Distributed

Please dont get carried away by the wonderful reviews for this book by some readers. This is an expensive book but definitely not worth the money. The book should be named Java I/O programming rather than a network related title.

Most of the book deals with Java streams and the network concepts are very few. At some point the book looks like an API reference than a full fledged text. This info is available in Java Docs for free . The font selected for printing the book is a real turn off. Another disaster from Manning .

I will suggest reading Java Network programming title form O'Reilly which is due for release in July 2000 ( do not buy the 1997 edition ).

This book was so-so on the line of examples, but made an excellent reference for common functions and return types. I am not ashamed to have bought this book in conjunction with TCP/IP Sockets in Java: A Programmers Guide ; in fact i'm quite happy i did. The latter book proved to be more beneficial in my Advanced java class (Summer / 03). It proved a decent companion, and still does to this day.
All in all, don't by this book and expect examples, just good reference material and moderately documented methods and return types.
- Hope it was helpful

Although some reviewer said the I/O coverage is too much for a networking book, I think it is good to cover that because networking is based on I/O stream, and the coverage of I/O in this book makes you able to write advance java network program with the lowest-level programming technique, i.e. I/O stream (though Java itself is high-level oriented) that makes your application more powerful and your coding smarter. Though not explored deep enough, other broad-ranged topics in this book, with all the excellent real-world examples, will assist you to choose a best method in Java Network API for you implementation.

This is my third book on SAP R/3. This book is another example of poorly written book on SAP. Though the topics are categorized very carefully and intelligently, the text in the book is in the language that requires 'translation in English.' The terms are either ill defined or if defined, then they have been used inconsistently. It was hard to get out the concept behind a topic, since authors give scattered information without focusing on main idea. Also, authors could have written the business processes (SAP modules) in more like step-by-step (or recipe) method, rather than in 'composition' format.

There's a lot of relevant information in this book, but the authors have a repetitive, rambling, and sometimes vague style that makes it anything but a pleasure to read. You really have to work to sift the wheat from the chaff here. It could be easily condensed to half its size without losing any information.

This is the ideal book for anyone who is either directly involved with the implementation of an R/3 sysetm or who is planning on implementing it in the near future. I showed it to a couple of my friends who are SAP consultants & IT project managers and they found it to be an invaluable source of information.

I think this book is not worth buying, because there are too many features that was just left off by the author, using always the same excuse: "Well, this feature is not commonly used, so I won't disscuss it any further in this book". Besides that, it gives you a big averall coverage of COM. If you want to go to the inners of COM, this book is not for you. It was not for me.

A very interesting and worthwhile book, if you want to learn about Interfaces, COM programming, Type Librarys, DCom and all that stuff. It provides a good set of examples, and some very fine sample code, such as a type library viewer, which is almost worth the price of the book itself. Well worth a read if you want to integrate COM into your delphi apps.

This is not your typical 1200 page Delphi biceps-builder. This book is compact, well written and to the point. No filler, just meat. The chapters develop each topic with very good examples that illustrate COM and some good coding practices to boot. One caveat is that he does not always give each step if your working through the examples so you may have to do a little detective work to find out how a variable or interface showed up where it did. Take heart though, all the code can be downloaded"~ from the New Riders web site and the examples run fine. He also affords you the curtsey of compiling the examples for you so you can run them even if you don't have the latest version of Delphi. The book can be used equally well with Delphi 3 through 5."~ server by the second chapter!"~ done does not implement this interface directly. It is much more practical to let COM do the marshaling for you.

What version of SAP are all theses people using? Most production systems are using 4.6c or higher. This book is for 3.0. Almost all the screens and menu paths have changed. This was a good book in it's day. But that day has long past. This book must be updated to version 6.20. Can someone suggest a current FI/CO book?

I found it very explicit, and I am a french guy discovering SAP english lingo. It shows you all the important areas to be mastered by a SAP consultant / key user, all the main features of the software. They created a learning process through the book which I found very helpful for some matters which were a little bit old for me (e.g. CO).

Drawbacks : 3.1h screens (hey! it was published in 2000!), asset accouting is missing, the price... but the book looks good in your bookshelves :)

In conclusion: with this book + the SAP online help + F1 anyone could understand the FICO customizing.

Most of the books available are just describing the functionalities of FICO instead of giving you the REAL nitty-gritty involved in configuring a particular option. Some say that the book is out-dated with screen shots from 3.x. Fine, but do you have any other book in the market which gives you the essential basics from configuration point? And, I am sure the basics have not changed, much, inspite of latest releases.

This book proves to be a winner for every one - the FICO beginner-consultant, experienced consultants, cross-functional consultants, users etc

Till such time some one comes up with another book, with latest versions' screen-shots and with asset accounting/product costing put together in the same volume, this is the ONLY book any one can refer to in FICO configuration.

There is not a whole lot of information in this book. Even when the author is trying to present some information, it is not done in a clear and understandable way. Really disappointed.

Well I'm pleased to say that Tony Redmond has produced the best exchange 5.5 book currently available. I work with exchange and recently completed my mcp exams in both exchange 5 and 5.5 so spent a lot of time and money reading lots of exchange material.

There are lots of books out there that claim to be able to give you all the knowledge you need to pass the mcse, what I like about this book is that it is not an mcse book. This book covers exchange in a corporate production environment.

The author goes into the most indepth detail of the exchange architecture that I have ever come across. Utilising his experience at Digital as the world's number one implementor of exchange, he uses many real world examples of how to deploy maintain and support exchange 5.5.

If your going for the exchange mcp exam save your money, don't buy the 101 mcse exchange guides that are out there buy this book. Also if your considering deploying exchange, or are simply a systems person who would like to know more about the product, buy this book.

This is a great book on Exchange. As well as the technical information there's alot of details on how you should design and implement Exchange - and at the same time the author takes the time to explain why. The thing I like best about the book is that whilst Tony Redmond is obviously a fan of Exchange, he is not afraid to point out its limitations.

Upon opening this book I was excited. Until I try to work with the examples and found that the examples were based on jini 1.0.
The current jini release is 1.2.1 and some of the packages are different. I guess if I knew jini and javaspaces I could modify the examples to work with the new jini version, but then I wouldn't need the book.

Given the newness of the JavaSpaces technology, I find it difficult to locate good programming examples that utilize the API. As with many of the Java tool kits, the distributed javadocs serve their intended purpose as a good API reference, but are laborious to use for learning new programming concepts. These two areas are where "JavaSpaces Principles, Patterns, and Practice" excels. The book is an excellent resource for introducing the fundamental principles behind space-based programming and distributed data structures. The examples re-enforce these concepts while presenting the JavaSpace API.

For anyone using the JavaSpaces technology, I highly recommend this book. It has been an invaluable resource for me.

JavaSpaces Principles, Patterns and Practice (The Jini Technology Series) by Eric Freeman, Susanne Hupfer and Ken Arnold.

A very clear and exciting book. TMO a must for anyone in computer science. Mandatory literature on distributed computing. "Evergreen". Clearly written, accessible, and with a lot of simple, yet good examples. Elegant and simple.

Oh yes, jumps) that kept me focused on the issue at hand, yet very curious about what would be described next. Hard to close the book and get some sleep...

Outline of book on

Admittedly, I've not read this book, but I've seen the code this book has produced in a real production environment and it's not a lot of fun to maintain, even by an experienced Delphi developer. The code was taken from the text exactly and it is among the most difficult to maintain and most error-prone parts of our applications.

So if everyone thinks it's such a great book why are there only a handful of reviews? And the review about the "whimsical" table of contents is exactly right-- I imagine that is what killed this book. Maybe that's a good thing. This is a technical book that should be offering practical advice not playing word games with the TOC.

PROS: 1. The artwork, layout and general organization of the book was wonderful. The CD was complete, and works well.

CONS: 1. Overpriced. 2. The book uses a lot of unusual words in it's text and chapter titles that I find distracting. For example: -Odoriferously Organic -Symboling Syncretic Structures -Flailing Failing Falls -Surveying Succulent Sequels

...and these kinds of phrases are littered throughout the text. This sort of thing can make it difficult to understand what the chapter is about, when scanning the table of contents.

The book progressivley leads the reader through the building of one application throughout. If you want to jump ahead to a later chapter, you expect to be able to take the completed code from chapter 8 (for example) and start working with chapter 9. Well, the chapter nine code won't run.

So, you may have to read the entire book, and do everything in it (regardless of what's on the CD) to simply go through the excercises in a later chapter.

I loved this book. I purchased a used copy on the advice of a friend as was amazed. Mr. Callan did predict the future. I read and disagreed with several of these other reviews. I then wrote Mr. Callan and asked about the book, any sequels and use of the material in commercial applications. He wrote back. I include his email below.

"Kenneth,

Thanks for the kind words, especially after my book has been out for so long. You had mentioned sales...the book met the expectations of my publisher and helped the publisher to break into more technical books. My last royalty check for that book arrived sometime last year, which was a pretty good run after all.

I have not written a sequel for several reasons. First, I make a great deal more income from my consulting services than from writing. I wrote this book because the publisher asked me to write the book. Second, I have learned since the book was published that most people think tactically rather than strategically. As such, most people do not relish gaining insights on their own, independently. They prefer to have things given to them. I believe that nothing is really learned until one gets the "Aha" experience. Some readers experienced this, but many did not. Third, the book predicted the future of software five years into the future. Some of the predictions are still coming to fruit. Why mess with what works? Fourth, gone are the days that single individuals write 800 page books by themselves. I certainly will not be writing a tome this long again.

As to your first question...To my knowledge I had received only one inquiry regarding use of the code in the book for production applications. This involved a gentleman in Germany that wanted to adapt the Date Time visual component for a PIM application. I had indicated that the component in the book was designed more to illustrate several points about aggregation and visual aggregation in particular. I advised him to expose many more options and properties than were done in the book and to add the capability of supporting foreign date formats. As the examples were intended to illustrate techniques and approaches, I do not believe that companies would be using the book examples verbatim without additional enhancement.

As to your question of maintainability, the subject of maintainable software currently fills entire books. My book discusses at length the need for unit testing prior to integration testing. The book also spends much time attempting to goad the reader into designing software so as to anticipate change. If readers took this advice then we would have much more robust and maintainable software.

In summary, I believe that the company that you mentioned may not have had well trained and skilled staff or the company applied the principles discussed in my book incorrectly. I have heard from several executives that purchased multiple copies of the book to infuse their respective staffs with the solid principles in the book. The book was written for the experienced programmer seeking to refine their skills and to best prepare for the future. Those that purchased the book for a quick fix have been disappointed.

Cheers,

Jim Callan"

Micro$oft is famous for its ability to push out new development technologies. The reason behind this planned obsolesence is obvious, every time they come out with something new people will have to open their wallets to "keep up."

DCOM is just another disposable technology. As such, it was a complete failure; one that the marketing folks at M$ have tried to bury as quickly as possible under an avalanche of .NET hype.

DCOM was hard to port because, like COM, it is based on a binary standard (i.e. a standard that changes when you leave x86 and go to 64-bit RISC). Not only that, but DCOM doesn't support distributed transactions. Worst of all, DCOM is a very, very complicated technology to use. Three strikes... YOU'RE OUT!

The half-wit MBAs at Micro$oft realized their mistake and have abandoned DCOM, leaving it forever in the backwaters where the only record of its sorry existence are stupid books like this.

I have no idea why someone would want to buy this book. Folks, this is a dead technology. It is no more. It is an ex-techology. If you buy this book, you are lying to yourself. This book will sit an gather dust, unless you can find more productive uses for it...like burning it to stay warm.

This is a essential reference book for the real windows programmers and the limit between the theroy and practical faces of COM programming.

A well organized book which explains the engineering behind DCOM. Especially part III (Remoting Architecture) is the essence of the book. This part explains the engineering behind InProcs and OutProcs, Marshaling, IDL, Security, Network Protocol, and MTS and COM+. The very first two parts are Intro to the COM world and the facilities provided by COM. These two are handled in a clear way so that a newbie to the COM world could understand the topic easily. Even COM Professional might not feel bore while reading the book. So this is a very useful reference for all levels of COM Professionals. Most of the examples are implemented in all the three languages viz VB, Java and C++.

I bought the book hoping to get a good start on learning Analysis Services. Chapter one gives a decent overview of terms and definitions for a beginner - but I know there are probably alternate places on the web to find this same information.

Then I reached chapter two and couldn't believe what I saw. It was the same exact tutorial I had just done in SQL Server Analysis Services. Yes, when you install Analysis Services there is a tutorial section in the application. I had only completed the first tutorial section and then went to buy this book.

I can only imagine the rest of the chapters in the book are the remaining tutorials in the application. Even the description on the back of the book almost matches the titles in the application tutorial.

Of course, I won't waste my time checking, but I feel pretty confident the tutorial and the book are pretty identical. Just from flipping through that 2nd chapter I could see they used the same exact screen shots, the same instructions, etc.

I plan to return the book and just go through the remaining tutorials.

This is a good book that will help you get started on Microsoft's SQL Server Analysis Services.
You'll get to learn how to build a Cube, build a Dimension and the different types of Measures.
You'll learn how to determine the type of dimensions you have.
You'll learn how to do some basic tricks.

But you won't learn any of the advanced topics that I was hoping for.
This book doesn't go into any details about how historical data is handled.
How to do some basic MDX programming.
How to make custom incremental cube processing.
etc.

This is a beginner's book, as the title suggests, that will take you from clueless to comfortable in Analysis Services in a short period of time.

That's why I gave it 4 stars.

This book in no way substitutes a good book on OLAP and/or data warehousing (such as Kimbal's books).

Not only is this book useful, it has the added advantage of being well written. I picked it up after spending a few days wandering around in Books On Line and reading Erik Thomsen's book for some theoretical background. This book was a great help to bringing all the various aspect of OLAP objects together in the specific context of MS Analysis Services.

After I purchased the book I noticed the one-star reviews given by two readers. They did not do anyone any favors with those reviews. One reviewer admits he did not read beyond the first chapter, and the other complains that custom rollups and unary operators are never mentioned in the book. Apparently he never got to page 105, where both are discussed. I think you are safe to ignore those jokers.

Enjoy 'Step by Step' for what it is. If you want more on MDX, be prepared to buy another book - I recommend Spofford.

This book is horrible if you want to learn how to code JINI. The good points are the wonderful RMI primer in the Appendix, and nice explanations of what is actually going on for each aspect of a JINI network, chapter by chapter.
This book can serve as a nice conceptual reference when trying to understand JINI.
The wrox book on JINI is also very good, and good to learn the coding.

Also, don't expect any email to this author to be answered...

Very comprehensive, but two minor problems:

1. Maybe I'm missing something here, but nowhere in the book is the API actually listed. It is discussed at length and used in examples, but I can't find any explicit description of exactly what classes, interfaces, and exceptions constitute the JINI API. An appendix would be handy.

2. A minor annoyance - the author frequently uses the construction "some of you..." or "most of you...", using the second person plural. I am not a group of people, I am only me. I paid for this book. Talk to me in second person singular.

At just over 6cm (2.5 inches), it's a thick, heavy, book and the spine bends alarmingly as you read it. Despite this it's surprisingly readable, but I wouldn't want to carry it about with me.

This book covers Jini 1.1, and takes great pains to spell out everything you need to do compile and run the examples, as well as listing the code. It's comforting to see complete command lines for Windows and Unix in every case. There are code listings for all of the major areas and a couple of non-trivial worked examples but for a book this size there is not a lot of code. A working knowledge of Java and at least a passing acquaintance with RMI is assumed, but you don't need to know any Jini.

Most of the book is given over to a detailed discussion of the standard Jini services, and how to use them. Each service is covered at two levels - using the basic APIs and using Sun's supplied utility classes. There is also a lot of discussion of the complexities inherent in distributed systems, and how to use Jini to build robust, scalable "self-healing" networks. Scattered through the text are "Core Notes" which offer more detail or different perspectives on the material, and these are always interesting.

Too big for a reference, but a detailed and well-structured book to get you up to speed on Jini quickly and efficiently.