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A couple of years ago, when we were scrabbling around the Java web sites trying to piece together the whole picture of what was actually delivered, real-world, ready-to-go about the Java programming environment, we really could have used Advanced Techniques for Java Developers, Revised Edition, by Daniel J. Berg and Steven Fritzinger, for an overview. Why? Because the Java world contains a bewildering array of technologies and half-technologies. It gets hard to sort out the trees from the shrubs.
Consequently, Berg and Fritzinger have come to the conclusion most programmers do who struggle through this stuff head-first -- that what you have to grasp onto quickly after the core is JFC, JDBC, JavaBeans, JNI, Java Media, networking, RMI, distributed apps, and security. Also, you want to know what the possibilities are for pure-Java platforms like JavaOS (Hint: Seen any Lisp machines or Forth engines lately?) and Java web servers. Advanced Techniques for Java Developers, Revised Edition, which might better have been called All The Stuff Outside of Core Java that Makes Java Useful, Viewed Broadly and Briefly, introduces all these topics pretty well as regards to the Java 2 era.
Technologically, Advanced Techniques for Java Developers is most readable when Berg and Fritzinger are instructing and explaining. Around Chapter 14, they start having raptures about net computers, after which the book tends more and more towards boosterish speculation.
In truth, several people wrote this book, by contributing individual chapters. The chapters I liked best were written by techies. However, I wasn't crazy about other chapters because of their syrupy evangelism. Chapter 15, for instance, was authored by a Sun employee described as a "tactical engineer." Maybe that's a gloss for tactful engineer, but clearly in this instance it denotes a liaison to marketing. Textbook as infomercial is not new in this industry, but again, they could have saved a few trees.
-- Jack Woehr
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Explanation of ERCB rating scale: No stars = unacceptable, 1 Star = marginal, 2 Stars = average, 3 Stars = above average, 4 Stars = exceptional.