It is mainly outdated: many topics like graphics hardware and UI design are no more relevant for today's standards. Some topics are presented in great detail, others are barely explained. It should be also noted that this book is really math intensive, even when it is not strictly necessary. But it
... (continue)
It is mainly outdated: many topics like graphics hardware and UI design are no more relevant for today's standards. Some topics are presented in great detail, others are barely explained. It should be also noted that this book is really math intensive, even when it is not strictly necessary. But it has the best description of 3D transformations algebra using a matrix form for equations in homogeneous coordinates. The best in the market for this subject. I'm really looking forward for the new edition that will be out in a few months. By the way, don't expect working code here: it uses only pseudo-code for algorithms. The C part of the book uses SPHIGS, an outdated graphics library: I hope the next edition will use OpenGL for its explanations, expecially for raster algorithms.
What this book is and what this book is not? This is not a book neither mysql, nor sql language, nor database management. Examples are left unexplained, some critical topics are left uncovered, others are left to author's intuition, chapters are bad organized, there is a sense of non-logical organiz
... (continue)
What this book is and what this book is not? This is not a book neither mysql, nor sql language, nor database management. Examples are left unexplained, some critical topics are left uncovered, others are left to author's intuition, chapters are bad organized, there is a sense of non-logical organization all over the book. If this is your first book about mysql, you will "teach yourself" nothing about mysql. If not, you simply don't need this book. I suggest to spend money for this book to buy an ink cartridge and some paper to print out the official mysql manual. This book has definitively no mean.
I generally hate "Teach yourself in 21 days" series by Sams, but this book is something different. Donna Martin explains concepts gradually and with great style. No long examples with hard to read source code. All the code is simple, fits the point and is very productive. This book covers all argume
... (continue)
I generally hate "Teach yourself in 21 days" series by Sams, but this book is something different. Donna Martin explains concepts gradually and with great style. No long examples with hard to read source code. All the code is simple, fits the point and is very productive. This book covers all arguments you need to begin GTK+ programming, from simple label management to advanced selections and drag'n drop techniques. The weeks are well organized, you'll never feel lost. The sensation is you're well guided trough GTK+ features and concepts. The poster included with this book is very useful, especially during the first week, when you are trying to figure out how the GTK+ class hierarchy works. Even if this book covers GTK+ 1.2, don't worry. All the material presented here works with the 2.x series. What you have to learn are concepts, and the author is a master in doing this. Once you are familiar with concepts presented here, buy and study "Developing Linux Applications with GTK+/GDK" by Eric Harlow. You'll have all the skills required to master more advanced documentation about GTK+. Finally, read the "GTK+ 2.0 tutorial" available for free from the GTK+ website to "update" your knowledge to the latest advances in GTK+ programming. It will be a snap. Great book. Highly recommended. Hope Donna will write a new edition entirely updated for GTK+ 2.x series.
My personal library about Algorithms and Data Structures.
"Algorithms and Data Structures" is a huge field. Lot of algorithms and data structures are used in nowadays computer software of variuos kinds. Not all data structures or algorithms on them are adequate for solving a particular problem, so you must have some skills to say which one is "better" than
... (continue)
"Algorithms and Data Structures" is a huge field. Lot of algorithms and data structures are used in nowadays computer software of variuos kinds. Not all data structures or algorithms on them are adequate for solving a particular problem, so you must have some skills to say which one is "better" than another in your particular situation. Despite it's name, this book is an almost complete reference to achieve this skills. Sure, material presented here is not so easy and the book is not something you can read while watching MTV. Each chapter presents an argument in a very concise and formal way. Too much for some people, but this is not bad. Just skipping what you don't/want understand is the primary key to appreciate this book. When you will master the main concepts of the argument you are interested, it's a pleasure returning on those parts you have precedently skipped. Parts about sorting and selections (heapsort, quicksort, linear sorting, etc.), common data structures (stacks and queues, hash tables, search binary trees, red-black trees), advanced data structures (B trees, binomial heaps, Fibonacci's heaps etc.) and algorithms on graphs (depth first traversal, minimum set cover, Kruskal and Prim's algorithms, Bellman-Ford's method, Dijkstra's algorithm) are well written and you can consider this parts as a reference for the future. But this book as bad things too. The pseudocode, even if comprehensible, is not so much readable. In some cases it's too much dependent by the contest and this increase your understanding time. Chapters about math reference are not clear at all. Too much arguments without too much explanations, especially sections about algorithm's analisys. The last part of this book about complements and extensions could be easily dropped off from the book. Material presented here don't fit in an introductory text about algorithms and needs other knowledge a person who is reading this book obviously don't has. A note on what that particular data structure is useful for would be very appreciated. Good book. Well spent money.
This book is divided in 10 chapters for a total of about 600 pages. Part about fundamentals give some description of complexity analisys and performance monitoring. Some sorting algorithms and some basic search algorithms are presented here. This section is not so exhaustive, still useful. It contai
... (continue)
This book is divided in 10 chapters for a total of about 600 pages. Part about fundamentals give some description of complexity analisys and performance monitoring. Some sorting algorithms and some basic search algorithms are presented here. This section is not so exhaustive, still useful. It contains descriptions on how to abstract data types. Part about array and structures explains how aggregate data types can be used to build more complex data types and teach how to manipulate them. This section is not very useful and it is not projected in a "production environment". Things are explained in a too semplicistic way and don't fit real world data structure construction. This is the sensation you will have all over the book. Data structures explained in this book works only with integer numbers. In a real world you will not build data structures to store integers only. This approach simplify greatly source code and comprehension on how a particular data structure WORKS, but will not give you a good vision on how a real data structure should be PROGRAMMED. So this book remains more academic than practical. For theoretical explanations about data structures there are more exhaustive books around, like "Introduction to Algorithms" by Cormen, Leiserson and Rivest. The material presented in this book is complete and updated and surely this is a great reference. Explanations are well given. So consider five star if you buy this book for understanding how data structures work, only three star if you need this book to have some implementations to look at. Not bad but implementations could have been written in a more robust way.
Computer Graphics
It is mainly outdated: many topics like graphics hardware and UI design are no more relevant for today's standards. Some topics are presented in great detail, others are barely explained. It should be also noted that this book is really math intensive, even when it is not strictly necessary. But it ... (continue)
It is mainly outdated: many topics like graphics hardware and UI design are no more relevant for today's standards. Some topics are presented in great detail, others are barely explained. It should be also noted that this book is really math intensive, even when it is not strictly necessary. But it has the best description of 3D transformations algebra using a matrix form for equations in homogeneous coordinates. The best in the market for this subject. I'm really looking forward for the new edition that will be out in a few months. By the way, don't expect working code here: it uses only pseudo-code for algorithms. The C part of the book uses SPHIGS, an outdated graphics library: I hope the next edition will use OpenGL for its explanations, expecially for raster algorithms.
Sams Teach Yourself MySQL in 21 Days
What this book is and what this book is not?continue)
This is not a book neither mysql, nor sql language, nor database management.
Examples are left unexplained, some critical topics are left uncovered, others are left to author's intuition, chapters are bad organized, there is a sense of non-logical organiz ... (
What this book is and what this book is not?
This is not a book neither mysql, nor sql language, nor database management.
Examples are left unexplained, some critical topics are left uncovered, others are left to author's intuition, chapters are bad organized, there is a sense of non-logical organization all over the book. If this is your first book about mysql, you will "teach yourself" nothing about mysql. If not, you simply don't need this book. I suggest to spend money for this book to buy an ink cartridge and some paper to print out the official mysql manual. This book has definitively no mean.
Sams Teach Yourself GTK+ Programming in 21 Days
I generally hate "Teach yourself in 21 days" series by Sams, but this book is something different.continue)
Donna Martin explains concepts gradually and with great style.
No long examples with hard to read source code. All the code is simple, fits the point and is very productive. This book covers all argume ... (
I generally hate "Teach yourself in 21 days" series by Sams, but this book is something different.
Donna Martin explains concepts gradually and with great style.
No long examples with hard to read source code. All the code is simple, fits the point and is very productive. This book covers all arguments you need to begin GTK+ programming, from simple label management to advanced selections and drag'n drop techniques.
The weeks are well organized, you'll never feel lost. The sensation is you're well guided trough GTK+ features and concepts. The poster included with this book is very useful, especially during the first week, when you are trying to figure out how the GTK+ class hierarchy works.
Even if this book covers GTK+ 1.2, don't worry. All the material presented here works with the 2.x series. What you have to learn are concepts, and the author is a master in doing this.
Once you are familiar with concepts presented here, buy and study
"Developing Linux Applications with GTK+/GDK" by Eric Harlow.
You'll have all the skills required to master more advanced documentation about GTK+. Finally, read the "GTK+ 2.0 tutorial" available for free from the GTK+ website to "update" your knowledge to the latest advances in GTK+ programming. It will be a snap.
Great book. Highly recommended. Hope Donna will write a new edition entirely updated for GTK+ 2.x series.
Introduction to Algorithms, Second Edition
"Algorithms and Data Structures" is a huge field.continue)
Lot of algorithms and data structures are used in nowadays computer software of variuos kinds. Not all data structures or algorithms on them are adequate for solving a particular problem, so you must have some skills to say which one is "better" than ... (
"Algorithms and Data Structures" is a huge field.
Lot of algorithms and data structures are used in nowadays computer software of variuos kinds. Not all data structures or algorithms on them are adequate for solving a particular problem, so you must have some skills to say which one is "better" than another in your particular situation. Despite it's name, this book is an almost complete reference to achieve this skills. Sure, material presented here is not so easy and the book is not something you can read while watching MTV. Each chapter presents an argument in a very concise and formal way. Too much for some people, but this is not bad. Just skipping what you don't/want understand is the primary key to appreciate this book. When you will master the main concepts of the argument you are interested, it's a pleasure returning on those parts you have precedently skipped.
Parts about sorting and selections (heapsort, quicksort, linear sorting, etc.), common data structures (stacks and queues, hash tables, search binary trees, red-black trees), advanced data structures (B trees, binomial heaps, Fibonacci's heaps etc.) and algorithms on graphs (depth first traversal, minimum set cover, Kruskal and Prim's algorithms, Bellman-Ford's method, Dijkstra's algorithm) are well written and you can consider this parts as a reference for the future.
But this book as bad things too. The pseudocode, even if comprehensible, is not so much readable. In some cases it's too much dependent by the contest and this increase your understanding time. Chapters about math reference are not clear at all. Too much arguments without too much explanations, especially sections about algorithm's analisys. The last part of this book about complements and extensions could be easily dropped off from the book. Material presented here don't fit in an introductory text about algorithms and needs other knowledge a person who is reading this book obviously don't has.
A note on what that particular data structure is useful for would be very appreciated. Good book. Well spent money.
Fundamentals of Data Strucures in C
This book is divided in 10 chapters for a total of about 600 pages.continue)
Part about fundamentals give some description of complexity analisys and performance monitoring. Some sorting algorithms and some basic search algorithms are presented here. This section is not so exhaustive, still useful. It contai ... (
This book is divided in 10 chapters for a total of about 600 pages.
Part about fundamentals give some description of complexity analisys and performance monitoring. Some sorting algorithms and some basic search algorithms are presented here. This section is not so exhaustive, still useful. It contains descriptions on how to abstract data types.
Part about array and structures explains how aggregate data types can be used to build more complex data types and teach how to manipulate them.
This section is not very useful and it is not projected in a "production environment". Things are explained in a too semplicistic way and don't fit real world data structure construction. This is the sensation you will have all over the book. Data structures explained in this book works only with integer numbers. In a real world you will not build data structures to store integers only. This approach simplify greatly source code and comprehension on how a particular data structure WORKS, but will not give you a good vision on how a real data structure should be PROGRAMMED. So this book remains more academic than practical. For theoretical explanations about data structures there are more exhaustive books around, like "Introduction to Algorithms" by Cormen, Leiserson and Rivest.
The material presented in this book is complete and updated and surely this is a great reference. Explanations are well given.
So consider five star if you buy this book for understanding how data structures work, only three star if you need this book to have some implementations to look at. Not bad but implementations could have been written in a more robust way.