5 comments about The Art of 3-D Computer Animation and Effects, Third Edition.

1. This is a boring textbook. No real indepth stuff here. Not software specific and not helpful to people want to actually learn computer animation. If you want to "read about" and discover all the wonderful terms and the history of-what to call things then maybe. Don't be drawn in by its heavy use of well known imagery and pretty pictures. It just doesn't have substance. I wish they had renamed this book- with a subheading stating language and terminology.
   
   Look at the firt edition which is now $6.00. Art is a learnt through application. A large point of understanding concepts is to apply them. This book lacks showing the latter.
   
   Save your money.



2. This book is just an overview of computer animation. You can't learn anything from it. I was hoping for a vanilla instruction book because I own Carrara and Hexagon and I have to buy Maya or Lightwave books and try to adapt them to Carrara and Hexagon. The pictures inside aren't that great either - the cover has the best characters. For the money, I would rather have bought another Maya or Lightwave book.



3. I've only glanced through the book so far but it looks amazing, I can tell this'll be a great compliment to my studies at the Academy of Art in San Francisco! Thanks!



4. This book was a required textbook for my begining Maya class, but be warned, it's more a book about concepts and 3D animation history than it is about instruction. If you need this book for a 3D animation class, I highly recomend getting another book with instuction specifically for whichever program you're using, because you're not going to find it in this one.



5. This book is very cool and good ilustrated overall look at 3D computer graphics. I found usefull to step out of one 3d package and take a wide overall look at this amazing animation craft (I myself use 3ds max). Book is systematically organized and ilustrated good, there are many "behind the scenes", production type pictures. Why not 5 stars? This is subjective - there was sometimes strange confusion about author's selection of movies to take pictures from to show 3d graphics evolution
   4 stars - I like it! Time from time look for references, review terminalogy. Worth buying
   What not expect from book - application specific tutorials, book originaly isn't intendet to cover this stuff

5 comments about Collaboration Explained: Facilitation Skills for Software Project Leaders (The Agile Software Development Series).

1. A challenge faced by any project leader is how to lead the team without resorting to a command-and-control management style. This book's essential premise is that the project leader can do this by fostering collaboration among team members. Jean Tabaka's Collaboration Explained is really two books in one. The first explains the benefits of collaborating and why project leaders need to foster collaboration among their teams if those teams are to perform at a high level.
   
   The second, and by far longest, part of Collaboration Explained is a compendium of techniques that will foster team collaboration and will help the reader become a more collaborative leader. Any reader will finish this part having learned new techniques. Nominally this book is about team decision making and so most of the book is about the various decisions teams make and how the project leader can ensure that the team makes the best decision. Covered are decisions about project requirements, estimates, priorities, vision, resolving conflict and more. Tabaka provides both general purpose advice that can be used in many contexts as well as very specific advice for each of the contexts or meetings she describes.
   
   This book is well-placed in a series devoted to agile software development. However, it is important to point out that the techniques covered here will be applicable to any team with any development process. Any project leader who wants to help his or her team work better together will benefit from reading this book.



2. Jean Tabaka has done a great service to Software Development. The highest cost meetings where everyone is attendance can be at least twice as valuable when well run and Jean gives us some great guides to make these fruitful. This is especially true with Agile methods that recommends frequent time-boxed meetings to evaluate plans, inspect them and adapt to the changing conditions our fast-paced environments introduce. I have adopted many ideas and have found them very useful. Finally, this kind of skill is what many technically trained people need most for creating a truly collaborative environment.



3. Jean Tabaka's COLLABORATION EXPLAINED: FACILITATION SKILLS FOR SOFTWARE PROJECT LEADERS tells how to build an agile project which fosters techniques for ensuring effective collaboration. Jean Tabaka has been studying and using agile environments since its early days: her guidelines and templates for project events cover all areas and aspects of methodology and application, applying concepts to business practices and special circumstances project managers face with their development teams. A recommended, real-world project pick.



4. I found Jean's book to provide a good introduction into team dynamics and fostering collaborative, self-empowered teams. She touches on topics like DISC and other personality studies. She offers some discussion on team evoloution (from formation to real high-performance).
   
   The 2nd half of the book has a lot of perscriptive meeting formats and agendas. It's helpful for individuals who are starting out with managing a team (or experienced team members who want to refresh on the subject).
   
   The only reason I didn't give this book a 5 star is because while it's generally informative and easy to read - I felt that it didn't offer as much value for it's price. A good majority of the book is templated agendas and meeting formats, there's a few sections on strategies within meetings (like how to handle someone not paying attention gracefully). I would of liked to of seen more in way of that for the price of the book.



5. I've been lucky enough to meet Jean Tabaka before I'd read her book. She's a very humble and knowledgeable lady, and you can see both of those attributes in her book about effective collaboration. It's probably heavy reading for some people. For the right kind of people, I imagine it's very easy to digest. If you're working on projects in a team, especially as a team leader or a project manager, it's a great book that equips you with lots of practices and tools that come in handy every single day. Even if you're not working in any of aforementioned roles, as a member of any team, it offers lots of gems worth digging for.
   
   Don't be daunted by the book's thickness - Tabaka's laid the four hundred or so pages well with a decent index and table of contents, making it easy to jump around to topics that interest you. I fortunately had a few hours in the airport and the plane to give me a good chance of reading the detail of the sections that interested me.
   
   A lot of the topics that Takaba covers are very relevant to any environment in which you're working and even more so in agile development teams where collaboration is key. I definitely relate to many of the stories that she talks about, littering the book and giving real examples of the tools in practice. It's well written and many of the models are useful straight away.
   
   There's a little bit of repetition - some of it probably because it's written in a way that allows you to digest chapters on their own, and maybe so that it really lets the lessons sink in. It also talks about a number of topics that aren't directly related to facilitation though are still useful in their own way for setting a better context such as leadership and specific agile methodologies. In a way, a lot of the practices draw from many other disciplines and although not necessarily completely new, are presented in a very easy to digest manner.
   
   I'd definitely add this to my recommended reading list, especially for people who want to improve the effectiveness of their teams.

5 comments about Game Development Essentials: Game Interface Design.

1. I had to order this book for a class, but i do love the series anyway. The book is filled with comments and examples from professionals in the game industry as well as opinions from game design students (which aren't actually as informative or helpful at all. After a while you'll probably just skip over those as there are lots of them and they aren't too interesting) There are lots of pictures so you can see the different interfaces games have had over the years, and it's got current information as of today. There are sections about early games, but there are also sections about the "next gen" consoles, 360, ps3, and wii. If you're into interface design, it's a nice book.



2. I found this book to be a great resource for anyone starting out in game design. It covers all the essentials, from the very first console games of the early 1980's to today's complex MMOG's. You're going to think differently about the basic interface elements you take for granted. I also enjoyed the comments from real people in the game industry. Great graphics, too! This is a great buy, whether it's for a class or just your own library.



3. This book is written for people who have never played computer games, have no ideas what computer games are, and want to catch up with the rest of the world.
   
   It contains no real substance and offers nothing in the way of real insights for people who are looking to learn more about game interface design.
   
   Overall, quite disappointing.



4. This is an excellent book. For those of us one and two-man programming operations as hobbyist programmers, we don't always have the artistic skill or aesthetic intuition to just whip up a GUI. This book explains concepts behind an interface SPECIFICALLY FOR GAMES. THIS is what I found awesome. All the books and articles I've looked up have been for interface design FOR WEBSITES, or stupid, dry, tasteless business-app type programs. This book focuses on game interface design ONLY.
   
   It cites examples of interfaces in games you've played most likely, from the ancient consoles and computers of yesteryear (Atari 2600, colecovision, intellivision, commodore 64) to the more modern consoles (PS, Dreamcast, N64, PS2) and cites examples of what makes a good interface and a bad interface.
   
   They make some good points too, such as interface design for the disabled. (This cool example they gave was for a healthbar that only changed color. What happens if the player was color blind? If the bar went from green to red, the color blind user would have nothing to gauge his health by; so they reccomended making the bar shorten, and/or change color.)
   
   THERE IS NO SOURCE CODE. This book only focuses on concepts and design ideas. Its nice and abstract. It's made to push push push the ideas into your head, even if it is a bit repetitive.
   
   Bottom line is, if you're already Joe Game Programmer for a big company, don't buy this book. Have your art department and UI design team make your game interface for you.
   
   If you're like me, a hobbyist programmer of a small team with dreams of making it big someday, GRAB THIS BOOK. The more resources you can get, the better.
   
   This book doesn't disappoint.
   
   Get it.
   
   Now.



5. This is very colourful, well written, structured and history extensive book.
   
   But within those 271 pages only last 16 are about design. Other 255 feed you with obvious information well known to any gamer.
   
   Such book might be great for some artists who never played any computer or console games. Everybody else should keep away from it.

5 comments about Data Structures and Algorithms (Addison-Wesley Series in Computer Science and Information Pr).

1. I believe two books make a classic collection in data structures - one was the data structures book by sartaj sahni (his first edition book many years ago - I haven't looked at his recent books). That was the book I had to study when I was an undergrad student. Now I was entrusted with the task of teaching Data Structures and after looking at several books, this is the one I chose (may be because it comes most close to the style of teaching using psuedo-pascal that I grew up with).
   
   I believe psuedo languages are the best way to learn concepts of any computer science area without getting bogged down in the nitty gritty of a language's syntax and semantics. I found the problems at the end of the chapters to be thoughtful and not extremely hard for undergraduate students. This book also goes into brief mathematical aspects of analysing the complexity of algorithms where necessary. The mathematical analysis is usually the part that most undergrad students moan and groan about, but they better get used to it IMO, if they wish to elevate themselves from the ranks of "a programmer" to an software / algorithm designer.
   
   I have to agree that this book can be extremely hard for the weaker students in the class who have never had any programming or basic college algebra exposure. For all others, this book should be great.



2. Perfect book. Nice and small. You can buy it cheap too, it's old. But it's full of the meat and potatoes, no fluffy Java source code. Sure, it uses Pascal, but it's not that hard to understand Pascal code even if you never programmed in Pascal (me neither). What matters is the discussions behind the scenes. It covers the whole range of what you should know and it's concise. They don't write books like this anymore.



3. This book explains very clearly the subjects of data structures and algorithms. Its in-depth coverage is very intuitive and easy to follow unlike other literature that is often tedious or esoteric.
   The only complaint I have is the choice of the programming language. Pascal is a language of the past. A new edition using C will make this book simply a gem.



4. It is just an okay book, not extraordinary in any way. Especially, this is certainly not for the novice in this topic, i.e., it is certainly not a good introductory book. So if you are new to data structures and algorithms, stay away from this book, go for some good introductory book.
   
   For the advanced readers, it is an okay book. Better books are available, e.g., books by Cormen et al. and Robert Sedgewick.
   
   The book is written in a way not very intersting or engaging. The algorithms are not explained in detail. Often things are left unexplained or assumed that the reader already knows it. Algorithms are presented in pseudocode, which causes problems especially for the readers familiar to some particular programming language.



5. Hyperbolic remarks about this book will mislead you into thinking that this book is absolutely unique, when it's not. The material here is standard and present on many, many algorithms and data structures book.
   
   Furthermore, this book is dated, as it uses Pascal. It has very little relevance for today's world of collections of data structures made by experts (on Java, C#, Eiffel, Smalltlak, etc.) which are resources you need to know how to tap into to be more productive.
   
   And as a last point, algorithm analysis is not the strong point of this book either, as it is just a late chapeter in the book and gets nowhere near advanced (i.e., real) algorithmic analysis (for which you will need higher math, such as calculus and probability).
   
   Nevertheless, it's a good book but I don't know if you should buy it instead of that other, nice and new book using Java 5.0 using generics.

5 comments about Expert Oracle Database 10<i>g</i> Administration (Expert's Voice).

1. As a DBA with 9 years Oracle experience I was looking for a good general reference book for 10g, something to update my library. This book is not an 'expert' book. The author specifically says in the introduction that it is designed for novices looking to become DBAs. I feel quite misled by the title and most of the reviews here. I wish I'd saved my money. Very cursory explanation of some 10g topics. Lots of wasted space talking about Unix OS.
   Is in need of some technical editing, e.g., (page 206) "Under this constraint state, all new inserts and updates will be checked for compliance. Because the existing data *won't* [emphasis mine] be checked for compliance, there's no assurance that ..." Much of what is written in chapter 6 (Schema Management) is from a data warehouse point of view. This fact is not made clear--heaven help the novice DBA wanting to implement materialized views in his/her 100 Mb database.
   
   Oracle's powerful new version of OEM is given a spare (for a book of this size and scope) 25 pages. However, many of OEM's features are discussed separately under other topics. This may be a matter of taste, but I would have preferred a discussion of all the utilities in OEM in the OEM chapter, and not have to go hither and yon throughout the book for this info.
   
   There is some very good information here. It is not, however, organized for utility. It could have used more diagrams in places. And, for a book whose introduction indicates that the audience is novice DBAs, there is emphasis on some esoteric details (materialized views, flashback tables, etc.), and thin on others.



2. I knew this book for a long time and i am so lucky to get it... it explain stuff in a very nice and sequential way, the best about it is that it trains the DBA to use command line at all time.....



3. Guys..
   This is it. I have 2 other DBA books that i use to refer. I sold them on Ebay, and bought this book. This is the only book that i have on my desk. It got everything from Basics like 1NF ( first Normalization) to PL/SQL packages.
   Time spent reading this book is worth it. Thanks Sam for Wondeful book.



4. read one month before taking the class, at lease, because it's not a 1200 pages book full of snapshot, but full of characters. good for students who never touch the Unix/Linux subject



5. A good book for a reader that did not attend Oracle courses or lack an expertise in several fields, definitely not a study textbook, but a reference for already working DBA.

5 comments about Photoshop Photo Effects Cookbook: 61 Easy-to-Follow Recipes for Digital Photographers, Designers, and Artists.

1. This is a great book that gives you well laid out instructions with invaluable visual aids throughout the book. I am constantly referencing this book for tips and techniques, and I have also combined many of the different areas I have learned into new effects. I would certainly recommend this book if you are looking for usefull tutorials that you can use in our work on a regular basis.. The best part is, this book is helpful for everyone from the beginner, to novice, to advanced users.



2. I have been Fooling around with Photoshop-CS2 for years, i have been able to produce Amazing Effects. Many of my greatest Photoshops were done by Accident, because i wasn't sure were to start or in what direction to go in. I got this book and right away i saw some i have done but wasn't sure how i did it. Plus they have Tons of other effects you can do, by the time your done you will have Museam Quality Photos. Most people will ask you to do Photos for them to hang up in there house as a Center Piece.



3. Just a pretty rehash of photoshop filters and effects.
   Skip it if you know photoshop
   If you don't and like big picture learning this will teach you effects...but it won't teach you photoshop.



4. I am a firm believer that cookbooks should remain in the kitchen. This book did not really provide me with any new recipes of use. The one recipe I did want to use for a client operation, I resourced the online materials and followed it through but was unable to have it turn out. If the experiment was a cake, it would have been in the compost bin.
   
   Most of the book is taken up with two page layouts that show you how different effects work. Well I have been pretty familiar with the graphic pen filter for a long time, so most of the book which touched on those was wasted pulp.
   
   There was nothing here that really wowed me about either the work, the layout or the subject matter. Maybe a first entry user of Photoshop might find it interesting , but I can't really recommend this title to a serious Photoshop user. I couldn't even give this book away at my user group meeting.



5. There are a lot of good ideas provided in this book for some very cool effects. However, please know that many of the effects/settings are very specific to the images they use in the examples. Your results will vary greatly with your own photos so it will take quite a bit of tweaking.

5 comments about From Bash to Z Shell: Conquering the Command Line.

1. This book is a must for any sysadmin or power user. It is definitely not for the novice. It's writing structure is almost akin to what it would be like if you could read pthreads! I am so happy with this book.



2. I bought this book for two reasons: To get a quick view of the Z shell, which was excellent, and to complement the many books on Bash that I have. This is where it really shone. I found information here, and quickly, that I could not find elsewhere. I would recommend it for all Bash programmers. This comes from a Korn shell bigot, too.



3. I've just finished reading From Bash to Z Shell from APress Publishing. It's taught this Linux NetAdmin several new tricks, and should be an addition to any Admin's bookshelf. It'll fit nicely next to your O'Reilly's.
   
   I initially bought the book to lean the Z Shell (zsh), but decided that I'll stick with good 'ole Bash for a little longer. The tricks I've learned through this book about Bash quenches my needs for the moment. This book teaches you about essential techniques such as CDPATH, History options, key bindings, editing modes, and tons more. I've only read it only once, but I have already dog-eared 20 pages. My ~/.bashrc, and ~/.inputrc are in full swing with many new shortcuts! I highly recommend this book!!



4. I work on multiple Unix platforms all day long. I had never really taken the time to learn about the shells, but I had picked up the basics over time. I knew how to run commands, string them together with pipes, and redirect their output into files. So when I tell you that I started learning new things in the first chapter of From Bash to Z Shell, you will know the coverage is in depth. If you are a casual shell user, or even less experienced, this book has a lot to offer you.
   
   From Bash to Z Shell is organized into three parts. Part one is an introduction to shell basics. It focuses on typical interactions with a shell including all of the things I mentioned knowing before reading this book. There is surprisingly good depth even here though and I doubt that anyone short of a power user could make it through this section without picking up a new trick or two. I learned multiple things from each chapter in this section.
   
   In part two, each chapter takes a single aspect of the shells and really focuses in on just that. You will find chapters about the startup files each shell invokes as well as shell command histories. This is comprehensive coverage that really gets you to understand how things work as well as how to tune them to your personal tastes. You are even less likely to not pickup great tips in here.
   
   The third and final part of the book turns to shell programming. While I suspect that plenty of users interact with a shell regularly without getting much into scripting them, there are still useful tidbits in here for them too. For example, after reading this section, I added some code to my startup file to customize my shell's completion functionality. I can now tab-complete the server names used by my workplace and even file system paths on those servers. This section also has a very good chapter on variables that will definitely help in day to day usage. A couple of the final chapters in here are heavily slanted towards or exclusively about the Z Shell though, so those chapters don't hold much for users of other shells.
   
   As the title suggests, the book extensively covers both the Bash shell, which seems to be the standard default on many Unix systems now, and the feature-rich Z Shell that power users seem to favor. Surprisingly though, the book does talk about many other shells. In the first part especially, features tend to be described for more than just the two shells with top billing. This falls off in the later parts to some extent though. Also, the authors clearly aren't fans of the C Shell or its derivative the T C-Shell, so fans of those will want to look elsewhere. Windows receives some screen time, but only from the angle of running Unix-like environments and shells on it. You won't find coverage of the native Windows shells in these pages.
   
   The book is quite good at covering the similarities of the shells. They frequently tell you when some command will work unchanged in both Bash and the Z Shell and they always do their best to give two equivalent commands when there are differences. This makes the shell knowledge you pick up from reading quite portable. It's also nice for those who don't know much about the differences between the shells and thus are trying to learn enough to pick the right one for them. It helped me choose a favorite. The only downside of this is that the transitions seem to become less smooth late in the book and I found myself wondering if we were still talking about Bash or had moved on to Z Shell a few times. This is a minor complaint though.
   
   Beyond covering the shells well, the book can also help you better understand the design of the Unix operating system. It has some great asides on things like process forking and child process inheritance, special files and devices, and terminal drivers. Seeing these items through their interactions with a shell can make them significantly easier to grasp.
   
   The writing style of this book is very natural. That's important since it distills so much information into every page, you could easily begin to feel overwhelmed. Luckily, that wasn't the case at all for me. I found the material to be presented so naturally that I absorbed it with ease. The book also has abundant cross references and a strong index which will make it great to reference later.
   
   The final measure of a book like this turns out to be how much it changed your daily work habits. I've already noticed dramatic differences. I'm using shell loops at the command-line now to process many files at once; I actually understand shell quoting and when to use which types of quotes and escapes to get the desired effect; I can easily strip off a file extension or get a directory name from a full path when I need one; I make constant use of the command history now whether I'm searching for a past command, correcting a typo, or just pulling a single argument out of a previous command for reuse in a new command; and I've written a few shell functions to provide shortcuts to my common tasks. I just naturally began doing these things too, I didn't have to work at it a lot. From Bash to Z Shell just raised my understanding that much. To me, that's a big selling point.



5. This is an excellent book, even though like a lot of folks, I bought it for the wrong reason. This book isn't really specific to the title, it's actually about the subtitle. Bash and Zsh are major characters, but this book is about using and mastering the command line, in either UNIX or Linux.
   
   I don't know why the authors would target a book at me personally, so I assume there are many others out there who were once masters of the DOS and UNIX command lines when their companies made the decision (sometimes regretfully) to move "up" to Windows and Windows NT. Now here I am, over a decade later fondly recalling the power and well, frankly the fun, of being able to control my computer and the OS that runs it with commands customized specifically to my needs.
   
   If you miss DOS batch files and UNIX scripts, being able to automate functions that take dozens of repetitive steps in a GUI like Windows or CDE, then this book was written for you as well. The free, powerful open source UNIX-based Operating Systems like Solaris and FreeBSD or the many Linux versions have given the command line it's well-deserved comeback. The authors of "BASH to Z Shell, Conquering the Command Line," make the assumption that the reader has more than basic computer skills, but just in case, starts with the premise that we may have even forgotten why the command line is even desirable.
   
   Each of the early chapters on the basics warns the reader of the level of coverage and explains where to go to find the in depth version. I remembered pipes and redirection, but read the early stuff anyway and was rewarded with the fun reminder of just how powerful the command line can be. How about one command that can list every program on your system, sort it alphabetically, trim off any text and blank spaces you don't want and print it all in nice neat columns either onscreen or to a file? Ok, so nobody really needs such a list, but ya gotta admit it's pretty cool to be able to do all that with a single command. Then they launch into a discussion of for and foreach loops -- that's the basic stuff at the beginning mind you.
   
   This is a book that's destined to be dog-eared. The spine will be wrinkled from sitting on the desk next to my keyboard as I construct a list of aliases that will simplify my life and then build a menu so I can remember them all. If you're just getting back into UNIX or have newly discovered Linux, this could be an invaluable tool for the journey.

2 comments about Inside Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0.

1. I found this book helpful when trying to figure out how to do a variety of development tasks such as debugging, reverse engineering, compiling, etc. The section on the development tools was helpful because it provided a guide on what's available for developers. It's easy to understand and provides some good background information on a lot of the tools and techniques. Very useful for either developers or consultants.



2. Microsoft Dynamics AX is another of the very high end development system that Microsoft has been developing to make the implementation of sophisticated applications relatively easy. Specifically Dynamics AX (which has gone by several names during it's development cycle) is oriented to enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications developers. It might be viewed as a library of subroutines that perform the fundamental actions needed by an ERP system. It is then up to the developer to simply connect these subroutines together in order to produce application.
   
   The end result can be viewed as a very high level language that contains many functions written to perform the actual work. As with any other computer language, it is something non-trivial that has to be learned. And this book is basically a tutorial on the language. It probably is something that could be learned as a language by itself, but experience in other languages, particularily C++ and SQL will ease the learning task. Obviously the reader should have some experience in ERP.
   
   This book is written by members of the development team. It is complete and thorough, but it is a book on the Dynamics AX system, not on ERP.

5 comments about Web Services Essentials (O'Reilly XML).

1. This book is really lacking on much useful information. It's mostly a high-level overview. For anyone seriously interested in web services I'd recommend getting a different book!



2. This book is really an excellent one for programmers who want to start with web services. It gives a compact overview of XML-RPC, SOAP, UDDI and WSDL. Especially Java programmers will find some good code listings. But don't expect more than an introduction to web services.



3. This book is based on obsolete specifications and older SOAP implementation which is not even available for download. The Apache SOAP is already a piece of junk and Apache recommends to use Apache Axis (which is not in the scope of this book). All other implementation examples such as XMethods and UDDI4J are also obsolete as well. The APIs are already deprecated and the code discussed does'nt make any sense.



4. First of all, to clear up someone else's comment:
   while the API samples, URLs, etc. in the book are all outdated but even beginners should be able to figure out the updates.
   
   The only word of caution: it does NOT cover REST.
   
   This book provides a wonderful set of core topics and values that are essential to understanding what is currently out there (at the time I'm writing this in close-to-mid 2007, anyway). Providing samples, history and general information on each topic covers allows this book to be a wonderful, thorough introduction to the world of WS.
   
   Samples focused in Java and Perl help keep things simple, while there is more of a focus on the Java world. The APIs changed, but since the author references primarily open-source, it is easy to figure everything out.
   
   I recommend this book at this time, but can definitely see it being completely out-dated by the same time next year.
   
   As with many emerging technologies, however, I think this is a must have in order to better understand and follow the evolution of its realm. Since it provides pointers/references to pieces of the puzzle(s) even before its publishing, you can gain even more insight and possibly make some educated decisions as to where the future will take it.
   
   Recommended for all, if for nothing else, as a general reference and "emerging history" lesson.



5. This is a well written overview for those that may have missed how Web Services rushed onto the scene earlier in the decade. Being 5 years old now, it is definitely out of date. I consider about 120 of 300 pages useful as an introduction to the subject to a developer who has been working in other technologies. It provides a good overview. The examples provided work well to illustrate the point presented. Keep in mind that the examples are outdated so skip liberally.
   After reading/skimming this as an introduction, find a more current book for more hands on examples to work through in the technology you intend to use.

5 comments about Java Servlet & JSP Cookbook.

1. Target Audience
   Web developers who are looking for real-life examples of the use of servlets and JSP.

   Contents
   This is a companion-type book that goes beyond strictly reference material to the use of different servlet and JSP features, along with working examples of code to illustrate the concepts.

   The book is divided multiple chapters that each cover a different technique or function:

   Writing Servlets and JSPs; Deploying Servlets and JSPs; Naming Your Servlets; Using Apache Ant; Altering the Format of JSPs; Dynamically Including Content In Servlets and JSPs; Handling Web Form Data in Servlets and JSPs; Uploading Files; Handling Exceptions in Web Applications; Reading And Setting Cookies; Session Tracking; Integrating JavaScript with Servlets And JSPs; Sending Non-HTML Content; Logging Messages from Servlets and JSPs; Authenticating Clients; Binding, Accessing, and Removing Attributes in Web Applications; Embedding Multimedia in JSPs; Working With The Client Request; Filtering Request and Responses; Managing Email In Servlets and JSPs; Accessing Databases; Using Custom Tag Libraries; Using The JSTL; Internationalization; Using JNDI and Enterprise JavaBeans; Harvesting Web Information; Using the Google and Amazon Web APIs

   Review
   I really like the O'Reilly Cookbook series. I read a lot as part of my ongoing study, and often it's easy to understand conceptually what is going on. But making the jump to practical solutions can be difficult at times. The Cookbook series gets plenty of use on my bookshelf as I do my day to day coding. And when it comes to servlet and JSP coding as I continue to learn more about Websphere Application Server, this book will surely become dog-eared like the rest of them. Bruce Perry has done a great job.

   As with most Cookbook titles, each chapter in the Servlet And JSP Cookbook is made up of a number of Problem/Solution/Discussion groupings. This format proposes a coding problem, states the solution to solve it, and then devotes the necessary space to discuss the solution both with text and code. By using this format, you can think through a working solution and determine how to apply that technique to your own problem. Perry covers a wide range of problems that will help both the beginner and the experienced coder. For beginners, the solutions for setting cookies with servlets and JSPs may be just what you need to get started. Experienced people will find the internationalization and JNDI/Enterprise JavaBeans solutions useful. I appreciate the fact that coders of all experience levels can get something out of this book.

   The only caveat I have on this book is that it is very focused on the Tomcat and WebLogic web application servers. If that's your platform of choice, you're going to get everything this book has to offer. For me, I'm partial to the WebSphere platform. While I will benefit from a lot of this book, there are chapters that will have no appeal to me, such as using the Ant package. I will also need to pay attention to the coding examples to make sure that the techniques are coded correctly for my platform of choice. Even with that warning, I would still highly recommend this book to all coders working in this area.

   Conclusion
   This is definitely a title that will be useful to you as you learn more about servlet and JSP programming. It will give you the ideas you need to solve real business problems you'll encounter as a developer.




2. Being an O'Reilly fan it is hard for me to find fault with their no-nonsense approach to technical books, but there is one MAJOR issue I have with this book.
   
   As a developer for a major corporation I cannot use custom libraries for my work, especially when the license (http://www.servlets.com/cos/license.html) does not allow for commercial use. Where it would be helpful to see details on creating say, a multipart request class, Bruce Perry instead uses the com.oreilly.servlet.MultipartRequest class to hide much of the functionality (this is just one example).
   
   This makes little or no sense. Developers in the real world need real examples. Hiding the implementation of such under the non-commercial license pretty much ruins much of the potential application of an otherwise well written book. If you buy this book realise that only some of it will actually be useful in the real world.



3. This book is exactly what it claims to be: a general reference to hundreds of "everyday" situations Java Web developers face. Just as any cookbook, it doesn't go into the "deepest" details about every little thing, and it does give examples of ways to not reinvent the wheel. Some reviewers see this as worthy of only 1 star... This is only a 1 star book for readers who like to reinvent the wheel and waste time on unnecessary details... if you're like me and have deadlines to meet, you'll find what you need here quickly and efficiently.



4. I'm not a big reviewer. I find writing a challenge, even if it's a positive experience, as it is now. I started learning Java a few months ago and bought a number of books on the topics I needed to really create a java website.
   I stumbled on this book as one of the ten or so I purchased.
   
   I haven't touched the other's since. This book has it all, written so clearly that you know the author is very familiar with her subject and understands it thouroughly. It was written in 2003 and discusses Tomcat server as release 4.0 but that does not matter one bit. I was truly able to use this book to put together a website. Servlet, jsp, even java script is covered. I found many questions I had assembled reading the other books being answered in this one.
   Murach's books should be proud of this and I notice that they don't publish a 100 books on a subject; just have a few. I'll bet they're just as good.



5. A good book. Not for someone looking for a "tutorial" or "introduction" on the subjects covered. However, a good reference book to find examples of specific programming problems for someone who already has a good understanding of servlets and JSP. Covers a good number of different aspects of servlet/JSP programming. I also found it a good book to convey some general knowledge in areas like using attributes, DB access, etc. I enjoyed selectively reading different chapters.