Customer Reviews (7)

Absolutely the best way for a beginner to learn OOP.
Simply put, "Objects First" and BlueJ make learning painless and fun. The book is well written and is truly an excellent choice for beginners.

Awesome book for understanding OOP
This book is what I've always looked for, it doesn't expect you to know anything about OOP or even programming. Step by step the author takes you into the concepts of OOP. There are no "hidden" steps, that you must understand without explanation, every construct that is used is explained when it's used, and the steps are small enought to give everyone the time to understand everything thoroughly. The book has always additional excercises for every chapter, that help you to retry the concepts you've learned. This is very helpful because you might have the feeling that you'd understand what you've read, but it might be that you just understood the example not the concept itself. So I can recommend this book to everyone who wants a real good start in Java and OOP. This book is not meant as a reference book, it's meant for teaching yourself and others in the basics of Java and OOP with the help of BlueJ.

A fascinating and clever approach to teaching Java
This book is intended to be a course text book for an introductory course in Java and Object Oriented Programming. The authors have made a conscious decision to cover the material in a different order to almost all other books on the subject. You won't find an initial chapter on classpaths, compilation and the main method, there's no pseudo-procedural "hello, world" example. The book leaps straight in to creating objects from classes, examining values and calling methods.

There is a trick to all this, of course. The book is based on a kind of Java development environment optimised for teaching called "BlueJ". BlueJ is a free download, and a copy is included on a CD with the book, along with all the source code examples. I've had a play with BlueJ, and it certainly makes important things like the distinction between a class and an object, and the inheritance structure of the code, much clearer than traditional IDEs.

If you are planning to teach a course on Java or OO, you should certainly take a look at this book. Even if you don't run the course exactly as presented, the approach is fascinating. If you are trying to pick up these tricky ideas on your own, this book might also be very useful. Even if none of those cases apply, the BlueJ software is still a really neat tool for prototyping. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming   2. Computer Books: Languages   3. Computer science   4. Computers   5. Java (Computer program languag   6. Java (Computer program language)   7. Object-oriented programming (C   8. Object-oriented programming (Computer science)   9. Programming - Object Oriented Programming   10. Programming Languages - Java   11. Study and teaching   12. Computers / Programming Languages / Java   

Customer Reviews (12)

Absolutely a perfect intro to game dev for Java Developers
I have been working w/ Java for the past 4 years in the corporate environment, but have always had a passion for games. I stepped through this text from beginning to end and the code examples and flow of the book were absolutely perfect. Not only does Brackeen teach you how to use the Java API to write games, he lets you know the ins and outs of Game Programming best practices. Every example is developed with an insightful and thorough explanation, never wasting time, but explaining all the necessities so you know the whys of what you're doing. New Riders has been a favorite publisher of mine for Java texts and this one hammered that belief home.

O'Reilly should hire this guy for big $$$
This guy is a true Game Programmer Guru. He is also very clear with his words and code. I don't think there is any other Java Game Programming book that comes even close to this one. The book makes complex topics like multi-player games over the Internet look simple !!! "Let's make a framework for a game server using NIO." Wow !!! If you want to show us that, so let's do it. I don't trust any other book that is not from O'Reilly, but this one is a CLASSIC. O'Reilly should hire this guy to write more game programming books for them.

Close to 4 stars...
I have to admit that this book is a very good java game programming book. Probably the best book on the matter out there, perhaps until the new crop of 2004 java game programming books start showing up on the bookshelves. I was able to take the source code provided and get "most" of the projects running smoothly. Most importantly, the side scroller example worked great. Basically, the book does a great job of providing almost everything you'll need to know about getting a fullscreen java game running on your system. I have to agree with most things everyone has said about the book in their reviews. However, that doesn't mean the book warrants 5 stars...

What I don't like about the book is the pages and pages and pages of code plastered in the book. I simply cannot give a book a high rating when so much of the book contains cut-and-paste code. If you want to learn game programming, you should be sitting in front of you computer with code on your screen. I'm fine with some code snippets here and there, but when you're provided with a great downloadable source (which the book has), you don't need the overkill in the text. The book would be much more conducive to focusing on game framework explanations if you weren't flipping through pages of code but rather referencing the book and looking at your screen.

Just my two cents on programming books. Otherwise, the book does contain very good content that all java game programmers will want to know. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming   2. Computer Books: Languages   3. Computer Graphics - Game Programming   4. Computer games   5. Computer programs   6. Computers   7. Java (Computer language)   8. Java (Computer program languag   9. Java (Computer program language)   10. Programming   11. Programming Languages - Java   12. Video & Electronic - General   

Customer Reviews (3)

The "bible" for J2EE based application designers
In The J2EE Architect's Handbook : How To Be A Successful Technical Architect For J2EE Applications, Derek Ashmore draws upon his more than fifteen years of experience as a technical architect, consultant, and J2EE expert to show a new generation of software developers how to design and build J2EE applications that will be on-time and on-budget. Readers will learn how to design easily maintained J2EE applications; apply commonly used design patterns effectively; identify and address application architectural issues before they hinder the development team; avoid common mistakes known to derail project budgets and timelines; guide the development team through the design and construction process; set up effective procedures and guidelines to enhanced stability and decrease error reports; document and communicate the application design to target the development team's work; identify and address application architectural issues; and effectively estimate needed resources and project timeline. To put it simply, The J2EE Architect's Handbook can justifiably be considered to be the "bible" for J2EE based application designers and project managers.

No Other J2EE Book Like It
There are a lot of J2EE books on the market and many of them are very good, but they are all focused on one or two aspects of a J2EE project. The J2EE Architect's Handbook is unique in that it is the only book I have found that takes you through the complete process of delivering a J2EE based project.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone involved in delivering J2EE based applications, regardless of whether you are new to J2EE or have been delivering J2EE projects for years.

Fantastic for Architect's of J2EE Projects!
This is a practical book targeted toward working architect's and designers in a business setting. This book concentrates on making you successful in an architect role and manage the project.

I liked the fact that it concentrated on the most heavily used portions of J2EE and didn't bog me down with stuff I don't use. It's also organized well and concise so I can get the important points in very little time. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming   2. Computer Books: Languages   3. Computers   4. Programming Languages - Java   5. Java (Computer program language)   6. Application software   7. Development   8. Web site development   9. Programming - Software Development   

Customer Reviews (57)

Good for beginners
I chose this book as my introduction to JavaScript and am quite pleased with it. It pretty well covers all the basics and is worth a straight-through read. The author builds several examples, expanding on them as the book progresses. Each time a large block of code is presented. If you can't figure out what is going on just by inspecting the code, each section is followed by a detailed 'how it works' explanation.
The book was thorough enough to give me a good understanding of just about everything I needed to know to begin developing a rather complex client-side application. I had to go to a more in-depth reference to learn how to assign an event handler with parameters to a control that was being generated by code, but that was about all that I did not find covered in this book.
I would definitely recommend this book to Javascript beginners, particularly those who are willing to read steadily through it.

Superb introduction to JavaScript for programmers
The black stripe at the top of this book says "Programmer to Programmer." This is not a book of tricks, like many JavaScript titles out there. This is a book for serious programmers and it is geared to the web programmer, since JavaScript is most often used on the web client side. The book does go a bit fast in some areas, but careful reading and reviewing will help a lot and anyone who is serious about programming shouldn't have a problem. Of course, when learning any language a background in programming does help, but this book is a good starting point for anyone who is serious about actually learning how to program. If all you want is a book of tricks, this book is not for you. I would purchase the Visual Quickstart Guide to JavaScript instead, or look for a free web tutorial. There are many JavaScript sites that give tricks away for free. However, if you need to know how to build JavaScript from the ground up, I don't think you can do much better than this book.

Book confuses the issues and doesn't get to the syntax
Instead of defining all the attributes of say "Request.QueryString" into differenct contexts like Javascript and HTML , he muddles around with probably the lamest web application environment around. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming   2. Computer Books: General   3. Computers   4. JavaScript (Computer program l   5. JavaScript (Computer program language)   6. Programming - General   7. Programming Languages - CGI, Javascript, Perl, VBScript   8. Programming Languages - General   9. Programming Languages - Java   10. Web servers   11. World Wide Web   12. Computers / Programming Languages / CGI, JavaScript, Perl, VBScript   13. Java & variants   

Subjects:  1. Application software   2. Certification Guides - General   3. Computer Bks - Data Base Management   4. Computer Books: Database   5. Computers   6. Database Management - General   7. Development   8. Java (Computer program language)   9. Programming - General   10. Computers / Database Management / General   

Customer Reviews (150)

Good book for jumping in
All you need to jump in, for more details go for 'Special Edition Using Enterprise JavaBeans 2.0', rare case when O'Reilly's book is not a head above the rest. 'Special edition' is deepier and a better choice for advanced programmers.

Excellent Book for new and intermediate EJB developers
This book is aim at Java developers wishing to learn the fundamentals of Enterprise Javabeans.
Knowledge of Java and JDBC is assumed.

If you ask to any EJB developer which are the best books about EJB, many will respond with two;
Mastering EJB (Ed Roman) and this one. Mastering EJB also covered JDBC, RMI and other topics.
The 1st and 2nd editions of Enterprise Javabeans (Richard Monson-Haefel, Orielly) focus specifically on
understanding and using EJB. Both are very good and worth reading.

The book is made up of 17 chapters, covering the all basics, intermediate topics and some advanced.
The first chapter introduces distributed object architectures and component models.
This chapter gives the reader an understanding of RMI and CORBA, the technologies that EJB was originally built on.

Chapters 2 and 3 present the EJB architecture and the main services provided by the architecture.
These chapters are very important to read because they cover essentially what is an EJB,
the advantages of EJB and a few differences between EJB 1.1 and EJB 2.0.
If you have read either of the previous two editions, you will like the EJB 2.0 specifics
(e.g. Message Driven Beans) introduced in these chapters. A TravelAgent EJB is used as an example through out chapters 2 and 3.

Chapter 4 gives the reader their first introduction to EJB source code.
We recommend you download the workbook and source code examples (...)
Currently only Web Logic 6.1 and Web Sphere 4.0 versions are available.

Chapter 5 present Session and Entity beans with a quick overview of JNDI and Java RMI-IIOP.
The chapter focuses on the Remote and Local (EJB 2.0) client APIs.
The author also shows how to redesign an EJB to use a Local Interface instead of a Remote interface.
What we really like are the code snippets used to demonstrate the theory.
Chapters 6 and 7 go into detail about Entity Beans (CMP 2.0).
Chapter 8 covers EJB QL, similar to SQL but designed to work with the abstract persistence schema of EJB 2.0 Entity Beans.
Again, there are lots of code examples and helpful class diagrams.
Chapter 9 provides a useful guide to differences between CMP in EJB 1.1 and EJB 2.0.
Chapter 10 and 11 describe BMP and Entity-Container contracts (primary key class).
These are explained quite clearly considering these are not simple topics.
Chapter 12 focuses on explaining Stateless and Stateful Session Beans.

Chapter 13 presents Message-Driven Beans. After an overview of JMS, a ReservationProcessor EJB is described.
This chapter shows sending messages between client and message bean.
Chapter 14 covers transactions with some example EJB code.

In chapter 15, the author gives some design strategies that should be followed.
These include passing objects by value and implementing a common interface.
Chapter 16 is all about XML deployment descriptors. The last chapter (17) gives an idea of what to expect in future releases.

There has been alot added to this book since the previous editions. We recommend this book to all developers that would like
to learn about EJB step by step. It would have been nice to have more EJB Design Patterns, however, there is enough in this book
to keep most developers happy. Go buy it now!

Outstanding Coverage of a Large Subject
I started out knowing very little about EJB's when I picked up this book. I'm happy to say I wasn't disappointed!

The first three chapters give a 10,000 foot view about the role of EJB's in J2EE. Bean lifecycles are covered, container interaction, deploytment processes, etc. is all covered in a general and friendly manner. A little bit of code is presented to illustrate key points and help you start thinking about how to write code.

The chapters following really drill down into the guts of entity, session (state and stateless), and message driven EJBs. Simple code examples are presented and taken apart, with detailed explanation about why certain things are the way they are, and how things work. Outstanding theory here! You get down into the nitty gritty about deployment descriptors, state diagrams, the works.

There are also nice reference Appendices providing state transition diagrams, API references, etc.

What impressed me most about this book is the author's careful distinction between EJB 1.1 and EJB2.0 specifications, including code samples of each, and the raw level of detail about how beans work.

The bad part about this book is it assumes you know a lot of other fundamental technologies such as XML, JNDI, and JMS. I highly recommend you have references available on these technologies during reading if you're trying to learn the big picture at the same time. People who are really into code examples and not theory may also be a little disappointed by the simplicity of the examples given.

All in all a great buy! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Business Enterprise   2. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming   3. Computer Books: Languages   4. Computers   5. Java (Computer program languag   6. Java (Computer program language)   7. JavaBeans   8. New Business Enterprises   9. Programming Languages - Java   10. Java & variants   

Customer Reviews (67)

A hopefully useful review of this book
I have waited to write this review until I had finished the book cover-to-cover in order to give a fair review. I bought this book because of the author Herbert Schildt. I have read several of his books and found them all to be informative, easy to understand and well written. While I was disappointed in some aspects of this book, overall I liked it. I think, however, everyone should know what this book has to offer prior to buying it. It may not suit the needs of some potential buyers.

This book is broken up into four sections: The Java Language, The Java Library, Software Development Using Java, and Applying Java.

The first section was the best and most detailed section of the book. It goes from page 4 to page 340 and is an excellent tutorial for learning the Java language. It doesn't talk about the AWT, applets, or any graphical programming for that matter, but gives the reader a firm foundation with which to move into those more interesting Java programming areas. This section alone was worth the price of the book. (while I agree with another reviewer that Bruce Eckel's Thinking in Java was a great book, I like this one better because it doesn't keep referring back to C/C++ all the time).

From the start of the second section through the end of the book, this book takes on a different approach. Instead of detailed descriptions as offered in the first section of the book, it begins to be an overview. Many topics are touched upon and many examples are given, but the reader is not given enough information or depth in these chapters to make them very useful.

The bottom line is, this book provides a firm understanding of Java's syntax and object oriented programming. After that it provides brief glimpses of the many kinds of programming you can do with Java.

If you don't know where you want to go with Java, this book is, in my opinion, the best way to sample Java enough to make your decision. If your purpose in wanting this book is to be an applet programmer (or do any graphical programming for that matter), I think you would do better to read the first section of this book (to page 340) and then read the Graphic Java books, volumes I, II and III, which cover the AWT, Swing and 2D API respectively.

Great book
I found this book very useful for learning Java (I am using it while I also read "Thinking in Java"). I am a beginning programmer, knowing a little html and vbscript so I don't have a background of C++ or C under my belt. This book takes you step by step and explains concepts that you build on to understand object oriented programming, classes, methods and so on. If you know C++, you won't have a problem at all. The examples are perfect if you are patient enough to type them in. I didn't find the downloadable .lst code very helpful, but the examples are correct in this book.

A Good Reference Book
I got this book as a prize at a Java User Group meeting. Overall, it's a good reference book to keep. One thing I wish it had covered is the JSPs, since it does cover the Servlets. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming   2. Computer Books: Languages   3. Computer Networks   4. Computer Programming Languages   5. Computers   6. Java (Computer program languag   7. Java (Computer program language)   8. Programming - General   9. Programming Languages - Java   10. Computers / Programming Languages / Java   

Customer Reviews (6)

great coverage of Struts
This book is a very good read for people who are getting started with Struts. Instead of pouring over theory it jumps right in with code you can get going with, then each chapter gives step by step instructions related to the original example app. Very thorough book. I recommend it to others.

best in it's class
Easy to read, clearly laid out and good for reference or an introductory text.

That's all I really look for in a technical book

--b

Good for beginners, great for day-to-day
I found this book to be a good introduction to the Struts framework and now use it as a day-to-day reference. I also found the book to have more coverage of areas of Struts that some of the other books didn't have, like a chapter on testing and security. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Application software   2. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming   3. Computer Books: Languages   4. Computers   5. Internet programming   6. Java (Computer program language)   7. Microcomputer Application Software   8. Programming - General   9. Programming Languages - Java   10. Computers / Programming Languages / Java   

Customer Reviews (8)

A great survey of mobile technologies
I go to Java Users Groups (yes, I'm struggling to get in touch with my inner geek) once every two or three months. Sometimes there's an engaging speaker, but most of the time the fellow up front looks like he's just swallowed a hot pepper, speaks like he has a permanent stutter, and answers questions like I'm speaking Greek. (I'm not making fun; I had a hard time when I was in front of a JUG too.) Regardless of the quality of the speaker, I gain something just by watching the presentation--he points out interesting technologies and usually has a list of resources at the end that I can use for further research.

I think Michael Yuan would be a great speaker at a JUG, as he seems to have a masterful understanding of Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME). However, the true value of his book, Enterprise J2ME, was in its introduction of new ideas and concepts, and the extensive resource listings. This book is a survey of the current state of the art in mobile java technology. Whatever your topic is, except for gaming development, you'll find some coverage here. Securing information on the device or network, XML parsing strategies, messaging architectures, and data synchronization issues are all some of the topics that Yuan covers.

My favorite chapter was Chapter 7, 'End to End Best Practices.' Here, Yuan covers some of the things he's learned in developing his own enterprise applications, and offers some solutions to five issues that differ between the J2ME world and the worlds familiar to most Java developers: J2EE and J2SE. He offers capsule solutions to the issues of "limited device hardware, slow unreliable networks, pervasive devices, ubiquitous integration [and] the impatient user." Later in the book, he explores various architectures to expand on some of these capsules.

However, the strength of this book, exposing the reader to a number of different mobile technologies, is also its weakness. JUG speakers very rarely dive into a technology to the point that I feel comfortable using it without additional research; I usually have to go home, download whatever package was presented, and play with it a bit to get a real feel for its usefulness. This book was much the same. Some of the chapters, like chapters 12 and 13, where issues with databases on mobile devices (CDC devices, not CLDC devices) weren't applicable to my kind of development, but you can hardly fault Yuan for that. Some of the later chapters felt like a series of 'hello world' applications for various vendors. This is especially true of chapter 12, and also of chapter 20, which is a collection of recipes for encryption on the device.

Additionally, I feel like some of the points he raised in Chapter 7 are never fully dealt with. An example of this is section 7.3.3, "Optimize for many devices." The project I'm on is struggling with this right now, but I had trouble finding any further advice on this important topic beyond this one paragraph section. However, these small issues don't take away from the overall usefulness of the book--if you are developing enterprise software, you'll learn enough from this book to make its purchase worthwhile.

However, I wouldn't buy the book if you're trying to learn J2ME. Yuan gives a small tutorial on basic J2ME development in Appendix A, but you really need an entire book to learn the various packages, processes and UI concerns of J2ME, whether or not you have previously programmed in Java. Additionally, if you're trying to program a standalone game, this book isn't going to have a lot to offer you, since Yuan doesn't spend a lot of time focused on UI concerns and phone compatibility issues. Some of the best practices about limited hardware may be worth reading, and if it's a networked game, however, you may gain from his discussions in Chapter 6, "Advanced HTTP Techniques." In general though, I'm not sure there's enough to make it worth a game developer's while.

I bought this book because I'm working on a networked J2ME application, and it stands alone in its discussion of the complex architectural issues that such applications face. It covers more than that, and isn't perfect, but it is well worth the money, should you be facing the kind of problems I am. Indeed, I wish I had had this book months ago, as I'm sure it would have improved the my current application.

Advanced J2ME
Unlike many J2ME books that focus on CLDC/MIDP, this book also covers CDC/Personal Profile and J2ME support for high-end (32Mb+) PDA devices. I've been using IBM's pervasive tools to develop Java for PocketPC. In this book, Michael Yuan has answered questions I've had about IBM's SMF that IBM consultants could not answer.

As of December, 2003, the content in this book appears to be all up-to-date. Mobile computing is a fast changing world and having a current reference is very valuable to me.

One topic that Yuan has omitted: SWT. I develop rich GUI applications for PocketPC devices where AWT and SWT are the only two choices for UI components. I'm not a big fan of SWT, but given the choice I usually pick SWT over AWT simply because the SWT pallet is much richer than AWT.

Great for experienced J2ME developers
Review
Michael Yuan has done a great job on writing a book that goes well beyond the basics. While the concept of developing mobile applications with Java has seen much hype over the years, the actual software has yet to hit the critical mass. Yuan goes beyond the basics to take the developer to the next level of mobile development.

The book assumes more than beginning level J2ME knowledge. If you've never dealt with J2ME, you'll need to start with a book such as Wireless J2ME Platform Programming by Vartan Piroumian. This will give you the foundation you need in order to tackle the concepts here.

The layout of the book is well done for combining both conceptual and practical knowledge. The author starts out with a brief discussion of the subject, such as why best practices are necessary when developing for a mobile platform. The end of each chapter lists a number of additional resources (both books and web sites) that provide additional information on the subject. In between those two feature is plenty of practical knowledge, along with actual code you can use to implement the type of application being discussed. If you already have the prerequisite background in J2ME development, you'll get a lot out of this book.

Summary
For those who are tasked with building J2ME software, this is a book you need to read. There is plenty of solid material, both concepts and actual code, to take you to the next level of mobile application development. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming   2. Computer Books: General   3. Computer Science   4. Computers   5. Java (Computer program languag   6. Java (Computer program language)   7. New Business Enterprises   8. Programming - General   9. Programming Languages - Java   10. Wireless communication systems   11. Computers / Programming Languages / Java   

Concurrent Programming in Java, 2nd Edition surveys a wide field of research in parallelism and concurrency and shows how to do more with multithreading in Java with dozens of patterns and design tips. Written for the advanced Java developer, this book offers a comprehensive tour of leading-edge thinking about parallel coding processes.

Within the dozens of techniques and tips offered here, this book accomplishes at least two goals. First, it shows how concurrency is implemented by default within Java, with material on how built-in features (like the synchronized keyword and its memory model) can be expected to perform when dealing with multiple threads. Naturally, Java threads themselves are also covered, including priorities, scheduling, and the like.

Much of this book looks at ways to improve performance of concurrent code beyond the simple default strategies. After defining criteria for measuring concurrent code (such as safety and "liveness," a measure of running live threads effectively), the book presents dozens of techniques for letting threads work together safely. For the working Java programmer, coverage of patterns that have been implemented in the downloadable java.concurrency package will be the most immediately useful. (Within this nearly encyclopedic survey, short code snippets are used for every pattern and concept.)

Though theoretical at times, this book offers plenty of ideas and sample code to get you started thinking of ways to improve multithreaded code.

Impressively comprehensive, Concurrent Programming in Java offers a veritable bible of techniques for doing two things at once with threads in Java. It's a worthwhile guide to the state-of-the-art strategies for improving the performance of your Java threads. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: Threads and concurrency in Java, design considerations (safety, liveness, and performance), Before/After Patterns, layering, adapters, immutability and synchronization, deadlock, resource ordering, the Java Memory Model and concurrency, using the java.concurrency package, confinement, refactoring for concurrency, mutexes, read-write locks, recovering from failure, notifications, semaphores, latches, exchanges, transactions, one-way messages, worker threads, polling and event-driven I/O, parallelism techniques (fork/join, computation trees, and barriers), Communicating Sequential Processes (CSP). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (43)

a must read for software designer/modeler
This book not only covers concurrent programming techniques (which is *very* useful btw), it also addresses more important issues of OOA&D applicable to Java, that is, reader gets not only useful examples of code, but learns *how to* design & model Java applications. Which is IMHO is much more valuable than the rest of the books going over the language implementation specifics. Great job!

Excellent
Simply a great book on concurrent programming in Java. This book and the class library the author provides are an awesome combination. While some of the information is Java specific, this book is much more about concurrent programming in general.

The author explains the primitive concurrency mechanisms provided in Java, such as Threads and Monitors, and then quickly moves on to higher level abstractions that embody many of the patterns found in multi-threaded applications. By encapsulating these, sometimes complex, patterns in reusable classes, the author shows how to maintain the separation of concerns between the concurrent aspects of the code and the logic of the task at hand.

This book contains a thorough discussion of the topic and extensive code - both examples and a reusable class library. This is a must read for every Java developer.

"This is Phylosophy of concurrency".
This is not "concurrent programming".This is only "philosophy of concurrency".I think so too. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming   2. Computer Books: Languages   3. Computers   4. Java (Computer program languag   5. Java (Computer program language)   6. Parallel programming (Computer   7. Parallel programming (Computer science)   8. Programming - General   9. Programming Languages - Java   10. Computers / Programming Languages / Java   

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent, once again
Although I acquired many Java books when I was first learning the language, Just Java and Sun's Java web-pages have become the only two resources I use on a daily basis. I expect that this new edition will quickly become as thumbed as my previous edition.

PvdL's biggest strength as a technical author is his background as a long-time programmer. He understands what an experienced programmer will look for in a general language reference book, and seeks to provide the information in a concise and witty form.

As an example of the clarity of the writing, I should note his explanation of autoboxing and Unboxing (new in Java2 1.5). This is already part of the .Net languages, but while the various .Net books I've read take long sections to try and explain the concept, Just Java 6 managed to explain it in little more than 1 page *and finally help me understand it fully*!

While this book certainly isn't for people who have never programmed before, it's a great resource for anyone who's coming to Java from another language. It's also not an in-depth treatment of every possible Java library - if you want a book that tells you about everything Swing does, for example, you should look elsewhere. What it does instead is to explain the basics of the libraries, give you a good grounding in their use, and then point you towards sources of other information should you need them.

An excellent update of an essential book. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming   2. Computer Books: Languages   3. Computers   4. Java (Computer program language)   5. Programming Languages - Java   6. Computers / Programming Languages / Java   

Data mining techniques are used to power intelligent software, both on and off the Internet. Data Mining: Practical Machine Learning Tools explains the magic behind information extraction in a book that succeeds at bringing the latest in computer science research to any IS manager or developer. In addition, this book provides an opportunity for the authors to showcase their powerful reusable Java class library for building custom data mining software.

This text is remarkable with its comprehensive review of recent research on machine learning, all told in a very approachable style. (While there is plenty of math in some sections, the authors' explanations are always clear.) The book tours the nature of machine learning and how it can be used to find predictive patterns in data comprehensible to managers and developers alike. And theyuse sample data (for such topics as weather, contact lens prescriptions, and flowers) to illustrate key concepts.

After setting out to explain the types of machine learning models (like decision trees and classification rules), the book surveys algorithms used to implement them, plus strategies for improving performance and the reliability of results. Later the book turns to the authors' downloadable Weka (rhymes with "Mecca") Java class library, which lets you experiment with data mining hands-on and gets you started with this technology in custom applications. Final sections look at the bright prospects for data mining and machine learning on the Internet (for example, in Web search engines).

Precise but never pedantic, this admirably clear title delivers a real-world perspective on advantages of data mining and machine learning. Besides a programming how-to, it can be read profitably by any manager or developer who wants to see what leading-edge machine learning techniques can do for their software. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: Data mining and machine learning basics, sample datasets and applications for data mining, machine learning vs. statistics, the ethics of data mining, generalization, concepts, attributes, missing values, decision tables and trees, classification rules, association rules, exceptions, numeric prediction, clustering, algorithms and implementations in Java, inferring rules, statistical modeling, covering algorithms, linear models, support vector machines, instance-based learning, credibility, cross-validation, probability, costs (lift charts and ROC curves), selecting attributes, data cleansing, combining multiple models (bagging, boosting, and stacking), Weka (reusable Java classes for machine learning), customizing Weka, visualizing machine learning, working with massive datasets, text mining, and e-mail and the Internet. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

You HAVE to read this book!
This book is THE best book I have read about data mining. And I have read most of them (see ISBNs: 0070057796, 0471253847, 0262560976, 0201403803, 0471179809, 013743980, 0137564120, 1558605290, 1558604030). It is fresh, clear, well balanced. If your native language is not English, then you should definetly read THIS book first.

The feature that is the most important for me is "just enough statistics". That is, you can understand the processes & descriptions even if you have not wasted your life and youth studying statistics; what is needed of it to understand is given shortly and very well. Many other books are too deep or too shallow (like Berry's, which is a good introduction, but nothing more than that).

If the rating was scaled 1-6 stars, I'd give this book a 10.

Data mining technology power on 400 pages.
It's difficult to get interesting
literature related to this theme.

On the one hand there are some books written for managers, on the other hand there are some pretty mathematical books for academics. But this book is the best mix. You get an introduction to data mining and learn step by step from the basics up to the hard algorithm stuff with nice examples.
There is a clear theme structure, and the deep technical sections are marked, so you can read what you are most interested in. The book describes not only one algorithm, but a lot of them and discusses plusses and minuses. Where it's necessary it uses simple diagrams to illustrate something, not so much that it looks like they want to fill the pages, like in other books. Best of all, the algorithms are implemented as an
open source java software named "weka". This is my state of the art data mining tool.
You can see the algorithms working and use the implementations for your ideas (like me). If you are hungry to learn more
about one or the other thing, the book provides a literature list.

For me this book was one of the best books in the last years, because it provides the best mix and gives you a fast but deep view in this theme.

Stop searching for datamining: You've found it.
I've been working with "big name software" for some years, but when I joined the institution I work now and no tools where available I begun my quest for an open source tool that could help me build statistical models applied to real business problems.

As a result of this quest I found the WEKA data mining software on the Internet (you can find it on www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~ml/weka/) and that nice piece of software leaded me to this book.

This book is EXCELLENT and I am giving 5 *five* stars to it as it helped me understanding the whole process of datamining: from loading the data to building the model.

I've read some reviews and I think some of them are not fair (particularly one that says that this book have "just words with no relation or sense at all").. THIS BOOK IS REALLY WELL WRITTEN but you have to read it slowly: As when you study something.

Buy this book (*don't forget to download the software*) and I am totally sure that you will be producing and using models in a week.

Can't imagine that some weeks ago

Cheers, ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Artificial Intelligence - General   2. Computer Bks - Data Base Management   3. Computer Books: Internet General   4. Computers   5. Data Modeling & Design   6. Data mining   7. Database Engineering   8. Database Management - Database Mining   9. Database Management - General   10. Disaster Recovery   11. Java (Computer program languag   12. Java (Computer program language)   13. Machine Learning   14. Programming Languages - Java   15. Computers / Information Storage & Retrieval   

Customer Reviews (6)

An excellent, readable introduction to Eclipse
I have been working with Eclipse and its derivatives (e.g., IBM/Rational's XDE for Java) for over a year now. The most significant reality about Eclipse for a user is its long learning curve. There is so much in Eclipse, and just knowing what you can configure is a challenge. When I read Holzner's book last month, from the first chapter I kept bemoaning, "Why didn't I have this book a year ago?" I can recommend this book without reservation for anyone moving to Eclipse as a Java development environment. Many recent books focus specifically on writing plug-ins for Eclipse. Holzner covers writing a simple plug-in, but what he has written is a book for developers who want to use Eclipse to write and test real Java applications.

Holzner's style is to cover a lot of ground without getting tediously deep into any single subject area. This is one reason his writing is so readable. In this book he has a very nice introduction to using the JUnit perspective for automated unit testing, a concise introduction to the debug perspective, a chapter on Ant for building projects, and integrating Eclipse with the CVS software repository.

Holzner spends several chapters on GUI and web development, but don't look for detailed information on how to do Swing, or JSPs. Holzner's focus is on how Eclipse supports development in these areas. He has a chapter on Swing GUI application development, two chapters on SWT (IBM's Standard Widget Toolkit) development, and a very accessible chapter on using Eclipse for web development with JSPs, servlets, javabeans, and how to use the Sysdeo Tomcat plug-in to simplify your life. I was not aware of this plug-in until I read this book, and knowing about it was almost worth the price of the book. The chapter on Struts development was the least clear to me, only because I have not worked with Struts, but if you understand the Model-View-Controller architecture you will be able to get a good understanding in this chapter of what Struts is trying to provide, and how Eclipse will support you.

Holzner offers two chapters on developing plug-ins, and I am impressed that he could convey so much in just two chapters. Plug-in development can be very complex, but Holzner presents the basic requirements very cogently. He closes out the book with a pro-spective on Eclipse 3.0, now finally available at eclipse.org.

It was a fun, quick read, and even after more than a year of using Eclipse I learned some really nice things from this book.

Covers Basic Fuctions
The book does have lots of graphics as referred to by other reviewers but they are appropriate and explain the text. "One picture is worth a 1000 words".

Common development tasks are covered in enough detail to help beginners and those new to an IDE.

Not everyone likes to read the online help to learn how to use software while most of us will search for a specific topic. This book satisfies the need for a clear understandable how to manual of the basic functionality. Just think of it as the printed user manual for those who like to have a paper reference.

The only criticism is that the cover reference to coverage of 3.0 is misleading because it is discussed in only 18 pages out of 295.

Great book
Want to get up and running with Eclipse? This is your book. Informal style, packed with information. Recommended. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming   2. Computer Books: Languages   3. Computers   4. Java (Computer language)   5. Java (Computer program languag   6. Java (Computer program language)   7. Programming Languages - Java   

Customer Reviews (41)

Covers most but not all....
Writing a certification guide poses some serious challenges to the author. Having co-authored a guide my self, I understand how tricky it is to decide how much to cover. A test like SCEA that covers such a broad ground makes the job even tougher.

The first ever SCEA guide met most of my expectations. It is concise, covers most of the exam objectives and most importantly, maintains the focus on the test without digressing over to J2EE trivia. Every chapter attempts to cover a set of objectives, and has a review section followed by some sample test questions. The accompanying answers provide explanation of correct, incorrect and not-so correct choices. The book also introduces a case study that introduces the reader to skills essential for solving part-II assignment.

I said the book covers "most" of the objectives. That's where it falls short of expectations. Any study guide should, at the least, cover all the test objectives. Some test objectives such as Legacy connectivity and Messaging have been totally left out which made me question the seal of approval from SunEducation! It is one thing not to cover an objective in detail, but totally dropping a couple of them is inexcusable. A good reader can easily point out some spottiness too - such as not including the state diagram for entity beans along with that of session beans.

In summary, they badly need to fill some gaping holes, and to the extent possible, work towards completeness.

[...]

It's a light, useful overview, but not complete.
This is the first published book for the SCJEA certification.
Although it's very light (less than 200 pages), it does cover
EJB, UML, Design Patterns, Security, Internationlization, and Protocols. It provides useful information on how to apply your
knowledges on these topics, but you should learn the knowledges
from practice or from other books. It contains some very interesting mock questions, on UML, Security, Internationalization, Protocols, which help you a lot to understand the concept in an architect's way. It provides a case study for part II and part III, although it is a good example, you need to know enterprise java architecting before reading this chapter.

I finally decide to give it 4 stars instead of 5 because of two reasons:
1. There is nothing about messaging. legacy connectivity.
2. They copied the nine sample questions from Sun's site, but gave no more explanation. What's more, in the book, the answer of question 5 is incomplete (it should be A, E, but in the book, the answer is E), and the answer of question 9 does not appear in the book (which is D).

Since it's the only one available, I suggest you buy (or borrow) this book...

Definitely not enough to pass the exam
You can get through this book in a few days, but the material here is not enough to pass the exam.
You would definitely want to read the GoF Design patterns book, along with a good book on EJB. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Certification   2. Certification Guides - General   3. Computer Bks - Certification   4. Computer Books: General   5. Computer Networks   6. Computer Programming Languages   7. Computers   8. Electronic data processing per   9. Electronic data processing personnel   10. Examinations   11. Java (Computer program languag   12. Java (Computer program language)   13. Programming - General   14. Programming Languages - Java   15. Study guides   16. Computers / Programming Languages / Java   

Customer Reviews (4)

Excellent Design Pattern Reference
This book provides an excellent reference for many common (and not-so-common) design patterns used today. It presents them using easy to understand examples that any developer will find useful. Each section contains practice questions ideal for study groups or self-paced learning. This book is well suited for anyone wishing to learn about and apply design patterns in a Java environment.

Disclaimer: I was a draft reviewer for this book.

Excellent !!
An excellent resource to understand the different architecture patterns, kept very simple and precise to the point.
Thanks to the author for coming up with this book.

Outstanding!
An excellent book for Software Architecture. One you will want to keep for future reference. Indispensible! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming   2. Environmental Science   3. Java (Computer program languag   4. Java (Computer program language)   5. Programming Languages - General   6. Science   7. Science/Mathematics   8. Software architecture   9. Software patterns   

Customer Reviews (94)

virtually all you need to pass the exam
The book is laid out in a logical straightforward fashion -- matching up exam objectives with Servlet/JSP topics and even covers a couple things that aren't (yet) on the exam, like Filters. It's written in a very easy-to-read, conversational tone and is an excellent resource for someone who's familiar with Java but not with Servlets and JSPs or even for someone familiar with them, but needs to brush up on some of the details for the exam. The bundled CD that comes with the book is chock full of excellent resources (3 JwebPlus mock exams, Tomcat 4, the relevant JSP and Servlet specs, and an electronic copy of the book). The quizlets and notes intermixed within each chapter help you to confirm that you understood what you just read -- and also explain a couple "gotchas". The author's website contains an excellent little forum where you can get hold of the author's to ask questions or report errors in the book. I'll definitely use this book as a resource even after the exam.

This book alone helped me pass with 96%!!
This is a great book. The chapters are very well organized and the bulletted information of key concepts in every chapter is really really helpful for last minute reference.
One thing that I want to mention is the style of writing of the authors. This is one book where after each chapter you feel you've really gained something...and you quickly want to move the next chapter to learn more...and long after the exam is over you still feel confident of the knowledge that you've acquired.
The treatment of various servlets and JSP concepts is precise and consistent with the requirements of the exam. However don't get the impression that it does not cover the key concepts in detail.. In fact it does a wonderful job. For example..I had no prior experience with tag libraries before , yet I managed to get a score of 96% on the exam and that too after studying for just two weeks. And my only primary resource was this book and the provided CD.
The three practice tests on the CD are essential for getting a good score on the actual exam.
All in all a great book..well worth your money!!
Best of luck!
Tanay

Preparation for SCWCD Exam
I bought this book to study for the exam, and I found it very helpful. If you need more help to prepare for the exam, visit http://www.j2eecertificate.com/. Good Luck! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Certification   2. Certification Guides - General   3. Computer Bks - Certification   4. Computer Books: Languages   5. Computer software   6. Computers   7. Electronic data processing per   8. Electronic data processing personnel   9. Examinations, questions, etc   10. Java (Computer program languag   11. Java (Computer program language)   12. Programming Languages - Java   

Customer Reviews (48)

Great for learning Java
I bought this book a few weeks back and have read about half of it. I have about 5 yrs of C++ behind me, and I wanted to learn Java. This book really did it for me. I must agree with some other reviewers that this is not a book to learn Java as a first programming language, because it doesn't spend a lot of time on syntax and stuff. But it covers the language extremely well and give many tips and warns against some pitfalls.

The book give an overview of all the base classes, so it's good to read it BEFORE you start coding. That way you will know all the Java classes and be able to pick the the best design right of the bat.

There is also a good section on programming Java using the SDK directly as opposed to some IDE. Personally I think it's very important to understand how things are done under the hood.

So a great book for learning Java, but some programming knowledge (preferably OO) is required to get the most of this book. If you liked other O'Reilly books, you'll like this one.

Not a tutorial and not for new programmers
I had purchased "Learning Java" out of the conviction that some patience and thought was all that was needed to make sense of the book. "Learning Perl" (also published by O'Reilly) had a somewhat steep but manageable learning curve-I thought "Learning Java" would be more of the same. Unfortunately, I found "Learning Java" to be a disappointment. The book begins by creating a simple "Hello, Java!" pop-up box along with brief explanations of the basic concepts of Java (class, methods, etc). The book, however, then gives an overview of syntax and tools with no practice exercises. The book essentially went like this: "This is what a class is. This is what a method is. This is what an exception is." And so on. The book spends a few paragraphs describing many important concepts of Java without adequate examples and no practice exercises. The author's organization and presentation of the materials made the book more of a dictionary than a tutorial.

Don't get me wrong, the book does provide an excellent overview of Java's history and heritage. It also serves as a handy (but incomplete) reference, although "Java in a Nutshell" is a much more complete reference. However, like some reviewers, I believe that the title was a bit misleading for those wanting to actually learn to program in Java. This book is not for someone new to programming. "Learning Java" is actually more like an overview or tour of Java that introduces the program's features and tools. It is not a tutorial.

My recommendation: See if you can get a hold of "Learning Java" and take a look at a few chapters. If you like the author's approach (and several reviewers did), then by all means purchase the book. I was originally going to recommend that only those with C or C++ programming experience give the book a try, but I've noticed several reviewers with such experience giving the book a poor review. If you are looking for a tutorial, try the deceptively named but excellent "Teach Yourself Java in 21 Days" by Laura Lemay.

Well paced introduction to Java for coders w/ experience
I read through some of the reviews for this book and I agree that this book is best for someone who is new to Java, but not new to object oriented programming. I would imagine that learning programming from scratch using this book would leave a lot of questions unanswered. But for someone with coding experience (like myself) this book offered a well paced overview of the language, some curious details (that would be irrelevant to a beginning programmer) and well thought out and clear examples. I would recommend it to anyone switching from other languages, but with some idea of object oriented programming. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming   2. Computer Books And Software   3. Computers   4. Java (Computer program language)   5. Programming - General   6. Programming Languages - Java   7. Computers / Programming Languages / Java   8. Java & variants   

Customer Reviews (13)

Indeed comprehensive
The alphabet soup subtitle gives a clue as to the book's heft: "XML, SOAP, WSDL, UDDI, WS-I, JAX-RPC, JAXR, SAAJ, JAXP". All these can be effectively summarised by the phrase "Basic Profile 1.0". This is needed for interoperability of any web service application you might be developing. It is a set of rules telling how to use XML, WSDL, SOAP and UDDI to make your application available as a Web service.

If you don't know these 4 items, then basically you need to read most of the book, before being able to deploy an application. The chapters span 733 well written pages (plus there are large appendices). So be warned, it is not trivial to develop a Web service. The clarity of the writing helps assimilation, but the sheer bulk of the text seems necessary.

On the positive side, now with BP 1, if you conform to it, your application should indeed work in a diverse environment. Such could not easily be said prior to it. Along the way, you may certainly wonder if the large amount of material needed to be understood is indicative of a still developing field. This barrier may be the single greatest impediment to Web service development. Certainly not the author's fault. He is explaining industry-wide agreed upon standards. Though in the last chapter, he does suggest along these lines that XML deployment descriptors used in J2EE are far too bulky and brittle.

THE Bible for J2EE - Web Services development
J2EE Web Services by Richard Monson-Haefel is the current de-facto standard bible for Web Services development on Java. I had pre-ordered this book on Amazon and have read through this book several times in the last few months and I absolutely love this book. Richard has created a great resource for the J2EE developer that's looking to build interoperable Web Services.

Most EJB developers are already familiar with Richard Monson-Haefel's work in his OReilly EJB's book. He brings that expertise into the realm of J2EE and Web Services. In fact, this is the first book to talk about Web Services Interoperability Organization's (WS-I) Basic Profile 1.0.

WS-I is an open, industry organization chartered to promote Web services interoperability across platforms, operating systems, and programming languages. WS-I Basic Profile 1.0 is set of recommendations on how to use web services specifications to maximize interoperability. This book delves into the details of J2EE 1.4 and how we as Java developer can build and consume Web Services in a standard way.

The book starts off with an introduction to XML, SOAP, WSDL and UDDI before jumping into the meat, Java API for XML-Based RPC (JAX-RPC). If you don't have any experience with those technologies, the book offers a great tutorial on those items. I was particularly impressed with the treatment on XML Schemas in the 3rd chapter.

Once the basic groundwork is laid with a solid introduction to XML, SOAP, WSDL and UDDI, the book jumps right in the JAX-RPC platform. In fact, the middle half of the book is dedicated to JAX-RPC. JAX-RPC is a specification for making remote procedure calls via XML and SOAP over HTTP. JAX-RPC provides an easy to develop programming model for development of SOAP based Web services. You can use the RPC programming model to develop Web service clients and endpoints (server).

Once you get an overview of JAX-RPC, you jump right into building Web Services. The section on JAX-RPC is really detailed and offers a very in-depth tutorial on building Web Services. From JAX-RPC, you jump into Java API for XML Registries or JAXR. The Java API for XML Registries (JAXR) provides a uniform and standard Java API for accessing different kinds of XML Registries. An XML registry is an enabling infrastructure for building, deploying, and discovering Web services. I read through most of this section but I didn't really spend as much time on it as I should have.

The final section of the book deals with deployment. J2EE deployment is a total pain in the ass and anyone that's spent hours fighting classpath issues in ear files will agree with me. The section on deployment is very detailed and very well written. I found it extremely helpful in setting up JAX-RPC mapping files along with other deployment descriptor. I have to agree with Richard's comment at the end of Chapter 24 - Deployment descriptors sucks and have gotten overly complicated. Items like Cedric's ejbc and XDoclet have done a great job in simplified the creation of ejb and web deployment descriptors and J2EE 1.5 should really address this issue.

My only complaint about this book is the lack of downloadable source code. I did email Richard and he very graciously replied saying the book is really more of a reference than a tutorial. Hopefully he'll change his mind and put together a source code distribution for this book.

If you are going to be building Web Services in Java, want to learn more about the alphabet soup of Web Services or just want to learn more about WS-I and BP1 and how to build interoperable Web Services, this is the book for you. I found this book to be very helpful and plan to use it for my Web Services class. This book is a must for any J2EE Web Services developer.

No value for the money
This book is not very promising for those want to build a real-world Web services architecture. This book repeats the tutorial of Sun's Java web services. The book completely forgot about how to make all components work together and lack content how to implement Web services from legacy J2EE components, Interoperability with .NET or other Web services solutions etc. I found the first 3 chapters and last 2 chapters does not make sense. Besides, the book is more typical and spends more content like the free Java tutorial download from Sun site. Where is the value ? ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Internet   2. Computer Books: General   3. Computers   4. Internet - World Wide Web   5. Internet programming   6. Java (Computer program languag   7. Java (Computer program language)   8. Programming Languages - Java   9. Web services   10. Computers / Internet / World Wide Web   

Customer Reviews (8)

No more questions.
This is the work of an expert on the subject. Made as simple as possible, but no simpler. It covers what to test and how to test. More than just using the JUnit tool, it explains how you can safely and repetitively test difficult classes that perform updates deletes or handle volitile data. Covers testing with Cactus, Servlets, JSP's, EJB's and stand-alone console programs. Everything you need to get the job done with style and quality.

A rarity: a deep overview
I finally had the opportunity to read Vince's finished product and I am impressed at how he and Ted managed to find the balance between an easy-to-follow overview and the necessary technical depth to understand JUnit more fully. Most books only do one or the other (if that).

Whether you are brand new to JUnit or have some experience and are looking for good practices, JUnit in Action is for you. On a first reading you can concentrate on the first few chapters and all the diagrams; then after some practice, you can return to the remaining chapters and learn JUnit in increasing depth.

This book describes a number of different ways to use JUnit to tackle specific problems in testing both plain Java code and J2EE code, a theme which I have taken further in JUnit Recipes (I couldn't resist the plug -- sorry about that), making "in Action" an excellent prelude to "Recipes". Of course, we hope you'll buy and enjoy both. Vince's early drafts even motivated me to learn more about Cactus and now it is an important part of my J2EE testing arsenal.

I will use Vince's book as a primary reference whenever I teach a course on Java, J2EE programming or Test-Driven Development.

Thorough and concise work on JUnit
This is a strong book on a worthy topic. It's short but that doesn't stop it from covering the topic well. The authors just stay on track and cover the required material in a brief and balanced manner.

On the down side there could have been more context about JUnit and it's alternatives. The first chapter covers this somewhat but after that it is JUnit all the way.

On the upside, the book is well written and edited. It is concise and sometimes witty but not to the level of going off track.

The interesting chapters:

Chapter one introduces JUnit and shows some alternatives, mainly doing tests by hand.

Chapter two covers JUnit completely in detail. Which is almost a bit too much too fast and I found myself a little lost in the detail. It could stand to be broken up a little.

Chapter four is an excellent introduction to test driven development. This section alone is almost worth the price of the book.

Chapter five covers integrating JUnit into existing tools like Ant and Eclipse.

The second part then applies JUnit to each of a number of different types of code, including web pages, tag libraries, data access, etc. This is the heart of the matter and it's done very well. This connects the code you have to the JUnit test framework step by step. It's very well done.

If you are using JUnit or are interested in test driven development in Java this is a fantastic book and is well worth the money.

(Full disclosure: I am a Manning author but I in no way allow that to effect my reviews.) ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming   2. Computer Books: General   3. Computer Programs Testing   4. Computer software   5. Computers   6. Java (Computer program language)   7. Programming - Systems Analysis & Design   8. Programming Languages - Java   9. Testing   

Customer Reviews (35)

A Must Read for the Serious Java Developer
I found this book most rewarding; it covers many aspect of performance tuning Java for applications, and it does so in a well-written, clear and orderly fashion. The author starts by covering the fundamentals of performance measuring and tuning, reiterating and reinforcing what is already known to the serious programmer but most likely overlooked by the novice. The other half of the book proceeds to dissect the behavior of Java application and the JVM in order to gain insights into the tuning process and the to be avoided pitfalls. The items covered here are crucial to developing robust and effective java programs, especially for those writing infrastructure and server like applications.

For the novice, the ordered scientific approach to demystify the myths of Java performance and the concise advice given is more than welcomed. As for the experienced developer, the second half of the books deals with those issues of real concern: threading and distributed computing

Overall I found the book to be enlightening and I certainly recommend.

For those with deep interest in java performance I recommend a complementing book: Java Performance and Scalability, Volume 1: Server-Side Programming Techniques by Dov Bulka.

Recommended for developers...
This book is diverse in it's approach to java performance tuning. It is very good at describing common bottlenecks in detail and providing concrete examples of how to write better performing code.

It has good coverage of topics including Object creation, I/O and sorting. It illustrates efficient ways to write loops and switches and provides insight into the performance costs of exceptions and casts. 'Java Performance Tuning' also shows how to implement class specific collection classes among other topics.

It takes a comprehensive look at the java profiling tools available and gives illustrated advantages of applying specific techniques. Performance results are contrasted for the various JVMs (JDK1.2 with and without JIT, JDK1.3, Hotspot 1.0).

'Java Performance Tuning' has improved my programming and will sit on my shelf as an excellent reference I know I can turn to if asked to tune a Java application.

a good book, but do you really need it?
Java Performance Tuning would be a good book to have if you have a seriously performance intensive application or for someone who just really dug performance issues. But it wouldn't be of interest to most people. Most programmers should be able to do all the performance tuning they need to do with a program like Optomizeit. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Communications / Networking   2. Computer Books: General   3. Computers   4. Java (Computer program language)   5. Networking - General   6. Programming - General   7. Programming Languages - Java   8. COM051240   9. Computers / Programming Languages / Java   10. Java & variants