Favorite Books



CD-MOM - ISBN 0-201-62708-6 - Price $49.95

A great book for learning a lot of tricks for Win3.1 and some decent free software on the CD. The most useful thing I use is an 5000 icon collection. A picture of each icon is in the back of the book. A new book for Win95 is out but does have the icon pictures.


Btrieve Complete by Jim Kyle - ISBN 0-201-48326-2 - Price $39.95

The best book on Btrieve for a programmer wanting to learn what its about and how to tune it and some of the pitfalls. Lots of details and only shows C code but a Clarion programmer could learn a lot.


Learning Postscript, A Visual Approach - ISBN 0-938-151-12-6

PostScript By Example - ISBN 0-201-63228-4

Wanting to learn PostScript but not getting much from Adobe's Red, Green and Blue. These two books teach a lot and show lots of output examples. Fun and easy to learn. If you want to be a serious Postscript Developer checkout Adobe's developer kit and club. PostScript really is much better than PCL 5 and much better for programmers. PS is a real language with Loops and If-Then logic, etc.


LaserJet 4, Typography and Graphics - ISBN 0-679-74641-2

This book is like the ones above and is written by the same author as PS By Example. The book is subtitled "Unlocking the Secrets of Enhanced PCL 5". It shows just about everything you can do in PCL/HPPG and is 600 pages long. It comes with a diskette. Also be sure to get HP TRM for PCL 5, it's very good too.


Practical Algorithims in C++ - ISBN 0-471-00955-5

This book starts with a discussion of good coding techniques and examples frequently discuss squeezing the last drop from your code. While it's for the C programmer a Clarion programmer and learn a few things. I bought this book for its sorting and text search examples which are the best I saw. Other chapters cover random numbers, heaps, graphing and state machines. I looked at quite a few books and this one was best for text searching and I like the way the author writes. 440 pages and a code diskette with C and C++ code examples. Author Brian Flamig.


Data Modeling Essentials (Analysis, Design and Innovation) - ISBN 1850328773

I was looking for a book describing how to design databases and after reviewing quite a few I picked this one. The writing is clear with lots of examples and diagrams. There is nothing like a good example to explain something. This is not some dry college text, it's a practical guide. It discusses when to break the rules and why. It covers all of the topics: Normilization to 5th normal form, relationships, primary keys, foriegn keys, other keys. Just get it. Written by Graeme Simsion in 1994, 300 pages.


Programmers at Work - ISBN 1-55615-211-6

This is a book I really enjoyed reading. It reminds me of going to DevCon. In this book the author interviews 19 programmers that shaped the computer industry. Some names: Charles Simonyi (MS), John Warnock (PostScript), Bill Gates, Gary KilDall (CP/M), Wayne Ratliff (DBase), Dan Bricklin (VisiCalc). This is somewhat a history of the birth of the PC software industry. It was written in 1986 so there was no Windows, MicroSoft had 160 programmers. The different personalties are interesting. A cocky Gates claims once he's done with the code nobody can improve it. Dan Bricklin feels screwed by VisiCorp and says he'll do something on a smaller scale and put his own name on it. Many programming and career tips. You might have trouble finding this one, I got mine on close out for $5. The author is Susan lammers and it's 375 pages.


Salsas that Cook - ISBN 0-684-85694-8

I really like Chips and Salsa. This book has 6 cooked Salsa recipes and about 30-40 more that use the salsas. It's easy to make: wash the stuff, cook it in the oven and throw it in the food processor. The roasting is mainly done under the broiler and gives the salsa a great roasted/chared flavor. The onions and garlic roasted have a milder, sweeter flavor. The book has some good pictures to show you what the stuff should look like. To make this snack lower in fat use the new baked chips. Some say they taste like cardboard, but I think if you heat them in the oven or microwave first they taste fine. My cousin Mark has one of the recipes on his site at http://www.mindconnection.com/recipes/salsa1.htm.The book is new as of 11/98.