Professional Java JDK 6 Edition
W. Clay Richardson, Donald Avondolio
John Wiley & Sons 6Rev Ed edition (12 Jan 2007)
ISBN-10: 0471777102
ISBN-13: 978-0471777106
741pp
Reviewer: Evans Anyokwu
About: Professional Java JDK 6 Edition
Professional Java attempts to do something I don't think any one book can do well, which is to say something useful on just about every topic. This book's sections include: important additions/changes to JDK 5; a whirlwind tour of project methodologies; design patterns; build tools; persistence tools; UIs; web applications; JNI; EJB 3; SOA; security; and packaging and deployment. The book wants to be a "one-stop shop," and that's fine. After reading through most of the sections and skimming some, however, I'm not sure what the profile of the target shopper might be.
The topic coverage varies wildly from section to section, in the writing style (and quality) and in the effectiveness of sample code to illustrates a point. Too often the descriptions are both verbose and phrased in the passive voice. Some code samples seem like proof-of-concept sketches of a feature or library facility, rather than a compelling example of its use. Still other samples seem full of boilerplate code that speeds up the page-turning but isn't illuminating. And sometimes the text changes its diction strangely; the style changes from a general description to a "follow-along" activity without warning. Some sentences sound as if the author left them in as a reminder to complete a task.
The result is a thick book that, for me, is sometimes tedious or exhausting to read. I think it would have been helpful to give author credit by chapter, if only to know the presentation might change significantly. Also, a concerted effort at paring things down, and keeping the diction clear and active, would help make it more readable and something worth referencing.
As mentioned, the topic coverage is quite broad. This book might come in handy to someone who just needs many topics in one book. So long as you don't need your one reference also for getting started, this book could be a useful collection.
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Biography
Evans Anyokwu is software engineer specializing in software usability engineering, Java Web applications, and he's a standards expert. He has a Bachelors degree with honours in Computer Science and is a Sun certified Java Programmer and has earned his MCP certification from Microsoft. He has been a software engineer for years and has experience with many operating systems, and programming languages including Python, Prolog and Modula-2. [
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