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Rating: 
Summary: Decent mix of GIS theory and arcview specifics
Review: I just finished using this book for a second-level ArcView class. At first I didn't like it that much, mostly because the writing is very soporific, but also because it blurs coverage of GIS topics and ArcView specifics together, without a clear sense of what kind of information was being presented. (E.g. tutorial GIS material appears in the middle of exercises. This should be separated and stand off in a separate font, for instance, than the low level instructions of what ArcView commands to perform for the exercise.)However, as I read this book more, I got to like it and appreciate it much more. It occupies a unique niche in the GIS literature field, because *NO OTHER BOOK* that I have been able to track down (with one exception given below) combines high level GIS concepts with their realization in ArcView (if there are others I'd like to know). Most other books are either GIS theory alone, or very *very* low level bloated books about ArcView as a program (e.g. practically everything esri publishes), with little or no connection to, or explication of, high level GIS concepts, theory, and data structures. (Also as I read on, the writing became less soporific: I don't know if this was because I got used to the author's writing style, or if the writing actually improved.) In contrast to all those other ArcView books, this book presents some GIS theory, and then shows how to actually do something with these concepts in ArcView. The exercises on the CD provide data and shapefiles specific to what is being taught, so that the reader learns how to actually do quite powerful things in ArcView. It became quite exciting to see some of the cool things that could be done as the chapters went on. (For learning and using ArcView, this book goes along well with Theobald's excellent reference on ArcView, which also bridges the gap between GIS theory and ArcView by presenting almost every nut and bolt relevant to ArcView usage, organized by high level GIS concepts.) Regarding the complaints in the other review: I encountered just a couple of bugs in the supplied CD exercises, and most of them could by remedied in one way or another. (The newer printing of the book may or may not have these bugs fixed.) Although a trial version of ArcView is included on the CD for installing on your home computer (I used a Mac with Virtual PC), the text includes exercises using the ArcInfo program when there was something that couldn't be done in ArcView. On the book's cover, they clearly mention that only ArcView is included on the CD. For the exercises which required special extensions such as 3D Analyst, we used the college's computers which had those extensions installed, so that was not a problem. It is unfortunate that not every tool covered in the book could have a trial verision included in the CD (not the fault of the publisher, but of esri), but I'd rather have the knowledge coverage in the book so I can learn about it even if the program is not on the CD. I think this book deserves five stars for content, but I'm giving it four because of the stylistic problems described above.
Rating:
Summary: Decent mix of GIS theory and arcview specifics
Review: I just finished using this book for a second-level ArcView class. At first I didn't like it that much, mostly because the writing is very soporific, but also because it blurs coverage of GIS topics and ArcView specifics together, without a clear sense of what kind of information was being presented. (E.g. tutorial GIS material appears in the middle of exercises. This should be separated and stand off in a separate font, for instance, than the low level instructions of what ArcView commands to perform for the exercise.) However, as I read this book more, I got to like it and appreciate it much more. It occupies a unique niche in the GIS literature field, because *NO OTHER BOOK* that I have been able to track down (with one exception given below) combines high level GIS concepts with their realization in ArcView (if there are others I'd like to know). Most other books are either GIS theory alone, or very *very* low level bloated books about ArcView as a program (e.g. practically everything esri publishes), with little or no connection to, or explication of, high level GIS concepts, theory, and data structures. (Also as I read on, the writing became less soporific: I don't know if this was because I got used to the author's writing style, or if the writing actually improved.) In contrast to all those other ArcView books, this book presents some GIS theory, and then shows how to actually do something with these concepts in ArcView. The exercises on the CD provide data and shapefiles specific to what is being taught, so that the reader learns how to actually do quite powerful things in ArcView. It became quite exciting to see some of the cool things that could be done as the chapters went on. (For learning and using ArcView, this book goes along well with Theobald's excellent reference on ArcView, which also bridges the gap between GIS theory and ArcView by presenting almost every nut and bolt relevant to ArcView usage, organized by high level GIS concepts.) Regarding the complaints in the other review: I encountered just a couple of bugs in the supplied CD exercises, and most of them could by remedied in one way or another. (The newer printing of the book may or may not have these bugs fixed.) Although a trial version of ArcView is included on the CD for installing on your home computer (I used a Mac with Virtual PC), the text includes exercises using the ArcInfo program when there was something that couldn't be done in ArcView. On the book's cover, they clearly mention that only ArcView is included on the CD. For the exercises which required special extensions such as 3D Analyst, we used the college's computers which had those extensions installed, so that was not a problem. It is unfortunate that not every tool covered in the book could have a trial verision included in the CD (not the fault of the publisher, but of esri), but I'd rather have the knowledge coverage in the book so I can learn about it even if the program is not on the CD. I think this book deserves five stars for content, but I'm giving it four because of the stylistic problems described above.
Rating: 
Summary: Introduction to GIS by Chang
Review: This book was recommended reading for a class. Like many other books that include a CD, it relies heavily on the CD to teach the material. It was frustration from the begining. The overall content of the book is sufficient but the teaching process falls far short. The author or publisher should have checked the CD to see if it contained what they said: no spatial analyst like they said--which is very important in the book, no arcinfo which is important. One reference to a software extension was misnamed, leaving me to search and experiment till I discovered they did not mean "Grid Data Source" but rather "Image Data Source". And we have not yet left chapter 1! Chapter 2 was no different, View Projection Utility does not work. Oh well I give up. I do not recommend this book as a way to learn GIS--maybe as a reference but not as a tutorial.
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