I wanted to give this book more than 3 stars, if only to show that the topic wasn't causing me to be prejudiced against it.

Really, I wanted to be able to sit down with book for half an hour and at least have an idea of what Windows shell scripting was about--but it wasn't easy to really wrap my mind around it even after flipping through the chapters, reading the first chapters, looking at the figures and tables, trying to get an idea of an organic framework for scripting.

Instead, I came away with two feelings:

1. Microsoft sure knows how to turn something relatively simple into something that's quite complicated. Shell scripting is pretty straightforward in *nix, and there aren't a ton of switches, buttons, and checkboxes involved with making them run. As far as I can tell, there is a fair amount of that to do with Windows scripts. So I really wouldn't want to have to use Windows shell scripting at all.

2. I wanted the author here to at least give me a sense of what can be done with scripts under Windows. He mentioned a CD with example code on it in the first pages, but there was no other indication of such a CD. So, that's bad editing. But, there also was no overall framework for example scripts throughout the book. I would have preferred to see more examples that build on each other more coherently. And I would have liked to see many of the lists of commands, functions, parameters, and what-have-you segregated from the rest of the text. They're distracting.

Overall, if you must have a book on WSH and Windows shell scripting, I suppose this one might be OK, but the Tim Hill book (which was published in 1998) seems to be, by far, the more popular book. It also seems to be the only other book on Windows scripting, but it also has an average rating of nearly 5 stars from over 30 reviewers, so you might want to check that one out.

I found the book easy to understand. It has tons of examples and was written in a very friendly style. Coverage was split equally between Windows shell scripting and the Windows Script Host. The book might be a little less than heavy weight programmers are looking for but for the rest of us, its right on target. Thanks.......

the editors boast themselves as modern .in the 6 edition authors did not even mention h. pylori in the pathology of peptic ulcer whereas harrison' 13 edn discussed about it. also the urology chapter is badly written with not even a mention on CA urethra ,peyronie's disease.also the treatments are incomplete.also the concept of GE reflux &its relation to standing & lying is totally wrong(infact opposite).go for a greenfield or asabiston instead.

Surgery as a field, is wide and developing rapidly, probably publishing textbooks is not a good idea anymore. This book hits and misses in trying to collect the basics for surgical knowledge and more.
You'll find many missing points which you can fill from the internet or from magazines or other resources.
Most of the chapters are excellent and are probably all what you might need for your college study like those on trauma, diseases of the thyroid and parathyroid, metabolic response to injury etc.. but there are some which are disasterous like the chapter on breast conditions, but probably the subject itself is complex and controversial anyway.
The text overall is very well written and the structure and design of each chapter is very logical, some figures are not so great though, plus the book needs an update. you might consider supplementing it with Surgical clinics of north amarica for some of the chapters you read.

It's new and more . but It's expensive for medical student in the devloping country such as Thailand . however it's a reference book for most surgeons in the world.