Fiction, nonfiction, poetry, & technology book reviews, plus social, political, & economic commentary
Actually, no. This is not a post about that snarky kid named Eddie Haskell on the mid-20th-century TV sitcom “Leave It to Beaver.” (But I did watch “the Beave” and “Eddie” back then on a black-and-white television set with a rabbit-ears antenna.) The topic this time is Haskell, the not-so-popular software development language named for … Continue reading ‘What? Haskell??? Eddie Haskell?’
Mastering Go, 3rd Edition Mihalis Tsoukalous Packt Publishing, 978-180107-931-0 By Si Dunn To be honest, I’m not a great software developer. Actually, I retired from software development and software technical writing back in 2009, when the languages du jour–at least where I worked–were assembler and C, with a smattering of Erlang, and a relational database … Continue reading Going for It–with Go
MongoDB in Action, Second Edition Covers MongoDB version 3.0 Kyle Banker Manning, paperback Yes, this updated edition of MongoDB in Action is aimed at software developers. However, the book wisely does not ignore those of us who are more casual users of MongoDB. Indeed, this is a fine how-to book for MongoDB newcomers and casual … Continue reading Manning’s ‘MongoDB in Action’ has been updated for version 3.0 – #programming #bookreview
Clojure in Action, 2nd Edition Amit Rathore and Francis Avila Manning – paperback Clojure seems to be afflicted with a measles-like outbreak of parentheses, and it generally just looks strange to many software developers. And there’s a good reason for that, as this book’s two author point out in their recently released second edition. “Clojure’s … Continue reading Attack of the Killer Parentheses: ‘Clojure in Action, 2nd Edition’ – #bookreview
Many people who want to jump into 3D printing have almost no idea what they actually want to make. Or, they may have projects in mind that far exceed their abilities to fabricate as beginners. If 3D printing is on your mind (or arriving soon in some shipping boxes and downloads), here are two new … Continue reading Getting started with 3D printing? Consider these two new Maker Media books – #bookreview
Go in Action William Kennedy, with Brian Ketelsen and Erik St. Martin Manning – paperback The authors of Go in Action assume that you are a working developer who is proficient with some other language, such as Java, Ruby, Python, C# or C++. However, their book is written well, has good illustrations and offers small … Continue reading Go in Action – A comprehensive overview, from ‘Hello, Go’ to ‘Testing & Benchmarking’ – #programming #bookreview
Ionic in Action Hybrid Mobile Apps with Ionic and AngularJS Jeremy Wilken (Manning, paperback) Ionic in Action is a very good introduction to the Ionic framework, which the author describes as “a combination of tools and utilities….” These tools and utilities enable developers “to quickly build hybrid mobile apps using the same technology used to … Continue reading Ionic in Action – A solid guide to building hybrid mobile apps with Ionic and AngularJS – #programming #bookreview
Meteor in Action Stephan Hochhaus and Manuel Schoebel Manning – paperback I have worked with several JavaScript frameworks, and Meteor has become a favorite, mainly because it is closely related to the MEAN stack family and plays well with MongoDB and Node.js. As the Meteor in Action authors note: “Meteor runs on top of … Continue reading ‘Meteor in Action’: A good how-to guide for learning a popular JavaScript framework – #programming #bookreview
Groovy in Action, Second Edition Dierik König and Paul King, with Guillaume Laforge, Hamlet D’Arcy, Cédric Champeau, Eric Pragt and Jon Skeet Manning – paperback Groovy in Action, Second Edition, is not light reading. Indeed, the printed book weighs nearly three and a half pounds and has 880 pages. But it is great reading for anyone who wants … Continue reading Groovy in Action, Second Edition – A hefty how-to guide newly updated for Groovy 2.4 – #programming #bookreview
Big Data Principles and best practices of scalable real-time data systems Nathan Marz, with James Warren Manning – paperback Get this book, whether you are new to working with Big Data or now an old hand at dealing with Big Data’s seemingly never-ending (and steadily expanding) complexities. You may not agree with all … Continue reading BIG DATA: A well-written look at principles & best practices of scalable real-time data systems – #bookreview
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