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

Effective Java
by Joshua Bloch
ISBN 0201310058
Date Read 4/2005

My Rating

Let me ask you a simple question? Have you programmed in Java for more than a year or two? If no, than this book might not be for you. On the other hand, if you’ve been programming in Java, why haven’t you read this book? Seriously. Why haven’t you? How about you, Stas. I know. I know. I’ve been programming in Java for 5+ years and I read this book last month. I should have read it sooner. Much sooner. Anyway, I read it, so I’ll tell you why you should read it as well.

The Foreword of the book sums up the book very nicely:

Nice job, Mr. Bloch. Very nice work. I rate it 5 stars.

Like I said, I’ve had decent exposure to Java over the years, but when I was reading this book, I was constantly telling myself: Wow. This is cool. This is a neat way of doing things. How come I did not come across this earlier.

Mr. Bloch shows you how you can effectively use Java. He does not cover everything, but the areas he covers are really helpful. Plus, he writes good English: easy to read and down to earth (I wish more authors were writing like that).

The following topics are covered in the book:
• Creating and Destroying Objects
• Methods Common to All Objects
• Classes and Interfaces
• Methods
• General Programming
• Exceptions
• Threads
• Serialization

Read it and you will be a better Java programmer.

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.

Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering
by Robert L. Glass
ISBN 0321117425
Date Read 2004

My Rating

Want a quick overview of what software engineering is? Want a short book that will tell you what works and what doesn’t work in software engineering? Want a book that’s written by one of the best IT writers?

Look no further: you’ve got it all in this concise, 220-pages book that will become a software-engineering classic. Yes, this book will join the ranks of Mythical Man-Month, Peopleware, and others. This is not a how-to book, but rather factual information about the state of software-engineering. You’ll get 50 facts from areas like management, quality, life-cycle, and more; plus you’ll get 10 fallacies about pretty much the same areas.

Robert Glass created a masterpiece. This book will open your eyes. It should be a required reading by every software engineer. We could all benefit from Glass’s extensive research.

One thing I found very interesting. You’ve all heard that a best programmer is 10 times as productive as the worse one. Glass, in his Fact #2, says that “The best programmers are up to 28 times better than the worst programmers.” How about that?

All in all, a must read. I loved those small, 2-3 pages long chapters with resources listed at the end of each one.