Expert Product Reviews - Programming

We are pleased to share a comprehensive review of the "​Spring Boot 3.0 Cookbook", published by Packt, and written by the reviewer Erica Ayala. This review offers an in-depth exploration of the book's key themes and insights, providing readers with a thorough understanding of its value. Please find the review below:I actually found this book before it was even released. I was searching for books on Java and Spring when I came across "Spring Boot 3.0 Cookbook", which wouldn't be released for a couple more months. 😩 I was so excited to get my hands on it that I literally set a reminder in my phone to order it the day it was released on Amazon. 😅When it finally arrived, I jumped right into reading about automated testing, mocking services, and implementing security protocols like OAuth2. (Not my favorite topics, to be honest, but they're my weakest areas and I'm trying to get better at them so 🤷🏽‍♀️, here we are. 😮‍💨😅)The book emphasizes the importance of automated testing over manual testing due to its scalability and efficiency. It covers the basics of unit and integration testing using Spring Boot's built-in testing starter. For the longest time, I didn't know the difference between the different types of testing (they're all just testing to me 🤷🏽‍♀️🥴), so this part was pretty helpful. 😅It also covers how to mock remote dependencies using Wiremock. The book explains how to configure Wiremock and integrate it with Spring Boot for testing, which I found pretty helpful because even though I've definitely created mocks for testing before, I used MockMVC to do it, so Wiremock was completely new to me. 🤯The security section is really detailed and covers setting up an Authorization Server, protecting APIs with OAuth2, and configuring different scopes and client authentication methods. It explains handling various OAuth2 flows, such as client credentials and authorization code grant flows.I found this part helpful since I'm still pretty new to OAuth2 and have mostly used JWT up until now. 😕 (Speaking of which, it also explains how to use JWT tokens for secure communication and validation. 😉)The book also mentions integration with social providers like GitHub and Facebook and even walks you through integrating Google Account login into your Spring Boot applications. Now this is the part I was excited about!! 🤩😁 By configuring your Authorization Server as an OAuth2 client with Google as the Identity Provider (IdP), you can enable users to log in with their Gmail accounts.It also explains how to configure the security chain using Spring Security's 'SecurityConfig' class, detailing the setup of 'Security FilterChain' beans to handle various security checks and the login process. This part was definitely helpful for me because 'Security FilterChain' was one of the things that my bootcamp just completely glossed over. 😕 It was kinda like "Paste these snippets of code into such-and-such class to implement security", and that was it. 🫤🤷🏽‍♀️There's a chapter where the book teaches you to identify performance bottlenecks and optimize your application. Now this stuff was completely new to me. 😳 Thankfully, it guides you through the entire process, from identifying issues to applying solutions like caching and runtime tuning.It clearly explains the impact caching has on overall performance. By reducing the load on the database through caching, the application can handle more requests efficiently, demonstrating the real-world benefits of proper caching strategies.The book also talks about monitoring and application health and covers metrics like CPU usage, heap memory, etc. explaining the importance of diagnosing and fixing performance issues.Overall, I think this book is a great resource for Java developers and it's packed with clear explanations and detailed examples to help you develop secure RESTful APIs with Spring Boot. 😊 I literally waited months for this book to be released and I can honestly say that it exceeded my expectations!! 😁

We are pleased to share a comprehensive review of "Effective .NET Memory Management", published by Packt, and written by Johnnie Jones. This review offers an in-depth exploration of the book's key themes and insights, providing readers with a thorough understanding of its value.Please find the review below:As a Senior Machine Learning Engineer, optimizing applications for performance is at the core of what I do, especially when dealing with large datasets and resource-intensive computations. Memory management, often underestimated, plays a pivotal role in how well an application performs and scales. That’s why Trevoir Williams’ Effective .NET Memory Management immediately resonated with me as a must-read for anyone working within the .NET ecosystem.This book expertly navigates the intricacies of memory management in .NET Core, from the fundamentals of memory allocation to advanced garbage collection techniques. What sets Trevoir’s work apart is his ability to bridge theory with practical, real-world application. His hands-on examples and clear explanations make even complex topics like multithreading and asynchronous programming both accessible and highly relevant.One of the standout aspects of the book is its focus on memory profiling and optimization—areas that are critical in fields like machine learning, where performance bottlenecks can have significant implications. Trevoir provides actionable insights on minimizing memory fragmentation, managing object lifetimes, and effectively utilizing stack and heap memory. These are essential skills for any developer aiming to write efficient, high-performance code.Trevoir’s structured approach, starting with core principles and advancing to more complex techniques, ensures that this book is valuable whether you’re an experienced developer or someone looking to deepen your understanding of .NET Core’s memory management. The sections on troubleshooting memory leaks and diagnosing performance issues are particularly practical, addressing challenges that every developer encounters sooner or later.In a world where software efficiency and scalability are crucial, Effective .NET Memory Management arms developers with the tools and knowledge to optimize their applications. Trevoir’s insights will help you not just understand how memory is managed but also how to leverage that understanding to build faster, more reliable software.In conclusion: This book is a vital resource for any .NET developer serious about mastering memory management. Trevoir Williams delivers a thorough and practical guide that deserves a place in every developer’s library. 

We are pleased to share a comprehensive review of "Systems Programming with C# and .NET", published by Packt, and written by Ankit Srivastava. This review offers an in-depth exploration of the book's key themes and insights, providing readers with a thorough understanding of its value. Unlock the full potential of C# and .NET Core in systems programming to secure, deploy, and maintain robust applications. With this book, you’ll focus on low-level APIs, memory management, and performance optimization.Please find the review below:What did you find most valuable in the book you've reviewed? The content is amazing i.e., It covers the very basics to advanced system programming. Author has tried multiple ways to interact with people by providing code snippets, assembly  conversion, decoding it, and getting a better understanding. A lot of books only focus on one area and don't teach us about the other things. This is one of the all rounder books for systems programming where we covered multiple areas e.g., Logging, Security, Performance, etc. How does the book compare to competitors in the field? Not many books are written in this area i.e., which focuses on system programming with C#. In the past people actually wrote books on kernel programming but mainly it was in either C or C++ and hence, this book became one of the out of league books which offer such learning in a .NET environment. Who would benefit the most from the book? A young college student to an experienced developer. All would learn something from this book. The content is extraordinary and the author has done an excellent job in articulating everything. Can you share a personal anecdote related to the content?   When I first got the chance to review a book on C# systems programming, I was genuinely excited. I’d been working on complex .NET projects for years, but diving into the systems-level side of things wasn’t something I’d really explored. As I started reading, what really impressed me was how the book made systems programming feel accessible. It seamlessly connected what I already knew about high-level application development with the more intricate, behind-the-scenes system interactions.   What unique insights or perspectives does the book offer? C# learning is offered by other books as well. Here the author considers that someone is already having hands on to C# and the unique things are Systems programming, Multithreading, Logging, Security, Deployment strategies, CI/CD, Risk mitigation, effective troubleshooting, profiling tools, etc. makes it one of the very few books. Reviewer BioAnkit Srivastava is a seasoned Senior Developer at Walmart; boasting seven years of extensive experience in software development. He specializes in .NET Development, Windows Development, WPF, WCF, REST API, .NET Core, .NET Standard, Python, and Linux. Ankit earned his Bachelor of Technology degree in Information Technology from Harcourt Butler Technological Institute and holds certifications in C#, C/C++, Python, Linux, Java, and SQL. Throughout his career, he has made signifi cant contributions to diverse domains, including Semiconductors, Automotive, Storage, Chemical Heat Exchangers, and Health and Wellness.