FileMaker Pro 12: The Missing Manual – A big but easy how-to guide by two experts – #bookreview #database

FileMaker Pro 12: The Missing Manual
Susan Prosser and Stuart Gripman
(O’Reilly, paperback – Kindle)

The good news is: “FileMaker Pro is the ease-of-use champion.” It avoids common database “jargon words like query, join, and alias.” Instead, the two authors state, it uses “simple concepts like find, sort, and connect.”

So, if it’s so simple, why does this book weigh three pounds and have 924 pages?

Two reasons, both good. The authors – each are FileMaker Pro Certified Developers — do a fine job of explaining the package, from the basics to the most advanced features. And they illustrate their points with a generous number of screen shots, lists of steps, and other learning aids.

“FileMaker Pro databases,” they point out, “can be as simple as a list of the things you need to pack when you’re camping (complete with pictures!) or as complex as a company-wide system for purchasing, sales, inventory, invoicing, shipping, and customer tracking. But all of them essentially work the same way.”

FileMaker Pro 12: The Missing Manual has six parts, and the first two parts (encompassing four chapters and 172 pages) explain and demonstrate how to get started with the software and use it to build and improve your first database.

In Part 3, you move past the beginner stage and into creating and maintaining a relational database, plus handling such choices as field options, layout mechanics, calculations, and using scripts. In Part 4, you learn how to start thinking like a relational database developer and using FileMaker Pro Advanced. Part 5 focuses on database security and integration issues, including managing accounts, sharing databases over the Internet and sharing data with other systems. Part 6 contains four useful appendices, including definitions of FileMaker error codes.

In a powerful package like FileMaker Pro 12, there are plenty of choices and capabilities to explain, and there are few ways to be reasonably “complete” without ending up holding a big pile of how-to pages.

Despite its heft and thickness, however, this excellent Missing Manual is structured to help you move forward at your own pace — whether you want to learn it all or just enough to scrape by at a new workplace.

– Si Dunn

Version Control with Git, 2nd Ed. – Bring order to software development’s collaborative chaos – #bookreview #programming

Version Control with Git, 2^nd Edition
Jon Loeliger and Matthew McCullough
(O’Reilly, paperback – Kindle)

When I first took a job in software development, individual programmers controlled code versions themselves, and they jealously guarded their releases with back-ups on multiple diskettes – 5.25” diskettes. The real floppies. (Yep, I’m so old I actually worked with a few 8-inch floppies, too.)

It’s a different world now. Code for one project often is developed, modified, tested and controlled by groups of people, sometimes big groups. And many of those who work with the project’s code are scattered all over the planet.

Thus, maintaining version control and keeping good backups are major management challenges for software developers today. There’s no more going home after work with 10 big floppies in your briefcase as a hedge against your office burning down overnight.

Git is a popular, if somewhat difficult, tool for tracking, branching, merging, and managing code revisions. The authors of Version Control with Git favor the term “version control system (VCS)” for this and other software packages that perform similar functions. (“Source code manager (SCM)” is another popular label.)

In their updated and expanded 2^nd edition, here is how they sum up the imperative for strong version control:

“No cautious, creative person starts a project nowadays without a back-up strategy. Because data is ephemeral and be lost easily—through an errant code change or catastrophic disk crash, say— it is wise to maintain a living archive of all work. For text and code projects, the back-up strategy typically includes version control, or tracking and managing revisions. Each developer can make several revisions per day, and the ever-increasing corpus serves simultaneously as repository, project narrative, communication medium, and team and project management tool. Given its pivotal role, version control is most effective when tailored to the working habits and goals of the project team.”

Whether you do or do not yet have experience with a version control system, you can glean important information and numerous useful tips from this book’s 21 chapters and 434 pages. Version Control with Git covers a lot of vital ground in a well-organized how-to fashion, with plenty of code samples and related illustrations.

One example out of its many key lessons: “As the developer of content for a project using Git, you should create your own private copy, or clone, of the repository to do your development. This development repository should serve as your own work area where you can make changes without fear of colliding with, interrupting, or otherwise interfering with another developer.”

In another key lesson, they show how to use git stash, “the mechanism for capturing your work in progress, allowing you to save it and return to it later when convenient….the stash is a quick convenience mechanism that allows a complete and thorough capturing of your index and working directory in one simple command. It leaves your repository clean, uncluttered, and ready for an alternate development direction. Another single command restores that index and working directory state completely, allowing you to resume where you left off.”

In a software development environment where everything is a crisis and priorities change hourly on what should have been finished yesterday, git stash save and git stash pop may become two of your favorite commands.

The book describes installing versions of Git for Linux and Microsoft Windows, and for running within Cygwin. It also can be run on Mac OS X and Solaris systems. Meanwhile, most of the book’s chapters focus on using the Git command line tool. But the new 2^nd edition also devotes a chapter to what many Git users consider the most vital tool that has emerged from the big online community that now surrounds Git: GitHub.com.

Developers often clone a repository from GitHub. Several types of public and private repositories also can be created there. And so-called “social coding” is available. Indeed, many open source projects are hosted on GitHub, and some of them attract people who simply watch the coding, while others do coding in personal “forks” that may or not prove helpful to those more officially involved in the project. Yet another popular use of GitHub is finding useful code examples in particular programming languages.

Whether Git is in your working future or it’s already here, or if you’re still wondering if it can help you, definitely check out Version Control with Git.

– Si Dunn

Think Python – A gentle and effective guide to learning Python programming – #programming #bookreview

Think Python
Allen B. Downey
(O’Reilly, paperback – Kindle)

First, a confession. My favorite book for learning Python is Head First Python by Paul Barry. It literally does throw you head-first into Python programming. By page 10, it has you working with nested lists. By page 30, you are creating a function that you will save and turn into a module just a few pages later. By the time you hit page 50, you have learned how to upload code to PyPi. And, as the book continues, you keep improving and expanding the functionality of one project that stays in development from chapter to chapter.

That said, I hereby declare that Think Python by Allen B. Downey is my new co-favorite book for learning Python.  I intend to keep it handy right alongside Head First Python.

Just about anyone studying or using Python can benefit from having Think Python on their bookshelf, in their computer, on their mobile device or, better yet, accessible in all these places. It is an excellent reference book, as well as a clear, concise and calm how-to guide for beginning programmers.

Think Python takes a gentle yet effective approach to introducing and exploring the language one step at a time. First you learn some basic programming concepts. Then, 13 pages in, you start easing into the language at the level of “Hello, World!”, plus variables, expressions, and statements.

The 277-page book has 19 chapters that carefully explain and illustrate each key point, without overkill. The author is a veteran instructor of computer languages, and he also is the author of a well-known book that has been around since 1999, in one form or another: How to Think Like a Computer Scientist.

Think Python is an outgrowth of the Python version that book. Downey has added materials on debugging and other topics, plus some exercises and case studies. And he has gotten plenty of proofreading help from more than 100 enthusiastic followers of his writings and teaching.

What I like most about Think Python are its short, concise, clear explanations of each new concept and its use of very short code examples. When I’m in the mood to spend just a few minutes reviewing or learning a new concept in Python, I can open Think Python and quickly find a refresher or a new area to try out. Head First Python, on the other hand, suits me best when I have an hour or two to stay focused on reading, keying in a lot more code and making the required changes to the ongoing project.

One minor caution: There are differences – sometimes significant and sometimes merely irritating – between Python 3 and Python 2. Head First Python focuses on Python 3 code and Think Python uses Python 2 code examples. But Think Python’s author has been careful to minimize the conflict and explains what to do when using Python 3.

The main thing to remember is that the print statement in Python 2 has become print(), a function, in Python 3. So if, for example, the book’s code says print ‘Hello, World!’ and you are using Python 3, you type print(‘Hello, World!’), instead.

It’s not hard. But the opportunity to print or print() something does come up a lot in the text.

– Si Dunn

Super Scratch Programming Adventure – Kids can learn programming without typing code – #bookreview

Super Scratch Programming Adventure
The LEAD Project
(No Starch Press, paperback)

Scratch is widely popular, free educational software for children ages 8 and up. And its simple, graphics-based programming language has a dual mission, says Professor Mitchel Resnick, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Scratch Team. The MIT group helped develop the software in partnership with The Learning through Engineering, Art, and Design (LEAD) Project based in Hong Kong.

“We designed Scratch to help young people prepare for life in today’s fast-changing society,” Prof. Resnick notes in this book’s foreword.

“As young people create Scratch projects, they are not just learning how to write computer programs. They are learning to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively—essential skills for success and happiness in today’s world.”

Super Scratch Programming Adventure deftly combines comics and programming tasks with the steps necessary to create “projects inspired by classic arcade games that can be programmed (and played!) in an afternoon.” The book covers version 1.4 of the software.

One thing you definitely don’t do in Scratch is go to a command line and key in some code. The book notes: “Scratch was designed to prevent common beginner pitfalls like misspellings and errors in consistency. Instead of typing commands, programming in Scratch is performed by dragging and joining programming blocks.”

And this isn’t just “Hello, world!” stuff. Soon after meeting the program’s graphic characters and seeing how to operate the program, kids start working at the x-y axis level to control movements by Scratchy the Cat. They also learn how to adjust the speed of Scratchy’s maneuvers and save their file.

From there, the book continues forward in 10 chapters that are organized as increasingly challenging stages. And most of the stages involve creating a new, simple game.

For example, in stage 2, the chapter focus is “Learn how to design new costumes and program a sprite’s movements, reactions, and sound effects.” By stage 7, the focus is: “Learn how to design an interactive maze with a guard, booby traps, and treasure!” By stage 10, children have learned how to upload their own Scratch projects to the Scratch website to share with others around the world (with their parents’ permission, of course).

Many kids may be able to pick up this book, open the program, and figure out everything on their own. But the laudable goals of Super Scratch Programming Adventure are best served when teachers and parents stay involved as mentors.

Besides, you might learn a few new things from Scratch programming, too.

– Si Dunn

LED Lighting: A Primer to Lighting the Future – #bookreview

LED Lighting: A Primer to Lighting the Future
Sal Cangeloso
(O’Reilly, paperback, Kindle)

Sal Cangeloso of Geek.com and ExtremeTech.com wants to warm you up to some really cool lighting: light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs.

His new book, LED Lighting: A Primer to Lighting the Future, encourages readers to start using more LEDs and let loose of the incandescent bulb’s 130-year-old technology, as well as the curly, tricky-to-recycle compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs that last longest when they are not turned off and on and off and on and.…

Lighting and lighting choices are not actually simple topics, and Cangeloso packs plenty of information, both practical and technical, into his helpful 58-page book. He includes a couple of simple, do-it-yourself experiments involving small LED lamps, resistors and batteries, as well.

LED Lighting delves into matters such as color quality, power consumption comparisons, and prices, as well as the sometimes “off-putting” fact that LED bulbs often look like yellow bug lamps, even though they produce white light. The author also explains why highly efficient LED bulbs have built-in heat sinks, while other types of light bulbs do not. “The main reason is that LEDs don’t give off heat in the form of infrared radiation. This means cooling must be handled through other means, such as conduction through a heat sink.”

LED bulbs also don’t give off ultraviolet (UV) light. So that’s one more practical reason to consider using them. As Cangeloso notes: “LED bulbs don’t attract insects, which are drawn to UV light.”

– Si Dunn

Think Like a Programmer: An Introduction to Creative Problem Solving – #programming #bookreview

Think Like a Programmer: An Introduction to Creative Problem Solving
V. Anton Spraul
(No Starch Press, paperback – Kindle)

Often, we “solve” problems by avoiding them. For example, if we have a clunker car, we trade it in and get a new one. Problem “solved” simply by putting a shiny new sedan in the driveway.

In software programming, however, problems generally have to be fixed, not avoided. Typically, you can’t kick a major bug to the curb and make it disappear just by adding a new function or screen. Whatever is wrong has to be repaired. And most of us are not mentally wired to quickly spout new source code that solves the dilemma.

“Problem solving is hard,” V. Anton Spraul states. And his well-structured, well-written book aims to help us rewire our heads and get a better handle on fixing problems in software.

“When solving a problem with a program, you…have constraints,” he writes. “Common constraints include the programming language, platform (does it run on a PC, or an iPhone, or what?), performance (a game program may require graphics to be updated at least 30 times a second, a business application might have a maximum time response to user input), or memory footprint. Sometimes the constraint involves what other code you can reference: Maybe the program can’t include certain open-source code or maybe the opposite—it can use only open source.”

He adds: “For programmers, then, we can define problem solving as writing an original program that performs a particular set of tasks and meets all stated constraints.”

But beginning programmers often focus too much time and effort on just making the program perform the required tasks. They don’t pay enough attention to staying within the required constraints, as well.

Think Like a Programmer begins with general strategies for solving problems and puzzles. Then it gets specific for programmers with a series of well-focused chapters:

• Solving Problems with Arrays
• Solving Problems with Pointers and Dynamic Memory
• Solving Problems with Classes
• Solving Problems with Recursion
• Solving Problems with Code Reuse

The final chapter, “Thinking Like a Programmer,” shows how to develop a master plan that you can use “for attacking any programming problem.”

Think Like a Programmer: An Introduction to Creative Problem Solving offers a number of challenging exercises in its chapters, and the author encourages readers to attempt each one. But he provides no convenient answers at the back of the book – just as you will experience in real-life programming: no convenient answers to problems and puzzles.

One drawback for this book is that its code examples are all written in C++.

“C++ was selected for a number of reasons,” the author states. He lists several that make good sense and concludes: “…C++ is a great choice because once you have learned to solve problems in C++, you have learned to solve problems in any language. Many programmers have discovered how the skills learned in one language easily apply to other languages, but this is especially true for C++ because of its cross-paradigm approach and, frankly, because of its difficulty. C++ is the real deal—it’s programming without training wheels. This is daunting at first, but once you start succeeding in C++, you ‘ll know that you’re not going to be someone who can do a little coding—you’re going to be a programmer.”

– Si Dunn

Intermediate Perl, 2nd Edition – An excellent guide to pushing well beyond the basics – #programming #bookreview

Intermediate Perl, 2nd Edition
Randal L. Schwartz, brian d foy & Tom Phoenix
(O’Reilly, paperback)

Attention, Perl programmers. Particularly those of you who write Perl programs with 100 lines of code or fewer but want to expand your limits. This popular intermediate guide, first published in 2006, has just been updated.

Intermediate Perl, 2nd Edition covers Perl 5.14. And: “It covers what you need to write programs that are 100 to 10,000 (or even longer) lines long,” the authors state.

This excellent book by three well-known Perl gurus does indeed cover a lot of ground. It shows you, for example, “how to work with multiple programmers on the same project by writing reusable Perl modules that you can wrap in distributions usable by the common Perl tools.”

It also shows you “how to deal with larger and more complex data structures….”

And it gets into some “object-oriented programming, which allows parts of your code (or hopefully code from others) to be reused with minor or major variations within the same program.”

It delves into two other important aspects of team programming: “…having a release cycle and a process for unit and integration testing. You’ll learn the basics of packaging your code as a distribution and providing unit tests for that distribution, both for development and for verifying that your code works in your target environment.”

One very important addition in the new edition is a chapter on references. “References,” the authors emphasize, “are the basis for complex data structures, object-oriented programming, and fancy subroutine handling. They’re the magic that was added between Perl versions 4 and 5 to make it all possible…” to handle “complex data interrelationships.”

The authors write in a lighthearted style that helps the coding medicine go down. And there are plenty of code examples and illustrations, plus a link to a website with downloads. They also provide exercises at the ends of chapters, with suggested completion times in minutes.

“If you take longer,” they add, “that’s just fine, at least until we figure out how to make ebooks with timers.”

However, if you take longer than “longer” or if you just get stumped, the answers conveniently are provided at the back of Intermediate Perl, 2nd Edition.

– Si Dunn

Illustrated Guide to Home Forensic Science Experiments – Real CSI basics – #bookreview

Illustrated Guide to Home Forensic Science Experiments: All Lab, No Lecture
Robert Bruce Thompson and Barbara Fritchman Thompson
(O’Reilly, paperback – Kindle)

Movies, TV shows and detective novels have elevated forensic science to a cultural fascination. And in real life, a clue uncovered with a microscope or a chemical test frequently is the one that provides the big break toward solving a crime.

You may daydream about what it might be like to work in a crime lab. And if you write crime novels, you likely will generate mental images of crime scene investigators or detectives trying to decipher puzzling clues. You might even picture a laboratory packed with sophisticated electronic analyzers that cost hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars.

Indeed, some labs do have that type of equipment. But this book’s authors note: “Here’s a startling fact: the vast majority of forensic work, even today, is done with low-tech procedures that would be familiar to a forensic scientist of 100 years ago.”

Indeed, they add: “You don’t need a multi-million dollar lab to do real, useful forensic investigations. All you need are some chemicals and basic equipment, much of which can be found around the home.”

You will also need “a decent microscope—the fundamental tool of the forensic scientist—but even an inexpensive student model will serve.”

The Illustrated Guide to Home Forensic Science Experiments: All Lab, No Lecture is intended for “responsible” teenagers and adults who want “to learn about forensic science by doing real, hands-on laboratory work. DIY hobbyists and forensics enthusiasts can use this book to learn and master the essential practical skills and fundamental knowledge needed to pursue forensics as a lifelong hobby. Home school parents and public school teachers can use this book as the basis of a year-long, lab-based course in forensic science.”

The hefty, 425-page book offers more than 50 lab experiments, and each session represents actual procedures used each day by professional forensic analysts.

The labs are organized into 11 groups:

1. Soil Analysis
2. Hair and Fiber Analysis
3. Glass and Plastic Analysis
4. Revealing Latent Fingerprints
5. Detecting Blood
6. Impression Analysis
7. Forensic Drug Testing
8. Forensic Toxicology
9. Gunshot and Explosive Residues Analysis
10. Detecting Altered and Forged Documents
11. Forensic Biology

Even though the book says it contains “no lectures,” each lab is introduced with a short background summary, plus lab safety cautions and warnings, lists of equipment and materials, and related how-to instructions. Also, each group of labs is introduced with a short overview of its category and its importance in forensic science. The book also contains comments from Dennis Hilliard, director of the Rhode Island State Crime Laboratory.

This is not a book that young students should use without supervision. Even “responsible teens” will need close guidance. And adults, too, must be very careful to follow all safety instructions.

But this is a fascinating how-to guide for learning the basics of forensic science, whether you hope to do it as a career or hobby, gain a science credit, or merely describe some of the techniques in a mystery novel or screenplay.

– Si Dunn

Build Awesome Command-Line Applications in Ruby – #programming #bookreview

Build Awesome Command-Line Applications in Ruby
David Bryant Copeland
(Pragmatic Bookshelf, paperback)

The word “awesome” now is grossly overused in contemporary culture. And I hate it in book titles.

That being said, Build Awesome Command-Line Applications in Ruby is an excellent how-to guide, particularly if you have a little bit of UNIX and some basic Ruby programming in your background.

The book is “aimed at both developers and system administrators who have some familiarity with Ruby and who find themselves automating things on the command line (or wish they could),” David Bryant Copeland writes. And he adds: “Writing command-line apps in Ruby is also a great way to really learn Ruby and become a better programmer, since you can apply it directly to your day-to-day tasks.”

Mac and Linux users will have the easiest time with this book’s code examples. Things get a little bit more complicated for Windows users, especially those with no UNIX experience and not much programming background, either. The author, fortunately, lays out some workarounds.

For example, on UNIX systems, the first line of code commonly is called the shebang. In a piece of Ruby code, the shebang might look something like this: #!/usr/bin/ruby. (That example tells where the Ruby interpreter is installed.) But, at a Windows command prompt, if Ruby has been installed correctly and is in the path, the # character simply will be interpreted as the start of a comment line, and the rest of the shebang will be ignored when code is run directly, such as: ruby hello_world.rb.

In this book, David Bryant Copeland’s focus definitely is code. “There is a lot of code,” he says, “and we’ll do our best to take each new bit of it step by step.” As the book progresses, two command-line applications are developed, enhanced, and improved. One is a database-backup app, and the other is a command suite, “an app that provides a set of commands, each representing a different function of a related concept.”

This is not a Ruby primer, so get some experience in that language first before tackling this book. But if you are now reasonably comfortable with Ruby coding on a graphical user interface (GUI) and want some new challenges, consider moving to the command line and use this excellent book as your guide.

The requirements are minimal: a free Ruby download and a text editor or a UNIX-like shell. But the payoff is very good.

In his 10 chapters, the author discusses and illustrates “every detail of command-line application development, from user input, program output, and code organization to code handling, testing, and distribution” while the two example applications are created, tested, and enhanced.

There is plenty to learn, and Build Awesome Command-Line Applications in Ruby does a fine job of  leading you through the process in short-chapter steps.

– Si Dunn

The Sony SLT-A77: The Unofficial Quintessential Guide – #photography #bookreview

The Sony SLT-A77: The Unofficial Quintessential Guide
Carol F. Roullard and Brian Matsumoto
(Rocky Nook, paperback)

The Sony SLT-A77 “single lens translucent” digital camera is a remarkably feature-rich device for shooting still photographs and HD video.

Unlike a digital SLR camera, which must move its mirror out of the light path to its sensor, the A77’s “translucent mirror technology” effectively splits the incoming beam, sending part of it up to the viewfinder and allowing the rest of the light to pass through the mirror to the sensor.

The A77’s many capabilities make it a complicated camera to master without help from a good manual. This 255-page “unofficial” guidebook was written by photography experts who use A77s. They clearly love the camera, yet they are not hesitant to point out A77’s occasional shortcomings and drawbacks, as well.

The new Sony camera has a 24.3 megapixel sensor, and its translucent, fixed mirror provides at least three key capabilities. The camera can fire multiple fast shots (up to 12 frames per second) with a single button push. There is almost no vibration when the shutter button is pressed. And the camera’s automatic focus responds much quicker than older methods while shooting video.

“The Sony A77 works effectively for all users, regardless of their level of expertise,” the authors state. “It can be used with automatic setting, so beginners can take pictures by pointing and shooting. As you become more proficient, you can alter the A77’s exposure and focus settings. Eventually, you can take full control by setting the camera to manual and disregarding its recommendations.”

The book is organized with chapters for beginning, intermediate, and expert photographers.

• Chapter 1: Getting Started
• Chapter 2: Photography Basics and the A77’s External Buttons
• Chapter 3: Managing Your Images
• Chapter 4: Automatic Settings
• Chapter 5: Customizing the Camera
• Chapter 6: Taking Control of the Camera
• Chapter 7: Manual Operation of the Camera
• Chapter 8: Additional Features
• Chapter 9: Using Accessories
• Chapter 10: Flash Photography
• Chapter 11: Recording Movies
• Appendix A: Menu Commands
• Appendix B: Common Error/Warning Messages and Resolutions

If your interests include specialized photography, the authors note that the A77 can be mounted to many types of telescopes, and it works very well with certain small telescopes “that can double for terrestrial field work.”

The A77 also offers several advantages for those who currently use single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras with microscopes. “Its live preview solves the problem of accurate focusing, giving you a bright image that can be magnified,” the two authors point out. “Because it previews the image, errors in color balance can be corrected.” Also: “Perhaps the A77’s most important feature for the microscopist is the absence of camera vibration during image capture. A fixed mirror eliminates mirror slap, and the electronic first curtain shutter is vibration free.”

One of the “additional features” described in Chapter 8 is a built-in GPS receiver. “The A77 can be set up to capture GPS information and store it with still pictures recorded at the site,” the two authors note. “The camera’s software goes further by also correcting date and time information that may have changed due to entering a different time zone. So, when you return from trips where you see a new location every day, you don’t have to try to reconstruct which pictures came from where. The saved GPS information does that for you when you view your images through Sony’s PMB software.”

The Sony SLT-A77: The Unofficial Quintessential Guide includes numerous photographs, viewfinder shots, control close-ups, menu screens, menu steps, and other illustrations.

“The Sony A77 camera is complex and can be daunting with its scores of menu commands, functions, and options,” the two writers concede.

But their new guidebook can help you master the Sony SLT-A77, one feature, one choice, and one click at a time.

– Si Dunn