Head First Design Patterns

Java

Pragmatic Project Automation: How to Build, Deploy, and Monitor Java Apps

Format: Paperback
Author: Mike Clark
ReleaseDate: August, 2004
Publisher: The Pragmatic Programmers
Rating:

Automation Quick Start
It doesn't go too deeply on some topics, but there are enough pointers to more information. This is a great book for developers and teams who want to know how that can automate their processes better. If you need to learn more about how to streamline your work, this is an excellent book.

Great book on software project automation
The first chapter starts with a story about how built-in automation makes everyone's life better-especially the developer's. This book is the third volume in the Pragmatic Starter kit, but is self-contained enough that it can be read on its own. Thus this book is really about letting the computer do boring, repetitive things so that developers can concentrate on what is new and interesting. The rest of the first chapter answers some frequently asked questions including why and when developers should automate. This FAQ is useful in its own right, but also helps readers figure out whether the rest of the book is for them. The next two chapters show how to automate a Java build with Ant and then schedule that build. Clark points out that running tests is part of the build process. Chapters 4 and 5 describe how to generate and distribute releases of software. One of my favorite ideas from these chapters is writing a checklist script that clients can run on-site to check for "is it plugged in" errors. The last chapter is about monitoring all this automation. This chapter alone is worth the price of the book. Developers always want this information, but nobody enjoys being spammed by their own computers, and it's a pain to set up filters so that the right messages reach exactly the right people. Clark's solution is to use RSS notifications so that your build system creates a blog as it goes along. It's a great idea, and I've already started implementing it locally.
This book is short, but it's chock full of ideas and advice that can be put to use immediately. I found Clark's writing style clear, easy to read, and often entertaining. As a bonus, the book's concepts are language independent even though Clark uses Java and Java-based tools.
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Good book, but thin and too Java-specific
But I have to say, for $30 I was surprised at how slim it was. This is a good book. There's a lot of good concepts covered, but nearly every implementation relies on a Java-specific tool. I would have loved to have seen the book spend a little more time talking about how to automate some of the tasks in a more language-neutral way. Nevertheless it is a good book, albeit one only genuinely useful to Java programmers.