Apache Jakarta Commons 89
Apache Jakarta Commons - Reusable Java Components | |
author | Will Iverson |
pages | 338 (8 page index) |
publisher | Prentice Hall |
rating | 4 |
reviewer | Simon P. Chappell |
ISBN | 0131478303 |
summary | There are other books about the Jakarta Commons; buy one of those instead. |
What's To Like
The book takes the reader on a journey through the Jakarta Commons. The Commons is like a massive utility library of Java code. Much of the code has been promoted out of the other Jakarta projects as it became more useful. One of the first such components was the Digester, which is a component to initialise a Java object from the contents of an XML configuration file. Very useful, originally from Struts and now used extensively by other Jakarta projects.
As the subject matter for a book, the Commons seems like a natural winner (I guess I have to say that!). There are so many components in the Commons that a guide to their types and usage does need to be available for developers.
Naturally, the book has a website to accompany it.
What's To Consider
Where to begin? I was actually surprised to find that I did not care for this book. The last review I wrote was for Mr. Iverson's very good Hibernate book. That was well written and structured. Unfortunately, this book feels kind of thrown together. The lack of care shows in the cramped layout and typesetting, the over-abundance of UML diagrams (a few here and there are great, but this felt like padding), code examples that can only be described as under-whelming and an approach that feels like an annotated telephone directory.
Despite the lack of quality of the primary chapters, they only actually account for the first 199 pages of the book. This is actually a very reasonable number of pages for a book, especially when you consider that classics like the first edition of Kernighan and Ritchie's "The C Programming Language" weighed in at about 220 pages. Sadly, the book then goes on for another 125 pages churning out what looks like repackaged JavaDoc for each of the major classes in the commons. You may like this, but it annoys the beans out of me and it'll reduce the score on one of my reviews faster than the Linux community can debunk a SCO IP infringement claim.
Summary
I really wanted to like this book. But it feels like someone was cranking the handle on a cash machine and thought that if they printed stuff about Jakarta, that the geeks would obediently buy it. Not this time. There are other books about the Jakarta Commons; buy one of those."
You could purchase Apache Jakarta Commons - Reusable Java Components from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Re:(OT) Request: Help From Moderators (Score:3, Funny)
Please mod down these peo--WHACK
Why don't you spend your mod poin--SMACK
Can't you see that you're all being very unreaso--POW
OMG WTF STOP IT YOU STUPID IDIO--THWACK
Re:(OT) Request: Help From Moderators (Score:2)
Re:(OT) Request: Help From Moderators (Score:1)
Interesting pricing (Score:4, Informative)
From an Amazon review:
Note that this 325-page book is really a 201-page book. Appendix A is the entire API of the Commons lang project - word for word.
Am I the only one who gets annoyed at how computer books have devolved into hardcopies of auto-generated online documentation? Am I the only one who remembers books that cover the intangables of coding (e.g. theory of operation, correct methodology for usage, cool coding and hardware tricks, etc.) rather than the "instruction manual for dummies" books? Bah, I say! I don't know which is scarier: the current trend in books, or the fact that the review I'm citing gave the book 4 out of 5 stars.
Of course, I'll probably get in trouble with my fellow authors for saying this. (Sorry guys, but I just don't like 90% of the books being printed.)
Re:Interesting pricing (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Interesting pricing (Score:1)
Okay, I'll bite. How does B&N contribute to your community? Are you referring to this link [barnesandnobleinc.com]? If you agree with their charity work and think they should be rewarded for it, then by all means follow the Barnes and Noble link [bfast.com]. Personally, I'm none to happy with stores that require "memberships" to get special deals, but to each their own.
Re:Interesting pricing (Score:2)
-If
Re:Interesting pricing (Score:2)
Of course, it shouldn't be *too* suprising, as Borders is just the large version of Walden Books (one of the few awesome bookstores).
Re:Interesting pricing (Score:1)
Is B&N better than Amazon? How? Also, there are independent booksellers still around? Or are they just money-laundering fronts for Borders / B&N?
Re:Interesting pricing (Score:1)
Isn't Borders part of Amazon.com?
Re:Interesting pricing (Score:1)
Actually, Borders made a deal with Amazon whereby Amazon would handle their online business. Which (in English) means that Amazon was allowed to license the Border's name on a royalty basis.
Here is a link [internetnews.com] to a news story on the subject. (Mods: This is an example of an informative post.) No, there are no associates links embedded in that link. (Mods: This is a joke. It may optionally be modded as "Funny" *if you laughed*.)
(Mods: Don't bother to mod up this post. The "VOI
Re:Interesting pricing (Score:1)
Man alive, who do we have modding these days?
Associate-free link (Score:2, Informative)
Even with an associate laden link, you can still get the book off of Amazon for a mere $26.39! And no membership hassles to mess with!
Or you can use the non-associate link [amazon.com] to prevent datadino's flagrant commission-whoring.
Re:Interesting pricing (Score:1)
Wow. That is stunning.
Re:Interesting pricing (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Interesting pricing (Score:2)
Hemp produces more pulp per acre than timber on a sustainable basis, and can be used for every quality of paper.
Guess what sort of paper the Declaration of Independence is written on.
Re:Interesting pricing (Score:3, Interesting)
A couple of years ago, there was a book written on the history of the US drug laws. I've forgotten the book's (or author's) name, but he documented an interesting "coincidence": The campaign to outlaw cannabis/marijuana/hemp was basically done by the Hearsts. They owned a large amount of land that was mostly pulpwood farms. Just before the anti-marijuana campaign started, a new hemp-to-paper
Re:Interesting pricing (Score:2)
Euphoria is dangerous! Secretly banned in the US!
We have the right to the pursuit of happiness, not happiness. The goverment thinks that if we find it, we'll revolt. Down with the man!
Or something. I forgot where this was going.
another interesting coincidence (Score:2)
Aren't the overwhelming majority of people convicted on drug charges African American?
In many states convicted felons never regain the right to vote.
I am not putting on the tinfoil hat here, I'm just pointing out an interesting coincidence.
There are a lot of knowledgeble people here, I hope someone will point out a misconception or bad info (please).
Re:another interesting coincidence (Score:2)
Nah; you're off by half a century.
The original US anti-drug laws were passed in the 1920's. Before that, drugs like marijuana and opium were sold openly and legally.
Actually, various kinds of "civil rights" laws (and amendments) date to nearly every decade of the country's history.
The 13th Amendment, which outlawed slavery and involuntary servitude, dates from 1865, and was ratified. "Civil Rights Ammendment" usually
thanks (Score:2)
Of course, the Civil Rights Act was the one I meant.
thank you for the clarification
yet another interesting coincidence (Score:2)
Re:Interesting pricing (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Interesting pricing (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Interesting pricing (Score:2)
(And don't bother modding up my original post. I gave fair warning of the associates link, but I mostly just being a smartass. Feel free to mod it down if you like.)
Re:Interesting pricing (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Interesting pricing (Score:2)
Am I the only one who gets annoyed at how computer books have devolved into hardcopies of auto-generated online documentation? Am I the only one who remembers books that cover the intangables of coding (e.g. theory of operation, correct methodology for usage, cool coding and hardware tricks, etc.) rather than the "instruction manual for dummies" books?
No! I'm with you and that is the main reason why I rarely buy books about programming. 75% of the content can be found online, and really, I do not need th
Re:Interesting pricing (Score:1)
Content-free review (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Content-free review (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Content-free review (Score:2)
Re:Content-free review (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Content-free review (Score:2, Funny)
This review definitely feels kinda thrown together.
Re:Content-free review (Score:2)
HowTo: How To Deal With A Shitty Book: (Score:5, Insightful)
How To Deal With A Shitty Book Review (Score:1, Redundant)
Do web logs count? (Score:2)
Do you apply the same criteria to blogs? I guess not, or you wouldn't have posted...
Review, or Oscar acceptance? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Review, or Oscar acceptance? (Score:2)
Hey! buy the Jakarta Commons Cookbook (Score:5, Insightful)
I wrote a book on the Jakarta Commons - The Jakarta Commons Cookbook [amazon.com], and, from what I hear people like it. Really, you should read it, I tried to stay as far away from reference as possible and pack it full of useful recipes.
Re:Hey! buy the Jakarta Commons Cookbook (Score:5, Informative)
Larne Pekowsky: "Apache Jakarta and Beyond: A Java Programmer's Introduction" is also a decent title in this area, albeit a bit too broad to really do that good of a job on any topic. Even a 600 page book can't cover things like Eclipse or Ant in a chapter.
I have all three books on my Safari bookshelf right now; only O'Brien's is staying once I can remove the other two. The Iverson and Pekowsky titles have some interesting sections worth looking at once, while "Jakarta Commons Cookbook" I always want to keep around for reference, in the same fashion I already rely on the similarly useful "Java Cookbook".
Re:Hey! buy the Jakarta Commons Cookbook (Score:1, Flamebait)
Re:Hey! buy the Jakarta Commons Cookbook (Score:2)
Your Linux problem an be fixed. The book 8my copy of it) cannot since it is not trustworthy because the friggin author did not check his code examples (the one in question was obviously sucked out of his thumb because it looks like
Re:Hey! buy the Jakarta Commons Cookbook (Score:2, Interesting)
If I want to read the API docs, I'll go to the Jakarta Commons website and read them. I don't want to waste money and tre
good to hear no javadocs (Score:3, Insightful)
more to the point, it dates so fast in the OSS world. Oreilly could get away with the original Java in a Nutshell book because the entire Java API was small enough to print, and because the API stayed frozen for two years.
but any living OSS project has an API that evolves weekly; and point releases every few months. printed documentation just doesnt cut it here. Instead books have to focus on why and how to use library, not what the APIs
Re:good to hear no javadocs (Score:2)
I like the nutshell books. I only have two monitors on my desk, and they have are full of windows. (testing here, /. there, code here (more like here there and everywhere), I don't have much free space. Except for /. (which isn't up often) I need all those windows.
With nutshell books I have a good reference that I can place on my physical desk. Not everything I need is in them, but when I need a quick refresher on some syntax or library it is nice.
I don't see the point in online nutshell types books,
Re:Hey! buy the Jakarta Commons Cookbook (Score:2, Informative)
He gives just enough attention to a topic to give the intelligent reader the gist, as well as a jumping-off point for further investigation into the specific commons sub-project.
I was familiar with and actively used several commons components before, but this book introduced me to many I was not even aware of (or was aware of but didn't co
Why might it be better than the free docs? (Score:4, Insightful)
The answer is likely to be in tutorials or teaching narrative. I bought the OpenGL Guide for that to learn OpenGL because the API was a nasty maze to navigate otherwise. I don't think Jakarta Commons have that problem and I don't expect I'll be buying a book about them.
Re:Why might it be better than the free docs? (Score:2)
Re:Why might it be better than the free docs? (Score:2)
Other packages (functors, for example), would probably benefit from much more extensive examples demonstrating their power and flexibility in providing elegant solutions for certain classes of problems.
Neither of the above are best accomplished via the Javadocs--well-written, probing dissections of solution app
whatever (Score:2, Insightful)
1) Commons is way overrated. A lot of the code is not great if you dig into it, and generally the components solve very small problems. Often, you're better off doing it yourself than adding a volatile dependency to your project.
2) There are some worthwhile components in Commons, but that does not imply that that the same quality or usefulness can be assumed of the other components. Same goes for the rest of Jakarta. And the rest of ASF.
3) Tho
Re:whatever (Score:1)
All four points are 100% true.
Re: Whatever (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:whatever (Score:2, Insightful)
re (1): There are very few (if any) projects in commons that haven't taken at least 6 man-months of development time. If you do only want a very small piece of the functionality of one project, then maybe you're better off doing it yourself but generally I think reusing the existing code *does* provide significant time savings.
re (2) Well, that's probably true of code anywhere. But code doesn't get into commons unless it's being
Re:whatever (Score:1)
IMHO:
I think commons-logging is pointless and wish it would die, Log4J was first, is still much better than JRE logging. commons-logging configuration is grossly inadequate for Log4J because it does not support Log4J XML config.
I find the main Jakarta branch less annoying as I have not
Where's the review? (Score:3, Insightful)
What are the other books that are better? Why?
What is the "Jakarta Commons"? I know what it is, but you'd think the review will explain this briefly and then say how the book failed or succeding at explaining them.
I give this review a rating of "[".
FYI From The Author (Score:5, Informative)
1. The book itself is published under an open license - the material in the book will be available as a free electronic download in a few months.
2. Yes, the last 125 pages *is* (for all intents and purposes) the printed javadoc. This was included at the request of the publisher, and it is valuable for some people.
So... I don't know how negatively the review was influenced by the inclusion of the Apache material, but it is entirely above-board per the Apache license and essentially reciprocal - I'm giving the material in the book back to the community via a free license to download the material.
Oh, and as an FYI, book writing is hardly a cash cow - I only wish.
If folks have any questions (e.g. why the delay in making the electronic version available? What is the state of affairs for tech book publishing? Why aren't you rich writing books yet?) let me know...
Cheers & best wishes,
-Will Iverson
Re:FYI From The Author (Score:1)
Re:FYI From The Author (Score:2)
As the author stated, book writing is not a cash cow (at least that's what every author says...), especially when your market is so small and there are other options. However, I would like to know how much he got/gets for the book.
Re:FYI From The Author (Score:2)
Well, the only reason to buy a book is that deadtreeware is easier to read and the human mind is more compatible with it. THere is a lot of documentation online, yet people still buy the book. K&R C is online, I bought the book.
Jakarta Commons Online Bookshelf (Score:1)
I would appreciate if someone would do a review of it here. Since it is not sold on Amazon, I have only had very few feedback comments (all of them good
Regards, Vikram Goyal
Jakarta Commons Onli