First and foremost, let’s be 100% honest here. I bought this book for $1 because it was about programming and I thought the book was related to Cobra Commander from G.I. Joe.
Even though I was mistaken of the title, (it’s actually COR-BA – not COB-ra) I still learned a lot from the 1,000 page book and had a great time doing it.
The book is focused on C++ and IDL programming libraries. Although I’m primarily a Java / XML programmer now, the syntax is close enough to still learn a thing or two.
After reading the first few pages I could tell Michi Henning and Steve Vinoski put a tremendous amount of work into this book.
It’s full title is: Advanced Corba Programming with C++ and the ISBN is: 0-201-37927-9 you can look that up on Amazon if you want to buy the book yourself.
One thing that I loved about the book is that it is primarily code snippets with commentary. The authors deep dive into everything from programming structure for complex systems like Thermostats and Federated Server systems to client control. It is easy to just six back and relax with the flow of knowledge as they jam across important subject matter such as memory allocation for very real-world applications. The kind of things I picked up in here I’m sure will carry over with me throughout the most up-to-date operating systems such as Android OS and it will pay massive dividends if I ever end up working on Legacy systems as well.
You already know about my subconscious reading techniques. So its not surprise that scanning parts of the book was part of the process. When I say, “scanning” I don’t mean actually using a scanner and copying the book. What I mean is looking at each word and letting it be soaked into my mind. I don’t have to understand or even remember it, just seeing each word at a leisurely yet steady pace is enough to jam a big book like this into one’s mind.
I’ve already reaped major benefits from this book in my Android programming adventures. For example: This book helped me with my overall “programming book endurance.” That’s kind of my way of saying after reading big chunks of this book, reading XML and JAVA tutorials from other sources and areas of the internet was very easy. It’s similar to how King Arthur and his knights would use lead sword to practice. The heavy sword of CORBA made light and comfortable swords of Java very easy for me to read. Another analogy would be how a baseball player might practice with his weaker side for batting in order to strengthen cross-neural pathway connections. It’s all about the meridians in this economy, lemme tell ya.
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-Tyler