The Pragmatic Craftsman :: Simplicity from complexity : by Stanley Kubasek ::

J2EE Design and Development
by Rod Johnson
ISBN 0764543857
Date Read 10/2004

My Rating

I really liked this book, but after two months of reading it (700 pages), I’m happy to be finished. That’s my general feeling now. But I can tell you one thing, Rod Johnson’s book is the best book on J2EE I have read.

If you are a J2EE/Java developer, then this book is a must read for you. This book is loaded with practical issues. Rod doesn’t only talk about good features of J2EE, he tells you what the bad ones are and why you should not use them (i.e., EJB).

Rod Johnson is a true J2EE guru. He’s also a good OO developer/architect. You know why I know that? Because he stresses that in this book. He’s a proponent of flexible, maintainable, testable, least-complex, and robust designs. He gives you couple examples of design patterns. All of this in a very convincing, argumentative manner. It almost seems like talking to another person.

I really liked the first five chapters, where he talks about designing J2EE projects and concepts behind it. He has one chapter just devoted to testing, which he’s a big proponent of. He talks about different risks and choices, about different OO design issues, and coding standards. Very useful and practical information. He then, beyond chapter five, talks about different beans, DAOs, MVC design, and profiling. The two chapters on MVC are great as well.

As you can see, I liked this book. However, like any book, this book is not perfect. The one thing I think could have been improved is the use of examples. I like to learn by examples. Rod, though, he showed examples, they were taken out of context — they weren’t the full listings. That’s confusing to me. Makes it harder to read. One other thing, the author’s writing style is not that catchy, if boring at times. At times, because other times, it’s very good. Practical.

Overall, I’d give this book 4.5 / 5 stars. I highly recommend it if you are a Java developer. If you want to increase your developemnt toolbox and knowledge, read it.