Struts in Action book

["chadmichael@excite.com" <ch...@excite.com>]

I'm not trying to kiss anybody's anything -- I'm aware that these folks are active members of this list.  But I would like to point out that the "Struts in Action" book is a one of the better tech books that I've read.  I found it a bit too much when I was first learning struts; I think this was becuase it covers so many things.  Its not dense, it just covers a lot of ground.  For instance, it explains why you would want to use the <html:base/> tag -- minor, but important.  

After getting a bit grounded in the framework, I'm now rereading the book and find it an exemplary and thorough coverage of the topic.  I particularly appreciate the insistence on good coding and doing things according to "best practices."

I highly recommend this book for anyone.  Though I might recommend that a true newbie either a) read slowly or b) maybe start with something else -- but I'm not aware of a more rudimentary intro.  

In a world full of bad books, thanks for the effort. 

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Re: Struts in Action book

[Ted Husted <te...@gmail.com>]

On 2/2/06, chadmichael@excite.com <ch...@excite.com> wrote:
> I highly recommend this book for anyone.  Though I might recommend that a true newbie
> either a) read slowly or b) maybe start with something else -- but I'm not aware of a more
> rudimentary intro.

The original idea was that SIA would be the second book someone read
about web development. The first being a general text like "Web
Development with JavaServer Pages". So, yes, it's not the best choice
for a web app newbie.

As Don mentioned, right now there are no plans for a second edition of
SIA that covers Action 1. A second edition would have been nice, but
there are only so many cycles in a day, and I had to choose between
working on the Struts project itself or working on a book about the
Struts framework, and the project won.

As for what is out there now, for Struts newbies, my personal favorite
is "Struts for Dummies".

* http://opensource2.atlassian.com/confluence/oss/display/BOOKS/ISBN-0764559575

To get up to speed on Struts 1.2, I'd recommend "Struts: The Complete
Reference" by James Holmes.

* http://opensource2.atlassian.com/confluence/oss/display/BOOKS/ISBN-0764559575

For anyone developing anything, I'd strongly recommend "Writing
Effective Use Cases" by Allistair Cockburn.

* http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0201702258/apachesoftwar-20/

Of course, IMHO, the very first book any software developer should
read is "The Seven Habits of Effective People" . As it turns out,
developers are people too. :)

* * http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0743269519/apachesoftwar-20/


> In a world full of bad books, thanks for the effort.

Writing books is fun, but suffering through the long gestation period
is difficult. What you write today might not make it into print for
months, or even a year. The lack of content management in the
publishing workflow is surprising. Most often, you're expected to toss
around Word documents, which is problematic if multiple people are
involved. I've heard the Pragmatic Bookshelf is using DocBook format
with CVS and produces a print-ready PDF on every checkin. I think if
publishers provided better tools, more qualified people would work on
books, we'd have better books, and more books would be sold. Right
now, the best and brightest are being chased away by painful
workflows.

Moving forward, I'm starting to work on open source training materials
to use with my training classes. Eventually, I'd like to evolve the
courseware into a full-length book to go with the class. But, by
keeping the focus on training, I can start with enough to lead a class
and develop the text as time allows.

Of course, best practice will be the recurring theme :)

-Ted.
 http://husted.com/ted/blog/

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Re: Struts in Action book

[David Durham <dd...@vailsys.com>]

> I highly recommend this book for anyone.  

Yeah, the book has good info, even if it is a bit dated (published in 
2002).  Or is there a new edition out that I don't know of?


-Dave


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