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With this misunderstanding resolved, the book becomes more palatable. It is a high-level overview of the issues that enterprises should consider before making Java a strategic platform. The authors have a background in consultancy and this is quite apparent in the structure of the book: The cases studied are nicely supportive of their arguments, the book is accessible and key points are summarised nicely.

Disregarding the problems with the title, I am unhappy with two facets of this book. For one, it needlessly--and pointlessly--switches levels between the senior management and basic coding levels: Is the fact that a C or C++ compiler will merely warn you if you assign in a conditional--i.e. 'if (i = 0)' rather than 'if (i == 0)'--really relevant to a manager (or, indeed, at all)?

There are quite a few examples of this style scattered throughout the book, which alone would lead me to reserve my recommendation. More importantly, I think the authors are far too uncritical of the Java technology and are pushing the bandwagon rather than using the opportunity to give a realistic and balanced appraisal of the different technologies.

Unless you are trying to convince your management to use Java, I'm afraid that I can't see what this book would offer you. If you were trying to evaluate competing technologies, it would present the arguments for Java, but needs to be tempered with a more neutral evaluation.