Professional Java Tools for Extreme Programming: Ant, XDoclet, JUnit, Cactus, and Maven (Programmer to Programmer) (ISBN 0764556177) Book Reviews 1-12 Sorted By Most Recent, at VeryWellSaid.com

Almost useless now

A majority of the content are out of date now. A typical example is the chapter for Maven that is almost useless. Instead of reading this book, I'd rather go Google.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-08-26 05:41:29 EST)

04-18-06

3\3

Don't buy this book !!

I am an experienced Java developer and new to the J2EE field.
I bought this book to learn how to use the open-source tools with the XP attitude. Mostly for the XDoclet and JUnit.
Well, the examples are not so bad.
There are SO MANY ERRORS *in the code itself*. It happens, I know.
So I entered the web site to check for more information. Nothing !!
No errata and the book's forum is not active AT ALL.
I downloaded the source code for the examples. Half of the book's examples is not there. The web site (and the forum) won't mention anything about it.
The other half is filled with errors.

This is not a professional book !
I did learn something from it. A little bit XDoclet and which tools I should learn and know. But that's all.

WROX publication lost a customer. I won't buy any books they publish.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2007-05-22 07:14:57 EST)

10-13-04

4\9

Don't waste your time

I bought this book hoping for a quick jumpstart to getting a simple xdoclet/struts app up and running.

The example code from the "Building Struts Apps with Ant and XDoclet" is so bad, it's a disgrace. I spent more time figuring out why their code wasn't even close to working, than I would have if I had just skipped their book altogether. It couldn't work, it never worked, and it shouldn't have been published.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2006-06-30 13:15:29 EST)

09-28-04

5\5

Nice Surprise

I ordered this book based on the title and the preview content here on Amazon (I couldn't find it at the B&N near my work). I was very pleasantly surprised at the practical, nuts-and-bolts approach that the authors took to XP and the tools in this book. I was also extremely pleased at how well the authors showed the integration of these tools into a sophisticated and professional development environment. This is not easy, especially when working with a wide range of tools which includes
* CVS
* Ant
* XDoclet
* JUnit
* JUnitPerf
* Bugzilla
* JMeter
* Cactus
* jcoverage
* Swing testing tools like Jemmy
* Maven
* Anthill

And even though all these tools are O.S., some projects are very territorial (eg they consider other tools to be the competition) so just reading the docs will not always help you choose the right tool for the right job or learn how to use the tools together.

The code I downloaded from the Wrox site was a little rough (some missing files), but the version I downloaded last week was *much* better and has solved all the earlier problems I was having. I'm glad the authors were responsive and willing to release fixes. Great stuff!

(Review Data Last Updated: 2006-06-30 13:15:29 EST)

06-07-04

4\4

a solid start for beginners

Seriously, I can't find any other book right now that lays Maven out in such an easy to approach way. All the material online is reference based entirely and my fingers are practically bleeding from digging through google every five seconds. If you've never setup Maven before, buy this book while you still have your hair.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2006-06-30 13:15:29 EST)

05-10-04

6\9

Excellent reference for open-source tools

I bought this book mostly because I am fairly new to open-source development and was looking for a good reference to tools such as Ant, JUnit, Cactus, and Maven. These chapters were concise and had plenty of supporting examples. I also liked the fact that the book provides plenty of tips, and has references to good practices. I definitely recommend it to less experienced developers, or to those looking to have a better understanding of open-source tools.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2006-06-30 13:15:30 EST)

05-07-04

6\9

Tons of Typos

This book is a convenient way to get a decent introduction to Java tools because all of the information is condensed into one book. However, there is nothing in here that you can't read online for free if you take the time to find it. I am really angry that I paid $40 for a book that is full of typos. There are literally typos on every other page. I have never encountered so many typos in a book before this one. The typos are especially troublesome because they often occur in the examples so if you are unfamiliar with the syntax of the new tool being taught you will get unexplainable errors when the bad examples don't work for you. Print out online tutorials, this book is a waste of money.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2006-06-30 13:15:30 EST)

11-27-03

2\3

very useful book

I found this book very useful because it filled up some gaps in my programming practices. For a long time I avoided to learn Ant and other open source tools because their documentation and usage if any look so intimidating. But now with big project looming over me I decided to give it a try.
The book not only helps to start with Ant, JMeter and JUnit but also shows mechanics of packaging and deployment of complex enterprise application.
I substracted one star because the book does not use more accessible application server and database.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2006-06-30 13:15:30 EST)

09-09-03

5\6

Somewhat misnamed, but still extremely useful

You can happily ignore the main title of this book. Sure there's a nod toward extreme programming, but that's not what this book is really all about. This book is a fine introduction to a whole bunch of really useful tools to boost your Java (and especially J2EE) programming. And all the tools can be downloaded, source code and all, for free!

There are too many tools to list here, but they include the best-of-breed Ant build system, JUnit, HTTPUnit, ServletUnit and Cactus test frameworks, load and performance analysers and some great libraries for interacting with other servers.

Two major test cases are carried through the book to show the benefits of each approach. Each tool covered gets at least a chapter of tutorial, and some of the major ones also get an appendix of API and configuration information.

This book was almost too useful to review. It's been open on my desk from almost the minute I got it and has greatly improved many aspects of my development process. If you want to get up to speed quickly and practically on a load of useful, powerful, tools - get this book. Everyone I've shown it to has wanted their own copy ...

(Review Data Last Updated: 2006-06-30 13:15:30 EST)

08-21-03

9\18

A book for beginners at best

This book is not practicing eXtreme Programming as anyone that does XP would recognize it. Instead it seems to take that stance that just using the tools that have come to be associated with XP - means you are doing XP. Instead, it is nothing more than an attempt to "jump on the XP bandwagon" and get some more shelf space for the book by putting XP in the title.

Aside from the obvious padding at the back (there is probably about 300 actual pages or work) the book is decently put down. The code is easy to read (although it doesn't make use of well-known best practices) and the author's style is only slightly annoying.
Most of the code actually compiled with few changes, which is something you cannot say about many programming books. But considering what the author is working on this isn't a great achievement in programming books.

Still. While I rate this book as only 1 star - if the capsule would have limited its writeup purely to EJB Web Designers then I would say this is a 3-star book. Since they don't mention what a limited selection this book really represents I have to rate it on its overall usefulness.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2006-06-30 13:15:30 EST)

07-23-03

6\7

Nice consolidated overview and reference

This short text (340 pages, remainder is API reference) contains enough information to get you up to speed quickly with some valuable tools. Developers and project managers alike will shine by adding automated build, test, and reporting tools to their repertoire, and I certainly can't complain about that.

I would have expected a more thorough job of tying the tools back to Extreme Programming, but those not interested in XP or those already familiar with XP will appreciate the "down to business" style. Much of the sample code is too simplistic to be helpful, and I found the case study to be much less valuable than others have suggested, but both provide enough context to whet one's appetite. Most of these tools have excellent documentation anyway, and this book serves its purpose well: an adequate introduction to some great productivity tools.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2006-06-30 13:15:30 EST)

06-17-03

1\2

Buy this Book Only if you want to look Good at Work