5 comments about Objects Unencapsulated: Java, Eiffel, and C++ (Object and Component Technology Series).

1. I'm midway through this book, and thoroughly enjoying it. Joyner has a clear and accessible writing style, and the content is obviously well-researched and thorough. That, however, is my main problem with the book -- its core grows out of a paper of Joyner's on weaknesses in C++ and the resulting book, while still excellent, follows from that mindset. The book sometimes feels not so much like a comparision between C++, Java, and Eiffel, but rather an exhortation to avoid C++'s misfeatures (and, to a lesser extent, Java's), and instead use Eiffel. While the author makes an admirable case for Eiffel, this isn't why I bought the book, and the non-critical treatment that Eiffel receives undercuts the overall strength of the book -- no programming language is perfect, and if what Joyner really wants is better language tools and better language design, he owes it to himself and his audience to treat the objects of his comparison equally.

   All that said, the book is well-organized, even the most loaded statements Joyner makes are thought-provoking, and its approach is unique. If you're willing to keep your critical thinking filters on and stay engaged with the book instead of being a passive reader, blindly trusting the author, you'll get a lot out of it.




2. Coming from a Unix/C background, I was at first a little wary of such a scathing criticism of C++. However, after letting go of my initial caution, I was amazed at how many problematic areas of the language existed. This book really does get down to what's really important in an OO programming language, and discusses the +ves and -ves of each language in great depth.

   Even though a great deal of positive attention is given to Eiffel, I do not think this comes from bias: I think that it's a natural reaction to studying the language with an open mind. After reading up on Eiffel on the net, and wallowing in Bertrand Meyer's incredibly lucid book 'Object Oriented Software Construction', I was totally blown away with the design of Eiffel. It really does seem (IMHO) to be far and away the most comprehensive OO language available today. While no language is perfect, it is a quantum leap ahead of both Java and C++ in too many areas to mention.

   If you're willing to come to this book without emotional attachment to any particular language, you'll find yourself on a wonderful adventure exploring an amazing (relatively) new OO language which is designed from scratch without compromise to be a bullet proof way of constructing top quality reliable, reusable, maintainable, functional software, from initial analysis and design, all the way to implementation and subsequent maintenance and extension.




3. The places where Joyner discuss each programming language in terms of how they implement a certain OOP feature are very good and even important. But then he starts to compare languages...

   The problem, as I suspected, is that Joyner goes on with a great number of paragraphs critisizing C++ features that was never intended to be an OOP paradigm feature. But when an (even important) Eiffel glitch is found, he simply states that a fix is around the corner. NOT FAIR!

   You should also note that the editor of the series is Betrand Meyer (author of Eiffel.)

   In general, it is not a good idea to make a comparison between C++, Java and Eiffel in the first place because their goals are so different. C++ is a multiparadign programming language for large system-level applications, but Joyner does not seem to reckognize this. All these programming languages have pros and cons, but you don't settle on one of them for all purposes.

   That said, the good parts of this books are so good that I recommend it.




4. You may feel impressed with this book if you are disappointed with other books about object-oriented. This book is rather unusual. He mentioned points that typical OOP books don't cover, for example, a dilemma between flexibility and correctness.

   Put simply, this book is not informative but argumentative. The author believes Eiffel is simply better than C++ and Java. He could seem to try to convince readers.

   Unfortunately, this book is not well-organized. This book is filled with unique opinions about C++, Java, Effel unlike so-called textbook. Hence, you may feel unconfortable when you just want to understand a certain topic such as exception.

   If you just want to learn (not study) OOP, another typical and common book is more helpful. But, this book certainly offers something you cannot know from typical books.




5. I bought this book to help designing a C like language. But I was disappointed by the content because it does not bear too much useful information.

   Most of the critics and comparisions are already well known. Nothing novel.

   The book is more like a handy memo of the language features and good/bad tags than a serious study of the trade-offs and concerns (theoretical and practical)

   Some comparisions are biased or even superfluous. The author tried to put everybody's feet into Eiffel's designer's shoes. Many of the practical concerns of C/C++/Java were intentionally or unintentionally ignored. That, in my opinion, undermines the book's objectiveness a lot.

   Overall, this book is not good for beginners who want to learn C,C++,Java or Eiffel¡£It is just not written as a tutorial or textbook.

   On the other hand, it is not of much value for serious language researchers either, in either academic or practical sense.

No comments about PREMO: A Framework for Multimedia Middleware: Specification, Rationale, and Java Binding (Lecture Notes in Computer Science).

2 comments about Design and Implement Servlets, JSPs, and EJBs for IBM WebSphere Application Server (IBM Redbook).

1. Touches many interesting topics but meant to be read with other Redbooks.



2. This book compact in volume covers several WEB application development related topics but does it in a quite superficial manner. It reads like a bunch of articales talking about various tips and tricks but does not give a fundamental understading of the development process with WebSphere. In other words, if you are new to the WebSphere environment I would not recommend to buy this book.

   The better books I would recommend is the WebSphere V3.5 Handbook

2 comments about Introduction to Visual J++ (Version 6.0): Applications and Applets-JDK 1.2 Compliant.

1. I'm a relative newbe to programming and Java. (I did BASIC on Apples and little Pascal back in the stone age.) Yet, I'm going to be working with my students in the fall of 1999 to learn Java programming. Yes, I'm the "Teacher", but this is Public education in rural Oregon in the 90's. I am currently taking a course in Java which uses "Learn MS Visual J++ 6.0 Now" by Kevin Ingalis and Daniel Jinguji. As I've been learning this I have been struck by the absurdity of the Window Foundation Class. Java's main claim to fame has been portability. Learn VJ spends way too much time working with the WFC teaching us how to produce programs that will only run on Windows machines. Programs that could be done better and easier using Visual Basic or C++. It's MS's book and Uncle Bill has the right to print what ever he wants, but if you want to learn true Java that is portable, GET THIS BOOK. If you're looking to teach a course on Java programming (as I soon will be) then GET THIS BOOK. Lots of diagrams and theory behind Object Oriented Programming, but best of all are the projects. Each chapter has several projects with clear, step by step directions on how to get the job done. If you're already a C++ programmer, DON'T GET THIS BOOK! It'll be way too slow for you. But for myself and my High School students, this is just the ticket. The price is the only down side. Thanks Mr. Goody.

   P.S.

   I'll write another review in a couple of months after I've had some experience using the book in the classroom.




2. This book does explain the concept of classes in an easy to understand manner, however it is overpriced for what it offers. It is a text designed for the classroom. There are pages and pages of exercises with no answers, which is not conducive for home study. It also states JDK 1.2 compliant on the cover, which is technically correct, however Microsoft J++ does not incorporate any of the new features of Java 2, nor does the book mention them. Given Microsoft abandoning J++ to Rational, I recommend readers interested in learning Java go with Borland's (Inprise) JBuilder 3 which is also the engine behind Oracle's JDeveloper.

2 comments about Hardcore JFC: Conquering the Swing Architecture.

1. You can understand the MVC from this book!



2. The explanations were not that clear and the examples were not that easy to follow. The type of JTable that I was looking for was not covered at all.

5 comments about Who's Afraid of Java? (Who's Afraid of).

1. I bought this book because I was adviced from the school that it would be wise to learn something about java before the school started - because about 50% of the students didn't make it through the first 2 semesters - and mainly because of programming (java and c++).

   At school start they throwed classes, objects and inheretence at us without even introducing us to the fundamentals of java.

   I full heartly recommend this book to anyone new to programming, and to anyone that have tried to learn it, but felt insecure about it.

   Here you don't have to read, or guess, what's behind the lines of the pages. Steve Heller explains what's going on behind, and he does it in a way that makes it easy to understand.

   Some authors seems to be experts in making even the easiest thing difficult to understand. Not Steve Heller. He really has the gift of explaining things in a way that they are easy to understand. - Though it only teaches about 10% of the java language - it is the important 10%, and it establish a good foundation for further studies of the java language. I highly recommend this book. Now we only need more advanced java from Steve Heller.




2. The book is almost an exact replica of Heller's Who's Afraid of C++. While it is well written and has an original style, it simply doesn't come close to books like Ivor Horton's "Beginning Java" from Wrox which covers Java in far greater depth, in a more exacting and practical manner. I would recommend that book or "Just Java" to a beginner.



3. Unlike the previous reviewer, I thought "Who's Afraid of Java?" was superb. Yes, it is quite similar in format to Mr.Heller's other works, but that's just fine by me. Other supposed "beginner" Java books assume that you started with C++ or Perl or somesuch, or they try to teach you Javascript. Mr.Heller's book makes no such assumptions, and teaches the material from the very ground up. Sure, it's not the most in-depth introduction out there, but that's not the point: the in-depth books tend to leave the beginner in the dust. For the -real- beginner, I suggest this book; it even had a few tricks to teach more experienced programmers to whom I've recommended it.



4. I had never programmed in my life and hardly understood computer terminology beyond what a "byte" was. Out of curiousity, I recently dabbled into programming and chose java for a start. Among the few books I bought was "Teach yourself Java in 21 days" (TYJ), and "Who's afraid of Java". I spent two months painfully grinding through TYJ. For a complete novice, I felt my brain almost cracking in half! Maybe I'm just a little slow but I needed a book that would hold me by the hand and systematically guide me through the mysteries of not just the java language, but some fundamentals of how the computer in general works. Steve Heller's "Who's Afraid of Java" did just that! More importantly, from chapter to chapter, he uses a real life application of programming as its examples. He continuously builds on the same programming problem, increasing the functionality of the written program as more terms are introduced and explained. This is a markedly different approach from most programming books which give completely different examples when a new term is introduced, sometimes making it hard to properly grasp the subject without a few sleepless nights! To cap it all, the book takes a conversational approach with a novice. This book is a MUST to the beginner (and to the intermediate programmer who may wish to brush up on some fundamental facts). "Teach yourself java in 21 days" became so much easier to read after reading this book. Thanks, Steve Heller!



5. That's what this book should be entittled. Java is a kind of alibi. Thougth this book is written at the beginner level I've red it with a great pleasure. To be clear I'm professional (non-Jav) programmer with over 20-years expirience in programming and teaching of programming. I've never met such a good book. Recommended for all from 0 to 100 years and over. Most important this book shows is the way a programmer thinks during his/her work. You rarely can find it in any other book. Very innovative is dialog with Susan - "professional novice". Keep this way Steve. Susan is wonderful co-author of this book. (What will you do, Steve, when she became no-novice ?). Working hard to follow Steve's text she stops at any non-clear moment and asks accurate questions (or even QUESTIONS). Al this make this book excellent.
   I expect next such a books by Susan and Steve.

5 comments about Applying Enterprise JavaBeans 2.1: Component-Based Development for the J2EE Platform (2nd Edition).

1. As an entry level book to Enterprise Java Beans it was a good book, but nothing special. Currently this book (1st edition) is very much outdated because of the new EJB specs. You would do better buying another EJB book.



2. This new edition of " Applying Enterprise JavaBeans" is a well written look at the Enterprise JavaBeans 2.1 specification. The explanations of the various topics are in-depth and yet easy to follow. The authors provide diagrams and supporting code samples demonstrating how to write the code for each topic covered. They also provide explanations of when a particular technology is appropriate for your applications. The book even has a glossary so that if you forgot what an acronym stands for, you can look it up.

   The book covers all the usual topics one would expect in a book on EJBs. It starts with a general overview and then takes a look at each of the various bean types. Session beans (stateful and stateless), message driven beans, and entity beans are each covered. An application example is discussed which includes packaging of the application for production. The following chapter covers integrating web services into your EJB applications. Subsequent chapters cover transactions and security. The authors have done a great job of explaining not just how to code EJBs but also how they work within an application server, which you need to know to use EJBs successfully.

   The book is similar to the O'Reilly book in size and scope although this book has the advantage of being more current. Overall, the book is well written, easy to follow, and extremely useful. If you are new to EJBs or if you are looking for a book to bring you up to date on the new specification then this book will make a good choice.




3. Several years ago, we tried using EJB 1.0 and were utterly underwhelmed. Despite using what was for its time a high powered computer, our clock cycles and memory seemed to get eaten up somewhere in the container. Searching the web revealed that many others had similar complaints.

   Sun heavily improved the EJB standard in version 2. The Container Managed Persistence was totally rewritten, and Message Driven Beans were introduced because many users wanted loosely coupled asynchronous applications. Things are much better now, and Sun released this book as part of its official documentation set for EJB 2. As usual, it is clearly written and authoritative.

   So the good news is, if you are running EJB 1, you really should jump, and EJB 2 is the logical and easiest destination to get to. If so, you might as well get this book to smooth the transition.

   But there is an alternative which this book completely neglects to mention. In the last 3 years, a rival to EJB has arisen. The open source jBoss. In 2000, I heard its founder, Marc Fleury, claim advantages over EJB 1. Since then, in various newsgroups, it does seem that jBoss is at the very least on a par with EJB 2. And given that the jBoss source is available and free, you should seriously consider migrating to it.

   You see, Sun had very little real choice but to produce EJB 2, and to write a book like this, in part simply to stay competitive with jBoss and other application servers like IBM's Websphere and BEA's Weblogic. Run and run just to stay in place.




4. Now in its second edition updated to take into account changes in the EJB 2.1 specification, Applying Enterprise JavaBeans: Component-Based Development For The J2EE Platform is the collaborative effort of computer experts Vlada Matena, Sanjeev Krishnan, Linda DeMichiel and Beth Stearns, and the latest in "The Java Series" of instructional computer programming books endorsed an authored by the creators of Java technology at Sun Microsystems, Inc. Covering support for Java Web services, security management, message-driven beans and integrating with Java Message Service, transaction management, EJB query language, and much more, Applying Enterprise JavaBeans is a hands-on, example-filled, highly practical and enthusiastically recommended instructional and reference resource.



5. I'm a bit surprised by many of the reviews of this book. Overall, I think it is a fairly solid coverage of EJBs. However, I think it tocuhes on many topics without providing enough depth to make that topic clear and useful. One of the worst examples of this is Chapter 6, entitled Using JMS and Connectors For Communication. The chapter has a rather brief high level coverage of JMS which is too short and sporadic to be terribly useful. Then is jumps to J2EE Connectors which it discusses for one and a half pages. In those 1.5 pages it gives no examples and almost no concrete information about how to use connectors. The most useful thing it says is it tells you another book you can buy to actually learn how to use connectors. Since the chapter is called "Using JMS and Connectors..." I would expect more than 1.5 pages of fluffy coverage of connectors. But at least it told me what book I should have bought instead.
   If you want a high-level view of a lot of topics, without a whole lot of depth, then I think this book is a good choice. If you want a more thorough coverage of EJBs, I'd recommend Head First EJB, Enterprise JavaBeans (O'Reilly Press), or Professional EJB (Wrox Press.)

1 comments about Real-Time Java Platform Programming.

1. Java programs have the reputation of being slow. Performance is thought to be
   Java's trade off for cross platform portability and higher developer
   productivity. Real-time systems demand on time responses and in many cases,
   should not fail. At the first glimpse, Java seems quite unsuitable for
   real-time systems. Well, if you think so, you might want to read Peter C.
   Dibble's book "Real-Time Java Platform Programming".

   In fact, real-time specification is the first Java Specification Request
   (JSR001) in the Java Community Process and the reference implementation just
   came out in early 2002. So, this is a very timely book for this very important
   new application area of the Java platform.

   The focus of this book is not well known Java syntax and API functions. This
   book spends a lot of pages discussing what are real-time systems, what are the
   requirements and why Java 2 Standard Edition is NOT up to the task. As a
   result, we can learn important things about real-time system design and the
   philosophy behind the real-time Java specifications. Java is only a tool. A
   real-time system engineer should first know the system design so that he can
   apply Java to the new situation. I find the approach of this book very
   effective.

   Back to the question we raised in the first paragraph: It turns out that
   performance is not THAT important for a real-time system. We can have a slow
   real-time system but it has to give consistent and predictable results
   everytime it runs. That consistency allows us to design systems that we know
   will meet the deadline. One of Java's core problems in real-time applications
   is the unpredictable behavior of the garbage collector. The book have lengthy
   discussions on new algorithms on memory management and the real-time Java
   approach to this problem.

   Of course, garbage collector design and memory management is an example of many
   real-time system design aspects covered by this book. Other important issues
   include threads and synchronization. I find this book very readable for both
   Java programmers interested in real-time system engineering and real-time
   engineers interested in Java tools.

   This book could be even better if the author can organize scattered sample code
   segments into a consistent sample application and use it to demonstrate
   different usages of the real-time Java platform. Also, the author did not cover
   the installation and basics of the reference implementation. Nor did he cover

   real application scenarios on real devices or simulators. That makes it a bit
   difficult to understand the context of the examples.

5 comments about Java 2 In Plain English.

1. I picked up this book on a whim, thinking it wouldn't be as good as Java in a Nutshell or Core Java, both of which are excellent books in and of themselves. Surprisingly, this contains a condensed version of most of the information of the above mentioned books. It lacks the extended examples of Core Java, but to a good student and intelligent reader, missing out on a few examples won't break your education.

   And like JIAN, there is a good amount of reference material in this book, not with the extended detail of JIAN, but enough to get by most of the stumbling stones one encounters while programming.

   As a student, I can only carry so many books in my backpack; when I'm programming in the university labs, I want concise and useful as my qualities. At home, I have my Java reference library (CJ, JIAN, etc.), which I consult when I'm at a quandary; for portability and my lab work, this book is the Swiss Army knife of references, one that I carry regularly, and one that can solve about 75-80% of Java problems I encounter.




2. I picked up this book on a whim, thinking it wouldn't be as good as Java in a Nutshell or Core Java, both of which are excellent books in and of themselves. Surprisingly, this contains a condensed version of most of the information of the above mentioned books. It lacks the extended examples of Core Java, but to a good student and intelligent reader, missing out on a few examples won't break your education.

   And like JIAN, there is a good amount of reference material in this book, not with the extended detail of JIAN, but enough to get by most of the stumbling stones one encounters while programming.

   As a student, I can only carry so many books in my backpack; when I'm programming in the university labs, I want concise and useful as my qualities. At home, I have my Java reference library (CJ, JIAN, etc.), which I consult when I'm at a quandary; for portability and my lab work, this book is the Swiss Army knife of references, one that I carry regularly, and one that can solve about 75-80% of Java problems I encounter.




3. I picked up this book on a whim, thinking it wouldn't be as good as Java in a Nutshell or Core Java, both of which are excellent books in and of themselves. Surprisingly, this contains a condensed version of most of the information of the above mentioned books. It lacks the extended examples of Core Java, but to a good student and intelligent reader, missing out on a few examples won't break your education.

   And like JIAN, there is a good amount of reference material in this book, not with the extended detail of JIAN, but enough to get by most of the stumbling stones one encounters while programming.

   As a student, I can only carry so many books in my backpack; when I'm programming in the university labs, I want concise and useful as my qualities. At home, I have my Java reference library (CJ, JIAN, etc.), which I consult when I'm at a quandary; for portability and my lab work, this book is the Swiss Army knife of references, one that I carry regularly, and one that can solve about 75-80% of Java problems I encounter.




4. I picked up this book on a whim, thinking it wouldn't be as good as Java in a Nutshell or Core Java, both of which are excellent books in and of themselves. Surprisingly, this contains a condensed version of most of the information of the above mentioned books. It lacks the extended examples of Core Java, but to a good student and intelligent reader, missing out on a few examples won't break your education.

   And like JIAN, there is a good amount of reference material in this book, not with the extended detail of JIAN, but enough to get by most of the stumbling stones one encounters while programming.

   As a student, I can only carry so many books in my backpack; when I'm programming in the university labs, I want concise and useful as my qualities. At home, I have my Java reference library (CJ, JIAN, etc.), which I consult when I'm at a quandary; for portability and my lab work, this book is the Swiss Army knife of references, one that I carry regularly, and one that can solve about 75-80% of Java problems I encounter.




5. I happen to know C++ and this book is quite useful for learning Java, or at least understanding any given Java program. For each Java construct, the book tells what the equivalent C++ construct is or whether it exists at all. In some cases, it also goes the other way -- for each C++ construct, the Java equivalent.

   It also covers some Java libraries and briefly outlays applets. There does not seem to be any coverage of servlets or server-side programming.

   As good a reference as it is, it seems to be missing some things, most notably initializations. There are pieces of Java code I've seen something like:

   subr1(new Foobar {blah(){foo;} blah1(){bar;}});

   i.e., a class (Foobar) is being initialized dynamically before calling a function subr1(). The exact circumstances of initialization of variables and dynamic classes are not covered at all in this book.

   Other than that, this book is great.

1 comments about Understanding Java.

1. As a professional trainer of occupational retraining programs in Software Engineering the available university level texts ususally breal down into the "Everything You Ever Wanted To Know But Were Frightened To Death To ask" with their overwhelming amount of details; or the "We Understand The Principles, So Who Needs To Know The Details". Barry Cornelius's work is a refreshing break from both venues, but not without meeting the needs of both the "Hands On" how-do-you do it practioners as well as the "help-me-understand-the-concept" theorists.

   If for no other reason than to hear Barry's very powerful ideas on the role of interfaces in Java software development, it is worth purchasing and reading the book. I promise you you won't regret it.

   Yoel Ben-Avraham
   Lecturer, Software Engineering