Customer Reviews

David Linthicum's Guide to Client/Server and Intranet Development

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Imagine having extended access to a kind, patient expert whose expertise is in several key areas of important computer technologies, including hardware, software, networking, application development, object-oriented technologies, and Internet/Intranet technologies. This is the way reading this book makes you feel.

Linthicum's book is an excellent reference and how to guide for technical people, project leaders, managers, analysts, students, and CIOs.

Why you might need this book:

1. It clearly covers the basics of client/server technology including concepts, databases, networks, object technologies and architectures.

2. It authoritatively covers a vast array of development tools used to construct client/server applications.

3. Linthicim beautifully covers the trap of the "RAD death spiral" in which developers continue to develop working prototypes with RAD development tools and are not permitted to take the time to create a sound, object-oriented design on which the system should REALLY be based.. This portion of the book is so well written that it is worth the price of the book.

4. Like a wise master, Linthicum draws on his wisdom and experience to tell you the best ways to build applications to meet the needs of your organization, and discusses the pitfalls if you make the wrong choices along the way.

5. The case studies and sidebar discussions excellently compliment the main body text.

6. It clearly and thoroughly discusses the basic concepts of building the next generation of client/server applications which are web-based, Intranet applications.

In addition, this book is THE BEST client/server book to appear on the market since Paul Renaud's Introduction to Client/Server Systems (Wiley, First Edition, 1993), and actually surpasses Renaud's Second Edition (which was also published this year) in terms of the coverage Linthicum's book offers on Internet/ Intranet technologies, which are vitally essential in a time where a "web-year" is now considered to be 12 weeks! David Linthicum's Guide to Client/Server and Intranet Development is destined to be a classic. Don't miss this book!

Bill Slater
slater@xsite.net
http://www.xsite.net/~slate

I suppose the best way I can characterize David Linthicum's guide is to observe that everyone who's seen it on my desk and thumbed through the pages has gone out and ordered a copy of their own, and so far I've yet to hear anyone say they regret the purchase. Regardless of how much you know, or how long you've been in the business, you're likely to gain some new insight or perspective from this book. Linthicum's dry, down-to-earth analysis cuts through the hype and provides a refreshing breath of reality all too rare in this business. This is not a `nuts-and-bolts' manual that provides the depth of knowledge necessary to see a client/server project through to completion. It will, however, convey an essential awareness of the major issues, opportunities, threats, and directions necessary to understand the alternatives and pick an area for more detailed investigation. This is the first technical book I've managed to read from cover to cover in some time.

An incoherent collection of superficial technical jargon.
If you are looking for guidance in client/server or intranet development there will be nothing of value in this book.

Working in one shop for a long time makes developers and system administrators pretty dependant on one brand and strategy for performing client/server data access tasks. David Linthicum's overview helps you "step out of the box" and look at new strategies and directions in client/server technology.

This book provides a great overview of some very complex technology. I think the author does a great job in putting this technology in terms that one can understand and apply in his or her own enterprise.

This book covers the entire scope of client/server including explaining the application of CASE technology and how to test a client/server system.

If client/server is in your future, this one has to be on your shelf.

I'm a programmer, and I bought this book hoping to learn something that I could use. After reading through this book, I realize that I'm no better off...

The author attempts to sound intelligent by using all the buzz-words he can muster, as if his intended audience is incompetent software managers who lust for the latest technical jargon.

I didn't actually read every word in this book. I read the first 7 chapters and was shocked to find that I was flipping pages faster and faster. I was reading the paragraph headers and maybe a paragraph here and there. Page after page I began to feel swindled. Its hard not to. Every topic that the author describes seems like an explanation of the obvious. And then he moves on to describe some other technology. I found myself thinking, ... Is there any *real* information in here?'

I was looking for detailed information about client/server application development, and I never found it. The author covers so many different technologies in the client/server world (database servers, client development tools, third generation client development tools, specialized development tools, multi-platform development tools, smalltalk tools, file-oriented DB tools, reporting tools, CASE tools) that I became lost in the sea (ocean) of sheer possibility. The discussion of the tools was shallow and cliche and lasted from chapter 8 through chapter 15. Thats over 150 pages - roughly 1/3 of the book.

That's not to say that the remaining 2/3 are particularly useful either. After a while, the chapters start looking the same.

For the programmers who actually have to implement client/server systems: this book is little more than a product/tool catalog.

For the managers: this book is a must have if you want to impress upper-management with your new client/server vocabulary.

...

If you are going to implement a Client/Server Solution, this book realy can guide you. You will see from devolpent tools to aplication servers and will have a very good explanation about the right solution to your problem.