an age when only long time development projects for mainframes existed and Web/PC development had not been heard of.
Still relevant in parts to large waterfall based development projects, not helpful with RAD/Extreme and other more modern, small team development methods and probably only a useful read if you are new to project teams and/or have not worked in an IT environment Orinal text is brilliant, 03 Apr 2007
The 1975 text is genius like essay No Silver Bullets at the end part of the book. At the very final essay is completely different.
At the final pages (207 and onwards) for some reason Mr Brooks felt that he needs to start defending his original text against critics. Fighting with critics is pointless and makes one me only to feel a shamed behalf of Mr Brooks. The "absolute must read" in software engineering, 29 Aug 2006
I was working for several years in software development, exposed to systems engineering context before reading this book. I think Brooks was so right so long ago that this is "the absolute must read book" on software engineering for anyone interested.
Brooks writes in each chapter about different concerns that affect Software Engineering. The chapters include experiences the author had during his work in IBM back in the 70s. This makes it even more interesting since you actually learn about history of the craft. Note that the main content was written a while ago, but, much of it still applies in today's environment.
This edition includes the original essays and adds new content that comment on the book, the evolution of the field and what the author thinks is still applicable and what not.
As a whole it is very readable and many times fun to read. IMO this is a must read for anyone working in software engineering. A genuine classic - a truly seminal work, 17 Dec 2004
One of the best books ever written about software development and computing in general. Yes, it has dated in places but even so it is still very interesting and often incredibly insightful. The title essay (about how throwing additional people at an already late project simply makes it even later) and the essay about Second System Syndrome at particularly good. It ought to be (but rather sadly is not) a must read for everybody working in IT.
Good survey, but recent development trends burdons, 27 Jul 2007
Good book. Covers a lot of ground and gives a good survey of the field. Time is on its back, however. The use of web frameworks such as Struts or Spring, and the use of ORM tools such as Hibernate or JPA makes much of the book "redundant". Such tools although solving a lot of practical problems, also introduces many new ones. Maybe a new edition of the book should cover such ground.
Useful but J2EE biased, 30 Jul 2006
I'm a .NET developer and, since the book advertises the fact that it covers .NET as well as J2EE I had high hopes. By and large it lived up to them but in some places I think it let itself down.
In particular the majority of the code is in Java. I don't mind mentally mapping from Java to C#, however its the differences between the framework libraries that creates the problem as I simply cannot do that mapping.
Despite this the book is OK, if you concentrate on the patterns themselves then your fine but I think Java developers will get far more from it as they're going to learn not just the patterns but details you need to be aware of when applying them.
key book for enterprise patterns, 29 Jul 2006
Even if you find enterprise stuff immensely dull, dealing with databases and web pages is a pretty common task, most of the action in software development revolves around it, and who wants to be completely ignorant of the the alphabet soup of various technologies the IT blogs, books and websites are floating in?
So if you must immerse yourself in this area, what better than a Martin Fowler book? The code is mainly in Java, with a fairly large smattering of C#. It would probably help if you understood some basics of enterprise development in those languages, e.g. servlets and JDBC for Java.
The patterns in this book cover organising domain logic, database mapping and access, web presentation, concurrency, and the book finishes by covering base patterns, a mixture of lower level abstractions of the sort covered in Fowler's first book Analysis Patterns (e.g. Money) and those that bear a close resemblance to the classic vanilla Gang of Four patterns, with an enterprise twist (e.g. Plugin and Gateway). Nearly all the other patterns refer to these, so I don't know why these didn't appear first. Apart from that though, the book is very well organised. And the opening essay, that discusses the trade offs of every pattern and how they fit together in an application, is immensely helpful.
Wizened enterprisers looking for new material will not find much new here, but surely the point of patterns catalogues are to get down on paper the practices of those same wizened enterprisers, not to strike off in new directions. Therefore, an experienced developer should see this as a way to organise what they already know, and maybe in doing so, reveal some new insights.
A newcomer to enterprise development will definitely get a lot out of this, as the underpinnings to the plethora of modern enterprise applications are laid bare. You're not going to become a Hibernate, Struts or EJB expert from this book, but you should at least have a clue about what problems they're trying to solve.
As usual, Fowler manages to be a model of clarity, while still injecting regular touches of wry humour, quite an achievement given the potentially bone-dry material. If you want to know the basics of enterprise software, start here.
Save time! Pragmatic, simple and effective, 15 Mar 2006
A very well written and pragmatic book about software architectural patterns. For all the different approches, defines clearly the context of the solution, and, in a critical and structured way, shows the differences among then. Is a book about structured and patronized solutions for typical problems in every day life of all programmers. So instead losing precious hours in front of a computer trying to reinvent the wheel, read this book and learn the some of the best practices from some of the best programmers in the world.
Good for high level summary. Not complete picture though, 08 Jun 2004
Don't really like the way book describes a method in one class then a method in another, then switches back to first class after some explanatory text. Would have much preferred to see complete listings, with section headings and explanatory text with same section headings. It's only when you assemble everything together you find there are a lot of missing pieces that are never described. I dived right in to O/R Mapping section and found a lot of method calls and classes that were not discussed further making for only half the picture.
Plus I was a bit disillusioned that author now states on his web site he doesn't have time to respond to emails, so I'll think twice before purchasing another of his books.
A good place to start but you need to do some other work too, 16 Oct 2008
This is a good book, it gives an excellent overview of the requirements for taking the 70-236 Examination and covers all the main points in a clear and consise manner.
The exercises are very useful and I would definitely recommend that you do them when doing your studies. My copy had a 64bit evaluation copy of Exchange 2007 but I had to download the 32 bit evaluation copy from Microsoft's website to work on my home virtual environment.
As well as this book I would heartily suggest that you use Microsoft's Technet Library and webcasts to get the complete picture and to cover everything you need.
Good enough for the 70-236 cert, , 08 Feb 2008
First the negatives
+ Loads of mainly minor editing mistakes everywhere, the main body of the text and Q+A at the end of every chapter,
+ The additional tests on the CD are pretty good, but annoyingly the Q+A are not alligned with the book. In most cases you have to go through 2 chapters before being able to test yourself.
+ In the last chapter LCR is not taken through its logical conclusion.
+ The online site does not provide an errata/corrections list.
Postives
+ Covers the material well enough
+ Each chapter has at its end a Q+A section, to re-enforce learning.
+ You get Exchange 2007 32bit+64bit on to DVD plus additional questions on a CD.
+ loads of screenshots, text pretty easy to read
I used this as my main study tool and passed with 96%, so it does what it says.
I would give it 5 stars, if it didnt has so many annoying errors. I think it is unfair and too harsh to lose more than a single star, as
1. This is a technical book and it has a limited life span (3 years max).
2. The authors and publisher are in a race to produce the book for people like me, I rather have the book now with a few errors rather than wait for another 3 months.
3. Most of the errors probably will be corrected with time.
books ok - needs software, 10 Nov 2007
the book was okish....i feel its not enough just to read the book. You need to have a copy of the software to practice on. NOT SUPPLIED! i thought iwas getting the software with it.
A great book! If you have an Arduino then buy it, 29 Aug 2008
I've recently got into the Arduino microcontroller, it's a really useful little gadget and I'd mastered the basics of it: turning on LEDs, simple serial communication with an LCD display and other basic electronics but I thought I'd bitten off more than I could chew when I bought a bluetooth module to hook the arduino up wirelessly with my computer.
Not so! This book is brilliant and one of the projects early on in the book covered exactly what I needed to know. The projects are detailed and all the code is provided (although it would be better if it was on a CD as well). It has really pushed me to the next level!!
Cracking book, 25 Jun 2008
Although this isn't a manual for the arduino (or related microprocessors) this book will really help if you are doing anything with them. The theory is well presented, well explained Computer Science ... a very good book.
Electronic Fun Without Soldering, 08 Jan 2008
This is a lovely book. It is packed full of projects for building embedded controllers which use almost every practical form of interface technology: lights, motors, switches, blue-tooth, rfid, USB, etc. Just about anything you might like to try. Then the book's three great strengths emerge: you don't need to solder, electronics modules are low-cost, and the software is free. All of the projects are assembled using breadboard and wires, removing one difficulty in this age of surface mount chippery. The Arduino controller is advertised in Europe for 22 euro's, and the software is available as Open Source. Together these put projects into the price range of smart, dextrous 10 year olds with doting parents. The projects are very well illustrated with circuit diagrams and close-up pictures showing the details of assembly. For anyone who wants to go beyond the constraints of lego mindstorms, or just build computer control then have it disappear inside every day objects this is the book of experiments and techniques to get. I think every Computer Science or Engineering undergrad. should take a course using this book. Excellent value. Amazon should sell the controller and key modules to make the whole experience seamless.
Sane introduction to a complex subject, 12 Sep 2007
Title says it all, really. This is a 'What?' and 'Why?' book, making the point that SOA is a business strategy rather than an IT one (to the extent that there's not a single line of code in the book). The author's clear conception of what SOA is, and their honest appraisal of the risks and benefits, makes a refreshing change to the TLA-laden waffle that some other titles descend into.
The sections that summarise the SOA offerings of specific vendors will soon age; but the bulk of this book will remain useful for several years ahead. Recommended.
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Customer Reviews
One seminal essay. The rest, repetitive and out of date., 29 Jan 2008
For sure the Mythical Man Month was a seminal essay back then. This is worth reading for sure. But the rest of the book is very out of date, and very repetitive. It gets a bit wearing too hearing the old line that hardware has advanced a thousand fold and software hasn't. Er, played any computer games lately?
I'd recommend reading the Mythical Man Month elsewhere if you can find it online and save the time, money, and effort reading the whole book.
Time better spent reading a book on Agile, or XP I would think. A bit outdated..., 01 Aug 2007
Bought this book on the recommendation of a friend, bought "Debugging the Development Environment" on the recommendation of my boss and would probably recommend neither for todays fluidic environments. Mythical Man Month contains a somewhat outdated view of software development, more suitably apt for an age when only long time development projects for mainframes existed and Web/PC development had not been heard of.
Still relevant in parts to large waterfall based development projects, not helpful with RAD/Extreme and other more modern, small team development methods and probably only a useful read if you are new to project teams and/or have not worked in an IT environment Orinal text is brilliant, 03 Apr 2007
The 1975 text is genius like essay No Silver Bullets at the end part of the book. At the very final essay is completely different.
At the final pages (207 and onwards) for some reason Mr Brooks felt that he needs to start defending his original text against critics. Fighting with critics is pointless and makes one me only to feel a shamed behalf of Mr Brooks. The "absolute must read" in software engineering, 29 Aug 2006
I was working for several years in software development, exposed to systems engineering context before reading this book. I think Brooks was so right so long ago that this is "the absolute must read book" on software engineering for anyone interested.
Brooks writes in each chapter about different concerns that affect Software Engineering. The chapters include experiences the author had during his work in IBM back in the 70s. This makes it even more interesting since you actually learn about history of the craft. Note that the main content was written a while ago, but, much of it still applies in today's environment.
This edition includes the original essays and adds new content that comment on the book, the evolution of the field and what the author thinks is still applicable and what not.
As a whole it is very readable and many times fun to read. IMO this is a must read for anyone working in software engineering. A genuine classic - a truly seminal work, 17 Dec 2004
One of the best books ever written about software development and computing in general. Yes, it has dated in places but even so it is still very interesting and often incredibly insightful. The title essay (about how throwing additional people at an already late project simply makes it even later) and the essay about Second System Syndrome at particularly good. It ought to be (but rather sadly is not) a must read for everybody working in IT.
Good survey, but recent development trends burdons, 27 Jul 2007
Good book. Covers a lot of ground and gives a good survey of the field. Time is on its back, however. The use of web frameworks such as Struts or Spring, and the use of ORM tools such as Hibernate or JPA makes much of the book "redundant". Such tools although solving a lot of practical problems, also introduces many new ones. Maybe a new edition of the book should cover such ground.
Useful but J2EE biased, 30 Jul 2006
I'm a .NET developer and, since the book advertises the fact that it covers .NET as well as J2EE I had high hopes. By and large it lived up to them but in some places I think it let itself down.
In particular the majority of the code is in Java. I don't mind mentally mapping from Java to C#, however its the differences between the framework libraries that creates the problem as I simply cannot do that mapping.
Despite this the book is OK, if you concentrate on the patterns themselves then your fine but I think Java developers will get far more from it as they're going to learn not just the patterns but details you need to be aware of when applying them.
key book for enterprise patterns, 29 Jul 2006
Even if you find enterprise stuff immensely dull, dealing with databases and web pages is a pretty common task, most of the action in software development revolves around it, and who wants to be completely ignorant of the the alphabet soup of various technologies the IT blogs, books and websites are floating in?
So if you must immerse yourself in this area, what better than a Martin Fowler book? The code is mainly in Java, with a fairly large smattering of C#. It would probably help if you understood some basics of enterprise development in those languages, e.g. servlets and JDBC for Java.
The patterns in this book cover organising domain logic, database mapping and access, web presentation, concurrency, and the book finishes by covering base patterns, a mixture of lower level abstractions of the sort covered in Fowler's first book Analysis Patterns (e.g. Money) and those that bear a close resemblance to the classic vanilla Gang of Four patterns, with an enterprise twist (e.g. Plugin and Gateway). Nearly all the other patterns refer to these, so I don't know why these didn't appear first. Apart from that though, the book is very well organised. And the opening essay, that discusses the trade offs of every pattern and how they fit together in an application, is immensely helpful.
Wizened enterprisers looking for new material will not find much new here, but surely the point of patterns catalogues are to get down on paper the practices of those same wizened enterprisers, not to strike off in new directions. Therefore, an experienced developer should see this as a way to organise what they already know, and maybe in doing so, reveal some new insights.
A newcomer to enterprise development will definitely get a lot out of this, as the underpinnings to the plethora of modern enterprise applications are laid bare. You're not going to become a Hibernate, Struts or EJB expert from this book, but you should at least have a clue about what problems they're trying to solve.
As usual, Fowler manages to be a model of clarity, while still injecting regular touches of wry humour, quite an achievement given the potentially bone-dry material. If you want to know the basics of enterprise software, start here.
Save time! Pragmatic, simple and effective, 15 Mar 2006
A very well written and pragmatic book about software architectural patterns. For all the different approches, defines clearly the context of the solution, and, in a critical and structured way, shows the differences among then. Is a book about structured and patronized solutions for typical problems in every day life of all programmers. So instead losing precious hours in front of a computer trying to reinvent the wheel, read this book and learn the some of the best practices from some of the best programmers in the world.
Good for high level summary. Not complete picture though, 08 Jun 2004
Don't really like the way book describes a method in one class then a method in another, then switches back to first class after some explanatory text. Would have much preferred to see complete listings, with section headings and explanatory text with same section headings. It's only when you assemble everything together you find there are a lot of missing pieces that are never described. I dived right in to O/R Mapping section and found a lot of method calls and classes that were not discussed further making for only half the picture.
Plus I was a bit disillusioned that author now states on his web site he doesn't have time to respond to emails, so I'll think twice before purchasing another of his books.
A good place to start but you need to do some other work too, 16 Oct 2008
This is a good book, it gives an excellent overview of the requirements for taking the 70-236 Examination and covers all the main points in a clear and consise manner.
The exercises are very useful and I would definitely recommend that you do them when doing your studies. My copy had a 64bit evaluation copy of Exchange 2007 but I had to download the 32 bit evaluation copy from Microsoft's website to work on my home virtual environment.
As well as this book I would heartily suggest that you use Microsoft's Technet Library and webcasts to get the complete picture and to cover everything you need.
Good enough for the 70-236 cert, , 08 Feb 2008
First the negatives
+ Loads of mainly minor editing mistakes everywhere, the main body of the text and Q+A at the end of every chapter,
+ The additional tests on the CD are pretty good, but annoyingly the Q+A are not alligned with the book. In most cases you have to go through 2 chapters before being able to test yourself.
+ In the last chapter LCR is not taken through its logical conclusion.
+ The online site does not provide an errata/corrections list.
Postives
+ Covers the material well enough
+ Each chapter has at its end a Q+A section, to re-enforce learning.
+ You get Exchange 2007 32bit+64bit on to DVD plus additional questions on a CD.
+ loads of screenshots, text pretty easy to read
I used this as my main study tool and passed with 96%, so it does what it says.
I would give it 5 stars, if it didnt has so many annoying errors. I think it is unfair and too harsh to lose more than a single star, as
1. This is a technical book and it has a limited life span (3 years max).
2. The authors and publisher are in a race to produce the book for people like me, I rather have the book now with a few errors rather than wait for another 3 months.
3. Most of the errors probably will be corrected with time.
books ok - needs software, 10 Nov 2007
the book was okish....i feel its not enough just to read the book. You need to have a copy of the software to practice on. NOT SUPPLIED! i thought iwas getting the software with it.
A great book! If you have an Arduino then buy it, 29 Aug 2008
I've recently got into the Arduino microcontroller, it's a really useful little gadget and I'd mastered the basics of it: turning on LEDs, simple serial communication with an LCD display and other basic electronics but I thought I'd bitten off more than I could chew when I bought a bluetooth module to hook the arduino up wirelessly with my computer.
Not so! This book is brilliant and one of the projects early on in the book covered exactly what I needed to know. The projects are detailed and all the code is provided (although it would be better if it was on a CD as well). It has really pushed me to the next level!!
Cracking book, 25 Jun 2008
Although this isn't a manual for the arduino (or related microprocessors) this book will really help if you are doing anything with them. The theory is well presented, well explained Computer Science ... a very good book.
Electronic Fun Without Soldering, 08 Jan 2008
This is a lovely book. It is packed full of projects for building embedded controllers which use almost every practical form of interface technology: lights, motors, switches, blue-tooth, rfid, USB, etc. Just about anything you might like to try. Then the book's three great strengths emerge: you don't need to solder, electronics modules are low-cost, and the software is free. All of the projects are assembled using breadboard and wires, removing one difficulty in this age of surface mount chippery. The Arduino controller is advertised in Europe for 22 euro's, and the software is available as Open Source. Together these put projects into the price range of smart, dextrous 10 year olds with doting parents. The projects are very well illustrated with circuit diagrams and close-up pictures showing the details of assembly. For anyone who wants to go beyond the constraints of lego mindstorms, or just build computer control then have it disappear inside every day objects this is the book of experiments and techniques to get. I think every Computer Science or Engineering undergrad. should take a course using this book. Excellent value. Amazon should sell the controller and key modules to make the whole experience seamless.
Sane introduction to a complex subject, 12 Sep 2007
Title says it all, really. This is a 'What?' and 'Why?' book, making the point that SOA is a business strategy rather than an IT one (to the extent that there's not a single line of code in the book). The author's clear conception of what SOA is, and their honest appraisal of the risks and benefits, makes a refreshing change to the TLA-laden waffle that some other titles descend into.
The sections that summarise the SOA offerings of specific vendors will soon age; but the bulk of this book will remain useful for several years ahead. Recommended.
Poor, 22 Nov 2008
How on earth are you supposed to prepare for an exam using a book full of glaring inacurracies and errors? This is made worst by the fact that the reader will typically be covering the topics for the first time, and hence be unaware of the many errors contained within. Left me with the impression that nobody had bothered to proof read the book.
Another issue I came across is that many pages are wasted simply reiterating the same information rather than simply referring back. Eg. having listed the main methods of the Stream class, is it really neccessary to relist those again for every single class that derives from Stream? Surely it would be enough to refer the reader back to the previous table.
Sadly, your options are limited if you're looking for a printed resource to help you with the exam.
Riddled with errors and inconsistent, 28 Mar 2008
I've been developing .Net applications since version 1.0 and wanted to use this book to polish what I know and fill in any gaps. Unfortunately this book has proved to be almost of no use whatsoever.
The first hard lesson to learn is that the book MUST be read alongside the substantial list of corrections available on the Microsoft website. If you don't heed this warning you quickly form the opinion that not only has the book not been proof read by a third person but that it's not even be proof read by the authors.
The second major problem is that the combination of authors working on the book has led to an inconsistent style and tone. In one section you might be hand held through an exercise as if you don't know what the keyboard is and a mere handful of pages later you are treated as if you are a developer working on the Framework at Microsoft!
On the whole I found this book is deeply unsatisfying and as pointed out by another reviewer possibly only worth the contents page as a guide to what the exam might contain as the book itself and the questions on the CD ROM have too many errors to be used as a credible study tool.
Most errors I've seen in a technical book, 10 Mar 2008
This book has an unbelievable amount of errors, Microsoft's website has to give 4 separate errata web pages for the 214 errors they admit to in this book - and I still found more mistakes that weren't in the errata - and there are even mistakes in the corrections.
Avoid this book, you would be far better off using the msdn library to research the exam topics.
Good Table of Contents, 18 Dec 2007
Only useful for the table of contents as a guide of what to revise. The book will give you a decent overview, but it has quite afew mistakes and makes some areas unnecessarily complicated. I would suggest buying a different book and make sure it covers the contents of this book.
It seems to me there is a conflict of interest in this book it written buy Microsoft so its not necessarily within their interest for you to pass first time. The questions on the CD are alot different to the exam. I would suggest looking at Brain Dump, Test King, Trancenders et al, if you sole aim is to pass.
Good Source for the exam, 17 Sep 2007
This Book is good source for the exam and does its job.
I needed to supplement it with MSDN library to pass the exam.
This book is not a reference Book for professionals.
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Customer Reviews
One seminal essay. The rest, repetitive and out of date., 29 Jan 2008
For sure the Mythical Man Month was a seminal essay back then. This is worth reading for sure. But the rest of the book is very out of date, and very repetitive. It gets a bit wearing too hearing the old line that hardware has advanced a thousand fold and software hasn't. Er, played any computer games lately?
I'd recommend reading the Mythical Man Month elsewhere if you can find it online and save the time, money, and effort reading the whole book.
Time better spent reading a book on Agile, or XP I would think. A bit outdated..., 01 Aug 2007
Bought this book on the recommendation of a friend, bought "Debugging the Development Environment" on the recommendation of my boss and would probably recommend neither for todays fluidic environments. Mythical Man Month contains a somewhat outdated view of software development, more suitably apt for an age when only long time development projects for mainframes existed and Web/PC development had not been heard of.
Still relevant in parts to large waterfall based development projects, not helpful with RAD/Extreme and other more modern, small team development methods and probably only a useful read if you are new to project teams and/or have not worked in an IT environment Orinal text is brilliant, 03 Apr 2007
The 1975 text is genius like essay No Silver Bullets at the end part of the book. At the very final essay is completely different.
At the final pages (207 and onwards) for some reason Mr Brooks felt that he needs to start defending his original text against critics. Fighting with critics is pointless and makes one me only to feel a shamed behalf of Mr Brooks. The "absolute must read" in software engineering, 29 Aug 2006
I was working for several years in software development, exposed to systems engineering context before reading this book. I think Brooks was so right so long ago that this is "the absolute must read book" on software engineering for anyone interested.
Brooks writes in each chapter about different concerns that affect Software Engineering. The chapters include experiences the author had during his work in IBM back in the 70s. This makes it even more interesting since you actually learn about history of the craft. Note that the main content was written a while ago, but, much of it still applies in today's environment.
This edition includes the original essays and adds new content that comment on the book, the evolution of the field and what the author thinks is still applicable and what not.
As a whole it is very readable and many times fun to read. IMO this is a must read for anyone working in software engineering. A genuine classic - a truly seminal work, 17 Dec 2004
One of the best books ever written about software development and computing in general. Yes, it has dated in places but even so it is still very interesting and often incredibly insightful. The title essay (about how throwing additional people at an already late project simply makes it even later) and the essay about Second System Syndrome at particularly good. It ought to be (but rather sadly is not) a must read for everybody working in IT.
Good survey, but recent development trends burdons, 27 Jul 2007
Good book. Covers a lot of ground and gives a good survey of the field. Time is on its back, however. The use of web frameworks such as Struts or Spring, and the use of ORM tools such as Hibernate or JPA makes much of the book "redundant". Such tools although solving a lot of practical problems, also introduces many new ones. Maybe a new edition of the book should cover such ground.
Useful but J2EE biased, 30 Jul 2006
I'm a .NET developer and, since the book advertises the fact that it covers .NET as well as J2EE I had high hopes. By and large it lived up to them but in some places I think it let itself down.
In particular the majority of the code is in Java. I don't mind mentally mapping from Java to C#, however its the differences between the framework libraries that creates the problem as I simply cannot do that mapping.
Despite this the book is OK, if you concentrate on the patterns themselves then your fine but I think Java developers will get far more from it as they're going to learn not just the patterns but details you need to be aware of when applying them.
key book for enterprise patterns, 29 Jul 2006
Even if you find enterprise stuff immensely dull, dealing with databases and web pages is a pretty common task, most of the action in software development revolves around it, and who wants to be completely ignorant of the the alphabet soup of various technologies the IT blogs, books and websites are floating in?
So if you must immerse yourself in this area, what better than a Martin Fowler book? The code is mainly in Java, with a fairly large smattering of C#. It would probably help if you understood some basics of enterprise development in those languages, e.g. servlets and JDBC for Java.
The patterns in this book cover organising domain logic, database mapping and access, web presentation, concurrency, and the book finishes by covering base patterns, a mixture of lower level abstractions of the sort covered in Fowler's first book Analysis Patterns (e.g. Money) and those that bear a close resemblance to the classic vanilla Gang of Four patterns, with an enterprise twist (e.g. Plugin and Gateway). Nearly all the other patterns refer to these, so I don't know why these didn't appear first. Apart from that though, the book is very well organised. And the opening essay, that discusses the trade offs of every pattern and how they fit together in an application, is immensely helpful.
Wizened enterprisers looking for new material will not find much new here, but surely the point of patterns catalogues are to get down on paper the practices of those same wizened enterprisers, not to strike off in new directions. Therefore, an experienced developer should see this as a way to organise what they already know, and maybe in doing so, reveal some new insights.
A newcomer to enterprise development will definitely get a lot out of this, as the underpinnings to the plethora of modern enterprise applications are laid bare. You're not going to become a Hibernate, Struts or EJB expert from this book, but you should at least have a clue about what problems they're trying to solve.
As usual, Fowler manages to be a model of clarity, while still injecting regular touches of wry humour, quite an achievement given the potentially bone-dry material. If you want to know the basics of enterprise software, start here.
Save time! Pragmatic, simple and effective, 15 Mar 2006
A very well written and pragmatic book about software architectural patterns. For all the different approches, defines clearly the context of the solution, and, in a critical and structured way, shows the differences among then. Is a book about structured and patronized solutions for typical problems in every day life of all programmers. So instead losing precious hours in front of a computer trying to reinvent the wheel, read this book and learn the some of the best practices from some of the best programmers in the world.
Good for high level summary. Not complete picture though, 08 Jun 2004
Don't really like the way book describes a method in one class then a method in another, then switches back to first class after some explanatory text. Would have much preferred to see complete listings, with section headings and explanatory text with same section headings. It's only when you assemble everything together you find there are a lot of missing pieces that are never described. I dived right in to O/R Mapping section and found a lot of method calls and classes that were not discussed further making for only half the picture.
Plus I was a bit disillusioned that author now states on his web site he doesn't have time to respond to emails, so I'll think twice before purchasing another of his books.
A good place to start but you need to do some other work too, 16 Oct 2008
This is a good book, it gives an excellent overview of the requirements for taking the 70-236 Examination and covers all the main points in a clear and consise manner.
The exercises are very useful and I would definitely recommend that you do them when doing your studies. My copy had a 64bit evaluation copy of Exchange 2007 but I had to download the 32 bit evaluation copy from Microsoft's website to work on my home virtual environment.
As well as this book I would heartily suggest that you use Microsoft's Technet Library and webcasts to get the complete picture and to cover everything you need.
Good enough for the 70-236 cert, , 08 Feb 2008
First the negatives
+ Loads of mainly minor editing mistakes everywhere, the main body of the text and Q+A at the end of every chapter,
+ The additional tests on the CD are pretty good, but annoyingly the Q+A are not alligned with the book. In most cases you have to go through 2 chapters before being able to test yourself.
+ In the last chapter LCR is not taken through its logical conclusion.
+ The online site does not provide an errata/corrections list.
Postives
+ Covers the material well enough
+ Each chapter has at its end a Q+A section, to re-enforce learning.
+ You get Exchange 2007 32bit+64bit on to DVD plus additional questions on a CD.
+ loads of screenshots, text pretty easy to read
I used this as my main study tool and passed with 96%, so it does what it says.
I would give it 5 stars, if it didnt has so many annoying errors. I think it is unfair and too harsh to lose more than a single star, as
1. This is a technical book and it has a limited life span (3 years max).
2. The authors and publisher are in a race to produce the book for people like me, I rather have the book now with a few errors rather than wait for another 3 months.
3. Most of the errors probably will be corrected with time.
books ok - needs software, 10 Nov 2007
the book was okish....i feel its not enough just to read the book. You need to have a copy of the software to practice on. NOT SUPPLIED! i thought iwas getting the software with it.
A great book! If you have an Arduino then buy it, 29 Aug 2008
I've recently got into the Arduino microcontroller, it's a really useful little gadget and I'd mastered the basics of it: turning on LEDs, simple serial communication with an LCD display and other basic electronics but I thought I'd bitten off more than I could chew when I bought a bluetooth module to hook the arduino up wirelessly with my computer.
Not so! This book is brilliant and one of the projects early on in the book covered exactly what I needed to know. The projects are detailed and all the code is provided (although it would be better if it was on a CD as well). It has really pushed me to the next level!!
Cracking book, 25 Jun 2008
Although this isn't a manual for the arduino (or related microprocessors) this book will really help if you are doing anything with them. The theory is well presented, well explained Computer Science ... a very good book.
Electronic Fun Without Soldering, 08 Jan 2008
This is a lovely book. It is packed full of projects for building embedded controllers which use almost every practical form of interface technology: lights, motors, switches, blue-tooth, rfid, USB, etc. Just about anything you might like to try. Then the book's three great strengths emerge: you don't need to solder, electronics modules are low-cost, and the software is free. All of the projects are assembled using breadboard and wires, removing one difficulty in this age of surface mount chippery. The Arduino controller is advertised in Europe for 22 euro's, and the software is available as Open Source. Together these put projects into the price range of smart, dextrous 10 year olds with doting parents. The projects are very well illustrated with circuit diagrams and close-up pictures showing the details of assembly. For anyone who wants to go beyond the constraints of lego mindstorms, or just build computer control then have it disappear inside every day objects this is the book of experiments and techniques to get. I think every Computer Science or Engineering undergrad. should take a course using this book. Excellent value. Amazon should sell the controller and key modules to make the whole experience seamless.
Sane introduction to a complex subject, 12 Sep 2007
Title says it all, really. This is a 'What?' and 'Why?' book, making the point that SOA is a business strategy rather than an IT one (to the extent that there's not a single line of code in the book). The author's clear conception of what SOA is, and their honest appraisal of the risks and benefits, makes a refreshing change to the TLA-laden waffle that some other titles descend into.
The sections that summarise the SOA offerings of specific vendors will soon age; but the bulk of this book will remain useful for several years ahead. Recommended.
Poor, 22 Nov 2008
How on earth are you supposed to prepare for an exam using a book full of glaring inacurracies and errors? This is made worst by the fact that the reader will typically be covering the topics for the first time, and hence be unaware of the many errors contained within. Left me with the impression that nobody had bothered to proof read the book.
Another issue I came across is that many pages are wasted simply reiterating the same information rather than simply referring back. Eg. having listed the main methods of the Stream class, is it really neccessary to relist those again for every single class that derives from Stream? Surely it would be enough to refer the reader back to the previous table.
Sadly, your options are limited if you're looking for a printed resource to help you with the exam.
Riddled with errors and inconsistent, 28 Mar 2008
I've been developing .Net applications since version 1.0 and wanted to use this book to polish what I know and fill in any gaps. Unfortunately this book has proved to be almost of no use whatsoever.
The first hard lesson to learn is that the book MUST be read alongside the substantial list of corrections available on the Microsoft website. If you don't heed this warning you quickly form the opinion that not only has the book not been proof read by a third person but that it's not even be proof read by the authors.
The second major problem is that the combination of authors working on the book has led to an inconsistent style and tone. In one section you might be hand held through an exercise as if you don't know what the keyboard is and a mere handful of pages later you are treated as if you are a developer working on the Framework at Microsoft!
On the whole I found this book is deeply unsatisfying and as pointed out by another reviewer possibly only worth the contents page as a guide to what the exam might contain as the book itself and the questions on the CD ROM have too many errors to be used as a credible study tool.
Most errors I've seen in a technical book, 10 Mar 2008
This book has an unbelievable amount of errors, Microsoft's website has to give 4 separate errata web pages for the 214 errors they admit to in this book - and I still found more mistakes that weren't in the errata - and there are even mistakes in the corrections.
Avoid this book, you would be far better off using the msdn library to research the exam topics.
Good Table of Contents, 18 Dec 2007
Only useful for the table of contents as a guide of what to revise. The book will give you a decent overview, but it has quite afew mistakes and makes some areas unnecessarily complicated. I would suggest buying a different book and make sure it covers the contents of this book.
It seems to me there is a conflict of interest in this book it written buy Microsoft so its not necessarily within their interest for you to pass first time. The questions on the CD are alot different to the exam. I would suggest looking at Brain Dump, Test King, Trancenders et al, if you sole aim is to pass.
Good Source for the exam, 17 Sep 2007
This Book is good source for the exam and does its job.
I needed to supplement it with MSDN library to pass the exam.
This book is not a reference Book for professionals.
Not for a developer, 01 Dec 2008
As a developer interested in SOA I bought this book hoping to learn about service design and best practices. I found this book very dry and did not feel that I got much from the book. It is the first book I have bought that I have not completed. (I got 3/4 of the way before losing the will to read.)
Awful, 08 Nov 2008
This is certainly one of the worst books I've read. My main complaints are:
1) The book is incredibly slow/tedious and boring, though I should have expected that after reading some of Erl's other books.
2) The style of SOA described is, in my view, not workable for most companies. For example its focussed on upfront design and entity services with lots of reuse. A few google searches will show that this is not the only approach you can take and in my view a business oriented SOA, using agile approaches and wrapping coherent domain models is a totally valid alternative.
In any case I wouldn't recommend anyone read this, instead I'd recommend that people look at Enterprise SOA which is a far more interesting read.
A must-read for SOA practitioners, 28 Jan 2008
Great book!
Thomas Erl documents a set of guidelines for effective design decisions to make SOA real.
This book fills the gap between the pubblications that cover SOA in pure conceptual terms and those that deal with the details of web service implementations.
Each chapter cuts through the hype of SOA by giving clear definitions, guidelines, and metrics that link the conceptual, logical and physical aspects of a Service Oriented Architecture.
This series is going to become for SOA what "Design patterns" of the "Gang of Four" has been for Object Oriented design.
I am looking forward to reading the next pubblication: SOA Patterns.
Comprehensive SOA Manual, 19 Dec 2007
Thomas Erl's books are of extremely high quality, have masses of information packed within the covers but still remain readable and practical. I've undertaken a complex new SOA initiative and have relied heavily on the information within this book, from first principals through to detailed case studies the book has been my guide and I find it now in a "well-thumbed" state on my shelf. Indispensable.
Very practical guide, 27 Sep 2007
I've heard some people describe Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) as a 'silver bullet' that can solve all IT and business problems. Their less enthusiastic colleagues have described SOA as the IT 'flavour of the month'. Like most things, the truth lies somewhere between the two extremes.
Thomas Erl gives a very practical and understandable explanation of SOA and service design as really the next evolution of good software engineering. There are many SOA buzzwords and concepts that are used rather haphazardly by people in the software industry. Erl explains them all in a precise manner that will really cement your understanding of the underlying design principles whether you have a little or a lot of experience. This is a good book to both read now and use as a reference later.
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Customer Reviews
One seminal essay. The rest, repetitive and out of date., 29 Jan 2008
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