Intelligentedu Best New Free Computer IT Training Tutorial Resources Free Computer and I.T. Books

Here is an excellent, free software development book, Essential Skills for Agile Development, written by Tong Ka Iok, that reflects his many years of software application building experience.  has in software development and training. This freely available book provides many easy to read and understand examples that present Agile Software Development from a hit-the-ground running perspective. These include: how to handle duplicate code, comments, and bloated code; how to write effective end-user requirements; how to perform TDD (including functional testing, user interface testing and unit testing); and how to use a database in Agile Development. By applying the examples, you will learn the required skills and put them into practice immediately.

Essential Skills for Agile Development teaches the programming concepts of Agile Development one skill at a time by presenting exercises that the authors expect you to complete. So you can learn what you're doing correctly and incorrectly, it also gives you sample solutions to the exercises. To reinforce the skills taught, the book gives repeated exercises that test you on the skills taught previously, so reading the chapters sequentially is recommended. This book can be used as training for software developers, and its also an ideal reference for Java programming. To effectively use this book you should have knowledge in reading Java and HTML code, and read and write SQL.

You may download the whole book (427 pages, 2.26mb, pdf format) or you can access each chapter in pdf format.


Table of Contents of Essential Skills for Agile Development:

Chapter 1. Removing duplicate code
Chapter 2. Turning comments into code
Chapter 3. Removing code smells
Chapter 4. Keeping code fit
Chapter 5. Take care to inherit
Chapter 6. Handling inappropriate references
Chapter 7. Separate database, user interface and domain logic
Chapter 8. Managing software projects with user stories
Chapter 9. OO design with CRC cards
Chapter 10. Acceptance test
Chapter 11. How to acceptance test a user interface
Chapter 12. Unit test
Chapter 13. Test driven development
Chapter 14. Team development with CVS
Chapter 15. Essential skills for communications
Chapter 16. Pair programming

Popularity: 19% [?]

MySQL is a free, open source database management system that is easy to install, implement and maintain. It also provides quick performance and is very reliable, while being widely implemented throughout the world. MySQL brings the power of a scalable relation database application to anyone with the skills to build a data driven application or web site. 

Here is another excellent, free online book, MySQL Essentials, hosted by techotopia.com. The objective of MySQL Essentials, is to provide step-by-step instructions on how to implement and administer MySQL. The book teaches you the fundamentals of relational databases and how to configure and install MySQL. It then covers all the tasks you need to know and perform so you can successfully build, maintain and secure MySQL based databases. The topics of MySQL Essentials are listed and linked below in the table of contents.


Table of Contents of MySQL Essentials:

About MySQL Essentials

Database Basics
 - What is a Database?
 - Understanding Database Tables
 - Introducing Database Schema
 - Columns and Datatypes
 - Database Rows
 - Introducing Primary Keys
 - What is SQL?

MySQL Database Architecture

The mysql Command-Line Tool
 - The mysql Command-line Utility
 - mysql Command-Line Arguments
 - mysql Commands

The MySQL Administrator Tool
 - Getting and Installing MySQL Administrator
 - Connecting to the Database Server
 - Using the MySQL Administator

The MySQL Query Browser
 - Getting and Installing MySQL Query Browser
 - Connecting the MySQL Query Browser to a Database Server
 - A Tour of MySQL Browser
 - Executing SQL Statements

Creating New Databases and Tables with MySQL Administrator
 - Creating a New Database
 - Creating New Tables

Creating Databases and Tables Using SQL Commands
 - Creating a New MySQL Database
 - Creating Tables with SQL
 - Understanding NULL and NOT NULL Values
 - Primary Keys
 - AUTO_INCREMENT
 - Defining Default Values During Table Creation
 - MySQL Database Engine Types

Updating and Deleting MySQL Tables
 - Altering a MySQL Table
 - Adding and Deleting Table Columns
 - Renaming Tables and Columns
 - Changing The Data Type of a Column
 - Deleting a Database Table

Inserting Data into a MySQL Database
 - The Basics of Data Insertion
 - Inserting a Complete Row
 - Adding Multiple Rows to a Table
 - Inserting Results from a SELECT Statement
 - Reducing the INSERT Performance Load
 - Reducing the INSERT Performance Load

Updating and Deleting MySQL Data
 - Updating Database Data
 - Ignoring Update Errors
 - Deleting Database Data

Retrieving Data From a MySQL Database
 - Retrieving a Single Column
 - Using SELECT to Retrieve Mutiple Columns
 - Restricting Number of Results
 - Eliminating Duplicate Values from Results

Sorting Data Retrieved from a MySQL Database
 - Sorting Data from a SELECT Statement
 - Sorting on Multiple Columns
 - Sorting Data in Descending Order

Using WHERE to Filter MySQL Data
 - The Basics of the WHERE Clause
 - Comparison Operators
 - Checking for NULL Values
 - Searching within Range Values

Advanced MySQL Data Filtering - AND, OR, NOT and IN
 - Filtering Data Using the OR Operator
 - Filtering Data Using the AND Operator
 - Combining AND and OR Operators
 - Understanding Operator Precedence
 - Specifying a Range of Conditions using the IN Clause
 - Using the NOT Operator

MySQL Wildcard Filtering using LIKE
 - What are Wildcards?
 - Single Character Wildcards
 - Multiple Character Wildcards

MySQL Regular Expression Searches
 - What are Regular Expressions?
 - Regular Expression Character Matching
 - Matching from a Group of Characters
 - Matching from a Range of Characters
 - Handling Special Characters
 - Regular Expressions and Whitespace Characters
 - Matching by Character Type
 - Regular Expression Repetition Metacharacters
 - Matching by Text Position

Joining Tables in MySQL
 - How Does a Join Work?
 - Performing a Cross-Join
 - Equi-Join (aka the Inner Join)
 - Performing a Left Join or a Right Join
 - Creating Joins with WHERE and USING

An Introduction to MySQL Views
 - Creating a Basic View
 - Joins and Views
 - Getting Information About a View
 - Deleting a View
 - Replacing a View

MySQL Calculations and Concatenations
 - Performing Calculations on Retrieved Data
 - Concatenating Data Fields
 - Trimming Trailing Whitespace from Text
 - Trimming Leading Whitespace from Text

Manipulating Text in MySQL
 - MySQL String Manipulation Functions

MySQL Mathematical Functions
 - MySQL Arithmetic Functions

Working with Dates and Times in MySQL
 - Date and Time Formats
 - Creating Date and Time Fields
 - Date and Time Formats
 - Date and Time Functions
 - Inserting Date and Time Values into Table Columns
 - Retrieving Data Based on Date and Time Criteria

MySQL Data Aggregation Functions
 - The MySQL Aggregate Functions
 - Using the Aggregate Functions
 - Using the MySQL AVG() Function
 - Using the MySQL COUNT() Function
 - Using the MySQL MAX() Function
 - Using the MySQL MIN() Function
 - Using the SUM() Function
 - Using Multiple Aggregate Functions

MySQL Users and Security
 - MySQL Security
 - Getting Information About Users
 - Creating a New MySQL User
 - Deleting a MySQL User
 - Renaming a MySQL User
 - Changing the Password for a MySQL User
 - User Privileges

Popularity: 22% [?]