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D. Murali

If you want to look up databases, here's something interesting. And to think it all began with putting man on the moon.

DATABASES are too unglamorous to be seen as symbols of technology. But it was only three decades ago that the only people who knew about databases were computer scientists in research laboratories and they were struggling to make these creatures efficient and useful. Growth has been fast in database technology, but "industry standards have lagged behind," notes Andy Oppel in Relational Databases: Principles and Fundamentals.

So, there are numerous products, "each following a particular software vendor's vision", but the book concentrates on "the relational and object-relational models because these are the mainstream of the IT industry and will likely remain so in the foreseeable future."

Databases are no rocket science now but it all started when NASA wanted to put man on the moon. Andy writes how, as a part of the lunar mission, North American Aviation (NAA) built a hierarchical file system named Generalised Update Access Method (GUAM) in 1964. "IBM joined NAA to develop GUAM into the first commercially-available hierarchical model database, called Information Management System (IMS), released in 1966."

The author devotes a chapter to explore relational database components. "One-to-one relationships are surprisingly rare among entities," writes Andy. Remember, we're talking about databases.

"One-to-one relationships that are mandatory in both directions represent a design flaw that should be corrected by combining the two entities."

Then follows an example that number-crunchers can relate to: "After all, isn't an account receivable merely more information about the customer?"

So? "We're not going to collect data about an account receivable, but rather the information in the Account Receivable entity is data we collect about the customer."

If that sounds philosophical, and you want to do something fast, there is RAD, short for rapid application development.

Done in about 60 to 90 days, this makes `compromises' using the 80/20 rule. So, don't expect RAD to work all the time.

At the end of each chapter, there are objective questions, and the author doesn't say `bye' till he administers a 100-question `final exam' with questions such as: "A COMMIT in Oracle: ends a transaction; begins a new transaction; is automatic just before any DDL statement is run; is automatic just before any DML statement is run; or removes any locks held by the current transaction." Worth committed reading.

Start Swing-ing

AS kids we have played the swing. As grownups, you can still explore Swing by Matthew Robinson and Pavel Vorobiev. In his foreword, James Gosling of Sun Microsystems writes: "Swing is an extraordinarily sophisticated user interface toolkit that gives great power to developers. This power leads to the biggest problem with Swing: the wide variety of facilities can be intimidating."

The preface states that emphasis is on "using Swing to solve a broad selection of realistic and creative problems." The authors "assume an intermediate knowledge of Java, including the basics of putting together an AWT (abstract window toolkit) based GUI, how the event model works, and familiarity with anonymous and explicit inner classes." If your head is swinging already, you should better start with Steven Gutz's Up to Speed with Swing, suggest the authors.

Swing components are `lightweights' while AWTs are heavier. "One difference between lightweight and heavyweight components is z-order: the notion of depth or layering." So what does that mean to you as a developer? "You should never place heavyweight components inside lightweight containers that commonly support overlapping children." Hope you understand.

Well, after tabbed, scrolling and split panes, and combo boxes, you have list boxes and spinners. "JSpinner is a new component added in Java 1.4. It consists of an input text area and two small buttons with up and down arrows on the right of the input field."

There are more than half a dozen advanced topics such as layered panes, desktops and internal panes, trees, tables, and so on.

Discussion on printing, constructing an XML editor and drag & drop are among the special topics.

Prescription, therefore, is: Stop swinging, start Swing-ing.

Quick tasks in simple steps

HOW to add audio annotations to image files? When to use grids for viewing? Can I shadow/highlight? Should I ask Pervez before creating a border selection?

These are only an indication of 275 `tasks' that Micah Laaker and Christopher Schmitt guide readers through in Adobe Photoshop ver. (8) CS in 10 Simple Steps or Less, with easy-to-follow instructions.

No need to flip pages because the authors deliver inputs in `self-contained two page spreads', and their approach is `no-fluff', with a focus on helping you achieve results.

Margins are replete with notes, such as: "Having a history log saved with your image can inflate the file size. The more you manipulate an image, the more actions get recorded." Or: "The File Browser is not a fully featured Digital Asset Management (DAM) solution for the serious professional who maintains thousands of photos and images." Check if what you have can be DAM-ed.

One of the tasks is on creating a knockout effect.

The authors remind: "Every knockout requires three components."

Not two boxers and a hapless referee, but the following: "A layer that appears to cut through another; a layer that is cut through; and a layer whose content shows through the cut."

Keep in mind a caution that the authors bite into your ears: "If you don't group the knockout layers together in a layer set, the knockout effect will punch all the way to the Background no matter what knockout setting you choose."

Don't curse darkness, if there is a blackout. "With a couple of clicks you can add spotlights to an image, or an omnidirectional light." Enough inputs for you to deliver results yesterday.

Books courtesy: Dreamtech Press (www.wileydreamtech.com)

Books2Byte@TheHindu.co.in

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