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| We asked some of our (and your!) favorite authors
to share with us their favorite 10 computer books from the past 10
years. Here's what we got back. |
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R.M. Menon has worked with Oracle database for
over eleven years, eight of which have been at Oracle Corporation.
For the past five years, Menon has used JDBC and other J2EE technologies
extensively as part of his work. He believes in the philosophy
of proving all assertions and has striven to follow this philosophy
rigorously in his book. When he is not doing research on Oracle,
Menon learns Indian classical vocal music and performs at local
cultural events as a singer. Occasionally, he also dabbles in
sketching portraits and drawing paintings and cartoons.
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R.M.'s favorite books: |
 Effective
Oracle by Design by Tom Kyte – Another masterpiece by Tom. Tom's style is
highly readable, and his typical example-driven approach is very accessible to
readers of all categories. The best thing about Tom is that he teaches you how
to learn yourself instead of just handing you over a bunch of tips without explaining
the logic behind them. Another must-have in my opinion.
 Optimizing
Oracle Performance by Cary Millsap – A book written in the scientific and
witty style which is the trademark of all writings by Cary Millsap. The book
is perhaps the most authoritative work on Oracle's tracing mechanism which, as
Cary argues rather convincingly, is the most powerful arsenal in a performance
specialist's tool set. It also has some fascinating reading material on the queuing
theory and its application in performance tuning. A thoroughly enjoyable and
original piece of work.
 Effective
Oracle Database 10g Security by Design by David Knox – This is a book by
the foremost Oracle security expert, David Knox, who explains to you how to develop
and deploy Oracle applications in a secure fashion. It covers a gamut of topics
including security-related principals, proxy authentication, identity management,
secure application roles, fine-grain auditing, virtual private database, encryption
and many more. Highly recommended.
 Mastering Oracle PL/SQL: Practical Solutions by
Connor McDonald – This is a book intended for a reader who is familiar with PL/SQL
but is looking for advanced programming techniques, tools and solutions. Connor
is a well-known Oracle expert and speaker and presents his material in a lucid
style with logical arguments and code to back up his assertions. The book explains
how to write effective PL/SQL code that performs data operations, security and
DBA-related tasks. A must-have for anyone who programs in PL/SQL.
 Practical
Oracle 8i: Building Efficient Databases by Jonathan Lewis – Jonathan Lewis,
along with Tom Kyte, is up there in the list of the top authorities on the subject
of Oracle. Don't be misled by the fact that this book is on Oracle 8i. Many of
the principles explained in this book are relevant for later Oracle versions
as well. A highly recommended book.
 Design
Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software by Erich Gamma, Richard
Helm, Ralph Johnson and John Vlissides – This book is considered to be a seminal
work in the area of design patterns. Anyone who does programming (especially
in OO languages) should read this book. It catalogues patterns for managing object
creation, composing objects into larger objects and controlling flow of interaction
between objects. With each pattern, the book provides examples to illustrate
when the pattern is useful and, more importantly perhaps, when it is not applicable.
 Extreme
Programming Explained: Embrace Change by Kent Beck – This book by Kent Beck
provides a fascinating overview of the author's Extreme Programming (XP) software
development methodology. It describes XP, its guiding principles and how the
methodology works. It demonstrates how XP relies on simplicity, pair-programming,
unit-testing, collective ownership of code and continuous incorporation of customer
input on software requirements to motivate high-quality software delivered on
time. If you are working on small to mid-size projects, this book is definitely
worth your money.
 Peopleware:
Productive Projects and Teams by Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister – Peopleware explains
why many software projects fail in spite of the tremendous resources spent
on them. It promotes the idea that the people on a project
are the most
critical resources and a company or a project that does not realize
this is doomed from the start. Although most of the book's contents are relevant
for software development projects, the same principles can be
extended over to other project
management scenarios. This book is a must-read for an IT professional,
especially if you lead or manage a project.
 Code
Complete by Steve McConnell – Microsoft may be notorious for its bug-ridden
applications, but Microsoft Press has churned out some very good books related
to programming techniques. This book by Steve McConnell is one of them. The book
is an extremely useful compilation of programming techniques relevant to most
programming languages. I have read the first edition and it definitely is a classic
piece of work. The second edition incorporates new technologies such as OO and
agile programming techniques. This book is indispensable, especially if you are
just beginning your programming career.
 Expert
One-on-One Oracle by Tom Kyte – This is the definitive book
on developing Oracle applications. The first few chapters make
for a fascinating reading for anyone who wants to understand how
Oracle works internally and how it differs from other databases
on the market. Tom is one of the leading authorities on Oracle
and is also the man behind the hugely popular website http://asktom.oracle.com.
In general, anything written by Tom on Oracle is worth your attention
and money. Tom was the reviewer of my JDBC book and I have a tremendous
respect not only for his extraordinary Oracle knowledge but also
for his generosity and personal integrity. Tom is working on the second
edition of this book which will also cover Oracle 9i and 10g. Highly recommended.
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