Originally posted by Dmitry Melnik:
It was never directly answered
Well, it was: When we talk about persistence in Java, we�re normally talking about storing data in a relational database using SQL.
Everything else sounds pretty much like statments of importance of the subject, and plans for its further discussion. IMHO not everyone (myself included) would share authors definition of persistence, and that might cause an intuition in some readers, that something is wrong with the paragraph.
But the question wasn't
What is Persistance in Java?...The chapter talks about Relational DBs, Understanding SQL and then eventually gets into Java specific information. This was section 1.1 and the focus suggests broadness in scope. The question was broad. If the author meant to be more specific the question should have been more specific.
The question was answered indirectly and, IMO, causes confusion to the reader. The mere fact that we are discussing it proves that.