Book Reviews by Joel Spolsky

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Book Reviews

by Joel Spolsky

Wednesday, March 13, 2002

“Pretty close to the perfect short list for any programmer” — Jan Derk

You can learn a lot about somebody by the books they've read. And I've always thought that if you read all the same books I read, you'll come to think like me, too.
So here it is -- Joel's Programmer's Bookshelf. This is the short list of all the books that I honestly think that every working programmer needs to read, with my own book hidden in there in case you didn't notice because I get about two bucks if you buy it.

Painless Software Management

Peopleware: Productive Projects and Tea
Tom Demarco and Timothy R. Lister
As summer interns at Microsoft, my friends and I used to take "field trips" to the company supply room to stock up on school supplies. Among the floppy disks, mouse pads, and post-it notes was a stack of small paperback books, so I took one home to read. The book was  by Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister. This book was one of the most influential books I've ever read. The best way to describe it would be as an Anti-Dilbert Manifesto. Ever wonder why everybody at Microsoft gets their own office, with walls and a door that shuts? It's in there. Why do managers give so much leeway to their teams to get things done? That's in there too. Why are there so many jelled SWAT teams at Microsoft that are remarkably productive? Mainly because Bill Gates has built a company full of managers who read Peopleware. I can't recommend this book highly enough. It is the one thing every software manager needs to read... not just once, but once a year.


Frederick P. Brooks
Certainly one of the classics of software project management, this book first appeared a quarter of a century ago, when Fred Brooks tried to run one of the first very large scale software engineering projects (the OS/360 operating system at IBM) and became the first person to describe how radically different software is from other types of engineering. This book is most famous for discovering the principle that adding more programmers to an already-late project makes it later, but that's only the tip of the iceberg. Understanding this book is a prerequisite for thinking correctly about managing software teams.

Rapid Development: Taming Wild Softwar
Steve C. McConnell
Steve McConnell captures a lot of the development management ideas that Microsoft figured out in their first decade or so of developing software on a large scale. You'll see a lot of overlap between the ideas in this book and my wholly unoriginal (surprise, surprise), although the emphasis here is on getting control of the scheduling process.

Code Craftsmanship

Steve C. McConnell
The encyclopedia of good programming practice, Code Complete focuses on individual craftsmanship -- all the things that add up to what we instinctively call "writing clean code." This is the kind of book that has 50 pages just talking about code layout and whitespace.


Andrew Hunt and David Thomas
This is a great book for programmers who have learned the mechanics of programming, maybe in college, but don't quite feel secure deciding what to do. It's like the difference between drafting and architecture. What you learned in that class in college was drafting, and you can draw beautifully, but if you still feel like you wouldn't quite know where to begin if someone told you to write a P2P music-swapping network all by yourself, this is the book for you.

Philosophy of Programming

Microserf
Douglas Coupland
Here's an important thing to understand about working at Microsoft right out of college. You are young. You are in a new city. You don't know anybody. There's nothing to do, and you're a computer geek, and the fun toys are at work, so chances are, after getting your take-out dinner at the Taco Time driveup counter, you'll just be bored so you'll go back to your plush office with a view of mountains and 100 foot evergreens and code. For many of these young programmers life outside of work is pretty lonely and empty, which works great for Microsoft, because you put all your energy into the really fun part of the day, developing cool software.
Nothing quite captures the feeling of being a young programmer at a big software company as well as Microserfs. Douglas Coupland's portrayal of life at Microsoft in the early 90s was so stunningly on-target it floored me -- but then he went further and provided a moral and ethical understanding of what was going on that hadn't quite occurred to anybody. Nobody understands the emptiness, the banal loneliness, and the quest for personal connection of modern age North America like Coupland.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenanc
Robert M. Pirsig
Some people's attitude towards programming is that it's a nifty way to pay the bills. For others, that's not enough... our work is a significant a part of our lives, and we need a philosophical understanding to make sense of it. This book goes a long way towards relating engineering and philosophy.

Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Bra
Douglas R. Hofstadter
I read this before starting college, and decided that I wanted to major in "Godel Escher Bach." My primary criterion for choosing courses was to cover topics that were raised in this magnificant, panoramic, and brilliantly interesting book: AI, cognitive science, computer science, philosophy, psychology, music, and art are woven together magically.

A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Constructio
Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, Murray Silverstein, et al.
Yeah, OK, it's a book about architecture. You know, buildings and stuff. I don't think there's a single mention of computers in the whole book. I bought it because I'm interested in architecture. Then I noticed something: almost everything in the book can be applied to the work we do as software designers. For example, the splash screen in CityDesk is based on the highly influential pattern of Zen Vie Dave Winer's Radio Userlaappeals to people because it follows the pattern of Windows Overlooking Lif. Software that understands the Hierarchy of Space pattern is easier to compreend.
A similar and somewhat short-lived movement was fashionable in programming a few years ago; I think the patterns movement in programming never quite took off because it was an attempt to copy the form of this book rather than the wisdom of this book.

User Interface Design

User Interface Design for Programme
Joel Spolsky
I might as well plug my own book, right?
UI for Programmers is my attempt to teach what I consider the top level, most important principles of UI design that every programmer needs to know. The most common reaction I've heard from readers is "after reading your book, I found three things I just HAVE to change in my program."


Steve Krug
Don't Make Me Thik is an excellent and entertaining book on UI design for the web. Finally, a book that tries to understand the principles of good UI design, not just the mundane rules (like "don't change the colors of links"). Steve Krug's primary thesis is that the less you make people think, the easier your site will be to use. "What a waste it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is."

About Face: The Essentials of User Interface Desi
Alan Cooper
A classic of UI design, this is a great bible of GUI design from the inventor of Visual Basic.

Design of Everyday Thin
Donald A. Norman
Donald Norman's classic The Design of Everyday Thin (also published under the name "The Psychology of Everyday Things") is one of the best books on "UI design", even though it talks more about doors and and refrigerators than computers. This was a groundbreaking work for its theory of affordances which I talk about it chapter  of my UI book, which remains one of the most influential ideas in good design of everyday objects.

Designing Web Usabili
Jakob Nielsen
I know, I know, poor Jakob gets a bad rap for his bizarre pronouncements like "ClearTyp... can save users $2,000 per year" and "Micropayment answer." Um, right. Still, among all the silly math, Nielsen comes up with a stunning number of exactly right notions that you just need to know. If you're doing any kind of web design, you need to know the principles in this book. If you're doing non-web design, think of this is an excellent case study in usability engineering.

Capitalism for Programmers

A Random Walk Down Wall Stre
Burton Gordon Malkiel
If you spend enough time in this industry it's almost impossible to avoid suddenly finding yourself with a big pile of money that you are going to have to manage somehow. And if you don't want to screw it you need to know a few things.
Oh, but it all seems so complicated, you say. How can you ever outsmart the wily foxes on Wall Street who are out to rip off the common folk? It seems like doing even reasonably well at investing should take constant research, studying, working, reading, learning. All those Annual Reports. And you'll have to subscribe to all kinds of dense boring newspapers with columns and columns of tiny print.
What if I told you that you could read one book and know everything you are going to need to know about managing your investments? And I mean, everything. Well, it's true. And this is the book. If you can't be bothered to read anything else about investing, read this one book.

Striking Out On Your Own

Growing a Busi
Paul Hawken
People regularly email me and say, "gosh, I love your theory about starti company the Ben and Jerry's way, but, how do I get started?" This is the book you want to read. It's a little bit lite 'n' fluffy but it does give you the philosophy of growing a company organically.

Graphic Design

The Non-Designer's Design Book
Robin Williams
Wow! Everybody has to do some graphic design, and not every software team has the luxury of professional designers. This excellent, thin book will give you a grasp of the principles behind page layout, fonts, etc. The good news is, you can read it in the bath before the water gets cold, and the next day, your dialog boxes and powerpoints and web pages will start looking better.

Making a Difference

Influence: The Psychology of PersuRobert B. Cialdini
Another book worth reading and re-reading is Robert B. Cialdini's classic Influen When charitable organizations send you a request for a donation, they almost always include a "gift" in the envelope. Sticky labels with your address on them. Or a couple of blank greeting cards. The reason they're giving you the gift is because of the social principle of reciprocity; now you will feel obliged to give something back. You've probably heard the expression "hurry, supplies are limited!" so many times in television advertisements that it hardly registers any more. But it's there because of the principle of scarcity; your natural assumption that something that is scarce is worth more money. These tricks, among others, are used by salespeople, marketers, and advertisers to influence people to behave in a certain way. Cialdini's excellent book discusses the psychological theories behind the science and practice of influencing the behavior of other people. Read it before they do!

Helplessness: On Depression, Development, and Dea
Martin E. P. Seligman
A few months ago when we released CityDesk, I got an email from a customer complaining that he was used to doing Alt+F, Alt+S to save files. Unfortunately due to a tiny, unnoticed bug, that keyboard shortcut saved the file and then closed it, irritatingly. I had never noticed because I'm in the habit of doing Alt+F,S to save files, not Alt+F,Alt+S -- a tiny difference -- and Alt+F,S worked fine.
Once you get into the habit of doing Alt+F,Alt+S to save, it becomes so automatic you don't think of it as Alt+F,Alt+S. You think of it as save. And when you push the "save" button in your brain and the file you were working on goes away, it makes you feel like you're not in control of your environment. It's a small thing, but about the fourth time that it happens, you're going to be seriously unhappy. That's why I spent several hours tracking down this bug and fixing it. In a bizarre application of Murphy's Law, this fix led to a cascade of events that caused us to waste something like a week, but that's neither here nor there. It was worth the time spent. This is what it means to be concerned about usability. If you still think that something as small as how long you hold down the Alt key when you active a menu command doesn't matter, well, your software is going to make people unhappy. These tiny inconsistencies are what makes Swing applications so unbearably annoying to use, and in my opinion it's why there are virtually no commercially successful Java GUI applications.
I say time and time again that the reason good UI design matters is that it makes people happy. I mean that literally. If your UI design is good, the people who use your software will be happier. If it's bad, they will be unhappy.
What does this have to do with a book on depression? Well, it turns out that people literally become clinically depressed when they feel like they can't control their lives and their environment. And Seligman, a pioneer in the field, has found that one of the most effective known non-drug therapies for depression is encouraging people to take small steps to exert control over their environments.

I Wanna Be A Programmer

A couple of books for my non-programmer readers who want to learn about programming.


Charles Petzold
This book is explicitly NOT for programmers, it's for all those non-programmers who either want to become programmers, or want to understand what programmers do, or just want to explore the weird world of bits and bytes. Start by reading this book. If you find it fascinating and think you want to become a programmer, read (and work through) The C Programming Language next.

The C Programming Languag
Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis M. Ritchie
One of the most misguided ideas in programming pedagogy is the idea that you have to seduce people into programming by starting with simple, fun, graphical stuff. Some people think that the best way to learn programming is to start with HTML, maybe, and then learn how to cut and paste some javascripts, and then move on. Another misconception is that you should start with a trendy, marketable programming skill like Java or Web Database Programming.
Well, those people are wrong.
For various reason too complicated to go into here, I believe that you have to start programming at a level that is as close to the machine as reasonable. I think that this book, universally known as K&R, is THE book anyone who wants to be a programmer must learn first. Pick it up and work through it in detail. If you love every minute of it, you can be a programmer. If you find this old-school text programming stuff boring, or the pointer stuff drives you crazy, trust me, you're not going to like programming very much. If you need to be seduced into programming or if you don't have the patience to figure out what all those crazy asterisks mean, you're going to be happier doing something else. Really. But if you can make it through this book by yourself, you've got what it takes to be a top gun programmer, and you've got a terrific foundation for everything else you're going to learn.

Some from readers of their favorite books. Anything else that should be here? Post a note to the discussion grou

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You’re reading Joel on Software, stuffed with years and years of completely raving mad articles about software development, managing software teams, designing user interfaces, running successful software companies, and rubber duckies.

About the author.

I’m Joel Spolsky, co-founder of Fog Creek Software, a New York company that proves that you can treat programmers well and still be highly profitable. Programmers get private offices, free lunch, and work 40 hours a week. Customers only pay for software if they’re delighted. We make FogBugz, an enlightened bug tracking and software development tool, Kiln, a distributed source control system that will blow your socks off if you’re stuck on Subversion, and Fog Creek Copilot, which makes remote desktop access easy. I’m also the co-founder of Stack Overflow.

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Software for Book Collectors and Dealers

In the Fall of 2006, I noticed that I hadn't updated this page in over four years, but that I often received email about this subject. Although I haven't been closely following recent developments in book software (I write my own), I've decided to post these comments as they arrive, as a forum. Please feel free to reply and contribute. Book Software Forum Ultimate Guide to Cataloging Software 5/13/10 – Hi, I've recently put together a large list of book/media collection software list: I've gone through a lot of cataloging software (42 to be exact) and picked 4 apps that I believe are the best in the following categories: Best Mac, Best Windows & Linux, Best Web based, and Best Delicious Library for Windows Software. "the most update to date guide to cataloging software" Thanks, Richard Hemby Book Collection Management Software 1/3/10 – Via Google I arrived at your site, when I was looking for software to manage my books collection. Until recently I used LIBRA, which allowed me to enter an ISBN number and find a lot of relevant information via the Amazon Service. Apparently LIBRA is discontinued, so I was looking for something new. I checked out your references, but they weren't very promising: I'm looking for free software. Today I found "Data Crow" at . It allowed me to import a CSV file, which I made from libra, so now all my books are in a database again, without too much hassle. DataCrow not only supports book collections, but also DVDs, CDs, Software and other things you may want to collect. I think it's a usefull reference for you. Regards, Johan Bastiaanssen Gouda, Netherlands. New Book Software 9/06/06 – I noticed the following software for book collectors being offered by Levenger. Do you know of any other software products providing a scanner? I presently use Booklist 4.2, Customer Base 2.0, and Bookcase 2.0 for my book software. Its very quick, easy to use, and provides neat lists. It doesn't provide a lot of extras and uses basic PC format. Bradley Hodge, Huntsville, Texas Inventory Software 8/29/06 – On your site you list various software programs for collectors and dealers. I was wondering if you have come across "pager, software" which is supposed to do everything that BookTrakker does and more for a fraction of the cost? Any reviews on it? Thank you, Ron Champoux

7/29/02 WARNING: No recommendation or endorsement is implied. I don't know if these products are good or safe or reliable. They're advertised as being appropriate for automating book collection record keeping. Most offer free downloadable demo or sample versions. These are not reviews; they are sections of the description provided at the sites, and so are actually "ads." Currently this is just an accumulation of what's offered on the Web. As I learn more about these products, I'll post the information. I'd like to receive reviews, feedback, etc., from satsified/dissatisfied users... to make this list more meaningful. Please  New and unchecke Collector software Dealer software   Click the link on the product name to go to their homepage, where you can get more detailed information and download trial or demo versions of the software: Bibliopolis. A full-featured database for real (and virtual) booksellers. Includes Rapid Cataloging features, Pre-formatted Uploading for ABE, Alibris, Bibliocity and Bibliofind; multiple Financial Reports, multi-level Passwords, Built-in Help and Glossary of Book Terminology, Publishers, Editions & Conditions Lists; extensive Keyword Libraries by Subject; plus ability to Track Sales History by Book & Client, Quote by E-mail, Export to HTML, and Print Single & Double Column Catalogs and Lists, as well as Mailing Labels & Indexes. Thirty Days Free Tech Support . Minimum Requirements: Windows 95 / MacOS 7.1, FileMaker 3.0 or greater, 8MB Disk space. Optimized for 15" Windows Monitor at 800 x 600, or 15" Mac at 832 x 634. $99 (single user) and $250 (multi-user).More Info | Free Demo BookTrakker.com. Professional relational database with all the built-in tools today's bookseller needs to be successful on the Internet. Offering Inventory, Wants and Contacts management with the following offers and key features: • Free Inventory Management Software & Multi-Level Pricing As your business grows, your software can grow with you. The first level is FREE and includes unlimited use and unlimited record entry. Higher levels start at $50 for the Basic Package; followed by $125 for the Advanced Package; and The Pro for $250. Advance to higher levels as your needs change.30-Day Free Trial of the full program for all levels. *Free Tech Support for All Levels. • One-Touch Uploads Pushing One Button uploads all records and updates to ABE, Bibliofind, Alibris (*through Bibliocity), other designated booksearch sites, and your personal Website(s). • Instant Productivity Start entering data and managing Inventory, Wants and Contacts immediately. Requires no additional programs to produce professional looking listings. Choice of Tab or Enter Key to move through fields. • Multi-User Networking Multiple users can enter data simultaneously. • Invoices Automatically fills in previous customer or creates new customer. Back-calculates discounts. Keeps records for online and in-store sales. • Power Catalog Builder • Image Scanning Up to 23 images per Inventory Record; one image appears right in the Inventory Form for easy book identification. • Single, Double or Multi-Column Catalogs, Lists, and Hit Lists *Rearrange columns and sort by any fields. • Customizable Tab Orders Tab Orders can be saved for each user and for specific tasks. • Full Screen Display Run the program full screen or resize to a smaller window. • Customizable Screen Colors • Additional Built-in editing features streamline workflow and can be turned off, if desired. Four User-Defined Fields; Context-sensitive Help; Publishers, Editions & Conditions Lists; Unlimited Keyword entry; Sales History by Client; Source, Shelved, and Spine description fields. • System Requirements Windows 95, 98, or NT. Minimum 300mHz; A fast Intel Pentium II or AMD K6 optimizes performance. Minimum 32MB RAM; 64MB RAM preferred. 500+ Megabytes free Hard Drive space. Minimum 800X600 256 Colors. It can run on less, but very slowly. Go To  for more information, screen shots, and to download your free trial software. DV Book Manager is a shareware application that lets you manage your books easily and intuitively. It is built to answer the needs of people who own a large amount of books and who need a computer's help to manage them efficiently. It allows you to define a range of different fields relating to your books, and can then search or sort them. These fields include 8 keywords, a long summary, and links to files or Internet addresses. The field names can be personalized. Shareware: $30.  http://members.aol.com/radsware/ RAD Software Duck Software BookTracker-Collector's Edition will help you catalog all your books with 15 different fields including Title, Author, Category, Value, Printing Date, Publish Date, Purchase Price, Date Purchased, Edition, Rating, Condition, Location, and ISBN. Also included, are two custom fields that you can use for whatever information you like. The 'Library' section tracks the fields 'Lent to', 'Date Lent', 'Given to', and 'Date Given'. Book Tracker CE Price: 14.95 + $3.00 shipping and handling* Data Village Shareware. A full featured database system to help you keep track of all of your books ! The Home Library incorporates a powerful search engine, a versatile report writer, easy data entry, context sensitive help, full customization, data graphing, a book shelf view, a spreadsheet view, multimedia sound annotation, and much more. As an added bonus the software is extremely easy to use, and includes helpful hints throughout. For Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. Version 2.0 received a ZDNet **** Rating! Version 2.5 is now Available! $20. Insight Software Solutions, Inc. SmartTracker Books contains a number of features designed to help you quickly organize and catalog your book collection or small library. Know your book collection value, where to locate your books (including books lent out to friends or patrons), or review a multitude of statistical information about your library. Equipped with the Borland Database Engine, SmartTracker Books is both fast and powerful. SmartTracker Books is available in both 16 bit (Windows 3.1) and 32 bit (Windows 95/NT) versions. Requires a minimum of 4MB Ram, 5MB of disk space and a VGA Monitor. $25 + S/H. Book Cataloging Software by TurboSystemsCo Feature-packed easy-to-use program to organize and manage your personal, club, school or business library. Tracks borrowers and due dates. Includes a comprehensive but easy-to-use query/search system that allows you to find just the book or list of books you want. The query system is fully integrated with the report system. The report system includes eight reports and a full featured print preview system. Each entry is automatically indexed by Title, Author, Subject, Book#, Catalog#, Book Type and Catalog#. Additional fields include Subject 2 & 3, Volume, Edition, Issue, Year, Pages, Book#, Catalog#, ISBN, Rating, Publisher, Location, Purchase Price, Current Price, Purchase Date, Where Purchased, Condition, High and Low Market Value, Note1, Note2 and a 64k memo field. Data can be quickly listed by any of the seven index fields by simply selecting one of the browse tabs. Price: $28.00 plus shipping/handling if applicable. I've owned and have used this software for three years. It is very inexpensive (can't recall the exact price, but it was around $28). I downloaded it just before purchasing Access and three classes to learn how to use it (total cost in excess of $700 !). I honestly believe Manage Your Books was the best purchase, vis-a-vis value and performance, that I've ever made. I've cataloged over 1200 books thus far and have found only one shortcoming in the software, that being the inability to change and or substitute the book number relative to incorrectly entered info. I e-mailed their support group for help with this and received an answer the next day. While they did say that their was nothing I could do, the problem can easily be avoided by taking your time while cataloging. G.R. April 9, 2001 PrimaSoft PrimaSoft Book Organizer is a powerful and flexible program that will help you organize your book collection. All your information about books can now be stored at one place and easily retrieved. Using a notebook-like interface (complete with alphabetical tabs), the program stores all the information you might need to track: book title, author, catalog number, cost, status, keywords, category, ...., a detailed description, plus any additional comments, optionally you can include a graphical image. Features: -Notebook-like interface (complete with alphabetical tabs); -The program organizes and displays the data efficiently, so that the information is readily accessible in a variety of ways; -Resizable main window with self-adjusting data fields; -Selectable Fonts for various elements of the main window; -Templates for adding new records, printing reports, printing labels; -Easily search for information; -Define filters to display only selected records; -Sort records by any field (primary, and secondary sort fields); -Define and print a variety of reports directly from the program, print preview; -Print labels (support for American/European Avery labels); -Export/import data to/from ASCII/Dbase file; -Capture graphic images directly from the program; -The program is network aware and can easily be used on multi-user systems; -Custom data fields; Requirements: PC 486DX CPU or better, 8-16 MB RAM; Color monitor; Windows 95/NT (32-bit) or Windows 3.1 (16-bit); Requires 5 megabytes of disk space. Shareware: Free to try, $33 if you decide to keep it. FNProgramvare Version Number 3.2 Compressed Size 2,007,156 bytes CATBooks is a database program for organizing your book collection. It includes 22 standard fields, such as author, title, publisher, category, condition, and value. In addition, you'll find 13 custom fields, a memo field, keywords field, and the ability to include a .bmp graphic. A loan module allows you to track books that have been borrowed, while offering four specific loan reports. Powerful search capabilities allow you to look up items in any field in a variety of ways. Reports can be customized and viewed onscreen or printed. An in-depth Help file will get you up and running quickly. CATBooks has a slightly different interface with a number of minimized windows, but it's a comprehensive cataloging tool. New to this version is the loan module, several new fields, a revised memo field which, now offers three sections, and various fixes. Requirements: Windows 3.1x or Windows 95 Shareware: Free to try, $45 (including shipping and handling) for diskettes/manual by mail or $29 for electronic distribution. PSG-HomeCraft PSG-HomeCraft's ORGANIZE! Your Collection software provides a fast and easy way to keep a complete inventorty of your books and magazines. Currently used by thousands of individuals, churches, small libraries, and businesses this software will help you know what you have and where it is.Ver-4.12 - Updated July 1998. ORGANIZE! Your Books and Magazines: Full 32-bit WIN'95 software. Flexible software software that let's you catalog your collection the way you want it cataloged.Ver-4.0 - Updated July 1997. ORGANIZE! Your Books and Magazines: A complete Windows program for cataloging all types of books, magazines, articles or other printed material. This software is both flexible and easy to use. Michael C. Taylor, , 528 Main Street, Hellertown, PA 18055. (610) 838-2790. email: mailto:books@oldlib.com Book'em is a full-featured Windows or Windows95/NT based system targeted specifically to the serious book collector or dealer. It was developed, tested and enhanced in our book shop, The Old Library Shop and makes collection management and sales much easier to track! Book'em allows an unlimited number of "collections" to be created in which to organize your books, magazines etc. One book can be put in one or more collections to organize them by type, interest, size or any way you wish to see them. Built-in contact manager and label printer. You can keep track of book dealers, collectors, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, etc right from within the Book'em system. Book'em features a state of the art query system based on Query-by-example. You can query your entire database easily to find books matching whatever criteria you specify. Book'em also can be ordered with an optional module to add a full point-of-sale system. A must-have for book dealers and book shops! The add-on produces customer receipts as well as sales summaries and details. Demo Version: This is a fully functioning Book'em system with all the features of the Standard Version except that you are limited to a total of 50 books in your database. Free. Standard Version: This provides all the basic features of the Book'em system except for the Point of Sale module (see below) and allows an unlimited number of books to be entered. This version is ideal for the serious book collector. The Standard Version sells for $59.95. Point of Sale Version: This provides all of the features of the Standard Version as well as a point- and-shoot Point of Sale system for quick sales entry and tracking. This version is ideal for book dealers and book shops. The Point of Sale Version sells for $249.95. TurboSystemsCo Book Librarian for Windows is a feature packed easy-to-use program to organize and manage your personal, club, school, church or corporate library. Tracks borrowers and due dates. Includes fields for Title, Author, Subject(3), edition, catalog#, purchase, current value, publisher, location and more. Includes a comprehensive but easy-to-use query/search system that allows you to qucikly find just the book or list of books you want. The report system also features a comprehensive query/filter system, and can list reports to the screen, printer or disk. Also prints index cards in addition to numeorus reports that can be generated at the click of a menu item. Book Librarian - Single User[$32.00 plus S/H] Book Librarian 95 - Single User with Password[$45.00 plus S/H] Book Librarian 95 -Network Version[$75.00 plus S/H] Book Librarian 95 - Network with Password[$90.00 plus S/H] Number of Network Users (Book Librarian) There is a $10 per user license fee in addition to the Book Librarian network program price. The minimun number is 2. Use this field for both the 16 and 32 bit versions of Book Librarian. QCollector™ Quill & Brush QCollector™ is a low-cost scaled-down collectors' version of QBook™, a book dealers' program developed over the past five years by Keith Jones for the Quill & Brush, a bookstore specializing in 19th- and 20th-century collected books. QCollector provides you with ample space to enter a complete, detailed description of each item in your collection. There is no limit to the number of items that can be stored by QCollector (other than available disk space on your computer's hard drive). QCollector gives you the ability to add and revise entries for both collection management and development. Many features aid the user. Printouts. The user determines which fields, the order of the fields, and the order in which entries will appear for each printout. The user may also add text before and after each field, if desired. Every printout format defined may be saved and later retrieved as needed by the user. Printouts are saved to a text file and may be printed to the printer. The text file may be edited in a word processor, or tailored to a specialized format using a print- or mail-merge routine. Collection entries may be grouped in any manner the user desires. The entire collection, or any selection of groups from the collection, may be printed out. In addition, individual entries may be selected from any group for printing. Totals are displayed on the screen when reports are created and may be printed, if desired. HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS -386 or Higher Computer System -2 Megabytes of RAM Memory -Minimum 10 Megabytes of Space on the Hard Disk -VGA Monitor -MS DOS 3.3™ or Higher Operating System PRICING: All preceding features are included in the $99.00 program cost. Full credit will apply toward the purchase of QBook™. Quill & Brush Simplicity. Clarity. Consistency. Ease of Use. The requirements that guided the development of the finest tool for total management of your specialty book business: QBook, the computer program for book dealers. Each of the three main "files" in QBook--the Customer File, the Inventory File, and the Search File--provides you with the ability to add and revise individual entries on a complete, readable, single screen. Commands available are continuously displayed and consistent from file to file. Movement between files is accomplished with a single keystroke. Inputted information from each file is automatically integrated and updated to create invoices, quotes, mailing labels, catalogs, customer wants, etc., which may be tailored to your specifications. HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS: -386 or Higher Computer System -2 Megabytes of RAM Memory -Minimum 10 Megabytes of Space on the Hard Disk -VGA Monitor -MS DOS 3.3(tm) or Higher Operating System Price: Networked Business Version: $1,495 Single-User Business Version: $495 Bookminder Software, 1015 2nd Street, Old Sacramento, CA 95814. for Macintosh, Windows 3.1 (with WIN32S) and Windows95 BookMinder has evolved over the last five years into the finest program for use in the book trade. It has defined the industry standard. BookMinders' powerful features include: Customer Data Base / Instant Cataloging/List Creation / Quote Cards and Book Slips / Prepare Data for On-Line Service / Consignment/Layaway/Late Payment Reports / Quarterly Tax Statements/Resales/Out of State Reports / Complete Invoicing Capability/Credit Card Tracking / Full Inventory Control/New Book Reordering / Bar Coding / Mailing Labels/Bulk Rate Report / Full Export/Import Capability / Vendor Information / Web - Savvy Exporting / Over 45 Comprehensive Reports File sizes are limited to the size of your hard drive space, no more 33Meg limitation! PLUS, if you own Filemaker Pro 3.0, you may now modify and create layouts and scripts in all modules System requirements: Hard drive, laser/inkjet printer (preferred), PC requires: 386+, Windows 3.1, 8MB+ RAM (recommended) or Windows95 and appropriate RAM (If you are running under Windows 3.1, you will have to install WIN32S, which you can get for free from Microsoft or from us for an additional $15 service charge.) Mac requires: 4+ MB RAM, System 7.x BookMinder is being offered for $200 ppd. Check out the latest Posted to BiblioPhile Maillist 11/24/97: I have been using Bookminder for about 3 years and have found it outstanding. It is extremely versatile and does everything I need both record and business management. I have seen others and have Interloc's BookMaster, but IMO, none of them compares with Bookminder. A.M. Dealer BookStacks™ Parmer Books, Jean Marie and Jerry Parmer, 7644 Forrestal Rd, San Diego CA 92120-2203 USA Ph. 619 287 0693, Fax 619 287 6135 Anytime. email: ParmerBook@home.com Put your book business on your desktop. And run it with Parmer Books' BookStacks 2.0™software-- the Macintosh® solution for managing your book business. Now, making big improvements in your efficiency is as simple as using the smallest Macintosh computer. By using your computer to organize your business you can spend less time on searches and keeping track of customers, and more time increasing sales. That's why we're offering you the software system that made our business so successful. Parmer Books' BookStacks comes complete with 'stack' interfaces for your Customer Address List, Book Inventory, Quotes, Catalogs, Want Lists and Invoices. The System will also Export Books for Sale and wants to On-Line Data Bases like ABE, Bibliofind, Bibliocity, Alibris, Automated Bookman, and BookMatch Network . Managing your business has never been so easy. This comprehensive, easy-to-use, low-cost software runs on any Macintosh with at least 4Mb of RAM and an 80Mb hard drive.* BookStacks is built on HyperCard® Scripter application so you can customize BookStacks to meet your needs. We also offer a HyperCard Player version if you don't have this application. We can help you configure your system. Call today : 619-287-0693 (Mon.-Sat., 9-5 PST) *8Mb RAM and 160Mb drive with Apple® System 7.5.1 is recommended for increased performance. $195. Demo Disk $25 (applies to purchase) Parmer Books, Jean Marie and Jerry Parmer, 7644 Forrestal Rd, San Diego CA 92120-2203 USA Ph. 619 287 0693, Fax 619 287 6135 Anytime. email:  Collector BookStacks for collection management, value tracking, want list maintainence, and supplier purchase orders and record keeping. Only $95.00 + applicable tax & shipping. FileMaker Pro software has become one of the leading solutions for the database publishing on the Web, running on thousands of Mac OS web sites throughout the world. Key ways in which FileMaker Pro can be used on the Internet today include publishing information on the Internet via TCP/IP with built-in templates; acting as a search engine for web sites; and managing inventory, customer lists and other database applications across corporate intranets. FileMaker Pro 3.0 is also the only relational database application designed to help you easily manage and share information. Starting with raw data, it's fast and easy to create working databases on Macintosh, Windows 95, Windows NT, or Windows 3.1. In fact, FileMaker Pro comes with a complete set of professionally-designed templates for instant business, education and home solutions. Mac/Windows $199 User Comment: FILEMAKER PRO is an excellent database, flexible and relational. Now that last term may be the reason people of non-computer status veer away from it, BUT it is much better than it sounds. The learning curve is slow at first, but then speeds up and if I can master it, anyone can, because I am no computer whiz! But this will probably have more longevity than the other recommendations you received AND the relational part of it is what makes it so useful. You can have 2, 3, 5, ---20 different db files and connect them to each other with a push of the mouse! For example, if you want to trace a book from seller to you to customer plus have all the info on it [value, condition, etc.], you can set up a db file for all the sellers with whom you deal; another db file for the book itself and a third one for your customers and connect them all [that is relational]! AND you can share as much of that data and/or hide [protect] as much of that same data as you wish with customers or sellers. download HomeBase is a free bookstore management program, currently for Windows-based PCs. HomeBase allows you to use the power of your PC to maintain your inventory of books, wants and clients. Books and wants take on the same look and feel as in the main ABE WEB system. In addition, HomeBase offers customer management capabilities so you can keep better track of who is looking for books. HomeBase also features a full context sensitive Windows help system. HomeBase will operate on any PC running Windows 3.1, 3.11 or 95. A 386 class computer with at least 4 mega-bytes of free disk space is the recommended minimum configuration. HomeBase can be downloaded from ABE's WEB system and has an easy to follow installation program. Naturally, HomeBase can prepare your records in the most efficient manner possible for upload from your computer to ours. Member bookstores of the Advanced Book Exchange can use HomeBase to quickly and easily upload their books and wants to the ABE database. ABE member bookstores can access 1-800 HomeBase technical support as well as a handy Getting Started manual.   (1.4 meg) BookMate™ is Interloc's entry-level software for its dealers and collectors which provides a wide range of features to enter Inventory and Wants records into a database. Interloc members can upload their records to Interloc's On-Line System via the Internet without incurring online charges. The program is 100% compatible with all Interloc databases (including Record Manger™ and BookMaster III™). BookMate™ offers a long list of features including importing, exporting, matching, and automatic record tracking. An extensive HELP System makes it easy to find answers to your questions. Check also :  where others may be listed. User Comments I have Book Librarian v2.0 for DOS from TurboSystemsCo that I got as registered user several years ago. I liked this one better than other programs I had tried out. Since, this program is getting out-of-date and I just bought a new Win XP system. This program works, but it has limitations. I tried TurboSystemsCo newest versions (95 and 98) and I hated them because they changed the whole format and look, not the same as v2.0 for DOS (all fields on the same screen). I emailed to the company and they said they are upgrading v2.0 to v4.0 (probably for Windows) with same format (all fields on the same screen like v2.0) and little better in 3 or 4 weeks. Most or all programs I downloaded weren't to my liking. Because some of the have fields missing that I need, most fields are used for booksellers (I'm not one of them), they have fields on more than one windows (preferably to have all needed fields on one screen like Organize!, but I didn't like the way it was set up). I just wanted to have basic info. on one screen, something simple (nothing fancy like PrimaSoft program) I can enter like title, author, category, copyright, publisher, # of pages, ISBN, type, and notes to keep records of the books that I have read. I'm not collecting books. Just buy or borrow new or used books and then give back or sell them to used book stores after I finish read the book. For now, I'm still sticking to Book Librarian v2.0 for DOS from time to time. At the mean time, I'm trying out Book Organizer Deluxe v1.8 (trial version) from PrimaSoft which I think I liked better than other programs listed from your site because it has template that I can create to my liking. As for Home Organizer, I think I like Home Inventory 2000 from Data Village better than Household Register 2000 from TurboSystemsCo and Organize! from Homecraft because I like the way the program is set up, its looks, more convenient to use (with names from menu to pick out instead of typing the same word again and again), and most basic info. on one screen. Again, this is a trial version and I just started to use it. I hope this program will be useful to me for insurance purpose. I just applied for homeowner's rental insurance and received the forms recently to fill out. Thank you very much for listing all or most of the files to give me a chance to try them out and see which one I like better. I hope this feedback helps you in some way. I will look forward to new v4.0 from TurboSystemsCo that will meet my expectations.

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Below you will find a small sample of our projects. These include websites that we have developed, networks that we have designed, and firms to which we have provided consulting services. Please have a look and be sure and  if you have any questions about the services that we have provided to the firms listed below.

Client: Martin Zerfoss Insurance

Services: Network & Server Administration / PC Support / Training

Description:

Latest project for this 15+year Software Knowledge client: creation and implementation of a new Microsoft Primary Domain Controller into their multi-server domain. This was the 14th server we have created for Martin Zerfoss over the years, starting with two Novell servers at the beginning of our relationship.
Replacing a PDC is not always the easiest thing to do, but Dibbie Martin (part-time IT support at Martin Zerfoss) felt this was our smoothest server install to date. Everything was working properly at 8:00 Monday morning after the weekend install. This is one of our accounts where training is highlighted. Dibbie now performs over 80% of the basic PC work on her network, and also does some of the server work.

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Client: Oman-Gibson Associates

Services: IT Consulting / Web Design / Database Management

Client Website:

Description:

Oman-Gibson is a medical property management and development company who had never before established a full-featured web presense. In 2005 Software Knowledge got the company online with its first website and in 2009 was called upon again for a redesign using our new Drupal content management system. This new CMS affords OGA's management the ability to take over more control of their site content and keep in better contact with their customers.
Software Knowledge also services OGA's IT needs which include approximately 10 PCs and a Windows 2003 Server as well as providing software training to the employees, consulting on hardware purchases, and system setup and installation.

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Client: The Nashville Zoo at Grassmere

Services: Network Administration / Website Development / Training

Description:

Completed redesign, development, and deployment of the Zoo's new website including siteData integration, SSL encrytpion for e-commerce, and database administration. The new website is almost completely dynamic and database driven which makes for a very fluid and easily evolving web presense.
50 PC Network supporting over 100 users. VoIP telephone system. Recent full re-configuration from a Small Business 2000 Server LAN to a full Windows 2003 AD LAN with multiple servers. Roaming Profiles used in several buildings. Fiber optic cabling connects the entire compound.

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Client: Dodson, Parker, Behm, and Capparella, P.C.

Services: Network Administration / Web Design / siteData

Description:

Dodson, Parker, Behm and Capparella is one of Software Knowledge's oldest clients. We have been providing network administration and IT consulting to this prominent Nashville law firm for over 18 years and have recently grown that relationship to include web design. Software Knowledge built a dynamic, database driven site for DPB utilizing our new content management software, siteData. With siteData DPB's own employees can manage and update their website without the need for programming knowledge.

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