Steven Mandel

It's quite clear from reading this book that Peter Gasston is very knowledgeable about CSS 3 and, as he points out in the preface, this book is a culmination of five years of work that he has spent writing about CSS3. There is a clear order to the chapters. The earlier chapters ... (more)

Beginning C# Object-Oriented Programming is a well-written book that meets the stated goals of its author: "The target audience for this book is the beginning C# programmer who wants to gain a foundation in object-oriented programming along with C# language basics." This book wor... (more)

It's a daunting task to author a book of over 1000 pages and maintain the interest of the reader. Matthew MacDonald is able to do so for several reasons. He maintains a good sense of humor and he is not afraid to express his opinion about a topic. Two examples come to mind. The f... (more)

I never thought I would ever describe a technical book that I have reviewed as delightful but that is exactly how felt when I read the book SQL Antipatterns by Bill Karwin. The book's subtitle ‘Avoiding the Pitfalls of Database Programming' really summarizes the goal of the book ... (more)

In recent years there has been a growing interest in applying design patterns to various aspects of programming. One of the more well-known patterns is the Model-View-Controller pattern or MVC. This pattern has a great deal of appeal in the web design environment because it offer... (more)

There are certain authors whose books I look forward to reading because they don't just repackage a manual but offer practical real-work examples and advice. One such author is Scott Mitchell. He has revised his previous version of this book to encompass ASP.NET 4 . This book is ... (more)

There are several authors of .NET books who not only know their material but are able to present the information in a practical manner. One such author is Scott Mitchell. This book is well written and is divided into four parts with a total of 24 chapters. While the level of the ... (more)

Murach's SQL Server 2008 for Developers is an upgrade from an earlier version that was written for SQL Server 2005. It employs the Murach approach of dual pages that repeat and enhance the concepts being presented on each page. As the authors have done with previous releases of S... (more)

This book is an update of an earlier version that was written for SQL Server 2000. It employs the Murach approach of dual pages that repeat and enhance the concepts being presented on each page. If you're new to SQL Server 2005 you'll gain a lot from this book. It has three goals... (more)

Buy this book! I don't often give such a blanket endorsement but this book works on many levels. It's one of the few books that really addresses the needs of more experienced ASP.NET developers as well as providing a well thought out text that can be used by instructors. There's ... (more)

This book contains 14 chapters and an appendix. Its subtitle is "the ultimate ASP.NET beginner's guide." As its two titles imply, this book covers the basics on a lot of ASP.NET topics. The chapter titles convey this: ASP.Net basics, VB and C# programming basics, constructing ASP... (more)

With the release of a major new version of SQL Server, it's incumbent on developers to take time to refresh and enhance their knowledge of this new version of T-SQL (Transact SQL) and stored procedure programming. The challenge is to find a good book that will cover the highlight... (more)

I'm sure that there are times when you visit your favorite bookstore to look at new books on your favorite .NET topics and you cringe at the weighty tomes sitting on the shelves. You open these books and page upon page of continuous print swims before your eyes, but you figure it... (more)

Microsoft released VB6 at the start of 1999, which is almost 8 years ago. It's hard to imagine that there are developers who are still actively using VB6, but from the blogs and letters to the editors of many .NET magazines that I have read, it seems that this is truly the case. ... (more)

There are many ways to approach the presentation of a major upgrade to a software platform and how to address its various audiences. O'Reilly has decided that to get seasoned ASP.NET developers up to speed, it has added three new books to its Developer's Notebook series. The idea... (more)

Lately, it seems that every computer book that you find is a weighty tome of at least 500 or 600 pages. You groan just thinking about having to schlep another monster-size book around. It is so nice then to inform you that sometimes good things do come in small packages. This boo... (more)

You might be wondering what this book is all about. As the author explains, the dictionary's definition of a gotcha is "an unexpected usually disconcerting challenge, revelation, or catch". Mr. Subramaniam defines the gotchas in his book as "those things that pop up unexpectedly ... (more)

The "cookbook" format has become quite popular in recent years as a vehicle for presenting ideas and code. Each chapter focuses in on a particular topic. Each topic contains a number of "recipes" that build upon other recipes to present ideas that may be of value to developers. A... (more)

One of the most powerful tools that a developer can use for validating data is the regular expression. A regular expression makes use of pattern matching to determine if an item fits within the definition of the pattern. Some validation that might take many lines of code to valid... (more)

After reading this book, I spent a great deal of time trying to figure out where it fits in the ASP.NET scheme of things. The author states that the book was written because "a lot of smart developers are having some problem making the transition to the object-oriented world of A... (more)