Hi Michael,
The book gives good coverage to the deployment descriptor. It is introduced in the first chapter (setting up Java/Tomcat) and throughout the book whe entire web.xml file is described in related sections, e.g. servlet mapping/servlet init parameters/environment variables in the Servlet chapter, mapping JSP/JSP initial parameters/JSP Configuration is covered in
JSP chapter, error pages and exception handling elements are covered in the logging chapter, filter mapping and filter initial parameters are covered in the filter chapter, security-related elements are covered in the security chapter, etc....
We literally try to cover everything you can do with the deployment descriptor, but of course we try to pay the most attention to the parts of it that you will likely find most helpful.
[ January 28, 2004: Message edited by: Jayson Falkner ]