Reader reviews

An enjoyable and informative read, though it could have been shorter.

I had been on the fence about this one for a while, and I should have bought it sooner. Some of the material is available elsewhere, but rarely presented this clearly. The balance between theory and practice is well judged; neither side dominates. A good addition to a technical library, as long as you know what you are buying.

Almost excellent. A second edition could easily push it to five stars.

I picked this up after getting stuck on a project and it turned out to be exactly the right book at the right time. Some of the diagrams are dense and I had to reread a few sections, though that may just be me. The author clearly knows the subject deeply and has thought hard about how to teach it. The author clearly knows the subject deeply and has thought hard about how to teach it. A good addition to a technical library, as long as you know what you are buying.

Mixed feelings. The good parts are genuinely good; the rest is forgettable.

This is the third book I have read on microsoft programming this year, and it is comfortably the best of them. The exercises at the end of each chapter are worth doing — they caught a few misconceptions I did not know I had. A couple of chapters felt like they could have been merged, but that is a minor complaint. The early chapters move quickly through material I already knew, but the later sections were genuinely new to me. Three stars feels about right. It will stay on my shelf, but it will not be the first one I reach for.

Better than I expected. Rare to find a technical book this well judged.

I had been on the fence about this one for a while, and I should have bought it sooner. It is denser than the page count suggests, and I found myself slowing down around the middle. Some of the material is available elsewhere, but rarely presented this clearly. The code samples assume a particular environment, which took a bit of fiddling to get running properly. Worth the money and the reading time, without hesitation.

Excellent from start to finish. No filler, no padding.

I have been working with analytics for a few years now and I still found plenty here that was new to me. The balance between theory and practice is well judged; neither side dominates. The examples are small enough to type out and experiment with, which is exactly what I want from a book like this. I particularly liked the way the author builds up from simple cases before introducing the harder material. If you have the prerequisites, this is an easy recommendation. I will be keeping it on my desk rather than the shelf.

The clearest explanation of javascript I have come across.

I have been working with javascript for a few years now and I still found plenty here that was new to me. It is denser than the page count suggests, and I found myself slowing down around the middle. The chapters on javascript are the strongest — the examples are stripped down but complete, and I could follow along without constant guessing. If you have the prerequisites, this is an easy recommendation. I will be keeping it on my desk rather than the shelf.