You?re interested in programming games, but you don?t know where to begin. Beginner?s Guide to DarkBASIC Game Programming is here to help. You?ll be programming games in no time? and with DarkBASIC, you?ll be amazed at how little code you have to write! DarkBASIC features more than a thousand commands geared toward game development, giving you a powerful tool as you put your newfound skills into practice. You?ll get coverage of both DarkBASIC and DarkBASIC Professional, as well as the complete DarkBASIC Language Reference on CD. This completely self- contained book is designed to give you all of the skills you need to begin an amazing journey into the world of game development. (more…)

The Complete Reference to Professional SOA with Visual Studio 2005 (C# & VB 2005) focuses on architecting and constructing enterprise-level systems. Taking advantage of the newly released Visual Studio 2005 development environment, the book assesses the current service-oriented platform and examines new ways to develop for scalability, availability, and security (which have become available with .NET 2.0). You'll get to look closely at application infrastructure in terms of flexibility, interoperability, and integration, as well as the decisions that have to be made to achieve optimum balance within your architecture.

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Fully revised and beefed up with plenty of new material on today's Standard C++, the new edition of Bruce Eckel's Thinking in C++: Volume I is an excellent tutorial to mastering this rich (and sometimes daunting) programming language, filled with expert advice and written in a patient, knowledgeable style.

The effective presentation, along with dozens of helpful code examples, make this book a standout. The text first sets the stage for using C++ with a tour of what object-oriented programming is all about, as well as the software design life cycle. The author then delves into every aspect of C++, from basic keywords and programming principles to more advanced topics, like function and operator overloading, virtual inheritance, exception handling, namespaces, and templates. C++ is a complex language, and the author covers a lot of ground using today's Standard C++, but without getting bogged down in excessive detail.

The emphasis here is on practical programming, so there's basic advice on using header files, preprocessor directives, and namespaces to organize code effectively. Each chapter ends with exercises (usually about two dozen), and the entire text of the book is available on the accompanying CD-ROM. (So is the second volume, which tours Standard C++ classes and other advanced topics.)

Whether you have read the first edition of this book or not, there is much to mine from Thinking in C++. This new version continues to set a high standard as an approachable and thorough tutorial. –Richard Dragan

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Although MySQL's source code is open in the sense of being publicly available, it's essentially closed to you if you don't understand it. In this book, Sasha Pachev — a former member of the MySQL Development Team — provides a comprehensive tour of MySQL 5 that shows you how to figure out the inner workings of this powerful database. You'll go right to heart of the database to learn how data structures and convenience functions operate, how to add new storage engines and configuration options, and much more.

The core of Understanding MySQL Internals begins with an Architecture Overview that provides a brief introduction of how the different components of MySQL work together. You then learn the steps for setting up a working compilable copy of the code that you can change and test at your pleasure. Other sections of the book cover:

• Core server classes, structures, and API
• The communication protocol between the client and the server
• Configuration variables, the controls of the server; includes a tutorial on how to add your own
• Thread-based request handling — understanding threads and how they are used in MySQL
• An overview of MySQL storage engines
• The storage engine interface for integrating third-party storage engines
• The table lock manager
• The parser and optimizer for improving MySQL's performance
• Integrating a transactional storage engine into MySQL
• The internals of replication

Understanding MySQL Internals provides unprecedented opportunities for developers, DBAs, database application programmers, IT departments, software vendors, and computer science students to learn about the inner workings of this enterprise-proven database. With this book, you will soon reach a new level of comprehension regarding database development that will enable you to accomplish your goals. It's your guide to discovering and improving a great database.

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We crafted this book to grow with you, providing the reference material you need as you move toward Office proficiency and use of more advanced features. If you buy only one book on Office 2007, Special Edition Using Microsoft® Office 2007 is the only book you need.

If you own a copy of Office 2007, you deserve a copy of this book! Although this book is aimed at the Office veteran, Ed and Woody’s engaging style will appeal to beginners, too. Written in clear, plain English, readers will feel as though they are learning from real humans and not Microsoft clones. Sprinkled with a wry sense of humor and an amazing depth of field, this book most certainly isn’t your run-of-the-mill computer book. You should expect plenty of hands-on guidance and deep but accessible reference material.

This isn’t your Dad’s Office! For the first time in a decade, Microsoft has rolled out an all-new user interface. Menus? Gone. Toolbars? Gone. For the core programs in the Office family, you now interact with the program using the Ribbon–an oversize strip of icons and commands, organized into multiple tabs, that takes over the top of each program’s interface. If your muscles have memorized Office menus, you’ll have to unlearn a lot of old habits for this version.

Ed Bott is an award-winning computer journalist and one of the most widely recognized voices in the computing world, with nearly two decades of experience as a writer and editor at leading magazines, such as PC World, PC Computing, and Smart Business. Ed has written many of Que’s all-time bestsellers, including Special Edition Using Office 2000, Special Edition Using Windows 98, and Special Edition Using Windows Me.

Curmudgeon, critic, and perennial “Office Victim,” Woody Leonhard runs the fiercely independent AskWoody.com website with up-to-the-nanosecond news, observations, tips and help for both Office and Windows. In the past 15 years, Woody has written more than three dozen books, drawing an unprecedented six Computer Press Association awards and two American Business Press awards. Woody was one of the first Microsoft Consulting Partners and is a charter member of the Microsoft Solutions Provider organization.

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VBScript is a Microsoft scripting language. It is useful both on client-side and server-side web programming, making it the primary language for programming ASP, and it can be used to program the new Microsoft Windows Script Host. The language itself has been gradually increasing in power and flexibility, and the newest release, VBScript 5.0 - which comes with IE5.0 and can be downloaded for IE3 and 4, or other hosts - represents a huge increase in functionality and usefulness.

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