Computing Internet Books

This book, much like Professional Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio (Wrox Programmer to Programmer), gives good examples, but only for what is explained. If you are interested in doing something like converting hardware robotics applications to simulations, then this is NOT the book for you. Also, to do the examples, you would require to have the robots, and each chapter makes use of a different robot.

If you are only interested in the hardware and not the simulation, then this book is excellent. However simulations (one of the KEY features in MSRS-MRDS) is sorely missed. Especially in conversion between hardware and simulation projects.

This book is not very helpful for someone trying to learn MRDS. You would be better off sticking to the tutorials on the MS website. There is very little detail about how to actually get started writing robotics software. The best I can say about it is it references other interesting projects. I wonder if this author is actually a MRDS developer because if she was she would have gone into much more detail about the nuts and bolts of MRDS.

I bought the book because I thought the MSRS tutorials weren't descriptive enough. I was looking for a organized and detailed guide to start using MSRS. This book turned to be useless, it's continuously referencing the tutorials and it does not provide any addiditional information. It uses profusely links to explain things... the author did not realize the the book was going to be printed on paper, so readers could not open those links and would not go to their PCs to hardcode the links in the browser...

There is lack of illustrations and diagrams.

Sometimes I thought that the writer had never used MSRS... and simply,she cut and pasted sentences from the internet to come up with a book...

This book is a good start but I can't wait for the next edition (if there is one). The author attempted too much coverage for the limited number of pages (a little over 200). I have completed all of the Microsoft Tutorials for MSRS and this book is a refreshing change. The author begins with coverage of SERVICES and does not include any illustrations. Microsoft Tutorials and Powerpoint presentations have several great illustrations on SERVICES. Also, the coverage of SERVICES is completed in an orderly manner but not in the same order used in the coding chapters (chapters 5 and later). There are the expected typos, as you expect in a new book. A couple can cause frustration until you figure out what happened.

I will say that MSRS books are very much needed. While MSRS is not a huge software product, it contains several new concepts for many programmers. I have a background in C, C++, C#, and VB. MSRS is best when using C#.

In summary:
1. I would have liked to have had a thicker book (like the one coming out in June from other authors.
2. The author of this book made the decision to only do superficial coverage of MSRS subjects such as Simulation and VPL which I believe will be used quite a bit in academic enviorments and more everywhere in the future. The VPL feature of C# code generation is important and deserved move attention.
3. The author's style of writing is great and very readable. I wish her well and look forward to a 2nd edition.

I would give this book 5 stars, but I only give it 4 stars because there are some minor quirks in getting some recipes to work, possibly due to differences between rails/ruby at the time of publication and the state rails is in now?

Anyway, it's minor things you can work your way through, but which nevertheless show the book's age.

As someone who learns best by example and seeing how it's done, this book was great for me to get familiar with Rails. I have lots of experience with other object-oriented languages and have used many development frameworks. I don't need a tutorial on general object technologies, but I wanted to learn and understand the Rails framework. I don't have any real reason to get to know Rails other than general interest, but with this book I've been able to be productive in working on hobby projects much quicker than without it.

Reading this book is like having access to multiple, experienced Rails developers (including some of those contributing to the core Rails product) that have developed and deployed commercial software on this new, upcoming platform. I hope to have an opportunity to develop product in this technology and know that by owning this product I'm more prepared than ever. Highly recommended.

Look no further .... I would also recommend trying Advanced Rails Recipe which comes out in August '07....

This is one of the best books I have come across for really giving me insight into how easy it is to do some things using Ruby on Rails that seemed massively complicated to do in other web frameworks and languages (Java, etc.) I guess the downside is that it is really hard to keep a book like this up to date, so I am expecting a sequel to come out at some point!

'Rails Recipes' by Chad Fowler is a wonderful book filled with 70 recipes which will automatically improve your Rails skillset and no doubt get you programming faster and better than ever before!!

Pragmatic is never going to win any awards for layout of their books, but the content within more than makes up for the drab interior. I can't list out all 70 tidbits here but I will give the breakdown of chapters:

User Interface Recipes (13)

Database Recipes (17)

Controller Recipes (10)

Testing Recipes (4)

Big-Picture Recipes (22)

Email Recipes (4)

If you use Ruby on Rails and want to be able to accomplish common tasks without rewriting code that already exists, you owe it to yourself to pick up this book and improve your efficiency the moment you turn the front cover over. Wonderful book, great size, solid writing make this an EASY recommendation.

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Skip it-Real basic stuff already available for free from Microsoft online and covered in more useful detail. Definitely not up to the title Sharepoint Bible. There are much better Sharepoint resources for your money that cover scenarios that represent real world tasks you are likely to come across that aren't just a single point & click in the Sharepoint. http://www.amazon.com/Real-World-SharePoint-2007-Indispensable/dp/0470168358 is one example I do recommend.

I started working on sharepoint since 1 year almost , and waiting for issued rich reference for all the ideas and components related to each field supported by practical examples help to handle the most wode issues experienced from standalone to larg servers farm.

I was reccomended this book by a collegue as the only book I would need to get up to speed on MOSS. That was not a very good reccomendation. It is very weak on the setup, configuration and Share Service Provider aspects of managing a MOSS environment. It also has nothing of relevance on doing Web Parts.
What is is very strong in is end user tasks, such as building and maintaining list and document libraries. It also has some great content on customizing the envrinment and branding. The SharePoint Designer is also introduced as well.
If you are a normal office worker who is responsible for maintaining the content for your group or team, this is an excellent book. If you are a network admin or a developer this would be a good book to have, but do not expect anything very deep.

I'm a great fan of the "Bible" series, and bought this book largely on that prior experience. Unfortunately, this one is not a worthy addition to the series, to put it mildly. I'm a new SharePoint site administrator, and was looking for something that would combine pros and cons of various features I could deploy, as well as technical tips and tricks for the site. The authors devote little if no space to explaining key features and why an administrator might, or might not, choose to use them.

For example, Document Libraries are a main feature. My online training devoted an entire course module to them. This book? Four sentences of overview.

Also, you better love numbered lists, because that's a huge part of the book. And most of these lists are simply click-by-click recitations of your steps, without much explanatory detail. For a low level admin being told exactly what to do, someone that can't follow the GUI without being handheld, maybe that person could benefit. But for everyone else...

I will not get my money's worth out of this book, and will be forced to buy something else instead. A big disappointment.

This book will help you think through your deployment strategy as well as clearly explain what the features of the product are for and the best way to configure your environment. A must have!

This is a great book for developers new to Sharepoint development. Covers the basics for coding with the api.

This book is exactly what I needed to bring me up-to-date on the code side of SharePoint 2007. Having a considerable amount of 2003 development under my belt, I was able to use this book to bring me up to speed on the new API features. I found the sections on list events, workflows, and web parts to be the most helpful.

This book is layouted the same as the SDK, however the SDK contains more information. You do get a huge amount of long tables that give a one sentence description of the properties and methods of the objects, not much of a use.
Examples are worthless command-line programs which show how some methods are called but don't really show why you would use them or even the a proper way of using them, they are like the tables of descriptions just fillers.

One thing I was looking for was programming examples on features instead I get a command line program on how to use the write statement to list all the active features on a site. That basically describes this book, alot of filler information and information that has minimal practical use.

I've been looking for a book for SharePoint developers and until finding this book I hadn't found any. Everything on the market is for administrators or really basic programming tasks. This book covers everything from Web Parts to Web Services to the BDC. It's a one-stop shop for all the coding tasks you'll need as a MOSS programmer.

Regarding the bad reviews earlier, did you guys even read the book?

Nothing in here that is not on msdn or googled. They even reprinted some of the errors!! Examples are weak and just reprints of existing info.

Too bad... a disapointmnet of the unleashed series.

Practical Guide to Linux Commands, Editors, and Shell Programming

The book give a solution to one of the most biggest problem of a Linux junior Sys Admin:
How to automate tasks and decrease the amount of time that "waste" for
Regular operations.
Although from first look, the book content look like a "Boring Staff", after reading
It, the reader would improve his theoretical and practical capabilities -
And may help to itself to focus it the real job.
The book give a lots of useful examples that provide a good background
To the theoretical fields.
The only disadvantage from my point of view is that this book don't
Cover Perl and Python (and Optional PHP).
Although one book may not cover all, I hope that the author will write
A second volume that will cover this nice script languages.

This book is exactly what the title states - a practical guide to Linux commands, editors and shell programming. It doesn't teach you how to make all the server software run on your machine. But it does give an excellent and detailed explanation of the commands in the Bash and TC shells, and explains how to write shell scripts. The details the author goes into with the two most common editors (VI and EMACS) was just about right for me. He also has a 250 page reference section on each command in Linux. It's been several years since I used Unix, so this was a great refresher session for me, and it makes a good reference manual when I'm writing new scripts.

The claim that this is a "practical guide to Linux commands . . ." is an overstatement. The coverage of commands is relatively minimal. This volume doesn't really get into any depth or go beyond basic commands. The Command Reference (Part V of the book) is incomplete. It definitely is not a guide to using Linux.

Several editors and a bit of programming are covered , though again the coverage is cursory.

Overall, this is probably an okay reference for experienced Linux users. For people like me who don't use Linux often or in-depth, it is frankly not of very much use.

Jerry

I found this book to be just ok - it covers the basics of Linux and many important/frequently used commands but I am remotely satisfied with this book because the author focuses on stuff that many users probably will find less useful.

The learning curve is quite steep if you're relatively new to Linux - the author is describing very basic stuff like GNU, Linux file systems, simple shell commands and such, and then suddenly rushes into complicated shell programming and scripts.

Few examples from this book that I know I will never use but who knows, other users may find that:

-This book is great if you're into emacs and vi(m) since it dedicates over 100 pages on these two text editors but I prefer using nano so for me these chapters were more or less wasted.
-This book is great if you're into shell programming.

Why spend 100+ pages on vim and emacs when at least some pages could've been dedicated to a Security Section that this book doesn't have?
Perhaps emacs and vim are important because programming requires a good set of text editors..?

The Appendix is great though - there's an extensive collection of commands that can be useful for all newbies and intermediate users.

Someone will probably flame me for this review, saying I should've read the book's title before purchasing it. Yes, you are right - I should've.
But then again, if this book clearly was written for intermediate users, why mention GNU, basics of Linux and its file systems and so forth to begin with?

This is a book that I have been looking for for a long time. I have been looking for a book that takes me into the command line world of Linux but in a methodical way describing all the little options, tips, tricks but also the principles that make Linux shell so powerful.

Book begins with a brief history of Linux and very informative, relevant overview of the system architecture.
It proceeds with the in depth, hands on walkthrogugh the environment, shells, and command line utilities.
There is a very useful and every-day practical exercise at the end of the each chapter.

Book continues with in depth chapters on Linux filesystem, the shell, editors (emacs and vi) and the programming environment including (g)awk and sed.

Book concludes with excellend command reference section (300 pages) and Appendix on regular expressions (superb),
getting help with Linux and keeping the system up to date (using yum and bit torrent).

I could go on at length to describe what this book is but trust me, a promotion for the book that you see on Amazon is accurate. This book is as good as it sounds. It is reviewed by 42 reviewers on Amazon and average score is 4.5 stars out of 5. I give it 5.

I bought this book to help me build a simple website for my smoothie business. I am totally new to Dreamweaver but had some experience in Front Page. I even read the Quickstart Guide to HTML, XHTML and CSS so I had a basic understanding of these codes. Despite that I have spent HOURS trying to fill the gaps that this author leaves out just to follow along with his "step by step" tutorial especially in the css layout section. The images he use for his figures dont even match from one step to the next, its like he's using different screens and examples to make the same point. I dont think the author understands that a huge part of a newbie learning is not just from reading, but from looking at the figures to see if what HE HAS matches what I HAVE. Half the time I was pulling my hair out because my screen was simply not matching his illustrations. I can honestly say I followed along word for word with a highlighter sometimes repeating the section 7 or 8 times word for word and was not getting the results that it showed in the book. Save your money and read back of a cereal box at least then you'll be learning something.

This is the book for my advanced dreamweaver course. It's not a bad book however it is definitely a beginning book. I have already taken a beginning class with a different book and I feel that this book is a review. It's very easy to read and written well and not in a technical manner that's hard to understand. Great buy for anyone just starting out with Dreamweaver.

I am really quite surprised by those who are down on this quickstart book. I think it holds up just as well if not even better then some of the previous Dreamweaver books in the series.

The great thing about the book is that it works so well as a quick reference guide in which it was meant to be used as , amongst other uses that it will meet your needs for.

So if its just having to quickly do some basic tasks with the program like adding links, pictures or frames to a page it will quickly guide through that. But it will dive into the newer aspects of the program like Spry and CSS and teach it in an easy to use and understand manner.

I was a little rusty with the program, not having used Dreamweaver for a few years since I finished my college classes and I was able to jump right back into the program mostly due to this book. Almost any basic question I had it was easily answered mostly due to this book.

Its very informative and will explain clearly what every menu, option and set up situation does so you can get the most out of the Dreamweaver CS3 program.

As great as the book is, and it really is, there are some downsides to the book I do have to admit. One is its really just for the beginner to intermediate skilled person. So you won't be able to build a site like, say Amazon.com with this book. You will need a more advanced oriented book for that task. And you may even wish there was more to offer in the book then just the quick step by step process that guides you through each skill you are trying to learn at the given moment.

But for me, this fit the needs I had just fine . I won't use this program without this quickstart reference book at my side. I highly and greatly recommend this book to any who are using this program. Its ok to forget a few basic things every now and then, this book will easily give you that refreser you needed. Not to mention it will also teach you some ways to do things that you may not have realized you could, making your life that much easier.

Whether its template set ups, setting up the ftp for your site through Dreamweaver, how to fix broken links, checking browser compatibilities or anything else that you want to set up on your newly created page, this book will guide you to an easy and effective path to do so.

Its really the greatest purchase I have made book wise in a long time. Even if you are looking for something more advanced, this book is still must have. It also serves as a great compilation to other more advanced books when you just want to quickly look up something that you wanted to implement.

Bottom line, if you are using Dreamweaver CS3 and need a book to help you get through some of the more confusing elements and menus of it, look no further. You will want to have this book handy at all times and be glad that you have it there. Its saved me many a times from moments of confusion or question and its always lead me to finishing a site successfully.

Get this book. Even if you get others, this is one you don't want to be without.

I am familiar with basic web design and basic HTML. I have used Dreamweaver to put together simple web pages and was looking for a book to help me learn to do more than my limited knowledge allows me to at this point. This book was an utter disappointment.

What you can expect from this book is an assumption of familiarity with earlier versions of Dreamweaver. This book basically tells you about how to use the functions of Dreamweaver, not how to create a web page. It assumes you understand what divs, ids, and classes do, how to create them, how they function on web pages, and why you might want them. It jumps around and you should not expect to get much web knowledge at all out of this book.

I read the other reviews and had to comment.

This book is NOT a technical manual, nor a step-by-step on how to design websites. Rather, it is a COMPANION book on how to use DreamWeaver. If you are familiar with other Adobe products, then you will appreciate that DreamWeaver maintains many similarities. If you are NOT familiar with Adobe products, then you are in for a major learning experience!

Let's get one thing straight right off the bat ... DreamWeaver is a highly complex program that is NOT meant for just any [dingbat] one to pick up on a whim and design the "perfect" website. You actually have to know how to read and understand (X)HTML, you can't just plop a site together without knowing this. Just because you CAN use the WYSIWYG interface doesn't mean you can do that exclusively.

If you are used to using FrontPage, then you have a RUDE awakening when it comes to the difference between that and DreamWeaver.

This book was the required book for the class in Web Design with DreamWeaver that I enrolled in (at an actual school) and completed very successfully.

This book is EXACTLY what the title states: a "quick start". It in no way ever implies that it is anything other than that! It is there as a gentle nudge. It is NOT there as a guided class!

AND, it NEVER EVER states that it teaches CSS ... NEVER!! Maybe you thought that "CS3" was the same as "CSS"??

If you are looking for an entire "class in a book" strictly on DreamWeaver, then I recommend the "Missing Manual" by O'Reilly and/or the "Classroom in A Book" series from Adobe Press.

If you are looking for a book on CSS (cascading style sheets), then you want the "Head First" series entitled "HTML with CSS & XHTML", or the Visual Quick Start book entitled "HTML, XHTML & CSS" ... DUH!! I mean, really - make sure you buy the correct book for what you want to learn! If you don't, then DON'T BLAME THE BOOK!!

I use this book as a reference quite often, and to remind myself how to do certain functions in DreamWeaver. It has a great index, and the appendices are very informative.

Also, the website is as complete as it can be. They give you the links for the resources in the book. There is only one "errata" that relates to using a Mac, and it's listed on the site.

About emailing ... they specifically say to READ THE FAQ'S FIRST. There is a disclaimer about them NOT being able to answer each and every email on page xiv of the book - so quit griping about that! Read the FAQ's, or get a teacher! [such a freakin' whiner you are M.F.Summy.]

I wish people would THINK before posting a negative review. There is value in every book. Before you buy it, look through it either online or in a book store! Whether you bought the proper one for your needs is NOT the book's fault! Grow up!

This book is exactly what I needed. I know several program languages so I just needed a good introduction to syntax and the basic functions. This was what I needed. Thanks.

I'm quite a skilled spreadsheet user, but I'm not a trainned programmer nor ever got any formal trainning in Object Oriented Programming concepts. So VBA was very hard and frustating to deal with, up to now.
Mr Walkenbach covered my expectations with a very easy-to-read text and very usefull also. Plain sure its a first approach text for those who already are fluent with Excel, but this is declared the target reader from beginning. Very good cost-benefit ratio.

The book is poorly written and poorly organized. The book covers very similar types of processes using different syntax without explaining why it used different VB code, so one wonders what why it uses one type of code here and another type of code there. Literally, the book has codes which, when I type verbatim, generates errors. Thoroughly frustrating book. Breezing and useless.

The book is very helpful. If you are surrounded by knowledgeable people who can help you with the details, this will help to expand your foundation and it gives you some excel shortcuts.

I have tried to pick up VBA for Excel a few times, but the pieces just didn't seem to fall together for me. I am in IT, but I don't have a development background. I have solid Excel skills, but still got frustrated with VBA and would put it down. Recently, I had a very specific problem to solve for work and thought I would give it another try.

I decided to get a book with the basics and read it completely first, then try to start coding my project. I was in a hurry so I also got the online upgrade to start reading even before my book got here. I found the book an easy read and occasionally tried a few of the examples as I went along. I got through the book easily in a few days and feel as if I had a good knowledge base to begin.

I am happy to say within 2 weeks, I have completed the project I had first planned and then an even more complex project. I have a third planned now. I used other Excel VBA resources along the way, but have to give credit to this book for getting me started and with the basics so I could even understand where to go next. I see the time and money I invested in this book coming back to me many times over due to the hours and hours of work the macros I have been able to write will save both myself and my team members.

I still have a lot to learn, but I am very satisified with this book. I picked this book because of the other good reviews it has on this Amazon site, so I hope you will find my review helpful to you!!

I bought an SP book from Amazon 8 years ago (which was excellent) when I was using SAP. I was away from the program for awhile, and needed another reference. I bought this, and was extremely disappointed. The price is reasonable, but you will get what you pay for. It may help you with a few basic transactions, but that is all. Keep looking for another reference.

This book concentrates on the transactions you make in the Financial Accounting subset within SAP R/3. There have been several books on setting up the SAP system. This is the first I've seen on understanding just what happens when you make an entry into the system. This includes entries into: General Leder, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, and Asset Accounting.

The layout of this book is by individual transaction organized into five sections. This allows the reader to quickly find what he needs to know about any individual transaction. Example: If a vendor issues you a credit memo you need to make an entry into accounts payable that will reduce the amount you owe him. Under AP you will find a transaction: 'Post Vendor Credit Memo' with the transaction code of FB65. This leads you to page 157, where there is a complete description of this transaction including screen shots, what needs to be entered, what information gets entered by default, and various other information.

The SAP system is so big, and so complex that all possible transactions are not included, but instead the book covers those transactions that will be used day in and day out. This information is contained in other places, but in this book it is organized for quick and handy reference.

Very clear understanding and good comprehension!
All chapters have screenshots that you can follow step by step with no worries...

Actually implementing a content management solution, even for a small company, is a daunting prospect. Not only do you have to consider a myriad of concrete tasks in order to audit, centralize, and reuse your information. You also have to "sell" a major work-style change to numerous players. Even knowing where to start can be overwhelming, and that's where Ann Rockley's book Managing Enterprise Content comes in.

Authoritative and experienced, Rockley acknowledges that enterprise content management is not for everyone (a refreshing change from those pushing cookie-cutter solutions). In cases where content management could solve business problems, Rockley makes her case with calm conviction, breaking the subject down into logical chunks. In particular, her chapters on designing metadata (the "information about information" that is key to effective and scalable content management) and workflow (the designation of who does what, when) are lucid and comprehensive.

Whether your objective is to get a grasp of the subject, sell an implementation to your organization, or just digest what an impending implementation will mean to you, you'll want Rockley's book on your desk.

I came to this book from a very different direction than many (all?) of the other reviewers. I'm a technical writer ("content developer") researching methods and tools for single-sourcing technical documentation. For my purposes, this book was an excellent starting point in recognizing and understanding the considerations that must be taken into account when migrating to a single-source solution (i.e., one tool and set of practices for developing documentation to be delivered in multiple media), defining a new set of practices, and evaluating an authoring tool. I recommend this book strongly to any tech writer/manager who needs help understanding the basics of single-sourcing.

This book's title has probably attracted those interested in Enterprise Content Management. ECM has increasingly become a major buzz in business strategy circles as the information age tidal wave spills over into organizations and floods them with content. We're literally drowning. "Managing Enterprise Content" does not discuss ECM in broad terms, such as structured and unstructured content, email, scanned documents, OCR, ICR, etc. Instead, it focuses on content reuse. To take a simple example, a product brochure, a website, and a press release all include descriptions of a product. Why, the book argues, rewrite that description three separate times for each medium? Why not write it just once, store it in a content management system, and then reuse it over and over again? "Content Modularization" or "Content Reuse" probably describe the goals of this book less confusingly than "Managing Enterprise Content." But, in fairness to the authors, the current title isn't inaccurate, it just lends itself easily to misunderstanding. To reiterate: those looking for a course in Enterprise Content Management conforming to the Association for Information and Image Management's (AIIM) guidelines should look elsewhere.

Nonetheless, those looking for a strategy to manage distributable content throughout an organization should take a look at "Managing Enterprise Content." The focus remains on implementing a "unified content strategy," which translates essentially to an efficient reuse of content. Here the word "content" has a specific sense relating to verbiage authored for a specific use. Product descriptions, mission and vision statements, disclaimers, compliance and regulatory announcements, anything widely distributable qualifies. How does one efficiently manage the creation and the evolution of such content across an organization? This obviously implies some form of centralization (although this pregnant term gets strategically avoided for obvious reasons). And this further implies a software system. But prior to purchasing an expensive application, the business must align itself process-wise to enable content reuse. Otherwise the costly program will sit and rot. The first three parts of the book (I - III), comprising its first twelve chapters, discuss these necessary preparations and walk the reader through to implementation. This progression mirrors, for good reasons, the project management and software development life cycle processes. First, determine the concept or the "why?" of the project (Chapters 1 & 2). Then perform cost benefit analysis (Chapter 3 discusses ROI for content reuse), analyze and prioritize the current content infrastructure, the "As-Is" (Chapters 4 through 6), look to the future by modeling and designing the elements of the system the "To-Be" (Chapters 7 through 11), and finally implement the reusable content infrastructure (Chapter 12). Evaluation of software tools and technology should come before implementation, but the book instead covers these topics in Part IV (Chapters 13 to 18). So it's that easy to implement a unified content strategy? Well, no, not really.

Part V, the book's final section, outlines the inevitable issues that face organizational restructuring. Implementation of a unified content strategy will probably necessitate fundamental changes. Roles will get changes, people moved around, departments will get realigned or reorganized. All of this can sap morale or cause anxiety amongst employees. The author is not an authority on such issues, so this section of the book remains somewhat cursory and high-level. Conflict management gets deferred to a website (the book contains an out of date URL, but the book's website[...] has an updated address), and the advice presented here will probably not surprise anyone. Still, managing change remains an important part of any new implementation and this section, though rudimentary, will at least raise awareness.

Lastly, the appendices contain a grab bag of information. Appendix C, on vendors, has probably suffered from age (these days, a lot can happen in three years), but it may provide some good leads. Appendix B, "Writing for Multiple Media," probably could have appeared in the main body of the book; it contains important details not covered elsewhere.

Overall, the book does give a plausible outline for implementing the proposed strategy. Some of the chapters may seem overly simplistic or overlong to those experienced with system implementations or business process management. At the very least, "Managing Enterprise Content" may introduce some readers to the concept of enterprise content reuse. That concept remains a challenging one that will likely mean different things to different organizations. So this book does not provide the final word on the subject, nor does it intend to. An organization can only use this book as a blueprint or a guidepost for implementing its own unified content strategy.

This book is an absolute must for Content Management projects. It touches all of the important aspects: Technical, functional and process. There is something for all stakeholders in a EMS/CMS project.

Especially good about this book is that the parts that are not your direct job are still very readable, understandable and interesting. It provides valuable insights in other peoples jobs and reasoning.

Coming from the technical side and with a lot of experience in setting up systems and also information architecture and DTD design, for me this book contained several new insights and some very helpfull checklists.

I am in the middel of a CMS project now, but I wish I had read it sooner.

Are you overwhelmed with the need to create more content, faster, customized for more customers, and for more media than ever before? Do you consider storing documentation on a server as an effective a content management system? Do you want to learn how content management will empower your organization? The answer to these questions and many more is covered in Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy by Ann Rockley with Pamela Kostur and Steve Manning of The Rockley Group. The Rockley Group is one of the leading providers of content management methodologies.

Managing Enterprise Content provides concepts, strategies, guidelines, processes, and technical options that will prepare you to meet the increasing demands of creating, managing, and distributing content. It describes techniques that will help you define your content management requirements, build your vision, design your content architecture, select tools, and overcome obstacles of managing enterprise content. It will help you to visualize the spectrum of enterprise content, the requirements for effectively creating, managing, and delivering content, and the value of developing a content strategy for your organization. That¡¦s a lot of information for one person to understand. That¡¦s why the book is written for three audiences: content managers, information architects, and authors. Managing Enterprise Content follows the same methodical approach that Rockley uses to teach content management in seminars and workshops.

I was expecting the book to jump into the technologies to implement a content management system. But that¡¦s not how Rockley presents content management. She begins with The basis of a unified content strategy and describes how content is created, who creates it, why authors work in isolation, and the consequences of isolation and centralizing content. The solution is to consolidate content in a definitive source, and a process that encourage authors to work collaboratively. The next step is to assess opportunities for content reuse. If you have never heard the term ¡¥reusing content,¡¦ you may know it as single sourcing. You probably already reuse content (i.e. copy and paste), which works well until the information, and everywhere that it appears, must be updated. Content reuse involves using existing content components (e.g. paragraphs, sections, and chapters) to develop new documents. Implementing a unified content strategy is a costly investment: tools, technologies, and training are not cheap. Investment costs are incurred in technology, training and consulting, and lost productivity.

Examples are given to calculate the cost of authoring tools, content management systems, training and consulting¡Xa content management system is not a plug and play, one size fits all solution. The return on investment is achieved by reduced time to market, reduced cost of product content development, improved accuracy and quality of content, and reduced manufacturing defects. The examples are especially helpful because you will need to create a proposal to convince budget holders and management on the return on investment of a content management solution.

Are you ready to buy a content management system? Not yet, read further. ¡§Performing a substantive audit: Determining business requirements¡¨ begins with an introduction on how to determine goals that you want a unified content strategy to solve, for example:
„h Reduce the time to plan, write, review, approve, and publish
„h Create flexible content that is easily reused to create information products for multiple products and multiple media
„h Reduce the cost of translation by reusing existing translations.
„h Make content more accessible; separating content from format makes it possible for content to be displayed automatically in a format appropriate to the disability.
Rockley describes how to identify opportunities where a unified approach of content management (i.e. planning, design, authoring and revision, version control, access control, publication and delivery to its audiences) is beneficial.

You are probably wondering how this all fits together, and Rockley explains how. ¡§Design¡¨ describes information modeling and metadata, how to personalize content, how to design a workflow, and how to implement your design.

An information model is critical for a unified content strategy because it provides a framework for documentation. It's the 80/20 rule: 80% of your effort is planning and analysis, and 20% of your effort is implementing the solution with whatever tools are selected to accomplish the goals the organization has set for itself. The level of detail of your information model depends on the level of reuse you want to achieve.

Many desktop publishing tools can dynamically publish personalized letters and forms by matching elements such as names and address¡Xa content management system can do the same. I was confused why design is given so much attention. Why not conduct the audit, buy the tools, and worry about design later? You can¡¦t. The design of information, reuse models/maps, meta data and workflow are all tool independent tasks. Regardless of the tools selected, you must first analyse and then design a content or information model so that it can be presented to IT staff and software vendors. Doing this in advance makes it possible for you to ask vendors to respond to a request for proposal and document how their tools can help you satisfy your specific challenges. Analysis provides an opportunity to collect metrics. From your information models, you can identify how much of your content could be reusable and where.

Educated on how content is used, where and how, you are better prepared to match the tools and technology to the origination¡¦s goals to deliver a unified content management solution. ¡§Tools and technologies¡¨ offers guidelines for evaluating tools. With so many tools and technologies to choose from, selecting the one that best satisfies your goals and budget is a challenge. Your best advantage is to be an educated consumer before you shop around. Rockley recommends that you identify your needs, and criteria for evaluating product options in terms of usability, training provided, supporting documentation provided, technical support, upgrades and enhancements, implementation time, cost, vendor viability, partnerships the vendor has to provide an expanded solution, and references. Where do you being looking?

Some good sources are conferences where vendors present authoring solutions such as the annual STC conference, electronic mailing lists, technology magazines, Web sites and online discussion boards and newsgroups. A supplement to ¡§Tools and technologies¡¨ is Appendix C, ¡§Vendors,¡¨ which is an overview of products, features and vendors. Appendix D, ¡§Tools Checklist,¡¨ which lists sample questions to ask a vendor. When you have narrowed your list of potential vendors, Rockley suggests that you either contact the vendors and request onsite demonstrations or send vendors an RFP (request for proposal).

¡§Tools and technologies¡¨ covers XML because it provides interoperability between applications. XML is not a set of tags that you apply to documents; it is a specification that sets rules for the creation of tag sets that you apply to documents. For instance, if you selected tools first and then designed your content, you might find that some of the content does not behave the way you expect it to. One solution would be to use XSLT to transform the content and move it around where you want it. While this may be an acceptable solution, it¡¦s not. The conversion costs time, money, and resources. There is no need to convert or transform content if it¡¦s modelled in XML from the start.

Rockley describes strategies for collaborative authoring, how to separate content from format, how to manage change and transition. An example is given to illustrate how the same product description is reused effectively to create a show catalog, brochure, press release and Web site. It¡¦s easy to understand that people find it hard to believe that content somebody else created could possibly meet their needs. After all, Rockley notes, it was written for a different purpose and media, and the author could not have known their customers/audience/requirements. However, if content is written for a different purpose, audience, or media without considering how the content can be reused, it¡¦ won¡¦t work.

Don¡¦t be optimistic that everybody will be willing to convert to a better way of authoring and managing content. Rockley presents issues to consider when planning your change management strategy such as overcoming resistance from opponents and descriptions of new and modified roles. She recommends creating a role for an enterprise project coordinator and information technologist; a change to existing roles business owners or analysts and information architects; and new skill sets (p. 413-415). Unintentionally overlooked are system administrators to maintain the content management system and to ensure that users adhere to standards.

Don¡¦t be overly optimistic that everybody will want morph into new roles and change their authoring habits. An XML system is best suited and ideal for a large documentation department for all content authoring or an organization where every author uses the XML authoring tool. A team of ten or fewer will be constrained to balance XML implementation and documentation project duties, and learn how to use the (new) content management system. Even if you assign the complex task of XML implementation and creation of information models, workflows and DTDs to a consultant, the consultant will require guidance from the team. These are only a few of the constraints to overcome to assure a successful unified content strategy that Rockley expertly describes how to overcome.

Managing Enterprise Content concludes with a checklist for implementing a unified content strategy, suggestions for writing for multiple media, sample questions to ask vendors, a checklist for the tools required to implement a unified content strategy, and the importance of content relationships in version control. Pay close attention to usability. The rollout of a content management system, authoring tools, and authoring standards affects every member of the organization. If it¡¦s not easy to learn, easy to use, easy to support, and easy to maintain, authors will revert to the traditional way of writing and managing content.

Read Managing Enterprise Content before you invest in a content management system and consulting fees. You will be an educated and informed customer and user when you begin shopping for a content management solution of your own.

What is better? Replacing delegations with inheritance or replacing inheritance with delegation?

The answer is the ultimate answer to most software engineering decisions: DEPENDS, there is always a trade-off that has to be analyzed according to the context! This book addresses those trade-offs very well.

Moreover, I like the examples in the book, good to use in class when teaching. They generate interesting discussions.

This book is just a real easy read, with lots of good information. You can pretty much flip to any page in the book, read, and learn something. You don't have to read chapter by chapter - it's just real easy to jump into.

Lots of tips seem self-evident, but I doubt they would be to rookie programmers. It's definitely a book new programmers should get their hands on early.

I was referred to this book from a colleague after a quick discussion on "Replace temp with Query" in our projects code base.

I thought I knew it all as a software developer, but reading this book, I soon came to realize that as a software developer I was leaving a legacy of code that was not at the standard it should be.

This book opened my eyes to some really simple concepts, for example, when trying to understand code someone else has written (or yourself in some cases) take the time to re-factor the code (i.e. Extract Method) so that the code is understandable, since most of the work is spent in trying to understand the code in the first place. This concept of modifying code as you understand it is superb.

I must say I was skeptical at first but the benefits are really starting to show. This book is written with the knowledge of Martin Fowler, and as such is written with experience of what it is like to be a developer in a commercial environment, for example, trying to explain to management the trade-offs of re-factoring first instead of "tacking on" that new feature. Something that is difficult in any environment.

This book will by no means solve your problems, but it will empower you with a new found love to make the IT project(s) you work on better (i.e. not thinking of the now but the future) practice some of the smaller concepts this book presents on a daily basis and the rewards are well worth it, break those bad habits today.

Refactoring is the process of changing a software system in such a way that it does not alter the external behavior of the code yet improves its internal structure. It is a disciplined way to clean up code that minimizes the chances of introducing bugs. In essence when you refractor you are improving the design of the code after it has been written.

When I first got this hardcover in December 2000, there were no integrated development environments (IDE) that would have easily allowed applying refactorings like Extract Method or Inline Method. Now, in 2008, any IDE like Delphi allows to refactor in one click. So now this book is even more valuable than it was at a time of first publication.

This book is required reading for anyone who is serious about software development. If you want to go from good to great then do yourself a favor and get this book.