Servlets

CodeNotes for J2EE: EJB, JDBC, JSP, and Servlets

Format: Paperback
Author: Gregory Brill
ReleaseDate: 02 January, 2002
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Rating:

Just Great! Suggest that publishers benchmark this series.
I am quite sure 3 days spent on reading this book was worth much more than over 10 days spent on getting lost while reading another one. I think I was very lucky to have found this book while I was struggling to grasp the idea of what J2EE is all about reading a very thick book from another publisher. How amazing it is that such a small book covers almost all the important aspects of J2EE (even design issues!). I can't wait for the new books in this series (such as C, C++, etc) to hit the market. Other publishers that are notorious for their verbose style in their books should learn some philosophy from this series and stop wasting the valuable time of the readers with enticing but practically unnecessary details.

The sample of a good-written IT book
CodeNotes for J2EE is an opposite example. There are a lot of thick IT volumes that give us examples of how NOT to write IT books. It is undestandable, precise and contains only sufficient information.

Don't use without checking the online errata!!
Also, I was surprised at their comments regarding the recent migration of their website from J2EE to . Good idea, poor accuracy - the online errata page could fill a small chapter!! For a book which condenses (complex?) 'tekki' info like J2EE into a readable, understandable, and USEABLE 'guru' reference, accuracy REALLY counts!! Without updating your copy from the online errata, you could easily 'be pulling your hair out' for quite a while by following the instructions found in here.NET. One of their listed reasons was ". . . and the drag-and-drop method of web development. (for . NET)". Wow!! For people who sell 'technical guru how-to' books, this sounds a bit like taking advanced painting lessons from teachers who 'paint by numbers'!! Call me 'antiquated', but I think that their website should reflect the technical competence that they purport to publish.