Oracle Forms Developer's Handbook

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Summary: Oracle Forms Developer's Handbook
Review: A great book to read and understand, but the support from author is bad. Still I would recommend this book.

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Summary: Not very impressive
Review: I am a beginner in Oracle Forms and Reports. I bought this book as a supplement to the class I am taking. The book talks about companion software, but there is no CD. It turned out to be downloadable SQL/PL*SQL scripts to be installed in my environment (You must have Oracle Developer client, not Windows environment, installed on your pc with permissions to create databases and tables, etc.) and run those scripts to setup the databases and tables. Very limited index doesn't help any more than my teacher, who puts up a Powerpoint presentation in the class and basically reads through each slide without much of an explanation for anything.

I may return this book if I find a better book.

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Summary: I liked the book, but the index needs help
Review: Listen Software Solutions: I bought the book to prepare me for an Oracle Forms and Report test. The book took three days to read. The code samples were very helpful. The content is very rigorous and academic. Lulushi starts with a simple Forms sample. It seemed trival, but it built my confidence. I believed the remainder of the book to be good. The first few chapters explain the Developer 2000 environment: Navigator, Layout Wizard, Menu Editor (I need this information and found it to be valuable), and Library Editor. I found the section on subclassing and reusable object difficult to apply. In theory the chapters made sense, but I needed a few simple samples to understand the practical application. About half way into the book the author really takes off: data and control blocks, frames, relationships, canvas, menus, and windows provide a good basic understanding of code development. This was great. I was bored. I found the last portion of the book on triggers very enlightening. However, I'll admit its pretty complex. I've taken Oracle Instructed courses for Oracle Forms/Reports and I found the book was very suppliment. I used Lulushi book to deeper insight into how code for Developer 2000. Lulushi uses a layering effect to teach the principles of Developer 2000. As I read further into the book, the more complex the layers became. He didn't try to overwhelm with every detail at the beginning of the book. He demonstrated a mastery of tool and language.

Rating:
Summary: Could be better
Review: The book is full of typos and mistakes in the code examples. Even with that the book has been helpful in some situations but hard to use. It is written like a huge tutorial and if you don't get something in the previous section, the next section doesn't work. I just want to know how to do the code. I want specific examples that aren't dependent on other parts of the book. Why can't there be more books on this subject to choose from?

Rating:
Summary: Frustrating and full of inaccuracies
Review: This is a tutorial, NOT a reference. As an experienced Oracle/IT professional, trying to learn Oracle Forms from this book has been extemely frustrating. The author is verbose rather than concise. Important information about a single topic may be spread across several sections making it difficult to get an answer to a specific question. As another reviewer stated, the index is weak. The author offers many warnings and tips that I eventually learned to test out for myself because, in a lot of cases, were just plain not true. There are tutorials on OOP, SQL, and PL/SQL that are tedious if you already have that background. I'd reccomend this book only for someone with little Oracle background who has a lot of time and patience.