Roels Blog

Recently the second edition of the APEX Cookbook has seen the light. As I haven’t read the first edition - I know, shame on me - I can’t exactly point out what the differences are, but that doesn’t really matter anyway. I guess no one will buy both versions anyway… The book follows a different approach than most of the tech books I read (and wrote): Every issue is attacked with a recipe, existing of these steps: 1. Getting ready : Buy the groceries, get the pots and pans; or in APEX terms, do the necessary preparation like create a page or download a JavaScript file. 2. How to do it … : A step-by-step walk through to create the solution. 3. How it works … : A, usually short, explanation of the new or remarkable things you’ve just done when following the steps in the previous paragraph. So if you don’t like this approach, you can skip te book - and the rest of the review as well. In my opinion, it might work when you’re looking to solve a specific problem - like including Googl...

Recently I was asked by someone from Packt Publishing to review the new book " Oracle APEX 4.2 Reporting " - in exchange for a free e-copy. When I saw the table of contents, I already thought: " This is covering a lot... ". And that turns out to be true - and one of the main points of criticism I have. It starts off with a whole chapter about Installation and Configuration . The title of the chapter doesn't say that, because it's called " Know your horse before you ride it ". Thats one of the other points of criticism: The author is now and then to be trying to be funny and entertaining (in his own way). Another example: after a paragraph about installing the APEX Listener he writes: " APEX now has ears ". And there are much more examples - to me it's annoying and distracting. But the major part of that chapter is very well covered by the installation documents that come with the different products. Another remarkable note is ...