Customer Reviews

Programming Server-Side Applications for Microsoft Windows 2000 (Microsoft Programming)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Programming Servers expects the user to have an understanding of development on Windows 32-bit platforms, and this is a good thing, because it gives the reader the chance to jump right into some advanced topics. First the book spends some well-deserved time on the topic of scalable I/O development in Windows. Then it covers service development in great detail, new and advanced developers will pick up some points here. After this, it covers administrative features. Although the administration section is interesting and detailed, it is also the lightest-weight chapters in the book. Following these chapters is the security development section! This section is by no means lightweight, so hold on tight. It covers security from the creation of the very first user account to full blown scalable encrypted communication using industry standard protocols. This section includes an incredibly complete coverage of NT security programming plus dozens of topics totally new to Windows 2000. Just about any developer will increase their understanding Windows with this book.

I found this book to be a well-presented and enjoyable read for some very advanced Windows programming concepts. This book thoroughly detailed the following topics: Server/Service development, scalable development techniques (including thread-pooling and scalable I/O), server management tool development, and the most complete security programming coverage I have seen to date. This book is a must buy for anyone who wants to understand the nuts and bolts behind security or server software development in Windows.

Note that this book does not require COM or DCOM knowledge. Even though basic C++ knowledge may be helpful, it's not a prerequisite either. All the samples are easy to follow and written in C.

This book should really be calling "Programming Secure Services for Windows 2000". Its not about server-side applications in general; rather, a specific implementation of them... a Microsoft Back-Office certified implentation to be precise. The first half covers creating, installing, and administering a service. The second half covers security.

That said, this is a good book if you are looking to make a service and are concerned about security. If you don't know what a service is, then you probably don't need this book. But I'll tell you what it is just in case :) The book defines it as "a normal Windows application containing additional infrastructure that enables it to receive special treatment by the operating system". ie You can see it as a 'snap-in' under the "Computer Management/Services and Applications/Services" directory in MMC. From there, you can start, stop, and administer your service. In essence, you are creating a background process that has no GUI. MMC takes care of that for you.

Using VC++ and named pipes, the authors give you plenty of examples of services and clients. A perfect follow up to "Applications for Windows 4th ed". Recommended but for a limited audience.

I've found the coverage of Windows NT security to be excellent. The book covers SSL, NTLM, kerberos, the crypto APIs and SSPI. Topics which I have not been able to find in any other book.

This book tells how to use existing Win32 API facilities to write solid and efficient server side apps. Most Win32 API books just describe GUI API part like Petzold's books do. This book takes you to the point - how to use EventLogging, Threads, IO completion port, security, Sockets, Overlapped IO, Synchronization, etc and why they work this way. It tells you even more - where most apps losing performance, standard techniques for synchronization, how to monitor system health. It offers little help for VB and MFC programmers at the same time if your apps should run for weeks and serve thousands requests an hour this is your survival guide.
Well, when Win32 about to be succeeded by Win64 we finally got answer how did it work and how we had to use it.

I'm doing server-side programming for years and I can state - a few books can match this one. It covers almost all core Win32 API that involved in server side development in great details. It is easy enough to read, but required basic CS knowledge. It was specially written for Win 32 API unlike many other books that been adopted from Win16. It covers fundamentals - processes, threads, different types IO, event logging, resource management, synchronization security and etc. This is the stuff that gives C++ advantage over VB on serve-side. Without it apps should be written in VB to run under COM+. It even touches Win64 API, but since I never use it I cannot judge it. It does not cover GUI development. I wish more information about COM and socket programming. If you involved in server-side development for high performance apps this book is the best source so far.

I have been developing server applications for some time and I was really dissappointed in this book. This book is for freshers, for people who want to start programming server applications and who have not done it before. If you are an experienced server guy, stay away from this book, except for the last part of the book which deals with security most of the other sections I knew in detail.

But Still I give it three starts because, I wish this book had been released when I started to learn server programming and this book would have saved me lot of time and relieved me a lot of searching.

I still love Jeffery Richter's books, I use Advanced Windows every day and basically is a bible to me.

For a detailed technical reference, this book is a surprisingly easy read. Not only is it a great introduction to new Windows 2000 technologies, I think that it will get quite a bit of use as a reference text over the next few years. The authors must have put a lot of effort into this one.

I bought this book for one of our developers. We are just getting started on server side programming. He said it was the perfect book, and he couldn't put it down. I'm buying a second copy now.

This book is not very good for freshers.One should be familiar to COM/DCOM for reading this book.