Rating: 
Summary: Developer GUIDE?
Review: This 1000 page book is a collection of sections that feel largely cut and pasted from some manual. The rest could be written by a good secretary. Still, that would be of real use if you could find stuff; but the index is quite inadequate. There are two sections. The first half is administrative recipes, the second is programmer recipes. I give it a whole 3 stars because some of these admin recipes are useful. Like how to back up a database, some platitudes about performance, a little about cubes and replication, etc. SQL Server is a big topic; you can easily fill 400 pages just covering basics, and that's a worthwhile thing. But for a book that is supposed to be a developer's resource, in the end you get about 40 well ventilated pages that deal with the only current data access technique, namely ADO. There's a summary view of the SQL language and some rudimentary discussion of stored procedures. The rest of the developer stuff deals (superficially) with every piece of old technology, like Access, DAO, ODBC, RDO and DBLIB. There's a lot of filler; two page code quotes are followed by stultifying enumerations of what functions the code called. The Web and ASP? You get 60 flaccid pages in the last section; by the end of that chapter you are into deleting rows, and then onto 4 pages on Interdev, but there are, mercifully, lots of pitures. Why is it that they make you feel like you're lucky to even be getting that last chapter? The problem all around is that this is all very superficially treated, with a lot of white space, pages of double-spaced code, and pictures. I don't see what you could possibly develop, based on this book. If you have progressed to the point where you have doubts and questions, it's very unlikely you will find the answers here. This is more of a "don't rock the boat" sort of book, and it's an OK intro. $ is a little steep, considering that $ also buys you something the author put his heart and mind into, like "Pro SQL Server 7.0 Programming" by Robert Vieira. A more accurate title would be "A reluctant developer's introduction to SQL Server". If your favorite tools were VB3 and Access, and you think all these newfangled things like COM and OOP and Java and XML and UML are just "fads", then this is maybe the SQL book for you.
Rating: 
Summary: If you can have only one book on Sql 7 This Is It!!!
Review: This book can be broken into two distinct parts. The first 546 pages are really for SQL Admin while the remaining pages through 925 are for Developers. Both parts are well worth the read from either perspective. The Appendices apply to both. Of the eight books currently in print on SQL Server 7 and on my bookshelf this one ranks at the top. The text flows in an easy to read manner. The illustrations are all legible and placed around the text referencing them. What a breath of fresh air! The CD-ROM actually has useful material on it versus the junk that one usually receives on an accompanying CD. The book is well organized and presents SQL Server 7 in a manner that maximizes learning. I am giving some very serious thought to using this book as a text for the Masters class that I teach on Database Servers. Messrs. Otey and Conte have done a superb write. While not the panacea or end all you will be hard pressed to find one single book that accomplishes so very much at an exceptionally affordable price. Spend the money to buy the book. It belongs on your desk at work. What more can be said? Regards
Rating:
Summary: No DTS
Review: This book completely skips the Data Transformation Services features of SQL 7.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent reference for SQL Server 7 developers
Review: This book covers nearly every aspect of SQL Server 7 that could be relevant to the developer. Sections on SQL Server's architecture and administration, backup, security, replication, and other DBA aspects, comprise the first part of the book. The remainder of the book is geared towards the development aspect, rather than the administrative aspect. The section on T-SQL is very good. There are many illustrations and examples throughout the book and the language is easy to read. While there are books out there, many of them excellent, that concentrate on the adminstration of SQL Server to the exclusion of development and others that are directed only at developers, this book is geared to the developer that needs to dabble in administration from time to time. This is what makes this book unique and an important addition to any SQL Server 7 developer's library.
Rating: 
Summary: A reasonable reference for the average developer
Review: This book hardly dives into the intricate details needed for an experienced developer and it's contents are too shallow for a DBA. This book is basically a bunch of facts gathered from various resources and pasted together. The author states facts and presents tables without any explanation as to why or how sql server behaves but presents common trivial tasks in a cookbook fashion. Some of the material presented in this book is innacurate or outdated and no longer applies to SQL Server 7. For a technical book that has taken almost two years of effort, you would expect much more and should be devoid of factual errors such as "a terabyte is 1000 megabytes" (page 399). Despite it's shortcommings, you will find SQL Server 7 Developer's Guide a reasonable reference for the average database programmer, however if you want good advice from "experts" pertaining to SQL Server 7 who write from experience rather than present information easily obtained from online manuals (which becomes outdates very quickly) I recommend Inside SQL Server 7 from Microsoft Press.
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Summary: Tremendous reference for developers.
Review: This book has been invaluable. It drills down into important topics and is clearly written and organized. The CD is great.
Rating: 
Summary: Complete guide for production-quality database applications
Review: This book is a comprehensive "how to" guide for professionals who create SQL Server 7.0 databases and who write applications that use SQL Server 7.0 databases. Based on our own experience as commercial application developers, we've tried to explain all aspects of database development you need to know to create production quality databases and applications. The book includes in-depth discussions of relational database design, Transact-SQL to create and manipulate database objects, using the principal interfaces (e.g., OLE DB, ODBC, RDO, DAO, etc.) to access the database, replicating data to multiple systems, setting up security, performance monitoring and tuning, backup and recovery, integration with the Web, managing databases with the Enterprise Manager, and more. As developers who've had to implement "enterprise-level" database applications, we recognize it's not enough to know just SQL or a programming interface (such as ODBC or OLE DB). In addition to having the necessary tables, views, stored procedures, and programs, a viable database application must be secure, efficient, recoverable, and often encompasses distributed data. Nowadays, Web integration is frequently an additional requirement. In this guide, we offer extensive explanations and advice in all these areas. We made no attempt to simply "repackage" the SQL Server 7.0 manuals or on-line documentation; instead, we've described how to solve common development problems with the available SQL Server 7.0 features and tools. We've included lots of examples, as well as specific design, coding, performance, and security recommendations. To get you started writing programs that access a SQL Server 7.0 database quickly and effectively, we include a full chapter for each of the major programming interfaces. Each chapter in this section has a complete example application that we repeat for each of the different interfaces. You can compare and contrast the different approaches used for the sample application to select the best database interface for your own applications. All the sample source code is included on the accompanying CD, so you can also use the examples as a starting point for your own programs. A few additional notes: Developers who have or will work with other relational databases (e.g., Oracle or DB2) will benefit from our attention to ANSI-standard SQL in the chapters on Transact-SQL. We point out how you can maximize the portability of your SQL code by setting various configuration options and choosing ANSI-standard, rather than proprietary, SQL statement options. In addition, because SQL is a widely supported standard, you'll be able to use many of the recommended database implementation and programming techniques with other relational DBMS, as well as SQL Server. Although both of us are experienced in a variety of languages (including C++, Java, VB, Delphi, and others), we picked VB as the language for the examples for several reasons: VB is Microsoft's strategic scripting (or "glue") language; VB is the most widely-used programming language on Microsoft platforms; and VB's simple syntax makes it relatively easy for programmers in other languages (e.g., C++ or Delphi) to follow examples for call-level database interfaces (such as ODBC). By using VB to illustrate all the interfaces, we hope the reader can concentrate on the database interfaces themselves and not have to adapt to a different language and program structure for each interface's example. Of course, each chapter includes extensive explanations of how to effectively use the database interface, along with the example application. Mike Otey & Paul Conte
Rating:
Summary: Average approach to SQL7
Review: This book is decent, but for the developer, there may be 200 pages worth of relevant info. The first part of the book is all admin stuff, probably too deep for the developer, not deep enough for the true DBA. Middle section is really good for SQL/T-SQL stuff, database design/analysis/normalization, etc. The last half of the book deals with data access technologies which are basically irrelevant at this point, so only the ADO and ASP chapters are worth anything. As another reviewer mentioned, much of the book seems like cut and paste text from an online manual. I picked up the latest SQL7 book from Wrox (by Viera), and within a couple of hours realized how much more superior it was. For the professional developer, I highly recommend the Wrox text.
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Summary: One of the best SQL Server and VB Books ever
Review: This book is fantastic. I think that it is even better than Hitchiker's guide... Everything that you possible want to know is there
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Summary: Excellent reference for developers!
Review: This is an excellent book presenting an overview of the administration aspects of SQL Server 7.0. I myself am a developer and have just set up SBS 4.5 at home and am learning the intracasies of managing SQL Server 7.0 along with developing n tier Clinet/Server applications. This book is interesting to read (which I might add is rare among technical books) and holds my attention. I only wish more books were written this clear and concise. There are so many books out there which are rip off's and shouldn't even be allowed to be on the market. Hats off to the authors and the publishers for this book!!
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