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Search in Book Reviews

The ACCU passes on review copies of computer books to its members for them to review. The result is a large, high quality collection of book reviews by programmers, for programmers. Currently there are 1949 reviews in the database and more every month.
Search is a simple string search in either book title or book author. The full text search is a search of the text of the review.
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Title:
Java Beans for Real Programmers
Author:
Peter Wayner
ISBN:
0 12 738670 X
Publisher:
AP Professional
Pages:
224pp
Price:
£29-95
Reviewer:
Mark Kuschnir
Subject:
java
Appeared in:
11-3
There are two things that initially struck me when looking at this book. Firstly the phrase 'Java Beans' is used throughout the book - even in the title! This is incorrect as all JavaSoft documentation always makes this one word 'JavaBeans'. Secondly the main text is a mere 200 pages! It had better be good for£30 - unfortunately it doesn't make the grade.

The bulk of the text in the book is basically a rehash of the JavaBeans specification and related specifications, e.g. Serialization. If I have to pay money for rehashed specifications then I would like to receive some added value. I don't think the book adds anything to the specifications. Indeed, I think it actually detracts from them by poorly abbreviating them.

There are a number of class descriptions included, which are basically reworkings of the online HTML API pages. There are numerous examples that are not particularly clear. The examples seem long-winded and poorly documented. They don't seem to develop a point in a well-focused manner. There are even a few pages of example program output that seem tedious and out of place. Don't forget this is all in an expensive 200 pages!

Overall the text seemed indistinct - it seemed to wander at times. Sometimes it felt like it was written in an anecdotal rather than factual format. I'd recommend sticking with the JavaBeans specification and related specifications. Not recommended.