Microelectronics Journal, Vol. 28, No.

presented. Network implementation is presen- There are many books about databases and data-
ted in Chapter 8. It includes the layer model, base technology, but only some of them cover al1
important data structures, network devices and the most important aspects of databases. This
protocols, such as APR, IP, UDP and TCP. In book is one such case and therefore it is of
Chapter 9, the module’s implementation and interest to readers who work with databases. The
debugging are presented. The system description unique value of the book lies in consistent inte-
is based on LINUX kemel version 1.2. Also, the gration of forma1 and informal methods.
book contains four appendices: system calls,
kernel-related commands, the Proc file system The book is divided into six parts containing 25
and the boot process. The appendices provide chapters. Part 1 (chapters 1-5) introduces basic
information on some specialized topics that are concepts of database systems and data modeling,
not often used by system programmers, but are including conceptual modeling using the ER
very good to know. Nearly all of system calls and model. Part 11 (chapters 6-9) is dedicated to
library routines provided by LINUX operating relational data models, including relational alge-
system are discussed, and numerous examples bra, relational calculus, languages (SQL2,
have been provided. QUEL, QBE), relational schema design (starting
from ER model) and relational database
This book is interrded for LINUX system management systems. Part 111(chapters 10, 11) is
programmers and system administrators. It is focused on conventional data models and
suitable for graduate clourses in operating systems systems, including network and hierarchical data
and networks. It is very important that the book models. This part contains an overview of
allows the novice to get a foothold in LINUX concepts and describes how to convert the ER
system programming. Finely, the book wil1 be of model into network and hierarchical schema.
considerable help for those working in UNIX Part IV (chapters 12-14) shows the database
system programming. A modest background is design process. Part V (chapters 15-20) presents
required to understand the material in this book, the system implementation techniques including
but it is expected that readers are fluent in C the structure of DBMS catalog, the techniques
programming. 1 can strongly recommend read- used by DBMS in query processing, query opti-
ing this book. mization, transaction processing, concurrency
control, recovery, and database security and
Pro& Dr. Slobodanka DjordjeviC-Kajan authorization. Part VI (chapters 21-25) is dedi-
cated to advanced data models and emergency
trends in databases. This part includes the EER
model, 00 databases, distributed databases,
Fundamentals of Database Systems
client-server architecture and deductive data-
Ramez Elmasri ad Shamkarnt B. Navathe, Addi- bases. The emergency database technologies
son-Wesley, UK, 1994, 873pp., ISBN: 0-80.53- include active, temporal, spatial, scientific and
1748-1, L48.95 multimedia databases, and the emergency data-
base applications include engineering design and
Database and database technology are having a manufacturing, office and decision support
major impact on the growing use of computers systems and biological applications. Also, the
and wil1 play a critical role in almost all areas book contains three appendices. Appendix A
where computers are used, including business, shows a number of different diagrammatic nota-
engineering, medicine, law, education and tions for representing ER and EER model
library science. Themfore, todays database is a concepts. Appendix B presents the most impor-
fündamental technology in the computer world. tant disk parameters. Appendix C briefly

603
Book Reviews
compares ER, relational, network, hierarchical
and object-oriented models described in this
book and the database systems based on those
models.
The book is intended primarily for computer
science students who are interested in designing,
using and implementing database and database
systems. The book can also be used as a refer-
ence and self-study guide for experienced scien-
tists who wish to strengthen their understanding
of database systems and data mode&. The text is
suitable for courses “Introduction in Database
Systems” (chapters 1-12) and “Database Design
and Implementation Techniques” (remaining
chapters). Most of the concepts in the text are
illustrated by several examples. The examples
constitute a continuous case study of one appli-
cation, for which databases are designed in
different models. Each chapter includes an
extensive set of exercises, both to test the basic
concepts of the chapter and in many cases to
extend these materials. Several supplements are
available for the book. These include an
instructor’s guide with solutions to the majority
of the exercises in the book, as wel1 as a discus-
sion of possible approaches to reading the mate-
rial in each chapter. The figures from every
chapter are available by anonymous& from the
site bc.aw.com under the directory bc/elmasri.
Finally, 1 can strongly recommend having this
for your personal use and reading this book.
PYoJ: Dv. Slobodanka Djordjevi~-Kajan
Software Engineering
lan Sommewille, Addison- Wesley, UK, 1996,
742pp., ISBN: 0-201-42765-6
1 have used this book in undergraduate and
graduate courses since 1986 when the second
edition was published. After ten years of using it,
1 can say that the book is the Bible for all who
are interested in Software Engineering. As one of
604
the students of mine says: “In this book, 1 can
find answers or references to answers for al1 my
dilemmas in. software engineering”. The new
edition of this book covers the entire software
production process. It both includes al1 activities
to make software development and maintenance
less labor intensive and enables the development
of higher quality software products. The book
provides a set of methods and tools for software
engineering that integrate succes&1 informal
approaches with,available theoretical results. The
basic objectives of this book are to “provide
software engineers with an awareness of broader
system engineering concepts” (p. 33). In that
way, readers wil1 be able to produce “high-
quahty software with finite amount of resources
and to a predicted schedule” (p. 6).
Starting with definitions of software products
and software processes, and with some of their
high-leve1 quality characteristics, the author
carefully leads readers through the entire soft-
ware process. The book presents the conven-
tional or waterfall life cycle model and some
alternative models, such as prototyping, evolu-
tionary development and Boehm’s spiral model.
It is a good starting point in understanding the
terminology used in software engineering. The
models presented here are aimed at the produc-
tion of a systematic and predictable process. In
the next chapters, the author introduces readers
to: computer based engineering, project
management, requirements engineering, soft-
ware design (architectural, object-oriented,
fùnction-oriented, real-time and user interface),
development of dependable systems (“systems
which have critical non-functional requirements
for reliability, safety or security”, p. 347), verifì-
cation and validation, computer-aided software
engineering (CASE), managing people, software
tost estimation, quality management, process
improvement, software maintenance, configura-
tion management and software reengineering.
To summarize, the book provides a wide range
of software engineering models, methods, tech-