5 comments about Java for ColdFusion Developers.

1. Six hundred ninety-two pages of information. But not for the novice. Web professionals and enthusiasts alike will appreciate a title that's as inclusive as this one. But, as the author points out on page three, you must be, "interested in learning Java". First, determine whether you're interested in Java and second, get your Visa/Mastercard out.



2. When I began reading "Java for ColdFUsion Developers", I was excited to see how similar writing a Java program is to the syntax used to write CFScript or Action Script. This is an excellent time to learn all three!

   The author has organized his information in a logical manner that builds from the basics and moves throught topics that include programming structures and object-oriented application design. Specific to CF developers is the chapter on "Extending ColdFusion with Java" to leverage ColdFusion use in J2EE environments.

   Hewitt has an easy tone that makes you feel as though he's talking directly to you. He includes code for creating class files as he moves along to allow you to write and compile as you go. An experienced author with two other CF books behind him, he introduces Java to experienced CF developers who may come from a web background instead of hard-core programming. The book covers the basics thoroughly without breaking your back (unlike other books in my backpack!)

   It's not a book for those new to ColdFusion or other types of programming, but it's an excellent resource for those of us who are overwhelmed by the current number of cryptic Java books available. As the introduction to Hal Helms reads, Eben Hewitt achieves his goal by "helping us leverage our ColdFusion knowledge into Java expertise."

   Lisa Wilson, Manager, Sacramento ColdFusion User Group




3. A common experience for someone who wants to learn Java is to end up buying too many books, each covering a different aspect (servlet, JSP, Jakarta Struts, ad nauseum), with overlapping topics, and at times even contradicting one another. Eben Hewitt, who has written extensively about ColdFusion and also authored a ColdFusion training course on CD-ROM, has probably written the only book book on Java that you'll need if you are a ColdFusion developer.

   His writing is clear, concise, and he tries everywhere possible to relate Java to some aspect of what a ColdFusion developer does in CFML. His coverage of Java may not be as thorough as a Java purist (or fanatic) would want, but everything you need to know is really there within one book, instead of maybe ten. It is enough to wet your appetite, and if you then are still a glutton for punishment, you should seek more detailed and specific reference for the particular platform that you are working in, be it SUN's, IBM's, BEA's, or whatever vendor software your company happens to be using. But, Java is platform-independent, you say! Well, there is this bridge in Brooklyn...




4. Finally a book that didn't assume I was coming from a C/C++ background. I have between eight and ten different books that looked like "the one" to teach me what I wanted to know in Java. I have little interest in learning applets or SWING based interfaces...my interest is in web based interfaces. This book spoke in terms I could understand easily based on a ColdFusion frame of reference. Eben Hewitt does a great job comparing and contrasting java data structures with ColdFusion ones and letting the CF developer know exactly what the pros and cons the different approaches entail. Th examples are good and applicable to the types of applications I would build. I strongly recommend this book.



5. I was not so happy to have to search for the code. I tried the website (where the book informs you to go) and discovered it's no longer there. I tried the publisher, who was no help. I performed searches, read forums, and then finally typed the authors name in as the web address and sure enough finally have the code. So, if you purchase this book first make sure you can actaully get your hands on the code. ...

5 comments about Conducting the J2EE Job Interview: IT Manager Guide for J2EE with Interview Questions (IT Job Interview series).

1. Amusingly, Hunter states how certain questions should not be asked of job candidates in the US, due to non-discrimination laws. But he then immediately proceeds to broadly hint (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) how the interviewer should indirectly ferret out such data, if you deem it germane.
   
   He then goes on to suggest that interviewees should adopt the dress of the executive and banking industries. Wretched idea. A spineless conformism. Do you want to have the chance to hire the best people or not? His advice can cause you to lose some creative and brilliant programmers who care little about a dress code or those employers who set store by it.
   
   Sure, some top notch people will readily conform. But others won't. And the truly talented do not have to work for you. You are competing for them, more than the reverse. For a purely, self interested viewpoint, you should not impose a dress code. Maximises your chances of getting the best.



2. 50% of book is with general topics, other than J2EE



3. Sometimes I wonder if the author's advice is very biased towards their own knowledge of the technology and qualifications. I mean, come on, proper dress code???, education in the ivy league schools???
   
   1. Dress code is the responsibility of each employer, some larger corporations might adhere to a stricter dress code, some smaller ones (especially technology companies) could care less if you wear jeans to work, as long as you are knowledgeable and productive.
   
   2. College degree. I disagree with the statement that "You **must** possess a certification and/or degree. You truly can't make such hard qualifying statements, since most IT jobs in the industry require degree or equivalent experience. I mean, come on, I know plenty of great developers who didn't finish college, but have many years of Enterprise Application Development under their belt. What if you are an industry acknowledged expert, book author, and have many years of experience, do you disqualify that candidate if they don't have a formal degree?
   
   Basically I almost felt like the author is a psychology expert (which half of this book is dedicated to), vs. sticking strictly to technical questions and qualifications. Does the author also have a **degree** if psychology? Otherwise based in his statements, he's definitely not qualified to make such recommendations.



4. The author appears to have no serious managerial experience: he seems to be a self-employed DBA. And it shows. Bigtime.
   
   The model candidate, according to the author, would appear to be a conformist left-brained banking clerk. I have worked with and hired developers with a varied range of dress habits, personal manners, backgrounds and education. Good developers come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and colors. The best programmer I ever worked with never had a high-school education. Following this book's guidelines for assessing candidates' personal qualities would have excluded 2/3 of the best developers I know.
   
   It's riddled with prejudice: "the female job applicant with three children less than five years of age may not be appropriate for an IT position that requires long hours on evenings or weekends." But it would be OK for a man with three such children to neglect them? And what does it say about a company and management which cannot organize projects without expecting excessive overtime?
   
   The author appears to have no idea of the existence of employment legislation, anti-discrimination law, management techniques or how to motivate people. One has the impression that the recommendations would be more appropriate for a correctional facility or a kindergarten school than a twenty-first century development shop.
   
   The technical questions reveal immaturity and inexperience. Design abilities are far more important to the fate of a project than technical minutiae. Yet no questions are included that would enable a manager to distinguish someone who really understands good principles of object oriented design. Just asking questions about patterns that a trained parrot could answer is hopelessly inadequate.
   
   The technical questions are about half the book. But they are repetitious, the 'answers' are often too specific - one 'right' answer when several alternatives are equally appropriate. Some are obscure and totally academic: 'What is the Java Remote Method Protocol(JRMP)?'. Who cares? JRMP goes on completely under the covers and a developer has no need to know even of its existence. Some questions are plain wrong: 'What are the two transport protocols used by J2EE web-based client applications?'. 'HTTP and HTTPS transport protocols' comes the answer. First, HTTP is not a transport protocol but an application level protocol. Second, there is no HTTPS protocol: HTTPS is a URI scheme which is used to indicate that HTTP will be tunneled through secure sockets.
   
   By the time the candidate has been asked Non-Technical Questions 8 ('If you were a vegetable, which vegetable would you be?') and 9 ('Describe the month of June'), any sensible candidate will already be asking themselves Non-Technical Question 10: 'Why do you want to work here?'



5. I am a manager (and still developing, however as little as possible) for a group of developers working with Oracle Apps 11i and a custom integrated web application for our sales and manufacturing department. I own both the Java and the J2EE version of this book and will be cross posting my comments to both of them. The comments below are both mine and senior members of my staff that have gone through both books.
   
   Both books contain very similar information with regards to the interview process - proper dress code when showing up for an interview, assessing job skills, the values of certification and formal education requirements.
   
   The heart of both the Java and J2EE books, however, is the Q/A section. Both are filled with well written and insightful questions that could be used for many J2EE or Java candidate positions.
   
   With regards to the J2EE book, I feel that there was good coverage on Servlets, JSP, JDBC and JMS, however, I would have liked to seen more (actually any) questions on Struts, DBO and Web Services.
   
   Generally speaking, both books are well worth the $$$ and I was very impressed by the quality of the Q/A section. Hopefully a newer version of this book will address Struts and Web Services.

4 comments about Special Edition Using Java (Using ... (Que)).

1. With all the hoopla flying around right now about Java, I decided I had to take a look at the language. I had been doing my writing in C/C++, but the thought of writing ONE program to work on many platforms won me over. I didn't know much about the language, but after my purchase of Special Edition Using Java, that has changed.

   I know that may sound a bit ridiculous, but the book packs everything a beginner needs to know into a little over 850 pages.

   How is this book different from the rest? To be honest, I can't tell you as this is the first one I've purchased for Java, but the book IS READABLE. I repeat, the BOOK IS READABLE. It contains a lot of programming jargon, but a gloassary in the back helps with it. The book starts off giving a short, but information packed history of how Java came about. It gives in depth information on various Java programming environments available and Java compilers other than Sun's JDK. It has a CD containing the the JDK from Sun, although it is slightly out of date (the newest as of this writing being the JDK v1.1 beta). It does, however, give information on where and how to get the JDK plus complete installation instructions. The book never centers itself around one platform, always showing various techniques from both Windows and Macintosh systems. It also gives a very in depth discussion on the security pro's and con's in Java (the pro's obviously winning out on this one!). Not only does it give great coverage to writing applets, but once you feel confortable with this, you can go on to writing complete Java applications! The CD-ROM included is the Java-SIG CD-ROM with lots of applet source code including code for Guestbooks and more! It also includes some chapters from some of Que's other books in writing HTML code and more!

   IN BRIEF: This book is excellent if you are willing to spend some time reading before jumping right into Java. If you have a basic understanding of C/C++, this book is for you! If not, you may find yourself lost at times. I hadn't used object-oriented programming and the book explained it to me very well. I had, however, used C/C++ before. Just another book in Que's excellent line of titles




2. This book has more errors than should ever be allowed in a professional product. There are typo's in both text and examples. The CD does not contain the source code from the book and I vote this the worst source ever of any computer based information I have found to date. It has left me very unsure of the publishers (QUE) standards and I may never purchase another QUE book again. I simply do not trust them. Spend your hard earned money on a different choice



3. "Special Edition Using Java, Second Edition" is an excellent reference to JDK 1.0.2. However, today (April 15), only a month and a half after being billed as "Computer Programming Expert Editor's Recommended Book, 03/01/97", it is a dated reference and the cover claims of JDK 1.1 coverage fall short--they are preliminary and peripheral to primary Java programming topics. For example, there is no coverage of the major changes in the Java event model of JDK 1.1, which permeate almost every application. I recommend waiting for better JDK 1.1 coverage, hopefully in Joseph Weber's new version, "Special Edition Using Java 1.1" which has not yet been released, but for which Amazon is taking orders today



4. This book is nothing if not large. This was QUEs attempt to capture the entire spectrum of JAVA and make it easy to understand (a task that they accomplished) but then the standards changed again. This is still a great book for learning Java; but, you will have to move on to other resources for news on the updates

5 comments about Platinum Edition Using HTML 3.2, Java 1.1, and CGI.

1. What a huge book that is so poorly organized . Do not spend any time looking through it unless ofcourse you're pumping-up for the Ms /Mr.Olympia competition. "Belive me now and heah me Late".Buy Stanek's web publishing unleashed, it's cheaper and well organized and gives good pointers as to where to start and how to go about publishing on the Web.



2. I agree this book shouldn't say it covers Java1.1, but I was surprised at the number of negative reviews here, so I went and checked your page on Stanek's book. What seems to be going on is that people who are into web pages that LOOK good love Stanek's book, but people who are into web pages that DO things (like electronic commerce) find useful info in the Que book on subjects such as Web connectivity to databases, database primers, and so forth that Stanek does not seem to cover. I did not buy this book primarily as an HTML book. And even though the Java coverage is dated, it's well illustrated and much more extensive than Stanek's coverage of Java seems to be. Mac users may be annoyed that the CDs are for Windows only.



3. This is the classic book that a good observer cannot leave on the shelf. Yes... Exactly!.. See it, it's big, and seems to be saying "Buy me, Buy me!"... But behind a talking book, ther's the far side of the coin... Even if I must admit some of the contents are well studied, many others are really unuseful. The author looses time in teaching a lot of programs that surely a good WebMaster already knows (and, in the rare case hi does not, he'd better buy a specific book for each prog.)... Going on, I got disappointed for the Java/CGI section of the book... Too dispersive... Sorry... How's that possible that a so huge and vast argument (Java and CGI programming) can be so lightly shown to the reader?... But now, let's go to the worst side... U probably think that that's a good price... And, opening the book, u surely could think.. "Man, that way I can buy 13 book toghether!!"... Yes, sure... But... Try to read the other 12... An ELECTRONIC book, it's all but a book... No pictures, and a really hard reading challenge... But looking at the whole package, I cannot say "that's a steal!"... So, I give 6 to the book, just for the gifts it has behind the covers...



4. Here is the most comprehensive reference available on HTML, Web page creations, and new Web programming techniques and technologies. The two CD-ROMs include the most complete set of HTML tools, including editors, Java tools, code samples, plug-ins, plug-in development tools, and more, plus tools for Windows, Macintosh, and UNIX, along with a library of 10 top-selling Que Web development books in HTML format.



5. This book is awesome, especially the CDs that came with it. The package is very relevant for me being a webmaster, the books gave me the idea of the different concept of building and implementing a web server in different platforms!

5 comments about Java(tm) in Practice: Design Styles and Idioms for Effective Java.

1. Overall, this book does a decent job of explaining good design techniques to the programmer who is already familiar with Java. There are plenty of code examples, along with UML diagrams to help explain the designs that are presented. There's even an appendix on UML for those unfamiliar with the modeling language.

   There are some flaws in this book, however. The book is not updated for Java 2, and is therefore rapidly becoming obsolete. Additionally, a significant number of typos and inconsistent use of terms clouds the already difficult subject matter. Especially bad is the discussion of the Cloneable interface, in which the authors state that different compilers treat Cloneable classes differently, but do not explain what the correct behavior is according to the Java Language Specification or how to work around these compiler problems.

   There is some good material in the book, but in my opinion not enough of it and too many problems in the presentation, to justify the cover price.




2. In chapter one, for example, see the discussion on the benefit of encapsulation. The first benefit given is security ( see BankAccount / Customer example ). But really encapsulation only secures us from other programmers, and then only other programmers that do not have our code, so in reality it is a very meek form of security. The next benefit described is synchronization ( see discussion of the Point class ). But accessing variables through getters would not solve a synchronization problem, nor would it be neccesary to use getters to solve a synchronization problem. Finally performance is discussed. But the author's solution, which was using final methods, is still a lot slower than accessing an instance variable. He finally gets to the heart of the matter in the section titled "Extending encapsulated systems" but by that point it's just too little, too late.



3. I've been learning, teaching, and writing about Java since JDK 1.0., but I'm not formally trained in programming. I feel my way to certain programming ideas. So if a book articulates the thoughts that float around in my own murky brain, it's a treasure.

   This book does some of that. It's a useful discussion of some common OOP idioms in Java. There's enough UML to illustrate the difference between a design concept and a Java implementation. The book is also brief, and doesn't try to justify its starting point; I like that. Keeping a book short takes courage.

   On the whole, however, I was done with what this book had to offer in about five hours. There wasn't much in it to make me think I'd read it again, either. Several discussions didn't quite conclude. And there were one or two points where a continued discussion was promised and didn't appear. Instead of brevity by way of elegance, I felt that probably the publisher's deadline was looming large, and they had to cut bowstrings.

   So I had pretty high hopes, and I got a decent experience out of the book. I've been at this for five years, so I'm probably looking for someone to state things in a bold, new way, and perhaps that's unreasonable to expect. For the price, this book's OK.




4. A good intro to some advanced topics, class loading, patterns, etc. Reads very quick and well written.



5. This is definitely the best book I have come across. Looking forward to similar books from the same authors. Unfortunately this is the only one.

5 comments about Java Outside In.

1. Total garbage. The worst book I have ever encountered. I am taking (and dropping) a course called 'Introduction to Java Programming'. This POS was inflicted on the class. Our assignmnents are all from the book, so we not only have to try to figure Java out from the minimal explanations in the book, we also have to read Bolker's crappy code. This book just cost me $700. I'm dropping, yet I'd probably get an A if I continued on for 6 more weeks. I just can't take one more page of this miserable excuse for a textbook.

   Bolker, and his lacky Campbell (who, on his website, states that he can't see why anyone would use languages like C++ when there's SmallTalk. This guy's teaching?), start off with this big program, and, as another reviewer stated, tell you not to worry about the details. Huh? However, I disagree with that reviewer. I think it does go downhill from there.

   The reviewer from Boston who gives a glowing review and five stars: Oh, puhleassse, Ethan, reviewing your own book? No one using this book for a primary text, or a reference for that matter, would give it more than one star (if only there were no stars). This is by far the worst text book I've ever encountered.

   This is Bolker's exercise in pedagogic experimentation and theory. Bolker's theory (he states this) is that the two best ways to learn to program are by:

   1) Having a big program full of things that students have never seen thrown at them and they will somehow be able to read the program and all of a sudden go "Aha, I understand Java now).

   2) Reading well written code. (A little arrogant, aren't we, Bolker?) Bolker's idea is that you just read his code for hours and you'll become a great programmer. Sorry, fool, the best way to learn to code is to code.

   Oh, I forgot his journal concept. Those of us who've had the extreme misfortune to be taught using the Bolker method (I'm NOT taking the course at UMass Boston, BTW) also are required to keep a journal. We spend a couple of hours a week writing about our experiences using Bolker's executable programs: "I input a negative when asked for a positive and this is what happened:" Asinine.

   This book is equally horrible as an Intro to Java textbook, a teach yourself book, and as a reference book. It doesn't give enough explanation nor examples to be a good textbook, it would be impossible to teach oneself Java from it, and there is just not enough coverage and too much babble to be useful as a reference. Totally useless crap.

   Again, Bolker has this (incorrect) pedagogic theory and this book is the result. Theory is where it should have remained.




2. This is another great book to learn java. It has lots of real world examples and has a nice approach right from the begining. It is a little hard at the begining but I suppose thats how any new language would seem to a beginer. I propose for the second edition instead of that big Bank program, at the begining, there might be a test that evaluates wether you have the talent to be a programer or not.



3. I have been to Bolker's class at UMASS Boston and experienced the worst presentation of Java I have ever seen. The exact wording was, "You will learn a lot of Java in very little time." A promise never kept. You spend 20 hours a week not knowing what to do with HIS code for many reasons that I do not care to detail here. You never write code of your own making. You spend 5 of those hours writing a diary which isn't Java. The book itself is NOT an adequate reference for this language. In my opinion the man is due to retire. What I wanted to say is DON'T PURCHASE THIS BOOK to learn Java. Most if not all of the book is a presentation of a few small programs written in Java designed for classroom lectures. It is not a presentation of the Java Programming Language.



4. I am a junior majoring in Computer Science and Math and still find Java Outside as a great source to learn and review Java knowlege.
   
   For beginners, do not let the first chapter scare you since it has some more complicated programs. Instead, you should get excited and see what Java can do in day-to-day life, and what you can do with Java. I got rather excited because those are real examples rather than those that are vague and discrete.
   
   Starting Chapter 2, the authors speak in details for some of the most basic Java elements. The excercise were also helpful as a review source after reading each chapter.
   
   Prof. Ethan also emphasized on learning strategies which you wouldn't find anywhere else. To learn Java, you should always keep a journal of what you learned, what you are confused about, and what you did in order to understand it. I have implement this method to many other subjects.
   
   The authors really put their hearts into writing this book. I can sense how much they love this subject and how hard they try to make sure the readers understand and love what they are learning.



5. I took CS110 at UMASS with Professor Campbell. I have also taken classes with E. Bolker. Now, about this text -
   
   The text IS useful assuming that you as a student want to take the time to understand the Java concepts presented. Yes, the way Java is presented is different from traditional teachings. If you're the type of learner that needs everything spoon fed to you then this is not the book OR class for you.
   
   The learning method used assumes that those that are doing the learning are going to take the TIME needed to absorb the materials and concepts in the book. If you are willing to make the time commitment necessary to do that, you will find the book and the class an enriching experience.
   
   I am sure that those who have complained about the book are the same people that are taking classes in college looking for easy "A" grades, and are not looking to actually LEARN the presented material.

5 comments about Core Java Data Objects (Core Series).

1. In the march towards higher levels of abstraction and more powerful coding approaches, Sun came up with Enterprise Java Beans several years ago. But despite one's best efforts, instead of focusing on writing business logic in a modular, fully encapsulated way, you often also have to deal with reading and writing to a persistent format; usually a relational database. The gritty details of the impedance mismathc between your [hopefully] object oriented approach and the latter might eat up too much of your time.

   Realising this, Sun devised Java Data Objects. The book describes their main promise, which is to hide away the details of persistence. The big gain is in increasing the potential developer audience, as compared with EJBs. And you have less need of expert knowledge of RDBs. Previously, that was often a de facto requirement. You can now focus on the business logic. The second gain is shown in the JDO code examples, which are often cleaner without the persistence details. Of course, any realistic business logic will have more complicated details than the simple examples in the book, but at least persistence can be pushed offline.

   Last year, Robin Roos wrote "Java Data Objects" [also by the same publisher]. At that time, JDO was just getting started. Now, Sun has moved it deeper into J2EE. There is a lot more support for transactions and JDBC. JDO is no longer a speculative fling.




2. A good presentation for both architects and programmers, about JDO. The author explains the issues with Object oriented programs and relational databases then goes to show how JDO attempts to solve this mismatch (otherwise know as object relational impedance mismatch) Note from this book you will find that JDO is a standard to be implemented by vendors so that developers need not know varying interfaces object relational mapping frame works. JDO also has its own query language, which is not as powerful as SQL especially if you have complex joins or aggregation (OLAP) so, don't drop your JDBC yet! Well written with little fluff. It's not a O'rilly style code code book, it has the write amount of theory and code mix



3. Java Data Objects (JDO) is an alternative to JDBC that allows you to treat rows from a database as Java objects. The simplicity of JDO removes many of the complications involved with developing JDBC applications. This book does a decent job of covering the JDO specification and explaining how to properly use JDO. The book starts with an introduction to JDO and shows some examples of how to write code with JDO. The section on the object lifecycle isn't clearly explained having too much concentration on lists and not enough on explanations. The following chapters do a decent job of explaining the pieces of JDO. In addition to the basics, the book covers using JDO in a J2EE environment with a look at Enterprise JavaBeans, security, and transactions. A later chapter shows a comparison of JDO and JDBC. The authors wrap up with some tips, take a look at what might be coming in the future, and show a case study.

   The authors do not look at any JDO implementations, which leaves their explanations in essence, hanging in mid-air. Although they show how to code in JDO they don't show what a programmer needs to do to hook their code in to a database. This means that without further reading, you can't run any of the examples supplied. Although the book is not bad and might be worth a read, it is not as clear or as well written as one might like.




4. Name of the book: Core Java Data Objects
   Authors: Sameer Tyagi, Keiron McCammon, Michael Vorburger, and Heiko Bobzin.
   Published: Sun Microsystems Inc.,
   Publishing Date: Winter 2004.
   City: Upper Saddle River, NJ

   5=Well done! This book will be a valuable teaching and reference tool.

   4=I would recommend this book to someone interested in its topic.

   5=A complete reference. I would not need any additional reference on this topic.

   Write a minimum of three paragraphs describing the different aspects of this book.

   This is an excellent book on Java data objects for people who have worked with databases for a long time. the authors have taken the time to explain the concepts of JDO and how it can be implemented with fairly simple examples that are more real world.

   the authors also explain about the security aspects in JDO that need to be considered while implementing a real world situation. they also explain the differences between JDO and JDBC for people who have worked with JDBC and ways to implement JDO.

   the authors towards the end of the book explains how to explain the implementation of JDO for J2EE and enterprise solutions. they also provide tricks and tips for effective jdo implementation. a real world case study is presented for people who want to implement this solution.

   I would recommend this book to anyone interested in learning java data object.




5. Java Data Objects (JDO) is a persistence framework to save Java objects to a datastore. The example code shows you how to create, read, update, and delete a persistent object using the JDO API. The book goes through the JDP API, especially the five main interfaces needed. The metadata, an xml file, that is needed for JDO is make clear in one chapter and the various options in the JDO xml file are explained to show you how to store your type of objects. The explanation of first-class and second-class object could have been longer. It seems like a more important topic and the brief mention in the book.
   
   Part of the book shows you how to develop applications with JDO and the architecture scenarios where you should or should not use JDO. The third part of the book covers using JDO and J2EE application. The authors argue that JDO in most situations offers a better solution over EJB entity beans to store your objects or to use JDO and some direct JDBC. Practical examples showing how JDO can be applied to existing applications
   
   The authors also have a real world case study that provides best practices and tips for your projects. The only part missing from the book, are using JDO implementations, which makes the examples impossible to test without using an implementation from one on the JDO implementers. I would recommend this book for anyone trying to learn JDO, but more information would be needed to use an actual JDO implementation.

No comments about Lab Manual for Java Software Solutions: Foundations of Program Design.

5 comments about Beginning Apache Struts: From Novice to Professional (Beginning: from Novice to Professional).

1. I came across this book in a bookshop and browsed through it.
   
   I am surprised to find a glaring mistake in chapter 2 (chapter 1 is only 7 pages long). In the beginning few paragraphs of chapter 2, it briefly described serlvet container and mentioned one of the popular serlvet containers is WebLogic from IBM. WebLogic is not from IBM.
   
   I stopped browsing furthur.



2. Doray gives you a good and very detailed explanation about programming in Apache Struts. He points out upfront that Struts sits roughly midway in functionality between PHP and Ajax, where in going from PHP to Ajax, we are moving in the direction of increasing desktop functionality. This will be useful to some readers, in helping to determine if Struts is a suitable choice for your project.
   
   Plus, the book shows how the powerful Model-View-Controller division of functionality can be done in Struts. If you have never used MVC before, in any context, then learning it here is inherently useful, irrespective of Struts. Also, MVC is an example of a design pattern; perhaps one of the most important. The concept of an abstract design pattern is also of vital importance to a programmer.
   
   There are some minor issues with the text. Another reviewer pointed out that Chapter 2 refers to "WebLogic from IBM". Opps! More seriously, Chapter 4 refers repeatedly to loading code from a CD-ROM. What CD-ROM is this? Did I miss its definition earlier in the book? Or was there a definition?
   
   Another limitation is the restriction to Java 1.4. Increasingly awkward as time goes on, if not right now, because Java 1.5 has been out for over a year. We can expect more Java programmers to migrate to 1.5, and new programmers to start at 1.5. (Or subsequent versions.) One immediate consequence of the restriction to 1.4 is given in Chapter 2, where it advises you to install Tomcat. But you should not use any version higher than 5.0.x, because those use Java 1.5. This ceiling on Tomcat is not desirable either, as new versions of this often come out, and Tomcat has been at 5.5 for some time.
   
   Java 1.5 is essentially a superset of 1.4. It is unclear why the text restricts itself to 1.4. That should be explained in more detail. Better yet would be to remove the restriction.



3. This book has virtually no useful information to get you past the "novice" part. More importantly, there iis little practical information.
   
   This is the first "complete" struts book I've bought and was extremely dissapointed. I have completely given up using it for any kind of reference or solution. The O'Reilly Jakarta Struts pocket reference provides more information that this waste of a tree.



4. I already have used Struts 2 years ago. Now i swithced to RAILS (eeeeeeasy), but a week ago a client has a request for a Struts app: well, i decided it was time to increase my knowledge over this popular framework. I've started to look for something fast-readable that allow me to skip the info i alredy know and that strikes me in the face with pro techniques i never used.
   I've found two books very interesting: one is The Struts Survival Guide (not for beginner but full of interesting patterns) and the other is this one.
   While this book is not a PRO book, it lets you discover its contents with absolutely no effort: when i looked for a topic i don't know (or remember) i found the info i'm looking for and immediatly i'm able to test it in my application.
   I strongly recomand this book, well... i give it 5 stars only to raise the avarage rating (1 star rating is nonsense to me...), maybe the right rating is 4...



5. The authors do not know how to write a tutorial for new Struts 2 users. If you are very new to Struts, this book will confuse you and tell you nothing valuable.
   The authors may be experts of Struts, however, they do not know how to guide a novice to learn struts from beginning. They omitted so much content which is very necessary to beginners. If you know struts very well, you may understand what they are talking about, but why do you want this book if you are already an expert ? Therefore, this book is garbage for anybody.

1 comments about Java Software Solutions : Foundations Of Program Design {2nd EDITION UPDATE} [Comes w/ Additional BONUS CD-Rom].

1. This book teaches me java at the first time. The content of this book is very good for a beginner level. It might not cover Java all in details, but this is more than enough for the beginner to learn. The java code samples are simple and easy to understand. I suggest to to read slowly and carefully.
   
   I really recommend this book for beginners. The authors of this book explains from "what is variable?" to OOP concept. Highly recommended!!!