2 comments about Developing Java Entertainment Applets.

1. This has to be one of the best books written for an up and coming Java developer. After you have a little Java under your belt, or you are just learning, get this book, read the hell out of it and go 4 it



2. Not for someone looking for advanced techniques building a real game. He wastes a lot of pages talking about how games can be done, but not in technical ways. If you want to learn Java, buy a book intended to teach you Java from beginning. This is not organised with this purpose. I believe it's not organised in anyway.

5 comments about Professional Java SOAP.

1. Objective, Easy to read and to understand, but some examples have errors, the Tomcat version is too old and do not cover the Java Web Services Developer Pack (Java WSDP).



2. Objective, Easy to read and to understand, but some examples have errors, the Tomcat version is too old and do not cover the Java Web Services Developer Pack (Java WSDP).



3. This was the first book I had bought for my endeavor into the world of SOAP. Having read first few chapters it became quite apparent that either the author didn't have good knowledge about the subject matter or did a mediocre job to write this book in a hurry so that he can cash in on this craze of new technology. The sample codes are hard to comprehend meaning one may not understand the code at the first glance. The subject matter depicted in a inconsistent and incoherent manner. The book lacks any kind of structure.



4. This was my first SOAP book, and I thought it was an excellent piece of work by Monsieur Bequet.

   I think it was written rapidly, and by the time I found it the software versions had changed. This can be a big problem in cutting-edge topics, but it is not fair to judge either author or publisher as harshly as many seem to be doing here.

   I would like to see a second edition and am looking forward to his next book.




5. The author tries to explain various key concepts of SOAP through one project that spans the whole book. Apache SOAP is used as the software of choice to build the project. Both of which did not appeal to me because:
   a. Apache is shifting focus to Axis from Apache SOAP.
   b. Concepts are better explained through short examples than through a project that would sometimes make the users feel lost.

No comments about Java Enterprise Design Patterns: Patterns in Java (Patterns in Java, V. 3).).

5 comments about JavaServer Pages Developer's Handbook (Developer's Library).

1. This book is good in many ways, giving a good overview of JSP's. It lets itself down by not providing enough information to get the "in text" examples working, and the downloadable examples simply don't work, without being tweaked, as often as they do.

   It is interesting to note that the book states that its examples run on Tomcat 4.1 (see page 2 Introduction), which does not support the JSP 2.0 or Servlet 2.4 specifications. (see http://jakarta.apache.org/tomcat/index.html)

   It is a good beginning but I would not recommend it if you want the whole story in one place, or you need to work with examples to fully understand a topic.




2. Quite comprehensive coverage of JSP2.0 especially JSTL.

   The book attempts to cover a lot of topics. Web applications, JNDI, XML,XSLT, JDBC and JSTL. Even a smattering of Struts and EJBs.

   One thing I liked about the book is the fact that everything is covered with an intent to portray the way a JSP utilizes these technologies. JSTL tag coverage is comprehensive. The authors keep coming back to the JSTL tags to show how they simplify matters and achieve the view and model separation.

   In short read this book if you want to :
   1. Learn all the Jsp directives.
   2. Familiarize yourself with the JSTL core, xml,sql and internationalization tags.
   3. Write your own JSP tags. The custom tags treatment can be improved but it does get the point across.
   4. Acquire an understanding 'under the hood'. Generated servlets are listed and analyzed to give an idea to the user as to how the jsp code was processed by the servlet container.
   

   Tomcat 4.1 and a preview version of Tomcat that incorporates JSP 2.0 were used to demonstrate the book's material.




3. I'm a seasoned ColdFusion and Java developer who wanted to learn JSP. I found this book to be fast moving, with many examples and solid explanations of the topics at hand. You'll find coverage on using JavaBeans, EJBs, and J2EE containers with JSP to prime you for books dedicated to each of those subjects, along with great explanation on when to use what, and how JSP fits into the J2EE framework. Chapters are around 30-40 pages each, with enough detail to get you started whilst wheting your appetite for your own experimentation on Tomcat. I read the book in less than 2 weeks and felt comfortable with all the material covered.

   I would not recommend this book to an inexperienced developer. There are a handful of minor code and example errors (such as an OS X screen shot for no reason!) which might confuse somebody new to Java and web development in general. Also, the coverage for configuring Tomcat, taglibs, etc. is probably not comprehensive enough for a newbie - you'll have to read the Jakarta docs to get some of the examples working. Of course, this is also a great way to learn how to configure the platform, since you're going to have to learn these things sooner or later anyway.

   If you are already in web development and need a fast paced, comprehensive resource for learning JSP, I recommend this book wholeheartedly. This is a great starting point for learning J2EE as a framework.




4. This is one of the worst book I've read.
   At first I was impressed by the good presentation of the book (schemas, layout, structure etc...)
   The first few chapters are also good, but when I come to the most important core JSP itself, I quickly got torture, so difficult to understand, Chapter 8 , one of the most important chapter is the pure terror, I got depressed because I think that I'm dumb.

   I spent 2 full weeks to read and it's a total waste.
   Don't use this book if you want to be healthful




5. I am a hard core Java Servlet guy. Never really had much desire for JSPs. To me Servlets was "real" programming and JSP's were for folks who didn't like Java programming. But after reading through this book I am beginning to like JSP's. It's a great quick reference for using JSP's with JavaBeans. It's a bummer there isn't any coverage of JavaServer Faces; that would have been an excellent addition to this book.

1 comments about iSeries and AS/400 Java at Work.

1. Here are the good and bad points regarding this book:
   First the bad:

   Since the book is a compilation of several writers, there is often material that is repeated. One author will cover a topic as a building block for the main topic. However, the build block topic was covered in a previous chaper by a different author.

   Some of the material is dated. For example, websphere chapters seem like they were probably reworks of older magazine articles. New releases are always coming out but for a reletively new book to be more than one release behind is frustrating.

   The good points:

   Many topics covered

   plenty of examples

   lots of useful information. A good way for as/400 programmers to get started in java development. Not lots of theory but lets you get some working examples quickly.

   Overall, this books positive points outweigh it's negative points and is worth having for as/400 programmers who want to start using java in this environment.

No comments about JAVA 2 - Lenguaje y Aplicaciones.

5 comments about Enterprise JavaBeans Component Architecture: Designing and Coding Enterprise Applications (Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition Series).

1. It is not just an EJB book. It shows how to integrate JSPs with EJBs by using various EJB patterns through examples. The patterns include Session Facade, Value List Iterator, Data Access Object, etc. It also covers enough information about EJBs itself. The book differs from other EJB books in the market. Other books only focuses on EJBs itself, but this one talks about JSPs, EJBs, design patterns - it's kind of all in one. The only drawback of this book is sometimes it's very hard to follow. You cannot read it for too long, the flow is missing. May be it's just because the EJB architecture itself is too complex. Although, Ed Roman's Mastering Enterprise JavaBeans book makes learning EJB peace of cake. I wish this book was also written such a way.

   There are verious reasons why I bought this book:

   - It shows how to integrate your EJBs with JSPs.
   - EJB design patterns are exposed.
   - Fairly good examples.
   - Good end of the chapter summary.
   - Concise and well designed chapters.

   The bottom line: It's a good book worths the price. If you don't have any EJB book, you can start with this one.




2. Technically, it's really a great book. Well written and very
   informative. The description on the back cover, of the book,
   summarizes it better than I could, so I will not repeat it
   here ý see above ýEditorial Reviewsý. In addition, this book
   is one of the very few technical books that contains example
   code with it all working, not just some of it. The code is
   available by downloading it from the authors Web Site.



3. There is no other way to say this. This book is by far the best book on EJB 2.0 that I've read. There are also EJB 1.1 references, but they didn't mean much to me because I started with 2.0

   I challenge anyone to even find a typo in this book. There has to be some I am sure, but try and find them. I do not agree with another review about the major flaw with this book. If you don't know how to create .war or .ear files you shouldn't be reading this book! Just my opinion.

   I hope these 2 write another book on any Java technology soon! I will be the first in line to buy it!!




4. This is an excellent book to learn EJB. I started to study EJB by trying out couple books in the market. But failed to understand and further frightened with J2EE. Once i started to read the book, i have a better understanding of what is EJB and J2EE. Buy the book, go through the contents, download the source codes, deploy to a J2EE compliant server and enjoy learning. It is really a nice book worth investing.



5. It is an introductionary level book. The only good thing is it provides an integrated example through out the book, and adds more features and components with introduction of Stateless, Stateful, Entity, Message Driven bean in each chapter.

5 comments about Definitive Guide to Swing for Java 2, Second Edition.

1. This book is the only one I've found that gives a good explanation of Swing's undo capabilities. Examples are clear & not cluttered with detail. Recommend!



2. I've been using his books since he published his "Teach Yourself JBuilder". The best parts of his work are: concrete code examples; clear, concise, and eminently readable writing; clear and easy to understand diagrams. I guess that pretty much covers the entire book, but then, *he's that good*.

   I've got other books on Swing, and I'm starting to see the money I spent before this book as wasted (well, maybe not *wasted*, but you get the idea). As with a previous reader, I found the explanation of undo/redo particularly useful.




3. Excellent book. It covers some advanced topics in Swing programming. It helps Java developers to produce clean code and robust program by using Swing features effectively. Example: Event handling is covered in depth. Author provided the best way to use MVC with PropertyChangeListener. All topics are covered with clear and useful example. While some other authors give some examples you cannot apply in the real life.



4. The goal of a programming book should be to make it easier to use the language or library. This book doesn't do that. There is no sorting of what is important and what isn't.

   Chapter 3, for example, is a very muddled discussion of MVC, and only confuses the whole issue of the place of MVC in Swing. The UML diagrams throughout are not very informative, either.

   I bought this book with the hopes that it would give me a big picture overview of swing, but instead it just gets lost in all the details. I finally bit the bullet and read Sun's Swing tutorials and documents, and found them much more informative. I wish I didn't have to read them on the computer screen.




5. This book is not to be used as a reference. It is a tool to teach you all the features of Swing, including all the tips and tricks (that other books won't give you) on how to create Java Swing code that will suite even the most robust sytems. It will also run faster and consume less resources. These 'tricks' will save you a lot of time and effort. It shows you how to make code reusable, short and affective. The exact meaning of good Java code. It teaches you the most advanced features of Swing like trees, undo, drag and drop and so on.
   The book uses UML (Unified Modeling Language) diagrams to simplify for you and show you visially the stucture of the many program examples in the book, in a truly Object Oriented point of view.
   In summation: It's a wonderful book and I recommend it to anybody who professionally programs in Java Swing.

3 comments about J2EE FrontEnd Technologies: A Programmer's Guide to Servlets, JavaServer Pages, and JavaBeans.

1. "J2EE FrontEnd Technologies" refers to itself as a "programmer's guide" and that is probably the best description of it. While it also claims to be "chock full of code examples" and contains "what you need to know," it falls short in both these areas. What you will find is a fairly detailed and yet limited explanation of the three major J2EE technologies, servlets, JSPs, and EJBs. Although you will find extensive information for these three areas, there are many details left out and there is little attempt made to tie the three pieces together. For example, you will not find any examples of linking servlets and JSPs other than by using the Struts framework. You will also find no more than a brief mention of message driven EJBs. There are numerous UML diagrams throughout the book but in many cases they add little beyond what you can get from looking at the APIs. The examples in the book tend to be overly simplistic, in some cases wasting many pages to show an example that could have been summarized in a few lines of code. The best section of the book is the section on EJBs. The author's detailed description of EJB deployment descriptors is better than what you will find in most EJB books. This section also features the most complete examples found in the book. Overall this book does contain value, although it fails as an introduction or tutorial on the technologies that it covers.



2. I found this book to be very well written, organized and helpful in learning J2EE concepts. The book is very easy to read. Author is very experienced and discusses pros and cons for various decisions programmers and designers have to make. The topics covered include Servlets, Shopping Cart Example, Struts, JSP and EJB.

   Illustrations used throughout the book for describing classes, packages and working of programs is excellent. UML is used extensively in the book. Class diagrams and Interaction diagrams are used throughout the book to explain Java Servlet API and it's working. Screen dumps and nice figures are used to give pictorial views of situations being discussed. This helped me quickly understand various concepts.

   At various places, the author explains reasons for deprecating some methods in the API. He also gives examples of such cases. This helped me learn some better programming skills and made me aware of common design mistakes. The author explains many design choices from security point of view also.

   In my opinion the book is an excellent buy.




3. I spent a long time... trying to decide between this book and Budi Kurniawan's "Java for the Web with Servlets, JSP, and EJB" - the only two I can find that give an integral treatment of this trinity of J2EE technology.

   I ultimately decided to go with Kurniawan's book mainly because he is a better teacher and explainer, and that the book is better organized. Jorelid's book is for you if you are a hard-cored geek to whom reading UML and standard specs is second-instinct. He started the book - chapter 1 - with an extended, class-by-class coverage of the servlet package - no practical example until chapter 2. There ARE flashes of brilliance here and there though, for example his lucid explanation of the evolution of servlet-collaboration technology, from direct invocation to filters. However, the lack of sub-chapter headings in the TOC makes it VERY difficult to locate a specific topic.

   Jorelid scores a clear point over Kurniawan in covering struts. But then he does not provide the still-larger discussion of application design (e.g. a chapter dedicated to a sample project from design to deployment, showing how to translate UML from design/analysis into servlets, JSP and EJBs - where his use of UML would be most justified).

   In short, you may like it if you are a Wrox kinda guy. For other mortals, Kurniawan is a gentler guide.

3 comments about WebLogic 6.1 Server Workbook for Enterprise JavaBeans (3rd Edition).

1. This workbook is a companion guide to the book Enterprise JavaBeans (3rd edition) published by O'Reilly and written by Richard Monson-Haefel. This workbook walks the reader through installing and configuring WebLogic 6.1 as well as deploying the examples described in the EJB book.

   This is a very readable book that explains some of the WebLogic-specific requirements as well as best practices for dealing with EJB's (EJB 2.0 spec) in a WebLogic environment. I highly recommend this book for anyone working with EJB's on the WebLogic application server.

   This WebLogic 6.1 Workbook was originally published by Enterprise JavaBeans author Richard Monson-Haefel's Titan Books publishing company. O'Reilly bought the rights to publish it and order to open it up for a wider audience




2. If you are new to WebLogic or EJB 2.0 and want to learn either or both, there are few better hands-on learning source than this. You do need solid foundation on J2EE/EJB first, though. The author explains really well how's and why's of doing things certain ways and gives many useful tips associated with implementing EJB2.0 - especially on the Container Managed Relationship (CMR). The provided source programs are great too. As they say, you only learn by doing it. This one is highly recommended.



3. Overall rATE of the book: 5
   AN excellent book and it does a great job of explaining the concepts to a beginner like me. There are a lot of solved examples that can walk the beginners through the steps. the book is well written and well structured.

   Instructional rate of the books: 5
   the book has good worked out or simple examples to do the things of interest. they also have screen prints of the menu for better benefit.

   Reference value of the book: 4.

   The book is well written and well structured. the book has a lot of sample code, solved examples and screen prints about configuring the server.

   The books in its later chapters covers advanced topics such as creation of an entity bean, maintaining its statelessness, and using Java messaging services for real world applications.

   the author has done an excellent job in creating this book for users of the weblogic server. I sincerely thank the author for making this book available for users like me.