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Are EJB books a bit.... generic?

 
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I'm reading an EJB 2.1 book at the moment and have read several others and I'm starting to find them all a bit the same. I'm not sure whether its the work of the authors or the subject matter, but they seem to cover the same material in similar ways any there is little extra to distingish one book from another.
Session and Entity EJBs, check. Stubs, check. Transactions, check. Check, check, check.
It just appear to be missing the flair associated with some of the 'concept books'. You know, 'in a Nutshell', 'Definitive Guide', 'from the Source'.
I've also been a little disappointed that all the examples are straight down the middle. Local JNDI references, a bunch of EJBs, viola, we have an application. We've recently had to migrate from global to local JNDI references and include external clients accessing EJBs and the book coverage has been very light.
Just an observation. Anyone else found the same or similar with EJBs or J2EE coverage in general?
Dave
 
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BTW, which EJB book are yot talking about? Are any EJB 2.1 book available.
 
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Are any EJB 2.1 book available.


EJB 2.1 Kickstart
Enterprise JavaBeans 2.1
Applying Enterprise JavaBeans 2.1
Haven't read any of them so I can't comment on the original opinion.
 
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David, take a look at this book:
Java for the Web with Servlets, JSP, and EJB: A Developer's Guide to J2EE Solutions
by Budi Kurniawan
 
Pradeep bhatt
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I guess that EJB 2.1 spec id not yet finalized. Am I right?
 
Lasse Koskela
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I guess that EJB 2.1 spec id not yet finalized. Am I right?


It's "proposed final draft 2".
 
Pradeep bhatt
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It means that the current EJB 2.1 books will outdated if there are changes in the spec.
 
David O'Meara
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Originally posted by Lasse Koskela:
Haven't read any of them so I can't comment on the original opinion.


Yep, you got me. I didn't want to mention any book in particular though.
Does anyone agree or disagree though? Is there a lack of distinction between many EJB books? (The current offering appears to be different though )
by Budi Kurniawan
I thought I recognised the name, he writes articles for JavaPro. Good reviews on Amazon (you're allowed to add the javaranch code to your links to give us a kickback if you want), but I'd never buy a book by him. I've never experienced a writer I disagreed with more. Some of his articles upset me, I though they were so off track. Now I'm guilty of wandering off topic.
 
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Well, we tried to make our book less of a front-to-back read, and a more to-the-point solution guide. It has a good index, with good recipes, so hopefully it will be quite useful to the type of developer who just needs to find 'X', and does not want to search through an entire chapter. Plus we included good food related quotes
 
Pradeep bhatt
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Are you suggesting that we have a app server specific books?
 
David O'Meara
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No, just that EJB books are starting to read the same way. I'm not saying the books aren't good, because many of them are and serve their purpose, but the point of difference between one EJB book and the next appears quite small.
Compare it to Java books. You have some 'for idiots' books that are step by step through the extreme basics and not good for much more, but definitely useful if you're starting out. There are general reference books that you can keep on the shelf for a year or two as you while you become confident in the APIs and syntax, then there are advanced books that assume you know all of the above and are ready to look at more focussed topics.
A comparison to EJB land might be the Core J2EE patterns that tended to be quite EJB focussed in its first edition (and I understand the second edition is out too).
Back to comparing Java books, you also have learning by reading syntax, learning by example, learning in 21 days, in a nutshell and a whole list of 'concept style' gimmick books that may be great for one user but not another. The point being that they exist for that user who didn't relate to another style of book. It's not always about writing style.
My knowledge of EJB books is hardly encyclopedic, but this richness in presentation is lacking in my opinion.
Hence: Are EJB books a bit.... generic?
Dave
 
Lasse Koskela
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David, we do have Bitter EJB, EJB Cookbook, Teach yourself EJB in 21 days, EJB Design Patterns, Head First EJB, Enterprise Security with EJB and CORBA, etc.
Maybe most of these are becoming outdated due to new spec versions coming out but there are at least some "different" approaches compared to the typical Wrox' Professional <whatever> book.
 
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