I just finished reading an advance copy of Beginning POJOs: From Novice to Professional, the new book by Brian Sam-Bodden.
Missourians -- residents of the "Show Me State" -- are sure to appreciate this unusual book on lightweight Java development with "Plain Old Java Objects." In a fast-paced 10 chapters, Brian Sam-Bodden builds a single complete application, all the way through. Believe it or else, he starts with a detailed design, then talks about fundamental tools like Eclipse and Ant, and before you know it he's implemented the persistence and business tiers. Screenshots and detailed instructions will help you get your environment installed and set up in no time.
I just finished reading Professional Ajax, the new book by Nicolas Zakas, Jeremy McPeak, and Joe Fawcett. Call it what you want: Ajax, Web 2.0, or just business as usual, these authors know how to get the job done.
I'm continuing to clean out my "to review" pile, and I've come to Beginning Python: From Novice to Professional, by Magnus Lie Hetland.
The Python language is named after the famed "Monty Python" comedy troupe. This book takes these origins to heart, using Monty Python quotes as a framework on which to build a quirky, fun Python language tutorial.
Apart from the idiosyncratic humor, the structure of the book is fairly conventional, with a quick start followed by some language chapters, a few chapters on objects, a chapter on exceptions, a chapter on testing, and one on GUIs. The second half of the book is a series of tutorial projects. As with many books of this type, the neat division into chapters leaves the language presentation a little fragmented at times.
I liked the format of the project chapters. There are clearly marked sections containing motivation and prerequisites, so that the reader understands the intent of each project before reading further. Many of the projects are developed iteratively, and the distinct iterations are again marked with large headings, making it easy to follow the progress of the project.
If you're interested in learning the Python language and appreciate Monty Python's brand of humor, you'll enjoy this book.
I'm cleaning out my pile of books that I ought to have reviewed some time ago. On the top of the pile is "Beginning J2ME: From Novice to Professional", by Sing Li and Jonathan Knudsen.
J2ME is a jungle of configurations, profiles, and APIs. A beginner's book might soar over the jungle like an exotic bird, pretty but insubstantial. Such a book would see everything from a 20,000 foot view. You'd see the lay of the land, but wouldn't get your feet wet.
Another approach would be for the authors to grab their machetes and start hacking their way in, following a particular path. You'd get all dirty and sweaty and get a lot of experience, but not necessarily understand exactly how you got there.
This book decidedly takes this latter path. After a brief introductory chapter, it concentrates on the core APIs and the most commonly implemented configuration and device profile. Although there's plenty of practical information on tools and lots of code examples, as a reader unfamiliar with J2ME, and someone who doesn't own a Java-enabled phone, I felt disoriented. As an introduction to J2ME programming, I felt the book was lacking in background and motivations.
Striking a balance between the two approaches I described might be a fool's errand. Therefore you would probably need one book from each category to really get involved in J2ME development.