Java Extreme Programming Cookbook Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This is an interesting work because while it does have the cookbook format it isn't really a cookbook. The book starts with an introduction to the XP methodology (which is concise and great), and then has chapters on a number of tools (Ant, JUnit, HTTPUnit, XDoclet, Tomcat, etc.). Each of these technology chapters has a number of 'recipes' which are in fact how-to segments about commonly used tasks around these technologies. Now these sections are great and I think anyone looking at these technologies should consider this book a quick and concise way to learn the fundamentals.
That being said the book fails somewhat, and thus the four stars, because it isn't organized in the problem/solution manner of the cookbooks. Most of the chapters are about testing but these are organized around the tool and not the problem. I would have preferred a section on web development that combined information on Tomcat and Ant, and one on web testing that talked about HTTPUnit, JUnit and Ant. In that way the book addresses problem areas without relying on the reader to understand the tool that would address his problem in addition to understanding his problem at hand.
My gripe is not so critical. The content in the book still remains very valuable and if you are looking for a concise how-to in these Java technologies you should have a look at this book.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Java Extreme Programming Cookbook

Product Description:
Brimming with over 100 "recipes" for getting down to business and actually doing XP,the Java Extreme Programming Cookbookdoesn't try to "sell" you on XP; it succinctly documents the most important features of popular open source tools for XP in Java-- including Ant, Junit, HttpUnit, Cactus, Tomcat, XDoclet-- and then digs right in, providing recipes for implementing the tools in real-world environments. Each recipe offers solutions that help you put an extreme programming environment together: then provides code for automating the build process and testing. Although the time saved using any one of these solutions will more than pay for the book, Java Extreme Programming Cookbook offers more than just a collection of cut-and-paste code.Each recipe also includes explanations of how and why the approach works, so you can adapt the techniques to similar situations.

Get 27% OFF