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by Sam Dalton.
Original Post: Book Review: Java Open Source Programming
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Bought and read Java Open Source Programming by Joe Walnes et al. this weekend (I have had a lot of time on my hands for one reason or another!), so I thought I would post a little review-ette of it here.
I have been meaning to read this for ages, mainly because I know (and respect) Joe, and think that anything he would write should be good, but also because I have been meaning to catch up with a few things that the book talks about, particularly WebWork and SiteMesh.
All in all I would say this is a good book to read, but I was disapointed at the level of detail that it goes in to. Most of the chapters are introductions to the main details of each library, but don't go into that much detail, particularly with regards to tips and tricks about usage in the real world. In other words, each chapter left me wanting know more about actually using the library. I would say that this book struggles to find its target audience. On one had it is too complex for complete newbies, but not advanced enough for people that have had exposure to any of these technologies before.
A really useful section of the book was the chapter titled "Time Saving Tools". This chapter went into some of the useful little utility libraries available from OpenSymphony and Jakarta. I will definitely be making use of some of the libraries mentioned (especially OSCache) in the near future.
Another criticism I would have is the chapter on Test Driven Development. I am not too sure why this chapter was included at all. It is not covered in sufficient depth to be useful to newbies, but also is not detailed enough if you have had any exposure to TDD at all.
Still, all in all worth a read (and has inspired me to look deeper into a number of the areas it covers), but a little lacking in "meat" in several areas, oh, and let's not mention the title......
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