Informative yet Poory organized
I bought this book to gain the fundementals of the new breed of client/server systems. The value of this book is that it argues that Java and XML will revolutionize the data interchange and data presentation. From this perspective, I think it makes it's case. BUT, much to my amazement, I found most of the examples(code)(programming constraints) inconsequentially and almost irritatingly organized throughout the book, as it assumes you have some java programming under your belt which I do not.
There are some great points to this book. $50 is steep, but then it does manage to give you a fundemental understanding of how Java and XML may prove the most common tools in future web endeavors.
Some good information, but ...
There's a lot of good information in here, but it really isn't all it should be. The quality of the writing is a tad erratic, chapters are padded out with long lists of methods etc which would be better consigned to an appendix. It has feel of a book which has been thrown together in a hurry. Some of the sample programs are poorly documented and difficult to understand. I'm not sure the writers really knew who their target audience were; some of the Java text, for example, is very basic but other parts of it are difficult, but there's not a logical step-by-step progression. The book is really a bit of a rag-bag. That said, there's a lot of good stuff in here, but it's hard work finding it sometimes.
Good, but doesn't live up to the title!
Had a look at it the other day at the Borders. Covers almost all the technologies associated with WEB development in a nice way with sample code that demonstrate each technology. It's a puzzle why the title is what it is. It's misleading!
mainly a java book. not xml/java
xml/java combination is treated in only around 80 pages. The rest is stndard java client server, applet, servlet, JDBC etc., Buy only as a general purpose Java book and not as a XML/Java reference.
I cannot reccommend this book.
I bought this book because of it's title. I also own Chang and Harkey's Java and CORBA books, which are better than this. The title is misleading. It is not until almost 400 pages into the book that XML is introduced. And the content is all too brief. Most of the book looks like cut and pastes from Chang and Harkey's other Client Server books. The book is over 500 pages long, using huge fonts and page after page of example code and API references. It is disappointing that there is not a decent XML & Java book on the market. I guess I will have to wait and see if O'Reilly publishes one, or at least a XML in a Nutshell.
(10 reviews)