Distributed

Database Programming with JDBC and Java

Format: Paperback
Author: George Reese
ReleaseDate: 15 January, 2000
Publisher: O'Reilly Media
Rating:

More sales pitch than substance
The first 3 chapter keep trying to sell the reader on why you should use JDBC not how to use it as the title indicates.
Database Programming with JDBC and Java
By George Reese
Published by O'Reilly
ISBN 1565926161
Reviewed by Larry Hess-HuNTUG member

This book is more of a sales pitch for Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) than anything else. Maybe if I was a Java program I would have gotten more out of the book also I like to get to the meat of a function I don't need to be sold. I believe the function should sell itself if it works. Another problem with the book is, it is limited to only examples in C#, and I think examples should be in both C and VB. Net to ensure helping more programmers.

After the slow start and the limited examples the book did a good job explaining how JDBC would work. I found the chapter 10 The User Interface was the best read and most important to me. Overall the book went into detail on how to use JDBC and I think if I was a C programmer I would have gotten more out of the book.

For a non-java programmer the book is hard to read and understand and limiting the samples to C# also limits the readers understanding. To the authors credit he does state: "If . . . . have studied JAVA, this book will help you become a more effective application developer for JAVA database programs. "

I would give this book a rating of 2 out of 5.



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Excellent book on JDBC and multitier development
Unlike other books it doesn't bore the reader with introduction to obvious concepts and examples. The text covers JDBC with enough depth, without burdening the reader with useless details available in any reference (in fact the reference is attached in an appendix, so there is no need to go looking online). I highly recommend this for experienced professionals who need to understand and start using JDBC.
The book also gives a great in-depth explanation of multitier applications and some aspects of EJB. The author develops a framework which can be used both as EJB replacement for simple projects or as a explanation for how EJB operates.
In a word, great read, even four years after it was published.

A Book without a Country
It quickly drifts into something of a rambling however as the author attempts to cover too much ground in too short a span. This book starts strong, clearly elucidating the simple mechanics behind opening database connections and controling content updates through sql statements. Reese jumps from a slow introduction to JDBC and a gentle explanation of how to integrate database calls into simple applications to a mess of complex design patterns and ugly (I mean UGLY. . . where are his editors) code almost completely bereft of any helpful comments.

It almost seems as if the author started with the noble idea of advancing both the basic and more extensible uses of the API and then gets bored (or drunk) half-way through. The book just drops off a cliff when it gets to the 7th chapter.

The biggest crime however is that the text only devots a cursory page and a half to the high subject of Connection Pooling despite declaring (correctly) that it is absolutely essential to any successful JDBC deployment. Where does the author suggest we find information related to this topic, in a book dedicated to the discussion of Swing??

Look elsewhere. . . this text is under-edited, under-written and over-priced for the amount of useful information it contains; terribly dissapointing!.