9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not Aptly Named, August 27, 2002
This review is from: MySQL Bible with CDROM (Paperback)
I've read Kofler's and DuBois's books and if I had it to do over, I would pass on this book only because the combination of the other two make this book superfluous. Kofler & DuBois combined come closer to providing a comprehensive overview of MySQL.
There are a few things buyers should know about this book.
The CD does NOT contain the bulk of the examples. You're in for lots of typing if you want to follow along. Those unwilling to labor away at their keyboards might not notice that the examples have problems.
The lack of an author designed and organized structure of examples leads to other problems because clearly the author had a structure in mind, but the reader is left to deduce this along the way after he/she has possibly already created a different structure as I did. Not providing the examples in an organized manner is the primary cause of many other issues.
The examples assume you can use your knowledge to adjust them or your operating environment to make them work. You have to learn to "read between the lines". Someone learning about MySQL may also be seeing PHP or PERL for the first time, so I don't think it's reasonable to have the reader make up for what the author failed to provide. Assumptions are made about where things are located and what they're called.
`Oh - I see - he wants a chap16 subdirectory.'
`Ah - he wants to call this file fig18.php - wouldn't grants.php make more sense so when I look in that directory a month from now I can find the routine that did grant lookup, especially since the next example wants to be called signin.php?'
Had the author supplied the examples in a structure containing chapter subdirectories, then his examples might make more sense. As it is, you're left to create a structure, or fix the code to meet your needs. People purchasing a book to learn from may or may not possess the knowledge to make the alterations and continue on. It's an easily avoidable stumbling point with a little effort from the author and publisher.
The PHP examples assume a version older than PHP 4.2. You'll have to upgrade the examples yourself if you want to use a PHP 4.2.x flavor. For a book published mid 2002, that's a bit of an oversight. BTW - Kofler's WEB site provide downloadable PHP 4.2 versions of his examples, and his book was published in 2001. Mr. Kofler's willingness to maintain his work over time and provide conversion functions allowed me to make Mr. Suehring's examples work under PHP 4.2.1. Thank You Mr. Kofler!
The CD does contain a PDF version of the book, but you can't copy the examples from it to eliminate typing them. Largely, the CD holds installable software for Perl, Acrobat, PHP, Apache, etc, things easily found on the WEB, so it was of no value to me. Actually, the availability of the CD wasted my time. I just knew the examples had to be on the CD somewhere, probably misfiled, so I examined every file. They're not there. ;-(
There are no errata for the book that I can locate at the time I write this. The authors WEB site hardly mentions the book. I've discovered numerous errors, and brought some to the author's attention. I can't spend my time proof reading his book however.
The example code is sloppy, although you can get the point the author is trying to make if you are already somewhat conversant in MySQL and Perl or PHP. A newbie might have a problem however.
For example, the author creates a function (priv) which executes mysql_query($query). $query is built inside the priv function using several passed in parameters. The function should make sure that those passed in parameters are safe to send to MySQL by applying mysql_escape_string on them. That's not done however. The author chooses to use mysql_escape_string before calling the priv function, and then codes the priv function call incorrectly by referencing the unsafe parameters by mistake.
i.e. Page 476
$quoteduser = mysql_escape_string($user);
$quotedhost = mysql_escape_string($inhost);
priv($user, $inhost);
Page 483 holds my favorite example of sloppy code. The same 6 lines of code are repeated 3 times in a convoluted if /elseif statement. This page also repeats the error previously mentioned.
Mr. Suehring also dispenses with any of the typical starting and ending HTML code that should be in every page. Reading his code fosters sloppy coding practices. Using "View Source" from a browser reveals that his output pages aren't what you would expect to see.
The author apparently worked from a Windows machine and used an SSH tool called Putty to SSH into a Linux machine where the actual MySQL server was running. The book is chock full of screen shots of these Putty/SSH sessions. Each one is very difficult to read since the screen shot is solid black background with thin, tiny font, gray output that lacks contrast. Think about it - tiny grey text on a black background.
Had the author provided the publisher with textual examples, and the publisher had appropriately formatted them to simulate a screen shot the book would be a much easier read. As it is, I used a magnifying glass to read those black smudges. I fault the publisher for allowing this to occur. Of the numerous sample pages that Amazon makes available for review, not one of them shows a single screen shot so you'll have to use your imagination.
Maybe a second edition of the MySQL Bible, coupled with a WEB site that provides updated downloadable examples and errata will correct its shortcomings.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Hopelessly outdated, November 10, 2004
This review is from: MySQL Bible with CDROM (Paperback)
I have to disagree with many of the reviews of this book.
The MySQL Bible would benefit from more than a simple layout change. Since the advent of the win installer for ver. 4.1.6 gamma of MySQL, the first 5 chapters of this book become useless. There are few explicit example of code (especially regarding how to interact with mysqladmin) extracted from the impossible "dark grey on black" screen captures that are used.
As for the comment that some reviewers have made, that some of the codes provided (when they can be read) are inaccurate or ineffective, I would add only that I have yet to find a snippet of code in the book that actually works.
Maybe there is something usefull in this book, but I haven't found it yet... I only hope that this book has a major revision for 5.0, and that someone in the editorial dept. at Wiley actually looks at pages before they are published.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Hardly a "bible", May 13, 2003
This review is from: MySQL Bible with CDROM (Paperback)
I purchased this book with great anticipation of expanding my knowledge of mySQL and making great us of the section on perl. Overall, I'm very dissapointed. The book itself goes into great detail about certain things that need not such a vast description, yet only privide single examples for some important things.
The CD-ROM is useless. I was expacting it to have code from the book, whereas it's a collection of mySQL apps and programs that you can get free elswhere.
Having explored the perl chapter of the book in greatest detail, it provides inadequite examples with a lot of inneficient coding.
I give the book credit, however, for covering as much ground as it does, mySQL with perl, PHP and ODBC. Overall, however, not worth the money.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
