A No-Nonsense Guide to Rails Development
Jon's rating:
  3.0
On Dec 4, 2014 Jon Guenther wrote: Rails Crash Course by Anthony Lewis (No Starch Press)
Rails Crash Course by Anthony Lewis seemed to provide relatively good coverage of Ruby and Rails from what I can tell, with lots of practical code samples. Full Review >
|
Jon's rating:
4.0
On Oct 24, 2014 Jon Guenther wrote: JavaScript & jQuery: The Missing Manual (O'Reilly)
JavaScript & jQuery: The Missing Manual by David Sawyer McFarland is a great place to begin if you want to learn the basics of using JavaScript for website design and interactivity. However, as books go this is not really a text for web developers and programmers as much as it is for web designers. Full Review >
|
Developing Web Applications with Python
Jon's rating:
5.0
On Oct 2, 2014 Jon Guenther wrote: Awesome Coverage of Flask
I actually requested this book for review because I wanted to test it against a personal (non-profit) project I was doing for my martial arts school. Looks like I got a lot more than I originally bargained for. Full Review >
|
Jon's rating:
5.0
On Sep 15, 2014 Jon Guenther wrote: Concise and informative grounding in AngularJS
If you need an understanding in how to utilize AngularJS to make your web projects shine from both a data and performance aspect, this is the series for you! Lukas and Matias begin with an explanation of exactly what AngularJS is and what you can and can't do with it. Full Review >
|
Jon's rating:
5.0
On May 17, 2014 Jon Guenther wrote: Excellent Introduction to Python
WOWSER! Only way I can describe this video series taught by Jessica McKellar and produced by O'Reilly. This is actually the first video series I've reviewed for O'Reilly and I'm glad for it. Full Review >
|
Harnessing the Power of the Web
Jon's rating:
4.0
On Apr 22, 2014 Jon Guenther wrote: Thorough Coverage of Web APIs
In a word: comprehensive! If there's any book you need to understand the details and get into the plumbing of Microsoft's Web API, this is the text you'll want. It's important to understand from the outset, however, Designing Evolvable Web APIs in ASP.NET is not for beginners; not even a little and I make no bones about that. Full Review >
|
Develop Mobile Apps Using Java and Eclipse
Jon's rating:
3.0
On Mar 28, 2014 Jon Guenther wrote: Learning Android by Gargenta/Nakamura (O'Reilly)
Let me begin by pointing out that if you're looking for a good book to learn how to start programming on the Android platform, this would be the one I recommend. Mostly because I'm a professional programmer but I don't have the first clue how to program on a mobile device. Full Review >
|
A learner's guide to programming using the Python language
Jon's rating:
5.0
On Jan 18, 2014 Jon Guenther wrote: Head First Programming by David Griffiths & Paul Barry (O'Reilly)
There are a lot of languages that have been used to introduce programming to eager minds. Initially I wouldn't have expected Python to be a first choice but in Head First Programming it just works. Full Review >
|
Jon's rating:
3.0
On Nov 18, 2013 Jon Guenther wrote: Exam Ref 70-486 by William Penberthy (Microsoft Press)
This book covers the objectives for the Microsoft 70-486: Development ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Applications certification. Books like this can be difficult to review, particularly if you don’t plan to take the exam so you have nothing against which to measure the criteria. However, as the author points out “…this book takes a high-level approach, building on your knowledge of lower-level web application development and extending it into application design.†Full Review >
|
Creating and Configuring Data Models from Your Classes
Jon's rating:
5.0
On Oct 10, 2013 Jon Guenther wrote: Programming EF: Code First by Lerman/Miller (O'Reilly)
It won't come as any surprise to those familiar with the authors that this book was as great as its companion title. Full Review >
|
Jon's rating:
4.0
On Sep 14, 2013 Jon Guenther wrote: Review: “Microsoft ADO.NET Entity Framework Step by Stepâ€Â
Microsoft ADO.NET Entity Framework Step by Step by John Paul Mueller (Microsoft Press) is now the second consecutive book I’ve read on Entity Framework. Once again, I’m highly impressed by the content. Full Review >
|
Querying, Changing, and Validating Your Data with Entity Framework
Jon's rating:
5.0
On Aug 27, 2013 Jon Guenther wrote:
This is one of those books I was very eager to read and review, and I wasn't disappointed. In fact as soon as I got it from the publisher, I started working through it, eagerly devouring every word. Julie Lerman and Rowan Miller demonstrate DbContext, an API for the Entity Framework that lets you query plain old common objects (POCO) or collections of entities and any related data. Full Review >
|
A Bestselling Hands-On Java Tutorial
Jon's rating:
4.0
On Aug 20, 2013 Jon Guenther wrote:
In my assessment, this is one of the best and most authoritative editions of Java 7 ever put out by O'Reilly. From the introduction, the authors demonstrate their knowledge of not only the history of Java but how it has matured and how developers today should approach using it. Full Review >
|
Jon's rating:
5.0
On Jun 28, 2013 Jon Guenther wrote:
This is the third edition of JavaScript Step by Step, but readers needs not worry about whether it's Microsoft-centric. It's not and the author is very quick to point that out. The text covers everything from the history of JavaScript to using it as a UI design tool, and finally peaks with an inspection of JavaScript librariesâ€â€in particular jQuery (for both full sites and mobile), as well as the paradigm of JavaScript in Windows 8. Full Review >
|
