Materials and Components of Interior Architecture (6th Edition)

Book Description

/*0-13-048399-0, 4839J-7, Riggs, J. Rosemary, Materials and Components of Interior Architecture, 6/E*/ Taking into account the dramatic advances being made in materials and technologies, this innovative book on interior architecture offers a refreshing, synergistic approach to the field while exposing readers to many exciting nonstructural materials available to today's designers. With an eye on the environment, it provides a firm understanding of the products, properties, and uses of all materials, covering everything from floors, walls and ceiling to installation, and recycling. Progressing from the ground up—literally—it looks beyond the more decorative aspects of design to study the properties and uses of both finishing materials in the design field and structural materials in the architectural field. For interior designers and specifiers.

Customer Reviews:

Very Poorly Written.......2006-08-22

This book is very poorly written. It also does not adequately discuss estimating materials.

Broad Outlook on Interior Products.......2000-06-21

This book is a good reference for anyone who is currently designing or building a luxury home, but for a general education on construction interiors, this is not the book. There are many references to the latest products, which include both color and feature description that will be quickly outdated. Most of the discussion centers around materials that would be used in an affluent home rather than your typical family residence, and product descriptions focus on the unique product, not the typical. Dimensions for comfortable clearance and layout hints are useful for residential layout, but the commercial references are very limited.

Signal Integrity Issues and Printed Circuit Board Design

Average customer rating:

Good for beginner....Not for advanced
Probably the most readable book you'll find on this
A chasm has been bridged...

Signal Integrity Issues and Printed Circuit Board Design
Douglas Brooks
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall PTR
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Printing | Graphic Design | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Engineering | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Arts & Photography | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Computers & Internet | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Professional | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Science | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 013141884X

Customer Reviews:

Good for beginner....Not for advanced.......2006-05-15

This book is truely for beginners who have no clue of signal Integrity. He starts this book with stuff like Ohm's law and how capacitors and inductors work which most people learn in high school.

But his explanations are really simple and easy to understand without lots of technical jargon. Very good for beginners bot not so good for more experienced engineers.

Probably the most readable book you'll find on this.......2004-03-04

Brook's book is exceptional in the clarity of the writing, esp. in explaining key concepts that most engineers are fuzzy on. This book is great at giving engineers an intuitive feel for basic electromagnetics and how it relates to signal integrity and emi.

It's main strength (and to some it's major weakness) is that it avoids the mess of equations of better known books like Johnson's "High-Speed Digital Design". Brooks is also a good writer, and he writes very clearly. Don't get this book, if you already understand the subject, since it doesn't cover advanced material. However, this is essential reading for those who don't have a clue or for those (like me), who've memorized a lot of emi guidelines, without really understanding why they're necessary.

Given the book's title, the only area of improvement I can think of is a chapter or appendix on basic pcb manufacturing and terminology (buried vias, microvias, antipads, etc).

A chasm has been bridged..........2003-09-22

As an educator, lecturer and practicing designer I am given many books to read and make comment on. I find very few books that are able to bridge the chasm between the needs of a beginner learning about signal integrity and the needs of a professional desperate to solve design problems. This book is an excellent primer and reference for understanding the interrelationship between the board layout and the signal integrity problem. This book details design solutions to classic signal integrity problems and educates the novice in understanding the reasoning behind the solutions. There is a lot of nonsense being written about signal integrity and few people have the resources to filter out the chaff from hay. This book proves every principle presented with tested board layouts, demonstrated engineering principles, or documented laboratory results. Some people can see the world in formulas and some see the world pictorially. This book is rich in both forms of expressionism and its presentation will not exasperate the PCB designer who sees the world visually, or frustrate the engineer seeking equations for design representation. This book has been added to the required reading list for our PCB layout designers and product development engineering teams.

Digital Integrated Circuits (2nd Edition)

Average customer rating:

DIGITAL INTEGRATED CIRCUITS
excellent book for fundamentals/reference
The Best "text"book to start Digial IC Design ..
Excellent Book for Electrical Engineers
Ok for transistor level ...

Digital Integrated Circuits (2nd Edition)
Jan M. Rabaey , Anantha Chandrakasan , and Borivoje Nikolic
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Engineering | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

Vocational Guidance | Job Hunting & Careers | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Electrical & Electronics | Engineering | New & Used Textbooks | Stores | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Arts & Photography | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Business & Investing | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Computers & Internet | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Professional | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Science | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0130909963

Customer Reviews:

DIGITAL INTEGRATED CIRCUITS.......2007-08-01

It's a great book,I studied with it during the semester, and it covered all the topics i needed.

excellent book for fundamentals/reference.......2007-03-06

I used the first edition of this book in my graduate class. I found the book well-written with good examples and explanations. It also covers a diverse range of subjects and I still find myself referring to it when I have doubts. If you are having problems with understanding fundamentals, I highly recommend this book as a reference.

The Best "text"book to start Digial IC Design .........2006-12-17

I had this book for both my Undergraduate and graduate level VLSI Design classes. I cant think of other book that would make a perfect course textbook to learn 'Digital' Integrated Circuit (DIC) design. The book starts with device concepts to give you a good understanding the physics behind CMOS technology. Then it introduces the basics of CMOS circuits (inverter analysis) and covers the aspects of digital integrated design such as parastic analysis, logic families, memories, timing and complex architectures etc... The real world design, challenges and technologies are also given in the book through articles, discussions, problems and examples. It gives a good background and teaches the concepts so a designer would be able to choose a correct design paramaters, logic/arch. family and targets such as power/performance/noise/area.

The book does not go deep in to each subject since its intention is intro/intermediate. Also this book is not for serious circuit designers but its a start book to make one. Its the book to learn and broaden your knowledge on designing custom and high performace circuits.. The cons of this book would be that its not a user friendly at the beginning for a fresh starter but it will welcome and get you going pretty quick once you get the style of the author. I would recommend the Uyemura's book (CMOS Logic Design) for uncovered and extra examples to complete this book. And if you are looking more to designing complex high performance circuits, Chandrakasan's book (Design of High-Performance Microprocessor Circuits) would be the one.

Excellent Book for Electrical Engineers.......2006-03-29

Great book as it is very clear, methodical, and gives great examples in which you can actually follow unlike some others. I would also recommend going through the problem sets from the authors website online as it really helps solidify the concepts taught in this book. This book is highly recommended for budding VLSI designers or engineers who just want to learn a little bit about VLSI design!

Ok for transistor level ..........2006-01-28

Has some good information at the transistor level. However, the book falls apart after the first time you open it. I returned my first copy and got a brand new one, but same thing happened. The back of the book cracks and pages fall out as soon as you start flipping through the thing. Highly overpriced, as most books of this type are!

Advanced Digital Logic Design Using VHDL, State Machines, and Synthesis for FPGA's

Average customer rating:

Not As Advanced as you would Think
using a finite state machine

Advanced Digital Logic Design Using VHDL, State Machines, and Synthesis for FPGA's
Sunggu Lee
Manufacturer: Cengage-Engineering
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Engineering | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Computers & Internet | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Professional | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Science | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0534466028

Book Description

This textbook is intended to serve as a practical guide for the design of complex digital logic circuits such as digital control circuits, network interface circuits, pipelined arithmetic units, and RISC microprocessors. It is an advanced digital logic design textbook that emphasizes the use of synthesizable VHDL code and provides numerous fully worked-out practical design examples including a Universal Serial Bus interface, a pipelined multiply-accumulate unit, and a pipelined microprocessor for the ARM THUMB architecture.

Customer Reviews:

Not As Advanced as you would Think.......2006-10-03

I purchased this book along with "Circuit Design with VHDL" by Pedroni. The Pedroni book was supposed to help me with syntax issues and general knowledge of vhdl while I wanted this book to learn some more advanced techniques. I found the two books very similar in level of difficulty. Chapter 8 on the Design of Fast Arithmetic Units and the section in Chapter 5 about designing an LCD controler are about the only advanced topics in this book that teach you how to design in VHDL. The section on implementing a RISC Thumb processor is more of an arichitecture lesson than how to implement it in VHDL on a FPGA. This book is more of an intermediate book than an advanced one. This is a good book don't get me wrong its just not as advanced as I would have liked.

using a finite state machine.......2005-06-20

Perhaps the key idea here might be the use or implementation of state machines in the design of the circuits. For the level of complexity and the number of transistors in a typical chip, you need some systematic means of disciplining the design.

While some readers might readily find other aspects of the book to be more pertinent, to me the paradigm of a finite state machine seems the most fruitful.

Average customer rating:

Informative but too detailed for a quick read
Rnalog layout reference
Great resource for the working analog layout and design engineer.
Highly recommended for all levels of analog IC designers
Highly Recommended Book On Bipolar & CMOS

Art of Analog Layout, The (2nd Edition)
Alan Hastings
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Arts & Photography | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Computers & Internet | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Professional | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Science | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0131464108

Book Description

Verbal explanations are favored over mathematical formulas, graphs are kept to a minimum, and line drawings are used in this user-friendly book. Clear guidance and advice are provided for those professionals who lay out analog circuits. Matching of resistors and capacitors: Includes causes of mismatch, particularly the hydrogen effect and package shift. MOS Transistors: Covers a brief history of floating gate devices, EPROM and EEPROM. Applications of MOS transistors: Expands information on failure mechanisms, including BVdss/Bvdii, SILC, NBTI/PTBI and GIDL and the difference between electrical and electrothermal SOA. Consideration of failure mechanisms as crucial to layout: Integrates further information into many chapters covering various devices. Standard bipolar, polygate CMOS and analog BiCMOS: Covers all three fundamental processes. A valuable reference for professional layout designers.

Customer Reviews:

Informative but too detailed for a quick read.......2007-07-16

I had ordered the book on the basis of some good reviews on Amazon. The book is very informative and exhaustive especially the topics on Bipolar and BiCMOS circuits. However, the book is too detailed and can be overwhelming for a beginner. I just wish the author had cut down on the content.

Rnalog layout reference.......2007-06-27

A very good read and reference for anyone taking circuit designs from the simulation stage to physical layout. A more in-depth understanding of how devices work and the impact of layout techniques is provided. More than just a layout instruction book.

Great resource for the working analog layout and design engineer........2006-08-14

I read the pre-print while still in college and continued to use it as i've progressed in my career. This book is a great collection of analog layout techniques for the real world, no analog IC designer should be without it. I continue to refer to it as i design different kinds of circuits that require alternative layout techniques. Great book overall!

Highly recommended for all levels of analog IC designers.......2006-07-21

The most detailed book that I have come across, addressing issues and design practices in analog layout (CMOS and bipolar). It is a combination of extensive layout experience (reflected in easy-to-use thumb rules) and the technical reasoning/nuances leading up to layout decisions. Strongly recommended not only for those starting out with their first design, but also for those who think they have a "feel" of layout practices without really knowing why.

Other comments:
- Content and flow are easy to follow
- Intuitive description of issues
- Process related factors are broadly covered explaining the gist of the matter
- Extensive references for follow-up

Highly Recommended Book On Bipolar & CMOS.......2004-03-16

I own this book, as do several of my co-workers. At the time I purchased it, just after it became available, late 2002 if memory serves, I could find only a few books on the subject, including Dan Clein's 'CMOS IC Layout'. I was most happy with this book to teach analog layout techniques. I judged this book as the best, as it is more detailed, deeper, more technical, broader. (See my review of CMOS IC Layout for more comparisons.) There is a lot of bipolar, but even analog CMOS layout makes use of parasitic bipolar junction tranistors and parasitic field FETs that all high voltage analog mask designers need to deal with. Yes, it is arguably lite on ESD, and, as an experienced analog chip designer, I was sad that I could not find mention that CMOS FET and poly resistor matching is generally scaled by the square root of the area, and alot more engineering level detail could be included in that section. Still, this book is the best for analog layout techniques.

High-Speed Digital Design: A Handbook of Black Magic

Average customer rating:

high speed circuit layout techniques
Not the final word by any means, but a good introduction
Mostly a very solid book
one of the best books around
Useful book if you need a cook book, however ........

High-Speed Digital Design: A Handbook of Black Magic
Howard Johnson
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall PTR
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Engineering | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

Applied | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books

Design & Architecture | Hardware | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Electrical & Electronics | Engineering | New & Used Textbooks | Stores | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Arts & Photography | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Computers & Internet | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Professional | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Science | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0133957241

Customer Reviews:

high speed circuit layout techniques.......2006-05-21

I bought this book based on a friend's recommendation seven years ago. I have used this book along with Henry Ott's book as a desk top reference for the past seven years.

Not the final word by any means, but a good introduction.......2006-05-02

Add Johnson and Graham to the list of people who can write large, highly technical books full of useful, pertinent information, and package it all in a way that's mostly very readable and which mixes just the right blend of rigorous academic structure with good old-fashioned "when all else fails, you might get away with this" hacks. This book is by no means a thorough, academic grounding in the subject matter, but it works well as an introduction for people who have some background in conventional electronics, yet little or no background in the specifics of high-speed digital design.

Considering how specialized and complex the book's subject matter is, it's surprising how well the authors manage to avoid hard math; they obviously made a conscious effort to use the most intuitive formulas possible whenever they could. There are maybe a handful of differential equations in the book, but most of the math requires no calculus, just basic algebra. The moderately math-phobic should be able to handle this book if you can understand what derivatives and integrals are.

A bit of a rant: Everybody gets so hung up on the title! Did any of the people who complain that HSDD isn't really "black magic" actually bother to even open the book? Right in the preface, the authors explain that HSDD is regarded as something of a "black magic" by engineers because it isn't taught in most college programs, but "The authors would like to dispel the popular myth that anything unusual or unexplained happens at high speeds. It's simply a matter of knowing which principles apply, and how." The title is meant to be humorous, people; lighten up! A lack of a sense of humor is a sign of an ineffective engineer.

This book really is just an introduction. You're not going to go out and design a gigahertz-level PC motherboard when you've read it through, but it'll prepare you for more advanced material like the "Advanced Black Magic" sequel, and tons of similar advanced books on the market. The book's strength is in its easy writing style and broad, concise scope. Recommended for anyone who knows basic electronics but wants to become a professional signal electronics engineer.

Mostly a very solid book.......2004-12-23

Great book. BTW, the author lists a LOT of errata on his website, enough to take over an hour to mark up my copy (5th printing). Although it's nice he documents this so well, it's a pain in the rear, so you may want to verify the edition you're buying to avoid this extra effort. On page vi, above ISBN, look for reverse sequence; example: "10 9 8 7" indicates 7th printing (cryptic, I know). Most recent printing is 15th edition (least amount of errata). The book is loaded with equations and diagrams. It would be nice to see more derivations, but at least the equations are there in the text, and in the appendix. I thought a few other reviewers were a bit harsh. The book is not perfect, but nevertheless a great resource. His second book is impressive, but more advanced; this original title is my "workhorse" book. also, check out his website (sigcon.com) for lots of articles and resources.

one of the best books around.......2004-09-02

I dont know what the other reviewers are blabbing about...being an ASIC designer myself..I felt this book was the best introduction I could get to cross-talk, signal integrity, EMC and Metastability. Been through and done that a lot of times, but still this is one of the best things around

Useful book if you need a cook book, however ...............2004-05-04

This book is useful if you want to have a long series of equations available in one place to jog your memory. But if you want to learn something useful and practical- and real-world - then perhaps you would be better off doing a web search for application notes, tutorial papers, and articles, particularly from semiconductor manufacturers, and vendors of high-performance test equipment such as Agilent, Tektronix, and others.

To take one example (page 134,) Johnson purports to describe problems associated with a wire-wrapped prototype processor board containing TTL devices operating at high edge rates ( 2 ns.) According to Johnson, the design engineers failed to realize that the circuits would ring excessively, making the board unusable. To "prove" this he posits a model consisting of a 30 ohm TTL driver, with a 2 ns rise time, a 4" length of wire with 89 nH of self inductance, and a 15pf load - a series LRC circuit. Yes, this circuit will ring wildly, but the model is totally incorrect. The TTL input is not considered, which has a relatively low input impedance in the low state since it is current operated. This circuit -effectively a parallel LRC - does not ring nearly as much, as any experienced engineer knows. As a reality check, remember that wire wrap was successfully used for years by thousand of engineers. To listen to Johnson, though, this technology is almost unusable. Wire wrap circuits do ring, but under his example, the real amount of overshoot/undershoot is well within the limits of TTL. Further, no real circuit produces textbook looking traces, so the role of experience is to learn what worst-case design means, and what is acceptable for good manufacturing yield. Lesson: real experience teaches you how to produce correct, functional models. An incorrect model will cause you grief.

Much could have been done here, to be useful, by way of analysis and of recommendation. The wire should have been modeled as part of a transmission line, not as a lumped element, which any high speed digital design engineer would know, and the idea of terminating a transmission line should have been introduced. This is standard fare. Even with the series LRC, instead of deriving the formula for critical damping, he instead says: "This approximation (reduce Q to .5) is derived from the solution to a second order linear differential equation describing an RLC low pass filter. First find the point at which the derivative of the solution passes through zero (a maximum point) and then evaluate the solution at that point."

Got that? Take the derivative of a solution you want to find? Any book on circuits will reduce this to the solution of a quadratic equation. Obfuscating something that's really elementary does not help produce genuine insight. But this is what Johnson does throughout the book.

Book Description

The CMOS technology area has quickly grown, calling for a new text--and here it is, covering the analysis and design of CMOS integrated circuits that practicing engineers need to master to succeed. Filled with many examples and chapter-ending problems, the book not only describes the thought process behind each circuit topology, but also considers the rationale behind each modification. The analysis and design techniques focus on CMOS circuits but also apply to other IC technologies.

Customer Reviews:

Every designer in my company has this book.......2007-09-17

This is by far the best book for analog designer. The only thing I wish to see is to include some simulation examples such as: AC analysis, noise analysis...

Also, as the technology moves to sub-micron, long channel approximation is no longer accurate. I wonder if author can comment on how to size the transistors for fewer spice iterations.

Maybe we will see them in the 2nd edition.

Grown appreciation.......2007-06-02

The more my knowledge grew, the more I have appreciated returning to this book as a reference compared to any of the others. Razavi's explanations are lucid and directly to the point allowing me to quickly recall/re-understand concepts that I either once grasped and forgot or never really understood in the first place.

It is OK. There could be better ones.......2006-11-12

I have used this book in a graduate class. It is good and very rigorous. It has good amount of examples and plenty of end of chapter problems. It is a good treatment of the subject. However, it might be hard as introductory.

Disappoiting.......2006-03-07

The book is too theory-oriented; not suitable for engineers. I felt disappointed.

And the chapters on PLL and switched-cap. are too common-sense! No use at all for practising engineers...I don't want to recommend this book -

Great book........2006-01-29

Difficult Side
Read Sedra/Smith book before trying this one. It is really hard to follow. It's hard to differentiate between small and large signal analysis, since author uses the same notation for both. Watch out!

Good Side:
Book is on CMOS analog ICs, so it's specific.
Book is very thorough. Behzad Razavi explains the function of each resistor in a circuit. Book teaches on a high level. Author put in much effort.

Practical Switching Power Supply Design (Academic Press Professional and Technical Series)

Average customer rating:

snubber circuit for IGBT

Practical Switching Power Supply Design (Academic Press Professional and Technical Series)
Martin C. Brown
Manufacturer: Academic Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Science | Subjects | Books

Applied | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

All Amazon Upgrade | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Arts & Photography | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Computers & Internet | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Engineering | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Professional & Technical | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Science | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Arts & Photography | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Computers & Internet | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Professional | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Science | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0121370305

Book Description

Take the "black magic" out of switching power supplies with Practical Switching Power Supply Design! This is a comprehensive "hands-on" guide to the theory behind, and design of, PWM and resonant switching supplies. You'll find information on switching supply operation and selecting an appropriate topology for your application. There's extensive coverage of buck, boost, flyback, push-pull, half bridge, and full bridge regulator circuits. Special attention is given to semiconductors used in switching supplies. RFI/EMI reduction, grounding, testing, and safety standards are also detailed. Numerous design examples and equations are given and discussed. Even if your primary expertise is in logic or microprocessor engineering, you'll be able to design a power supply that's right for your application with this essential guide and reference!

Key Features
* Gives special attention to resonant switching power supplies, a state-of-the-art trend in switching power supply design
* Approaches switching power supplies in an organized way beginning with the advantages of switching supplies and thier basic operating principles
* Explores various configurations of pulse width modulated (PWM) switching supplies and gives readers ideas for the direction of their designs
* Especially useful for practicing design engineers whose primary specialty is not in analog or power engineering fields

Customer Reviews:

snubber circuit for IGBT.......2000-06-29

I want read snubber circuit For IGBT

Average customer rating:

Exactly what I hoped for, and more
Top-notch tome
Excellent
Basic libraries coverage with a good example application.

Prototype and Scriptaculous in Action
Dave Crane , Bear Bibeault , and Tom Locke
Manufacturer: Manning Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Programming | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Web Services | Web Development | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Software | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 1933988037

Book Description

Prototype and Scriptaculous are libraries that extend standard Ajax. They make it easier to program Ajax and provide powerful features like drag and drop and animation. In this book, developers learn by playing and see how the libraries work in the real world.

As experience with Ajax increases, developers want the standard Ajax capabilities they repeatedly use to be preprogrammed for them--and that's exactly what Ajax libraries do for them. They reduce the pain of handling cross-browser inconsistencies, they add useful language features, and provide sophisticated functionality. Of these, Prototype is the most popular JavaScript and Ajax framework for low-level user interface features such as animation, drag and drop, and pre-built widgets. Together, they free the developer up to concentrate on building the application. They make a rich user experience easy to achieve.

This book guides the reader through the Prototype and Scriptaculous libraries feature-by-feature. In just 350 pages, readers will find over 100 small working examples to help them explore the libraries. As well, they will develop a web-based image gallery that teacher them how to use Prototype and Scriptaculous in the real-world.

Customer Reviews:

Exactly what I hoped for, and more.......2007-10-11

I'm not even halfway through this book yet and I'm already satisfied with my purchase. I look forward to reading about Scriptaculous, but to me the book is already worth it for (a) the treatment of JavaScript in general and the details on object-oriented JavaScript, JSON, and especially JavaScript prototypes and function closures, (b) Prototype, especially how prototype extends JavaScript itself by modifying various object prototypes, and (c) AJAX, including historical perspective, details and gotchas of AJAX request/response versus traditional GET or POST via browser, and the utilities Prototype offers to ease AJAX communication. Additionally, I know this book will make a great reference for it's coverage of the DOM basics and it's appendices on HTTP basics and traffic. There's even some useful contrasting of different server-side options (PHP versus servlets/JSP, etc.) I don't mean to sound like I'm fawning over this book but it's exactly what I hoped to find after working for the first time with all these technologies on a recent project; I wish I'd had this book during that project.

Top-notch tome.......2007-06-25

Javascript has exploded onto the web development scene in the last few years, and powers much of the web 2.0 and Ajax revolution. Every web developer now needs to know how to do common Ajax tasks. Thankfully, Prototype and Scriptaculous In Action makes it both easy and enjoyable.

This is a comprehensive book. The size (510 pages) was initially intimidating, but Prototype and Scriptaculous In Action is exceedingly well written and a genuine pleasure to read. The thorough and thoughtful organization of the book provides some real structure to the discussion, making complex subjects easily digestible. This is the defacto bible of Prototype and Scriptaculous, and these days I turn to this book more than anything else on my shelf.

The book is divided up into four multi-chapter parts, any of which could stand on it's own as a definitive guide. The chapters are full of useful examples, and there's strong emphasis given to migrating existing sites to Prototype and Scriptaculous, which is a major plus. You could turn to any section of the book and immediately see how to inject some new behavior into your existing application, but if you take the time to read from cover-to-cover you'll be rewarded with some deep understanding of both the libraries and Javascript itself.

I'll summarize the four parts of the book:

Part 1, Getting Started, introduces the Prototype and Scriptaculous libraries, focusing heavily on Prototype and Ajax. There's a lot of information on re-designing an existing site for Ajax. Two full chapters are devoted to Prototype's Ajax features. You can get up and running VERY quickly after glancing through these chapters. There's also a lot of depth, and consideration is given to the pervasive effects Ajax has on architectural issues and the new ways that an application will have to manage HTTP traffic.

Part 2, Scriptaculous Quickly, covers effects, controls and drag-n-drop. This is hands-down the best Scriptaculous documentation currently available, anywhere. The core effects are explored and tweaked, and there's lot of very practical examples demonstrating some of the niftiest stuff, like running effects in parallel versus sequentially. And the drag-and-drop coverage is incredibly clear, making it easy, almost trivial, to implement. The Scriptaculous coverage is indispensable, and you'll return to it again and again if you implement Scriptaculous-enabled pages.

Part 3, Prototype in Depth, explores Prototype's Javascript-oriented features. There's a fantastic chapter on functions contexts, and the discussion of closures is one of the best I've seen. There's a lot of information about Javascript fundamentals, and how Prototype can be used to implement inheritance, address arrays, and manipulate the DOM in the browser.

And finally, Part 4 Advanced Topics, has two unrelated chapters. The first chapter overhauls an example app, giving it a Prototype and Scriptaculous makeover. The last chapter is about integration with Ruby on Rails. Prototype was initially written as the Ajax interface to Rails, so there's some strong integration.

As a long-time enterprise web developer, dealing with Javascript has always been a chore. But now I actually (gasp) look forward to tasks that involve Javascript. I'm a convert, and I have Prototype and Scriptaculous in Action to thank.

Excellent.......2007-05-22

I wrote a longer review that Amazon has apparently lost. Oh well. This is an excellent book, very well written. The authors are the rarest kind of technical author: they can actually construct prose that is pleasant to read, not deadly boring, but which works well as a reference book later. The book's organized thoughtfully--it's certainly much more than just an API reference. There's also quite a lot of general advanced Javascript information here, too.

There's at least one other book on these libraries in production from Pragmatic Programmers. If you're considering that, I strongly suggest downloading the sample chapters of both books and comparing. The Crane book is much more appealing to me (not to mention it's available now, not in six months).

Basic libraries coverage with a good example application........2007-04-19

This book lacked detailed coverage of the programming techniques and advanced topics of prototype and scriptaculous. The authors covered the basics by discussing only the API's of the libraries (more attention was given to scriptaculous API's, even though its usage is obvious and prototype API's are more extensive). With 500 pages and the libraries as the title, I expected details about the inner workings of the API's and discussions about its usages/ applications. Instead, 150 pages were devoted to verbose repetitive coverage of scriptaculous' API, which could easily have fitted into 50 pages at most. ALL of the info on scriptaculous could easily have been read online at its wiki site - the book provided no further insight (ch. 5 is especially useless)! Prototype's coverage was decent, but lacked details on several parts of its API. Although prototype and scriptaculous are tightly integrated with Rails, there was only 1 chapter devoted to its discussion, which served more like an overview than a usage guide. Based on content on the libraries alone, I would give this book 3 stars. However, if you're in need of an example application, then it may deserve 4 stars. This book provides a good example of applying prototype's ajax and scriptaculous web 2.0 techniques to a photo gallery website. It shows the advantages these libraries have over plain javascript and dhtml. The extra 100 pages wasted on scriptaculous would better serve Rails' RJS templates or a more complete/ thorough discussion of prototype. Of course it can be argued that the book is not titled, "Prototype, Scriptaculous, and Rails in Action," but it should be.

Average customer rating:

Surely there must be a better verilog book out there
Awful reference source
Great coverage of Verilog language
Good explanations but not for reference
an easy language

Verilog HDL (2nd Edition)
Samir Palnitkar
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall PTR
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Programming | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Systems Analysis & Design | Computer Science | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Computer Science | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Arts & Photography | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Computers & Internet | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Professional | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Science | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0130449113

Customer Reviews:

Surely there must be a better verilog book out there.......2007-05-02

Here are my complaints with the book:

1. Poor organization -- While it does contain a fairly complete description of Verilog, it's not a very useful description. Reading this book is like reading the Tax Act - all the information is there somewhere, but good luck trying to find it.

2. Poor index -- As a reference, this book is pretty much useless because it lacks a good index. Many items discussed in the book are _not_ in the index. So you can never find that thing that you vaguely remember reading about last month. And you cannot find the answer to a simple question quickly.

3. Lack of practical examples -- For a chip designer or verifier, this book is more or less useless. Although it claims to be "A Guide to Digital Design and Synthesis", there is only one brief chapter on synthesis, and it is severely lacking (a mere 40 pages out of 450). He doesn't even demonstrate how to code a flip-flop with an asynchronous reset. When it comes to practical usage, you're better off searching the web, or reading the source code for the openrisc processor, or something written by an experienced co-worker, or even just reading chapters 11 and 12 of "Application Specific Integrated Circuits" by Michael Smith (also available online I think).

4. Expensive -- I recommend you save your money and just use on-line resources to learn Verilog. None of these on-line resources are great, but at least you will be getting your money's worth, which is more than I can say about this book.

Awful reference source.......2007-04-01

I used this book to learn Verilog and if you read it from beginning to end, you might learn the gist of the language...but that's it. The book is virtually useless as any kind of reference source. The index is almost unusable (if you want to learn about the keywords "fork" or "join", for example, good luck. They aren't even listed in the index, along with just about everything else). Descriptions of how the language works are cryptic and overly brief, though the examples are sometimes helpful.

I seldom write reviews of books, but this one has annoyed me so much that I felt compelled to do so.

All in all, it's better than no book at all, but not much better.

Great coverage of Verilog language.......2006-10-11

Very comprehensive text about the Verilog language, covering the various aspects of the language. The text is clear and well organized. The exercises at the end of the chapter helped me a lot in the learning process. The simulator included is very simnple and all examples in the book run flawlessly. A few things I did not like: the few mistakes in the text and code could have been easily caught by any careful reviewer, the lack of a more detailed example to show the usage of the various constructs in a real world Verilog design and hints about how to build synthesizable Verilog programs. I have enjoyed the author's style and recommend the book for any person who wants to learn Verilog, including other software engineers like myself who want to understand some HDL basics.

Good explanations but not for reference.......2006-01-07

I read the book; it is a good one for reader to catch the idea quickly. But to use it as a reference book might not be a good idea. The topic organization is divided into basic usage section and advanced technique section, and kind of hard to locate for a certain issue. However, it is still worthy of reading as a beginner. The most things I like this book is it use example(s) to explain the concept.

an easy language.......2005-12-29

The author offers more than just a detailing of the various parts of the Verilog language. He also covers extra features that enhance what you can do in Verilog for the purposes of modelling or analysis.

Perhaps the most important aspect is how to divide your design into modules. A top-down approach that can greatly aid reducing the complexity of the original problem. Also, constructing modules helps in the testing of the full circuit, by being able to design in tests of each module. If you have a background in software, then you will recognise this factorisation into modules as very akin to traditional software design.

For the student, the chapters have numerous problem sets that let you tackle the language. The text shows that Verilog is actually a fairly simple language, as computer languages do. Those of you who have programmed in other languages should encounter no serious problems with Verilog.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books