The ACCU passes on review copies of computer books to its members for them to review.
The result is a large, high quality collection of book reviews by programmers, for programmers.
Currently there are 1949 reviews in the database and more every month.
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Title:
ACE The Technical Job - Database Edition
Author:
Michael Rothstein
ISBN:
0 07 135240 4
Publisher:
McGraw-Hill
Pages:
424
Price:
$24-99
Reviewer:
Francis Glassborow
Subject:
reference
Appeared in:
12-4
I am reviewing these two books together because what I
want to write about them has a good degree in common. Both books
are really wrappers for several much smaller books. I have no
problem with this in principle but the practise leaves a good deal
to be desired. For example both books contain a substantial
section on AS/400 systems. Now I do not know about you, but I have
strong doubts that someone interested in such a platform would be
working in an environment where substantial though elementary
material on Visual Basic or Access 97 was relevant. It seems to me
that the publishers have just bundled up a number of part works
without considering any degree of coherence. Dan Cohen knows about
the AS/400 and writes a lot so he gets a place in both books. We
do not have anyone who knows much about Delphi so we will leave
that language out. Wehave someone who can write about Oracle so
put that in but ignore the other multi-platform database
packages.
What makes it worse to my mind is the underlying philosophy that
seems to be that after you gain a job you will need a book to help
you meet the requirements of your employers and fellow employees.
I nearly wrote hoodwink back there but that is too harsh. The
books are well intentioned but have all the feel of a bad copy of
'the Readers Digest'. The information is highly condensed and in
places where I can check, often out of date or of poor quality.
Any programmer who needs the relevant text and who would get real
benefit from it is already employed several levels above their
competence. For example a programmer who needs to be told about
magic numbers is, in my opinion, not yet ready to earn a living as
a programmer, they are still serving their apprenticeship.
I think it is a comment on the poor professional standards in the
IT industry that books such as these have a market. Yes, if you
have landed a job that demands more than you have, reading one of
these books might help but you will then need to burn the midnight
oil in actually studying more detailed texts.