Best GIS Programming
Getting to Know ArcGIS , fourth edition, is a comprehensive introduction to the features and tools of ArcGIS for Desktop. He has worked for Rand McNally Canada and for Esri, where he developed cartography for books, and edited and tested GIS workbooks.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This book is designed for even the least GIS inclined person."
"Book includes a six month license for ArcGIS."
"Concise but very detailed.... , does not contain a disk with data, you have to download it off of the internet."
"Awesome book with code to use on computer."
"Fantastic illustrations and clear, easy-to-follow text."
"This is one of the few guides published directly by ersi."
"It’s a good book."
"NOTE: If you want to utilize the 180 day trial of the product, don't buy this book used."
In the tradition of the best-selling Getting to Know series, Getting to Know ArcGIS Pro teaches new and existing GIS users how to get started solving problems by visualizing, querying, creating, editing, analyzing, and presenting geospatial data in both 2D and 3D environments using the latest ArcGIS mapping app, ArcGIS Pro. Michael Law has worked professionally with GIS since 2004 when he began at Rand McNally Canada and later worked as a cartographer for Esri Press, where he developed cartography for books, and edited and tested GIS workbooks.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This book is useful for getting started and looking up basic tasks."
"I feel like once I complete the tutorials I need a few exercises to make sure I learned what was presented."
"I used this book to teach myself ArcGIS, and it was easy to follow and informative."
"It presents the exercises in a manner that is easy to reproduce, and that also gives you a good idea of what the ArcMap program is capable of."
"I use this book through the free Kindle reading, which messes up the pagination but nevertheless still has a good format."
"Easy to follow, the software is wonderful to have for practice."
"Great introduction to ArcGIS Pro."
"If you new to ArcGIS get this book."
Known for its broad scope, clarity, and reliability, Getting to Know ArcGIS for Desktop is equally well-suited for classroom use, independent study, and as a reference. Michael Law has worked professionally with GIS since 2004 when he began at Rand McNally Canada and later worked as a cartographer for Esri Press, where he developed cartography for books, and edited and tested GIS workbooks.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"But the software itself is pretty awesome, there's a whole world of data out there and ArcGIS, namely Jack Dangermond, had the foresight and ability to hone the tools needed to relay the comprehension of our environment and encouraged a generation to discover, record, and analyze."
"This was the main text book for my intro to, and advanced, GIS college courses."
"The best book for learning ARCGIS."
"It includes great examples and exercises which provide students with real world uses of GIS and how it can be done using Esri's ArcGIS for Desktop applications."
"Great condition, super useful book."
"I needed it for a class, but imma keep it for ARCGis in the future, pretty useful."
"Easy to read, and the exercises throughout the book are simple to follow."
Best Remote Sensing
An engaging and unsettling page-turner, The Backup Asset explores the fascinating world of espionage and counter-intelligence, featured against a backdrop of cutting-edge technology and keenly depicted political conjunctures. Putting her life on the line and risking everything she has, Alex is relentless in her quest, taking readers on a breathtaking roller coaster ride in this fast-paced, engrossing espionage technothriller. and guessing the final outcome, much like a tight and unpredictable race to the White House.” - Carole P. Roman. “This story has one of the best plots I’ve read in a long time.” - Joan A. Adamak. “From the beginning to the last page her novel manages to keep reader’s attention, delivering intrigue, thrill and suspense ” - Denis Yukosav. “A thriller with a political agenda that conceals powerful influence, the perfect play for global conspiracy” - Pennie Mae Cartawick. “An impressive amount of suspense throughout.” - Kirkus Reviews. -- "It's fascinating to read about Alex..."-- "What I really liked about the novel is the strong female character that Alex is; she's fierce, capable, determined, intelligent and relatable too."
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"There's a foe bent on destroying western life and there's an easy means of doing so, but it isn't that obvious until around a quarter through the book, and that's when the pace picks up. Leslie Wolfe uses a contemporary scenario (the Ukraine and ISIS) with a Russian leader who appears to be very much like the current Russian leader."
"What started out as a free read has turned into one of the better written books I have read in a while."
"Update: Chapter 75: Day at the Spa, first chapter has the mistake."
"Very interesting story with sci tech events and believable characters even if some were one dimensional."
"Wolfe is becoming my favorite author."
"An entertaining read, moved along quickly."
"Great character development."
"I was all set for another great Alex Hoffman tale and discovered my book ended in mid-flight - literally - with the plane being hijacked by the co-pilot."
Best OpenGL Software Programming
OpenGL® SuperBible, Seventh Edition, is the definitive programmer’s guide, tutorial, and reference for OpenGL 4.5, the world’s leading 3D API for real-time computer graphics. The authors explain what OpenGL does, how it connects to the graphics pipeline, and how it manages huge datasets to deliver compelling experiences. This revised and updated edition introduces many new OpenGL 4.5 features, including important ARB and KHR extensions that are now part of the standard. It thoroughly covers the latest Approaching Zero Driver Overhead (AZDO) performance features, and demonstrates key enhancements with new example applications. Richard S. Wright, Jr., Senior Software Engineer for Software Bisque, developed multimedia astronomy and planetarium software using OpenGL.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"If you are a beginner to Opengl, there's going to be some frustration getting through this book, but you will eventually learn the ins and outs of Opengl."
"So complaints about having to learn the framework instead of OpenGL are unfounded."
"OpenGL is hard - no [existing] book is going to get you up to speed."
"If you run into a problem where you can't get the single point to show up, you might need to just move onto an example that actually feeds vertex data to the shader. So if you've struggled for hours trying to get a stupid little dot to show up on your screen and it just doesn't work, just move onto an example where you feed vertices to shader program."
"Can serve as a reference book too."
"Chapters 4 through 6 deal with a lot of concepts and background things, but were mostly necessary to cover. I personally believe that Chapter 5 should have come later in the book because it deals with atomic operations and memory barriers."
"Almost all of the new content in this edition requires features introduced with OpenGL 4.4 or 4.5, or recent OpenGL extensions -- none of which were supported by OS X at the time of writing. 7th ed: OpenGL 4.5. 6th ed: OpenGL 4.3. 5th ed: OpenGL 3.3. 4th ed: OpenGL 2.1. 3rd ed: OpenGL 2.0 and 1.5. 2nd ed: OpenGL 1.2, 1.1."
"As others have said, many figures in the printed version are nigh-on useless (directed at the printer/publisher rather than at the authors)."
Best DirectX Software Programming
Understand basic mathematical and 3D concepts; learn how to describe and draw interactive 3D scenes using the Direct3D 9.0 API; use Direct3D and the D3DX utility library to implement a variety of techniques and applications, such as transparency, shadows, reflections, fonts, meshes, using XFiles, progressive meshes, terrain rendering, particle systems, picking, cartoon rendering, and multitexturing; find out how to write vertex and pixel shader programs with the High-Level Shading Language; discover how to write and use effect files with the Direct3D effects framework. Frank Luna is a programmer for Hero Interactive.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This book simply covers the fundamental Direct3D topics as well as a bit of math, and it does so from the ground up as far as the DX API goes. But a small warning is in order as well: If you are not an experienced programmer and just want to get started with game development, then this book is NOT for you!"
"Lenghtier explanations and a few more examples would could really benefit the beginner.. especially since like for many books of this kind the author is more a programmer than a technical author or tutor so the writing style is pretty much like: here are the basic points about the theory and here is the program I wrote to show you how it works."
"If you are like me and look at a bunch of DirectX books and just have no idea what the author(s) is talking about, you should try this book, especially if you have a good math background. And if this dude releases a book on DirectX 10, I'll definitely get it. If you know DirectX and are looking for a book on game programming, look for another book."
"It devotes 20 or so pages to each of 20 or so topics (the dimensions of the book are real small though, so the page counts are somewhat misleading)."