Alexandre Polozoff’s Bookshelf

Introduction

Over time I have been collecting books of various types. Most have become useless, as technology has progressed. The bookshelf I had just 5 years ago is no longer. Gone are the CMIP, TMN and X/Open books that my life revolved around.

Books with a checkmark are recommended for anyone working with J2EE technology.

The Java Books

These books deal specifically with the Java language and J2EE technology.

ü “Java in a Nutshell” by David Flanagan; Publisher O’Reilly.

I have the third edition. This is a very good book and works as my Java reference when I need to look up a particular point.

ü “Java Examples in a Nutshell” by David Flanagan; Publisher O’Reilly.

The companion to “Java in a Nutshell.” For beginner Java programmers this book is a handy way to learn Java by example. Though I could quibble with some of the particular examples, overall, the book is good.

v “Exam Cram Java 2” by Bill Brogden; Publisher Certification Insider Press.

I know, it looks like I’m cheating for the Java 2 certification exam. But I actually find this book to be a great quick reference manual on Java trivia.

The J2EE Books

In this classification are books specific to J2EE technologies. One could argue all of them are required bookshelf texts. But if you never work with Enterprise Java Beans why have that on your shelf? You’ll have to pick and choose from the lot yourself as I find them all invaluable.

ü “Professional JSP” by Karl Avedal, et al Publisher: WROX.

My first book on JSP technology. Very thorough, lots of examples, and a complete reference at the back. Also covers servlets, EJB, JNDI, JDBC, XML, XSLT and WML though not in depth.

v “Professional Java Server Programming” by Danny Ayers, et al; Publisher: WROX.

I found this book to rehash a lot of subjects in the other texts. But, it does have some sections that, if you need them, are invaluable. They are JavaMail, RMI, CORBA, and JavaSpaces.

ü “Enterprise JavaBeans Using VisualAge for Java” by Kyle Brown, et al; Publisher IBM.

This book will be out any day now. I’ve read the pre-release and it is good.

ü “Enterprise Java Beans” by Richard Monson-Haefel; Publisher O’Reilly.

My bible when I’m writing EJBs. Simply no other text covers it all like this one. Be sure to get the latest edition as EJB is evolving much too quickly.

v “Java and XML” by Brett McLaughlin; Publisher O’Reilly.

A good book on XML technology.

ü “Java Network Programming” by Elliotte Rusty Harold; Publisher O’Reilly.

If you’re a networking addict and love socket programming like me this is the ultimate book. You can get all the information in this book on the internet. I really like having it in one bound volume that fits in my overnight bag.

Books on theory, design and algorithms

Object-oriented programming has been developing it’s own nomenclature over the years. What used to be an algorithm is now a pattern. What is a pattern will someday become something else. The problem is that to understand a lot of text and articles out there you have to speak the lingo. Thankfully, this is a short list of books since they require time to digest.

ü “Design Patterns; Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software” by Erich Gamma, et al; Publisher Addison-Wesley.

This has become the definitive book on object-oriented design. The examples are coded in C++.

ü “Refactoring; Improving the Design of Existing Code” by Martin Fowler; Publisher Addison-Wesley.

Another example of how to approach object-oriented development.

ü “Writing Effective Use Cases” by Alistair Cockburn; Publisher Addison-Wesley.

What is a use case? What goes into writing them? A definitive text.