I have to admit, the Ant book is a pleasure to read. I didn't have a particular reason to learn ant -- I could get by for what I knew -- but there really is a lot more to the book. The philosophy on how to handle builds makes sense.
Mark --- Michael Yuan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > I wrote a book on Ant with Erik Hatcher last year > (product placement:java > > development with ant, http://manning.com/antbook). > You can look at our > > progress through Ant's CVS log and the bugzilla > system: we found oodles > > I found Erik and Steve's ANT book excellent. Before > I read that book, I > was wondering how someone could write a 700 page > book on a simple tool > like ANT. Well, as it turns out, the book is much > more than ANT. It is a > mini-J2EE (as well as Open Source tools/frameworks) > tutorial and > everything is nicely tied together using ANT. A > chapter of that book > discusses Axis. I wish it could discuss Sun's > JAX-RPC too. > > Anyway, I highly recommend that book. Manning has > been publishing a lot of > excellent books these days. > > cheers > Michael > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Read Michael Yuan's technology articles > http://www.enterprisej2me.com/articles.php > Dr. Dobbs Journal, JavaWorld, IBM developerWorks and > more ... > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > On Wed, 12 Mar 2003, Steve Loughran wrote: > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Paris Apostolopoulos" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2003 13:05 > > Subject: RE: Web Services book > > > > > > > > >I should point out that some of the Irani and > Bashar is wrong, because > > those bits in Axis havent ever worked. Example: > Global Fault handling > > and lifecycles. If they'd >>>> >written code to > test these things, they > > would have noticed. The fact that they didnt, > worries me. The source is > > there, why didnt they delve into it? > > > > >�hat is true but its not the only book around > that happens to have > > invalid and bad code..I can mention several other > examples .Especially > > when it comes to the AXIS world where still things > are being developed > > and the web services world is still 'under > construction' , then it might > > be a bit normal. But I agree with you they shoould > have tested the > > code..some of their mistakes in the code are > quite...bad. > > > > > > In the open source world there is no such thing as > stability. in > > particularly, with point releases on a regular > basis and the new source > > visible, books visibly date faster than books > against closed source, even if > > the effective lifespan is the same. (i.e. a book > about .net1.0 is 100% > > accurate till .net1.1 ships, whereas OSS books > slowly decay) > > > > But at the same time, there is an opportunity > > 1. you can see what is changing and revise the > book to match, as you write > > it > > 2. you can file bugreps easily > > 3. you can fix things as you go along > > > > I wrote a book on Ant with Erik Hatcher last year > (product placement: java > > development with ant, http://manning.com/antbook). > You can look at our > > progress through Ant's CVS log and the bugzilla > system: we found oodles of > > issues and inconsistencies. We could have written > about them, but it was > > often easier to fix the bug as that benefits more > people. Oft times we'd > > write about something, then go back and fix it and > rewrite stuff. Then other > > people would change things and we'd have to > rewrite it. by the time we'd > > finished we'd been through every class in the 150K > line project, edited > > their java doc comments and generally struggled to > keep up to date with > > changes. But the end result was we froze the code > on the day ant1.5 shipped, > > and the process we used to generate the reference > appendix is going to be > > the future of ant's autogenerated documentation: > > > http://nagoya.apache.org/gump/javadoc/ant/proposal/xdocs/build/docs/manual/ > > > > In comparison the other books on ant (by ORA and > sams) went for the rewrite > > of the documentation tactic, which takes a lot of > drudge work and (in my > > biased opinion) doesnt add as much value. So the > ORA ant book came out in > > may, six-eight weeks before ant1.5, yet was based > on ant1.4. That was the > > wrong move, and you can see it in their amazon > sales ranking, which is 1/10 > > ours. But the third book, the sams one, is > (mostly) up to date with ant1.5, > > yet it gets completely ignored, even though I do > think it is better than the > > oreilly book. People do make brand driven choices, > when they are not always > > appropriate. > > > > >>I hope Oreilly will have a book about Axis too! > > >>They are, but that doesnt guarantee quality. It > guarantees some sales > > >regardless of quality, but does not mean that it > will be the perfect > > >book. That depends on the authors. > > > > >Well I tend to belive that Orelliy has more Java > oriented books in > > >comparison with WROX and to tell you the truth > most of my Java related > > >books happen to be Oreilly publications! > > > > I would recommend you should be ruthless and judge > each book on its own > > merits. > > > > > > >I have read 2 other books from > > >Oreilly about Web services (Java and SOAP , > Building Web services with > > >SOAP) , they were not bad but a bit abstract in > some cases! > > > > There are at least two members of the Axis dev > community working on axis > > books, including James Snell. As long as the > authors are good at explaining > > themselves, they should be good books as the > developers dont just understand > > the 'what' of axis, they will understand the why > -the design decisions, the > > future options, etc, etc. > > > > > > >Anyway its not bad to have a range of available > books about > > >AXIS..especially for the newbies.Because right > now IMHO,..for the > > >absolute newbie 'AXIS the next generation of > SOAP' is the best > > >available book! > > > > I agree. > > > > > > > __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Web Hosting - establish your business online http://webhosting.yahoo.com
