Page History

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A very useful summary of articles and resources available for Jakarta Commons may be found at \[http://www.java201.com/resources/browse/70-all.html Java201\].

Books

There are currently 6 7 known books on Jakarta Commons. In order of publication:

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  \[http://www.charlesriver.com/titles/apachejakarta.html Applied Software Engineering Using Apache Jakarta Commons\] by Christian Gross (2003-11), Charles River Media.

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  \[http://apress.com/book/bookDisplay.html?bID=246 Pro Jakarta Commons\] by Harshad Oak (2004-03), Apress.

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  \[http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/jakartackbk/ Jakarta Commons Cookbook\] by Tim O'Brien (2004-11 est), O'Reilly.

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  \[http://www.software-support.biz/sus/sus_buch/psecom,id,63,nodeid,8,_language,de.html Jakarta Commons\] by Torsten Curdt, Stefan Edlich, Henrik Hörning, Reidar Hörning, Software & Support Verlag, in German

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  \[http://phptr.com/bookstore/product.asp?isbn=0131478303&rl=1 Apache Jakarta Commons: Reusable Java™ Components\] by Will Iversen, Prentice Hall.

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  \[http://www.sourcebeat.com/TitleAction.do?id=4 Jakarta Commons Live\] by Jonathan Lehr (coming soon), [SourceBeat].

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  \[http://www.manning.com Jakarta Commons in Action\] by Vikram Goyal (coming soon), Manning. \\

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• Christian's book is not solely focused on Commons, but is instead about programming in general, with Commons as a focused set of examples. This book came out quietly and seems academic in nature; useful for teaching a class I'd suspect.
• Harshad's book was the first out that I would consider a real Commons book. I was one of the technical reviewers, and so a large pinch of salt should apply here. I think the book is very good for anyone with little Commons experience, with nice examples and a good wide coverage of Commons components.
• I'm drooling at the thought of Tim's book. The Commons and Cookbook concepts suit each other very well and I think this is a possible classic. Very well suited to any fans of the Perl Cookbook or people with some experience of Commons already I am going to guess (currently reading this).
• My school-German is too weak nowadays to understand Torsten's book. It's niche is quite clear, though whether a speaker of German and English would prefer it, I don't know.
• I've yet to read Will's book from Prentice Hallve not seen any form of the text for this yet).
• I've never read a SourceBeat book, so have little clue on Jonathan's text. It's been coming-soon for almost a year now it seems though, which has been dissapointing. The blog is interesting, and suggests Jonathan will be focusing on a smaller set of components than I would expect. One advantage of the SourceBeat approach is that we're promised updates to the text on a subscription model. So when released, it should stay more up to date on versions of the components than other books.
• Vikram's series of articles at onjava.com were probably the first piece of text on Commons as a whole to be published. His forthcoming book will join Harshad's as a standard style text on Commons. I've draft-reviewed this one too, so more salt. The diffentiating factor for me here is the author's style; Harshad's better suits inexperienced developers, while Vikram is more efficient.My school-German is too weak nowadays to understand Torsten's book. It's niche is quite clear, though whether a speaker of German and English would prefer it, I don't know.
  

So in summary:

• Christian's: Teachers.
• Harshad's: Newbie->Intermediate Java developers.
• Tim's: Current users of Commons.
• Jonathan's: Subscription model.
• Vikram's: Intermediate->Experienced Java developers.
• Torsten's: German text.
• Will's: <to-come>

(/End of Opinion)

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