Web Books

If you want to be a leader in your field - read this book. Ken Lizotte has packed his book full of practical and useful advice about how to do it. It's well-written, well-organized and easy to read. A real gem!

Ken Lizotte in The Expert's Edge, McGraw-Hill 2008, has nailed it. If your eye is on the prize of becoming an authority in your field, this book is it. The Expert's Edge is riveting--- and real. You'll come away with real answers and a riveting plan of how you can become "the Go-To Authority People Turn to Every Time."

M. Susan Hamilton, Director-The Family Economist

If you ever wondered what it takes to become a "thought leader" or wanted to know more about some of the world's foremost thinkers, Ken Lizotte's The Expert's Edge is for you. And if you are a business leader or a thinker, this book is a must read, whether or not you ever considered the term "thought leader."

Lewis Green, author of Lead With Your Heart: Sell Happiness and You and Your Business Will Flourish

"The Expert's Edge" presents a convincing case on the benefits of becoming a thoughtleader, and then provides a good primer on how to promote yourself as such. This is a very readable and useful book which I recommend to all those who are looking for better ways to promote their business.

Ken's book is clear, concise, easy to read and RiGHT ON! Fantastic strategic approach to promoting yourslef and your business. It's worked extremely well for me and for my company. Every consultant should read Ken's book and then JUST DO IT!

I found it best technical book till date but you should know Flex & Ruby before you can jump into this..

This is a great book. Peter is the #1 expert in Flex + Rails.

I have used Flex for about a year and I have only dabbled in Ruby/Rails development. I have been curious how I might back a Flex front end with a simple service layer that isn't hard to create, maintain or host. So far I have only worked with Java/Spring/Hibernate backend services which can take a little while to build and integrate (Grails is MUCH faster).

After about 100 pages I'm in interation 4 building an interesting RIA with a Rails backend that I can host on relatively inexpensive server if I wanted to. My only struggles thus far was getting MySQL going properly. But that was only because I forgot a step in installing it.

If you have little exposure to Rails and/or Flex and you feel at home on the command line as well as you do in an IDE like Eclipse, this is a great "project" book for you. I'd say you probably want a primer in Ruby, Rails and Flex before you get going but it is pretty easy follow and has a lot of free professional advice from someone that has obviously been around the block a few times. Peter is very upfront about some things that he has done in the book that should not be considered "best practice".

I am hoping to get some good insight how I might do something similar for Flex and Grails. Regardless, I am confident this is going to be a fun journey!

I wasn't sure whether a mixed-technologies book would be adequate for both reading and reference, especially with two technologies. As both a software engineer and a moonlighting instructor this book was an easy read from the start. Mr. Armstrong explores both Flex 3 and Rails 2 with enough background information on both technologies to get a reader ready to code--and that was just Chapter...err...Iteration 1. The second iteration begins with coding (Hello World) and it doesn't stop. This is a must for your coding library and makes a great textbook for students who enrolled in courses geared toward building web and Rich Internet Applications.

The author goes into great detail on how to efficiently get Rails and Flex working together. The book is updated for the latest version of Rails as well as the upcoming Flex 3 release. I've found the book easy to follow along with and enjoy the author's humor spread throughout the book.

As a developer I'm often tasked with making "things talk to each other". Typically if I can I'll use a tool like Flex Builder for a project and if I have a choice I'll pick Java, .NET or Ruby for the server back end - whatever is the best fit. This book only backed up my belief that Rails and Flex really do work very well together. I've learned a lot going through the code both on Rails and Flex.

I also liked how the author is continually refactoring the application (called "Pomodo"), that is where your learning kicks into overdrive. He uses the Cairngorm framework and even RubyAMF. I didn't have any experience in either up until this point. Now I can say I do and it all fits together nicely.

There have been a couple of other books on message passing, but most of them have been anchored to a particular operating system or language. This book is the first to offer a general treatment of messaging, as a way to merge disparate middleware installations.

At the end of the day, messaging technology is just another way to allow distributed code to interact. Blunden takes the time to compare and contrast messaging against other distributing computing techniques. The result is that the reader can understands the relative advantages and limitations of messaging, so that they can use the right tool for the right job.

At every turn, Blunden grounds his explanations using concrete examples, so that the reader has a solid frame of reference (I can appreciate the author's humorous 10-page implementation of a DCOM server, basically to demonstrate how awkward a distributed technology can be... it's no wonder DCOM faded away).

The author of this book has obviously seen combat in the trenches. The fact that he would discuss deployment requirements like auto-update and secure network communication is proof enough.

I particularly enjoyed the bits of storytelling that Blunden hides in between technical discussions. In one part, he talks about working at a company in the throes of Y2K conniptions: "Like a 15-year-old kid studying for an algebra test, the company that hired me had waited until the last minute to do its homework. In September of 1999, the CIO put down his copy of Fortune Magazine long enough to realize that something needed to be done. Angry customers might file lawsuits, which would ruin the CIO's plans for a weekend cottage in Bermuda."

This book does an impressive job of looking at a "niche" of computer science and analyzing it in the backdrop of contemporary production requirements. The book provides an extensive presentation of background theory, a 10,000+ line working system, lucid documentation, and a discussion of alternative improvements and approaches.

To demonstrate the cross-platform/cross-language feasibility of his distribution, the author offers three different client pieces (C, Java, and Perl). This is a round-trip explanation of messaging passing that does a conscientious job of covering all the bases.

This is a very instructive learning-by-implementing book, in the tradition of Tanenbaum's MINIX. Blunden walks one through an in-depth analysis and implementation of a real message passing server.

I'm a little put off, though, by the fact that I find 10 5-Star ratings for this book, all posted on the same date by the same reviewer. C'mon.

I bought this book with the expectation that the Bluebox message server would be a token implementation.

Whoa! Was I wrong; this book shows the full monty! It includes a message server engine, a log server, a database interface, a license server, and auto update engine, recovery facilities, and a heartbeat monitor. Fortunately, the 100 or so classes that make up the distribution are well documented and a user manual is included in the book. The last few sections of the book also have some interesting anecdotes that are worth reading.

One of the most difficult hurdles a QA new to performance testing can go through is shifting their testing methodology from specific to componenents to a balanced environment-wide perspective. This book helps guide the Architect or QA through the process of discovering HOW we look at metrics and WHY we use certain metrics over others. This is much more useful in the long run than rather just looking at WHAT to look at since this can vary depending on your specific infrastructure.

If your reading a RedBook on WebSphere Performance Tuning and you haven't yet figured out what your Peak Average Load is, your performance testing is doomed to fail. This book guides you on the right path to the methodology that will work for your testing. It provides test plan guidelines and even sample scripts. In addition, there are several guidelines for analysis and interpretation.

The book only requires a couple of things to be a truely complete performance testing guide in my opinion: More detailed information and guidelines for Performance Testing Failover situations and slightly more concise guide for scripting. For the type of sites that you'll use this book for, you'll most likely have more complicated scripts and script requirements.

Over all, this book provides a great introduction of the core concepts and outlines quite a few of the more overlooked requirements in this increasingly important field.

This book's title has "Java" in it (and book covers Java performance analysis very well), but large part of it is about web performance analysis approach and methodology that can be applied to non-Java web sites. This is a great resource and a must have for those who deals with performance of web sites. Simply look at the table of contents and you'll love it: http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0201844540/ref=sib_rdr_toc/104-1411948-5301507?%5Fencoding=UTF8&p=S00H#reader-link

It takes a comprehensive look at the java performance analysis. It is very good at describing common bottlenecks be in architect, hardware (load balancing) , user interface etc.

Ideas are well received by our team and book provide food for thought on diverse topics. We have continuous integration testing and continuous inspection (and adaptation) for performance testing and this book was very helpful.

This is an excellent book, providing thorough coverage of performance analysis. Although this book is aimed at Java based sites, it would serve as a good primer for anyone learning how to tune a website with dynamic content. The authors assume the reader has only basic familiarity with internet technologies, and explains concepts as needed. After providing a basic theoretical grounding, the authors illustrate the concepts with a case study, going from simple to complex.

The book is well-organized and thought out, and presents its information in an understandable, easy to follow fashion. I particularly like the inclusion of the test and capacity planning forms in the appendix. This gives readers the chance to put the information to work, instead of just giving case studies or presenting only theory.

A highly recommended and informational book.

The team of authors who wrote this book have two things going for them - in-depth knowledge of performance analysis, and, most importantly, the ability to impart that knowledge in a crystal clear manner.

I like the way this book starts out, showing the contrast between a bricks & mortar store and its online equivalent. This introduces the basics - throughput, transaction, page and user rates, response times and states. More than an easy to follow introduction, it contains all of the key elements of performance analysis, doled out in easy to understand chunks, and sets the stage for the rest of the book.

Every facet of a typical environment is covered, including Java server performance factors, external and internal factors related to networking, load balancers, protocol behavior, and Java internals. The chapter on performance profiles of common web sites is especially useful. Different site types are characterized in a set format that shows caching potential (of the site type), any special considerations, and specific performance testing considerations. This allows you to go directly to the type of site you are going to test, get the relevant information, then proceed to conduct the testing, which is covered in subsequent chapters.

The chapters on testing begin by showing how to develop the test plan, associated test scripts, and select the right tools to support the testing. The areas covered in these chapters are comprehensive. Actual test execution and results analysis are covered in equal detail, using examples and scenarios. One especially useful chapter is 13, Common Bottleneck Symptoms, which is useful to track the cause of observed results that do not match expected ones during testing.

This book goes beyond testing, though - it also covers capacity and performance planning, which is normally a discipline onto itself. Again, excellent advice and coverage of key points. The appendices are an invaluable collection of templates, worksheets and checklists.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It exemplifies top notch writing, is well illustrated, and is technically accurate, and based on proven approaches.

If only every technical book was written this well! Anyone who is working with Java and XML should have a copy of this book. Highly example driven with clear explanations, the author makes using XML in your Java programs a breeze. Even better, the author has a style that makes the book fun to read as you feel like you are learning all sorts of secrets from an XML insider.

The book starts with a quick introduction to XML and then gets into how to create XML documents in your programs. The first four chapters cover everything you need to know about creating XML whether it is for XML-RPC, SOAP, or simply to store in a file. The next section covers parsing XML documents. SAX and DOM are compared and then the next eight chapters discuss these two methods of parsing documents, explaining how to use them, comparing them, and helping you determine how to decide which technique to use for which situation. The section on DOM explains not just how to parse documents using DOM but also how to create new documents. The final chapters of the book cover JDOM, XPATH, and XSLT.

Did I mention that this book is full of examples? The author doesn't rely on simply explaining how something works or how to use a technology (even though his explanations are excellent), he has examples to demonstrate everything he discusses. Each example builds upon the previous example and makes learning the techniques easy and enjoyable.

This book is an excellent resource for combining these two technologies, XML and Java. The author starts with the assumption that the reader is conversant in XML and at least intermediate skill level with Java. The first chapter of the book serves as a XML refresher. The author uses this chapter to reach a common understanding of terms with the reader. The first part of the book covers using many of issues of managing XML from Java and introduces two XML based services, XML-RPC and SOAP.

The remainder of the book is devoted to the various APIs for parsing XML hence the subtitle "A Guide to SAX, DOM, JDOM, JAXP, and TrAX". Throughout the book the author creates clear code examples and very readable text. This serves to develop understanding and insight in reader. This particular technical topography is under continuous change. Adapting to these changes will be much easier after having read this book.

A lot of tips and "gotchas" are shared in the book, but it is arranged so that the developer grab what he needs or he can sit and camp awhile. The book text is available at the author's website, but I prefer to read the paper copy. If you are going to use XML and Java together, this book would be a good investment.

I really like reading this book. It is easy to read and understand. The author does a good job of describing the XML technologies related to JAVA. This book has a lot of code to analyze. This book is a must have for the experienced developer who wants to do JAVA with XML. I have a message for the experienced developer: THE CODE WILL CHALLENGE YOU; IT CHALLENGED ME!!!

Michael

This is definitely a valuable resource for anybody dealing with XML and Java, written by one of the best tech writers in town. The author covers in details a huge amount of topics and API, so many that you couldn't ask for more.
Be advised that some basic understanding of XML and intermediate Java skills are required to get the best out of this book

I bought this book when it first came out. I really enjoyed reading it. The book is well written. It has a lot useful code.
The author code that can be used in the real world of JAVA and XML. I liked the books section on JDOM. This book shows the differences between DOM and JDOM. Also, this book has a lot of information on SAX, DOM, JDOM, and it shows the differences when using each. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn JAVA and XML. Make sure you are an experienced developer before purchasing this book.

Michael

Couldn't wait to start reading this one after having read Mr. Simpson's first work, Until Death Do Us Part. This book was just as addictive. Mr. Simpson's style of writing is such that he brings you into the story physically somehow and you're wandering through the tale with the characters! This installment had me at the edge of my seat and once again got through this book in record time. You are missing out if you've not read this man's work. Bring on Unconditional Love!

Loved it! This was another page turner Mr. Simpson. He showed how at all elements of society were intertwined: corporate businesses, gangs, and academia. He weaved the paranoia of corporate business' love of money in the seemingly senseless killings of citizens. He showed how money and power are always an underlying evil. This takes a peek in how the internet is shaping the younger generation. Great development of the character Micah. He showed Micah's range of emotions and depth as a character. She is not just a killing machine gone wild. Great to have a woman kicking butt with no regrets. I also appreciate you keeping Bishop a true thug gentleman.

THRILLING and ADDICTIVE!!!! In his second book, the author clearly depicts how a woman can hold down a dangerous career, express her undying love for her man, while being the lovable, huggable and adorable mother to their two year old daughter. Micah's "bad girl" persona, coupled with her "love for Noah" is detailed in this thrill seeking, roller coaster ride you will experience in the new business partnership she has formed with Bishop (the bad boy). Their love/friendship for Noah is the ties that keep the new business partnership binded on a professional but more often brother/sister bickering level. The author has a "nack" for holding your interest, maintaining the mystery and thrill, while educating you on the "ways of the world". I read this book in one day and am now writing to Mr. Simpson's website to encourage the completion of his third book. WATCH OUT WORLD, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED..A TALENTED AUTHOR IS IN OUR MIST....Purchase the books and......ENJOY THE RIDE!!!!!

I could not put this book down from the frist page to the last. Can't wait for the 3rd book to be released. The persons in the book draw you in and you feel like you are going along with them for the ride. Please read the 1st book from Gregory Simpson and you will be drawn into this series!

This was one of the most refreshing books I have read in a long time. The characters were real and I was not only able to visualize them but I was able to identify with their circumstances. Mr. Simpson takes you on a journey of real life, and keeps your mind working. It was hard to put it down , very easy read and fast paced.
I can't wait until the next book!!!!

A good read on many levels-a well paced story,complex characters,and extremely well written. On another level it provides a glimpse of the inner , sometimes darker regions of the human phyche. Mariah, the story driving protagonist and villainous person, can finally really be perceived as a victim whose choices seem preordained. Other characters are also driven to fulfill their part in a prewritten scenario. Several different threads join the characters in a facinating web where nothing is what it appears to be. I highly recommend it.

Being a staunch believer in multiple Dimensions, I was drawn in to the psyche of Moriah. Ms. Van Heyningen skillfully wove the mysteries of unseen forces into the obsessions and behaviors of, what I saw as, her central figure. At each point in which I thought I had this character figured out, a new twist revealed yet another possibility. The Whitebridge Web is a novel that will compel you to the final page. For me, it went beyond good triumphing over evil, but more into the world of "Karma" and a strange sympathy for the evil Moriah.
Stepping out of her past role as Journalist where research and delving into mysteries must be part of the job desription, Ms. Van Heyningen has expanded on her ability and draws in and embraces the fans of Thriller/Paranormal Suspense. Her own life and experiences would make a 'story' in themselves!

Susan Haley, Author
RAINY DAY PEOPLE
FIBERS IN THE WEB

The author successfully developed her characters to fit in with the suspense of the storyline. As you turn each page, you will find it hard to put it down. A mystery story with a twist and a touch of a "Murder She Wrote" home town feeling. I see a TV series in the making?

This was a fantastic book, full of suspense and intrigue. It is a psychic tale wrapped around a morality tale. The characters are real and come to life with clarity. The book is full of action but without the vulgarity and sex descriptions of so many today. I recommend it to anyone between the ages of 18 and 80.

For fans of paranormal reading, Whitebridge Web is a must. Ms van Heyningen has done a masterful job of fleshing out her characters, while keeping you in suspense over the outcome. The plot is complicated, keeping you on the edge of your chair, until the last page.

Highly recommend this as a good summer read.

I am a third grader in Houston. I'm not a computer geek but I'm realinterested in technology and know a lot about computers for a kid myage. I love to read as much as I like to play sports. I think theInternet is one of the greatest inventions of all time. It's sort of the Michael Jordan of inventions.

Willie & the WWW is an incredible book. I usually read chapter books. This picture book is extremely cool and kids in all the grades here read it. Mr. Geissen was invited to our school and spoke about his book. I'll always remember meeting him. Some famous authors come to our school. But a lot of their presentations are boring. And these authors are usually sort of stuck up. The digital presentation Mr. Geissen did was awesome. Our librarian told me he is younger than most of the authors who write kid's books. I think this is probably why he is more with it when it comes to knowing a lot about the Net, and he knows how to talk to kids. He's just a nice guy. He told us all that the attention he's gotten because he came up with idea for Willie & the WWW, the ideas for illustrations, and wrote it doesn't make him special or better than anyone else.

Mr. Geissen talked to my dad and me about computer technology and writing and answered all the questions I had. Mr. Geissen isn't a computer geek either. He has written about computer technology for a long time and knows a lot about it. He said he included the basketball parts in the book because he loves this sport and has played basketball and tennis almost all his life. He's the only author who has come out to our school who can dunk a basketball.

I think he should write a sequel to Willie. He told me he didn't plan to write a sequel. That he just wrote Willie & the WWW for his son. He has gotten a lot of emails from parents and teachers asking for sequels. He said he would probably come out with two more Willie books after he publishes a chapter book called "The Blue Leaf Sled". This is going to be an awesome book. He read part of it at our school. My Mom and Dad encouraged me to write this review to tell other kids about the Willie book. They think other kids and parents will like this book as much as I do. And my Mom and Dad also want a sequel.

This book is a big hit at my daughter's elementary school school, where the teachers, library staff, parents and the community have worked together to incorporate the Internet into the curriculum as a resource for teachers and children.

The author contrasts the themes of reality and virtual reality against a backdrop of the digital frontier of the Internet, and uses the techniques of traditional fables along the way. My only criticism is I think the publisher would have produced better art by using an artist who specializes in digital imaging techniques to produce illustrations that were less static. This is a story that could use more complex images, which better convey movement and better accompany the vivid imagery the writer uses.

I highly recommend the book, though. Particularly after seeing the teachers' and kids' reaction to it. The Web is a new frontier. And the space metaphors and the character of Evelyn, the astronaut who advances the plot (and seems to be based on Amelia Earhart), fit perfectly with the book's theme of moderation and the need for a healthy balance between things in the digital world and the "real" world. I think this is an important issue for parents raising kids today. Overall, this is an imaginative and memorable book for elementary kids of all ages.

As a parent of two and a founder of a Silicon Valley-based startup Internet business, this unique book caught my eye. It's the only picture book for elementary children I've seen that features a Web theme.

The story captured the imagination of my children. And I was surpised to find myself reading a picture book on the Internet that was entertaining for young kids, yet did not condescend to them (or me). This book cleverly provides a window into current and future information age themes -- the very issues we in Silicon Valley confront each day and that are profoundly changing our society.

I highly recommend this book, particularly to people interested in prompting their children to think about the pros and cons of technology, the choices technology requires us to make, and how we can best use it in our lives.

I'm a children's literature professor and our students use this book to introduce students at elementary schools in Los Angeles to Internet concepts. The children love it. The conversations it stimulates are wonderful! The author cleverly uses many metaphors to address issues the Net is raising in society. Often children pick up on more of the metaphors than the adults who read it. I recommend this book to parents and educators who are looking for a good way to start interesting discussions among children about the Web.

As a librarian at a large library in NYC whose been fortunate enough to have the resources to acquire a wide and comprehensive collection of wonderful children's picture books, I and my colleagues whom I most respect tend to be reserved in our praise of new picture books. Today, many of the best visual artists are producing striking and inventive books. They now grace the coffee tables of fashionable homes and corporate offices. All this, in my opinion, is wonderful. For all their artistry and polish, though, even the large publisher's top-list picture books often fall short when it comes to combining artistry with an intelligent and meaningful narrative on important current events.

Willie & the World Wide Web is gaining a cult status among children's librarians, especially among librarians who embrace the responsible use of the Internet, for a good reason. The author uses lucid prose to explore the key issues that are the subject of much debate as the Internet becomes such a powerful force in society. Don't turn to this book for the sort of stunning fine-art illustrations that are on the level of picture books illustrated by the well-known visual artists who work in the picture book field. The images here are fine, though, and complement the text as they should. I read a feature article in which the publisher said future editions will include more sophisticated illustrations. The total effect of the first edition of this book is what makes it special.

First, I and a group of elementary children found ourselves enjoying the whimsy and subtle humor of this book. On a closer reading, I saw the author had carefully woven a thread through this story that explored issues ranging from the complexities of reality verses virtual reality, the seemingly infinite possibilities the Internet provides for innovation, the addictive power of interactive technologies, the convergence of new media and traditional media, the Net's great potential as an educational resource, privacy in the information age, the pros and cons of electronic commerce and new forms of global communication, the fact that the Internet can and is being used for good as well as bad, and that our society is being challenged to confront a number of new and difficult choices as this technology becomes more powerful and pervasive by the day.

In my view, Mr. Geissen wrote this book to say we are in store for a great adventure. He poses many of the large questions. And he poses them well and in an engaging way that intrigues his young audience. How will we respond? How will our kids respond? I couldn't agree more that these issues need to be discussed among elementary children. The author challenges children to consider these issues and ask questions. And with a little good guidance, the children who read this book do. Their insightful questions and answers about Internet issues are ones adults should pause to consider.

The book's use of the motifs such as outer space images and Amelia Earhart's airplane are creative and wise. The story ends right where it should, with a relevant inversion of the "was-it-all-a-dream?" technique of traditional fables. That all this is done within the context of 32 pages of fiction, which doesn't waste words, and that appeals to computer-savvy kids and stimulates their imagination is what makes this book stand out from the crowd. Every library should have a copy of this remarkable picture book for children.

Hello everyone ! I bought this book cause I need it !
Not only for a better understanding of max tools but for the entire process of making of a good 3d movie animation !
Well,this book acomplish its purpose !The book pass through every stages of this process !Congratulations for the author and for his clarity expositions !

I just received my copy, this is not much of a review but I have a question, i will update this as soon as i have my review.
My question: is it normal that the book comes with 2 cd-roms? And why are on the 2 cd-roms the same data?

This is a great book on completing a project, it helps in every respect, lots of tutorials, references, information, examples etc....
One thing is not mentioned, to complete these projects, you will need more then 3DS Max 6, you will need to have Adobe PREMIER to make/edit the movie, for special effects & more, you will need COMBUSTION 3, even though it is not necessary but it will be essential for a complete animation, you will need to have a sound editing software like Cakewalk's SONIC or something similar and of course Adobe Photoshop.
I am very happy with the book, and have already started planning & sketching a storyboard plus modeling the environment I will use, my characters are almost ready, but because of this fantastic book, I didn't know about the sound editing and the movie editing outside of 3DS Max requiered to finish a movie, now with this book I will complete my animation project.

This book is a very good surprise. It's very complete, well explained, very clear.

That book contains exacly what is said on the cover.. So no deception possible! (An exemple that Sanford Kennedy shoud follow because his book about 3ds max 5 is terrible, a total desaster.)

So this is the book to buy! Thank you Mr Barret Fox.

He shows how he developed, boarded, modeled, textured, rigged & animated the 3 figures shown on the cover. He doesn't wander off on side issues, nor does he gloss over the tricky parts. The book comes with a CD of usable models and scenes so you can see what and how he did it.


One word of warning is the author assumes the reader is advanced on the subject - don't get this book if you need a basic how-to animate with computer book.

I have nothing to say except thanks.With the help of this book,my skill of java problem had been improved to a higher level.I will recommend it to my friends who are studying java and also are meeting the problems that I met.

I enjoyed tinkering around with the code examples in the book. Lots of neat ideas and the book filled in the gaps where I was curious about how some things work.

I've never quite been able to figure out why this excellent little book never caught on. Over the years, Herbert Schildt has been one of the most excellent writers on computer science and programming that I have found, and this book is no exception. Both the narrative and the code are excellent.

The only thing that I can figure is that because this book does not target a particular audience - say those interested in enterprise applications for example - that it never really sold well. It is true, Mr. Schildt is all over the map in his applications - with such varied subjects as a recursive descent parser and also a language interpreter from programming language theory, from the world of web applications a download manager and also a web crawler, and from the world of artificial intelligence a problem solver. To me, though, that is part of this book's appeal. However, if you did not have an academic computer science background I can see how you might not be interested in the programming language and AI parts of the book.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to become a better Java programmer and does not mind spending some time looking at applications that might not be of immediate need to them. Especially if you have an academic computer science background and already know something about programming language theory and artificial intelligence, this book should be very interesting and very helpful.

I've buyed the book today ( in spanish ), and, even not being a skilled Java programmer, I've enjoyed the first chapters. It resembles me the excelent work that Herbert Schildt does in Dr. Dobbs Magazine, a lot of years ago ( sorry, Herb ), and when I saw the getToken() method into the code, this inmediatelly remembers me the "Build your own C interpreter" article, which I've loved it. After five years of "boring" network's administration, I've make the decission of to get more involved into Java developement, and take the Herbert and James's book was the right choice to me. By the way, this is not a beginner's book, but with a little effort, and a middle knowledge of Java and OOP, you are on the way. The best money I've spended.

What I liked about this book was the fact that the author not only implemented the back end code, but showed how easy it is to put a quick Swing UI on it. The ability to write a complete, good looking application is often missing in most books. I think this should encourage more people to write quick UIs for the various utilities they code in Java. It encouraged me to go back to some old command line programs I use and throw a quick UI on them. Of course, that's not the point of the book. His intention was to show how Java can solve traditional computer science and IT problems. He succeeds at that.

My only complaints are:

1. the book hasn't been updated to Java SE 5 yet.
2. the use of Swing by the author is incorrect in my opinion. I think there's a few times the author doesn't handle the event dispatch thread correctly. This could send people off in the wrong direction with Swing.
3. the coding style doesn't exactly match the Java Style Guide published by Sun. Some people might like this, but I think it's a problem with many books.
4. The code in the book is not syntax highlighted. Most editors do this quite effectively and I think more books should start doing it.