Systems Analysis & Design Books - Page 5

An Introduction to Programming Using Alice

Charles W. Herbert

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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Programming -> Introductory & Beginning -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

intuitive for object oriented programming 4 out of 5 stars.
12 of 15 people found this review helpful.

For non-programmers who want to learn an object oriented language, Alice is a nice choice. At least as a pedagogic vehicle. As far as I know, there are no actual [or few] actual jobs for Alice programmers. But at the primary or secondary school level, Alice gets the main concepts common to many commercial OO languages across to students.

Herbert introduces these concepts at a deliberately slow pace. Suitable for most of the targeted audience. The screen captures of the user interface are quite pretty, and help to hold the reader's attention. As compared with learning C++, say, where there is no intrinsic GUI. Plus, the mapping of conceptual objects to graphical objects in Alice is its main attraction. Very intuitive.

Editorial Review:

Alice: An Introduction to Programming Using Alice is designed to make learning programming easy for the novice user, with the help of Alice. Object-oriented programming can be much more challenging to learn than traditional programming. Alice is a software tool that was developed to help teach object-oriented programming in a less syntax-intensive and highly motivating environment. It addresses some of the barriers that currently prevent many students from successfully learning to program.

Paper Prototyping: The Fast and Easy Way to Design and Refine User Interfaces (Interactive Technologies)

Carolyn Snyder

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Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Do you spend a lot of time during the design process wondering what users really need? Do you hate those endless meetings where you argue how the interface should work? Have you ever developed something that later had to be completely redesigned?

Paper Prototyping can help. Written by a usability engineer with a long and successful paper prototyping history, this book is a practical, how-to guide that will prepare you to create and test paper prototypes of all kinds of user interfaces. You'll see how to simulate various kinds of interface elements and interactions. You'll learn about the practical aspects of paper prototyping, such as deciding when the technique is appropriate, scheduling the activities, and handling the skepticism of others in your organization. Numerous case studies and images throughout the book show you real world examples of paper prototyping at work.

Learn how to use this powerful technique to develop products that are more useful, intuitive, efficient, and pleasing:

* Save time and money – solve key problems before implementation begins
* Get user feedback early – use it to focus the development process
* Communicate better – involve development team members from a variety of disciplines
* Be more creative – experiment with many ideas before committing to one

*Enables designers to solve design problems before implementation begins

*Five case studies provide real world examples of paper prototyping at work

*Delves into the specifics of what types of projects paper prototyping is and isn't good for.

SAP R/3 for Everyone: Step-by-Step Instructions, Practical Advice, and Other Tips and Tricks for Working with SAP

Jim Mazzullo, Peter Wheatley

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Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Small Business & Entrepreneurship -> New Business Enterprises

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

SAP R/3 for Everyone is the nontechnical user's guide to working with SAP R/3, the leading business enterprise software product in the world. Written and road-tested by experienced SAP R/3 users and trainers, this book saves typical SAP R/3 users time and trouble by providing them with the universal skills needed to work with any module of this complex software. SAP R/3 can be used effectively by anyone who can perform a handful of simple procedures that are employed in nearly every SAP R/3 transaction. The authors explain these procedures in plain English, using illustrations and real-world examples.After a brief explanation of the architecture and operation of SAP R/3, readers get step-by-step instruction in *Logging on and off, managing passwords, and customizing the SAP application window and screens*Navigating between screens with menu folders, transaction codes, and the menu bar*Setting up customized favorites folders with quick links to the initial screens of transactions and other useful resources*Understanding the four basic transaction types*Working on initial screens, including tips and techniques for entering codes, searching for codes, customizing initial screens, and using multiple selection screens and selection options*Customizing output reports with filters, sorts, sums, and display variants*Exporting output reports to Microsoft Excel and Word and e-mailing output reports to other SAP users Practical and jargon-free, SAP R/3 for Everyone provides readers with the skills and confidence they need to efficiently conduct any business activity with SAP R/3.

Oracle SQL*Plus: The Definitive Guide (Definitive Guides)

Jonathan Gennick

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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Databases -> Database Management Systems

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Despite its wide availability and usage, few developers and DBAs have mastered the true power of Oracle SQL*Plus. This bestselling book--now updated for Oracle 10g--is the only in-depth guide to this interactive query tool for writing SQL scripts. It's an essential resource for any Oracle user.

The new second edition of "Oracle SQL*Plus: The Definitive Guide" clearly describes how to perform, step-by-step, all of the tasks that Oracle developers and DBAs want to perform with SQL*Plus--and maybe some you didn't realize you could perform.

With "Oracle SQL*Plus: The Definitive Guide," you'll expertly:

write and execute script files

generate ad hoc reports

extract data from the database

query the data dictionary tables

customize an SQL*Plus environment

and much more

It also includes a handy quick reference to all of its syntax options and an often-requested chapter on SQL itself, along with a clear, concise, and complete introduction.

This book is truly the definitive guide to SQL*Plus. It's an indispensable resource for those who are new to SQL*Plus, a task-oriented learning tool for those who are already using it, and an immediately useful quick reference for every user. If you want to leverage the full power and flexibility of this popular Oracle tool, you'll need this book.

Security+ Guide to Networking Security Fundamentals, Second Edition

Mark Ciampa

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Lightweight textbook; lab material is dated 3 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

My instructor uses this as one of two textbooks for the Network Security course, primarily because there is an answer key for the chapter review questions. The book isn't bad, although I find it lightweight in comparison to the other text, Designing Network Security 2nd ed., by Merike Kaeo.

My biggest issue is that the lab material presented is woefully out of date, since this book was published in 2004. The principles of network security do not change radically in two years' time, but software certainly does!

I attend Illinois Institute of Technology, which is unique in that some programs mix graduate students and undergrad students in classes, with the expectation that graduate students perform at a higher level than the undergrads. IIT is also known for the [...], or Interprofessional Projects Program, which brings together students from engineering, science, humanities, business, architecture, psychology, law and design to solve many unique and useful problems.

As you can see, IIT encourages diversity and teamwork. My project team consists of myself (grad student with a good deal of experience) and three undergrads with varying levels of experience.

If one does not have a certain level of PC experience, doing some of the labs in this book without current instructions can be tedious, if not impossible for some people.

The official website has only two downloads for the book. One is a list of errata, dated July 2006. The other maps the textbook content to the LabSim content, which I suspect would be useful only if you purchased that option. My suggestion to the author is that he publish a quarterly update on the website with revisions to the labs in the textbook.

Regardless, I would not advise paying full price for this book, especially since the Security+ exam is going to be revised soon, from what I have been reading.

Editorial Review:

Completely rewritten to include Microsoft Windows Server 2003 coverage and other cutting-edge technologies, this best selling text will ensure your students' success on CompTIA's latest Server+ Exam.

The Computational Beauty of Nature: Computer Explorations of Fractals, Chaos, Complex Systems, and Adaptation

Gary William Flake

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Honorable Mention, 1998, category of Computer Science, Professional/Scholarly Publishing Annual Awards Competition presented by the Association of American Publishers, Inc.


"Simulation," writes Gary Flake in his preface, "becomes a form of experimentation in a universe of theories. The primary purpose of this book is to celebrate this fact."

In this book, Gary William Flake develops in depth the simple idea that recurrent rules can produce rich and complicated behaviors. Distinguishing "agents" (e.g., molecules, cells, animals, and species) from their interactions (e.g., chemical reactions, immune system responses, sexual reproduction, and evolution), Flake argues that it is the computational properties of interactions that account for much of what we think of as "beautiful" and "interesting." From this basic thesis, Flake explores what he considers to be today's four most interesting computational topics: fractals, chaos, complex systems, and adaptation.

Each of the book's parts can be read independently, enabling even the casual reader to understand and work with the basic equations and programs. Yet the parts are bound together by the theme of the computer as a laboratory and a metaphor for understanding the universe. The inspired reader will experiment further with the ideas presented to create fractal landscapes, chaotic systems, artificial life forms, genetic algorithms, and artificial neural networks.

Crystal Reports XI Official Guide (Business Objects Press)

Neil Fitzgerald, et al.

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Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The authorized guide to the latest edition of the #1 business intelligence software product - Crystal Reports. More than 16 million licenses of Crystal Reports have been shipped to date.  This book is a reference designed to provide hands-on guidance for the latest release of the product suite. The latest version of Crystal Reports and the Business Objects enterprise reporting suite delivers vast product enhancements and a tighter integration that will drive upgrades from licensees. Brand new features (e.g. Dynamic and Cascading Parameter Generation) will also appeal to new audiences. Over 1 million new Business Intelligence licensees will be migrating to the Crystal Enterprise Reporting platform, as this is the first release of the software with the existing Business Objects (BO) products being integrated into the Crystal infrastructure. As Business Objects insiders, the authors bring unique and valuable real-world perspectives on implementations and uses of the Crystal Reports product. The book also includes content, tutorials and samples for reporting within the Microsoft Visual Studio.NET and J2EE development environments and also on top of the SAP Business Information Warehouse (BW) and the Peoplesoft platform. Advanced content on report distribution and integration into the secured managed reporting solution known as Business Objects Enterprise XI, is also now included in this definitive user guide with coverage on the new Web Services SDK.

Designing Embedded Hardware

John Catsoulis

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Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Intelligent readers who want to build their own embedded computer systems-- installed in everything from cell phones to cars to handheld organizers to refrigerators-- will find this book to be the most in-depth, practical, and up-to-date guide on the market. Designing Embedded Hardware carefully steers between the practical and philosophical aspects, so developers can both create their own devices and gadgets and customize and extend off-the-shelf systems.

There are hundreds of books to choose from if you need to learn programming, but only a few are available if you want to learn to create hardware. Designing Embedded Hardware provides software and hardware engineers with no prior experience in embedded systems with the necessary conceptual and design building blocks to understand the architectures of embedded systems.

Written to provide the depth of coverage and real-world examples developers need, Designing Embedded Hardware also provides a road-map to the pitfalls and traps to avoid in designing embedded systems.

Designing Embedded Hardware covers such essential topics as:

• The principles of developing computer hardware
• Core hardware designs
• Assembly language concepts
• Parallel I/O
• Analog-digital conversion
• Timers (internal and external)
• UART
• Serial Peripheral Interface
• Inter-Integrated Circuit Bus
• Controller Area Network (CAN)
• Data Converter Interface (DCI)
• Low-power operation

This invaluable and eminently useful book gives you the practical tools and skills to develop, build, and program your own application-specific computers.

Basic Game Design & Creation for Fun & Learning (Game Development Series).Book & CD-ROM.

Nanu Swamy, Naveena Swamy

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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Basic Game Design and Creation teaches novices (8-80) how to create ten different games – no programming required. The book portrays two different but interconnected technologies – game design, which teaches game enthusiasts simple techniques (players, sound, animation, scoring, scenery, etc) and object technology, a new natural paradigm for creating software that is revolutionizing the software industry. Through the step-by-step projects and creation of numerous games, readers actually become game designers, creating different kinds of objects and environments. Every chapter helps readers to create a new two dimensional and isometric game using Game Maker, a rapid-application development tool for beginning game programmers. Using many "drag and drop" tools and video tutorials, users are able to learn object technology, and can create and publish games very quickly. This is a must-have resource for anyone who is looking to master introductory game programming!

KEY FEATURES: • Teaches how to create ten different games with GameMaker – no programming required • Includes a companion CD-ROM with a demo of GameMaker and video tutorials for projects in the book • Topics covered include basic game design, particle systems, multiplayer games, and much more

Next Generation Java Testing: TestNG and Advanced Concepts

Cédric Beust, Hani Suleiman

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Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Enterprise Java developers must achieve broader, deeper test coverage, going beyond unit testing to implement functional and integration testing with systematic acceptance. Next Generation Java^™ Testing introduces breakthrough Java testing techniques and TestNG, a powerful open source Java testing platform.

Cédric Beust, TestNG's creator, and leading Java developer Hani Suleiman, present powerful, flexible testing patterns that will work with virtually any testing tool, framework, or language. They show how to leverage key Java platform improvements designed to facilitate effective testing, such as dependency injection and mock objects. They also thoroughly introduce TestNG, demonstrating how it overcomes the limitations of older frameworks and enables new techniques, making it far easier to test today's complex software systems.

Pragmatic and results-focused, Next Generation Java^™ Testing will help Java developers build more robust code for today's mission-critical environments.

This book

• Illuminates the tradeoffs associated with testing, so you can make better decisions about what and how to test
• Introduces TestNG, explains its goals and features, and shows how to apply them in real-world environments
• Shows how to integrate TestNG with your existing code, development frameworks, and software libraries
• Demonstrates how to test crucial code features, such as encapsulation, state sharing, scopes, and thread safety
• Shows how to test application elements, including JavaEE APIs, databases, Web pages, and XML files
• Presents advanced techniques: testing partial failures, factories, dependent testing, remote invocation, cluster-based test farms, and more
• Walks through installing and using TestNG plug-ins for Eclipse, and IDEA
• Contains extensive code examples

Whether you use TestNG, JUnit, or another testing framework, the testing design patterns presented in this book will show you how to improve your tests by giving you concrete advice on how to make your code and your design more testable.