No comments about Cheap and Tasteful Dwellings: Design Competitions and the Convenient Interior.

No comments about Architecture, Information, Graphics: The Design of Communication.

No comments about Auditorium Acoustics and Architectural Design.

1 comments about Simplified Design of Steel Structures (Parker/Ambrose Series of Simplified Design Guides).

1. I am working as a civil engineer in a design office active in constructing light gauge steel structures. I have bought the book to obtain a guide or some kind of a handbook which includes some guidelines or procedures for typical structural steel design applications. But i hava found the book too superficial. I wish the book handled the subjects in a little bit detailed way. And I wish there were flowcharts for designing with steel. The only good thing about the book is the example projects at the end of the book. As a result I do not advise this book to anyone because it is expensive too. Pay half more and buy the Structural Steel Designer's Handbook, which includes all the information in this book and much much more.Do not pay attention to the number of pages written here, since size of the book is nearly the size of a pocket book.

1 comments about Inside AutoCAD 2005 (Inside).

1. The most common architectural and engineering drawing package, for at least a decade. If you are a mechanical or civil engineer or architect, or a student in those fields, it behooves you to have some passing familiarity with AutoCAD. Now this book gives you the latest version, 2005.
   
   By now, the differences with recent previous editions, like 2004, are incremental. Autodesk is continually refining and adding new features, like improved annotations. The first chapter describes these newbies in 2005. But guess what? If you read through the rest of the book, which essentially describes 2004, then you can see that 2005 is just an incremental upgrade. So if you are currently using the 2004 version, and have no plans to migrate, you may well consider skipping 2005 and waiting for a future edition. The book explicitly acknowledges this strategy. Though the example it gives is the user skipping recent editions like 2004 and now deciding to take up 2005.
   
   What you can expect from the 2005 package is a very stable and well tested edition. A mature development platform. If you are a full time AutoCAD user, you may want to peruse the latest 2005 changes to see if indeed it is time to upgrade.

No comments about Discovering AutoCAD, Release 14.

1 comments about Mastering Autocad 2000 Objects (Mastering).

1. This is one of the best references on the market. To my understanding, this is the only one that outlines the internal data structure within AutoCAD. This is definitely a "must-have" for any AutoCAD automation developer. I only wish someone would publish the same information for the newer revisions. Most (if not all) of this should still apply though.

No comments about Architecture 04: The Guide to the RIBA Awards (Architecture: The Guide to the Riba Awards).

No comments about Generic Cadd 5.0 Inside & Out.

4 comments about ArcGIS Developer's Guide for Visual Basic Applications (VBA) (ArcGIS).

1. Other reviewers have done a good job of stating the flaws in this book. I'll also throw my vote in to say that this book is awful, hoping that people read these reviews when deciding whether to purchase the book. My opinion was so negative of this book, that I returned it for refund. The book is full of too many typos, incomplete code samples that won't run, and incomplete logic that it is essentially more confusing than helpful, in my opinion. Definitely not recommended.

   If you want to learn to program ArcGIS, look for Robert Burke's book instead. It is a real winner.




2. In the introduction of this book it states that "you do not have to be a seasoned programmer to understand this book". Not true. Razavi's treatment of the subject is superficial, and does not cover the fundamental bases well enough to give beginning programmers what they need. If you do not know how to program in VBA before you read this book chances are you won't know how to after reading it. {This refers to the 1st (2002) edition.}



3. I too was disappointed with this book. There's not much substance here, especially if you already know a bit of VB/VBA programming. Half of the book reviews basic VB/COM concepts, syntax and programming practices. I bought this book because I already know VB and I am starting an ArcGIS programming project. I learned more looking at the ESRI provided samples and poking around their excellent support forum and sample code web site... Just by tinkering around with ArcGIS in the time it took for the book to arrive, I built sample applications that are way beyond those presented in Razavi's book.
   The book doesn't really give you enough information to begin to grasp the ArcObjects data model. If you're going to do any serious ArcObjects programming, you'll need the ESRI reference book "Exploring ArcObjects" ... which is also included in electronic format on the ESRI CD's, but it's so big that the paper version is easier to use. {This refers to the 1st (2002) edition.}



4. Only one word I can think of to describe this latest offering from Razavi and OnWord Press: DISAPPOINTING.
   I pre-ordered this book months ago because this topic is not covered by any other current books and Razavi's tome on ArcView programming is well written and informative. Unfortunately, he did not rise to the occasion in this instance. I received this book on a Monday and by Wednesday I was done reading it and ready to sell it off. First, the book is NOT 256 pages as the Amazon description says it is. At a scant 188 pages this ... "book" reads more like a pamphlet with a cursory introduction to the basics of programming that barely caters to ArcGIS specifically. When the book finally starts to get up and running with some useful coding examples (at page 80!), Bam!, it ends appruptly with no closing section, no advice for further research, no additional help tips. It almost seems as though the thing had to get off Razavi's desk to make it to the publisher so he just spit out the index and sent it off.
   I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. If you are just starting at programming the intro sections are far to shallow and brief to be any help. If you are working at a more advanced level and would like to cater your programming to ArcGIS you had better keep your dough and wait it out.
   Unless half of my book got lost in the mail, this one is useless to those of us starving for a volume to fill the hole in programming this new software. {This refers to the 1st (2002) edition.}