This Weeks Giveaway

[Mapraputa Is]

This week we are giving away four copies of "Professional Java XML", and the Author, Jeremy Crosbie, is on-line!
Everyone please give Jeremy a warm JavaRanch Welcome
Entry requirements for the Giveaway can be found at http://www.javaranch.com/bookpromo.jsp
Jeremy, so which picture on the book is yours?

[Ajith Kallambella]

Welcome Jeremy! Great to have you here with us.

[Kris Decker]

Welcome

[L Goundalkar]

Hi..
A Warm Welcome to Jeremy.
Hope his book will be
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L Goundalkar
[e-mail]
Sun Certified Programmer for Java 2 Platform

[Madhav Lakkapragada]

Welcome, Jermy.
- satya

[Richard Smolen]

One of the few criticisms I've seen about big Wrox books is that being written by / contributed to by multiple authors can lead to inconsistencies in coverage of topics and examples used.
Just wondering what was the collaborative effort here; were there extra measures taken to create a unified book?

[Ajith Kallambella]

You might want to read my review about the book here - http://www.javaranch.com/bunkhouse/bunkhouseMisc.jsp

[jeremy crosbie]

Thanks for the welcome! I am honored to have been asked to contribute to this forum and hope that I can answer or at least provide guidance on how Java and XML can work together.
As far as which picture is mine, I am the last picture in the top
row ( the far right ).


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Jeremy Crosbie
Co-Author of Professional Java XML

[jeremy crosbie]

My experience writing for WROX was that it isn't what I would call a "stovepipe" process, meaning that we aren't all left to write on our own. The technical leads for the book did a great job in keeping the authors from covering topics that may be covered earlier or are to be covered in greater detail later.
There are pluses and minuses to any book with multiple authors. The minuses, like you state, are that you can end up with a book that doesn't flow properly. On the other hand you get a wide perspective on the topic being discussed. I think the latter works on books that cover Java and XML because it is a wide topic .

Originally posted by Richard Smolen:
One of the few criticisms I've seen about big Wrox books is that being written by / contributed to by multiple authors can lead to inconsistencies in coverage of topics and examples used.
Just wondering what was the collaborative effort here; were there extra measures taken to create a unified book?

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Jeremy Crosbie
Co-Author of Professional Java XML

[Thomas Paul]

Hmmmm.... this book cover looks familiar:
http://www.javaranch.com/ubb/Forum32/HTML/000817.html

You did say the last one in the top row...
http://www.javaranch.com/xml/javaXMLmodels.jpg

[This message has been edited by Thomas Paul (edited August 28, 2001).]

[Mapraputa Is]

Thomas!
I could only hope that Jeremy is too busy answering questions to find this thread... And now what?

[Mapraputa Is]

Originally posted by Richard Smolen:
One of the few criticisms I've seen about big Wrox books is that being written by / contributed to by multiple authors can lead to inconsistencies in coverage of topics and examples used.

Richard, you stole my question
Actually, reading Wrox books I had the opposite feeling: that authors somehow manage to keep consistent approach and even consistent writing style, which is a total mystery to me Of course, it can be a result of heavy editorial ironing
Negative side IMHO is that Wrox books are less "authors books"; they all are of the same even and usually very high quality, but they all are... predictable, whether it's good or bad. Maybe it's not bad.

[Shreya Menon]

Warm welcome Jeremy

Maya
[This message has been edited by maya menon (edited August 28, 2001).]

[Jim Rock]

Jeremy, hope you enjoy your time here at the ranch!

[jeremy crosbie]

Coincidentally, one of my hobbies is weighlifting (powerlifting, not bodybuilding). I don't look quite like that, though. I guess the camera helps!

Originally posted by Mapraputa Is:
Thomas!
I could only hope that Jeremy is too busy answering questions to find this thread... And now what?

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Jeremy Crosbie
Co-Author of Professional Java XML

[Lee Xu]

hi, Jeremy,
I just checked your book in bookstore. It covers a lot. I would lovely have one. Thanks for you being here.

[Stanley Tan]

Thomas Paul,
Great picture! I have read a couple of Wrox books. In general, the flow is ok but there are obvious parts that just seem different (like in coding style for example). But like was already mentioned, it wouldn't really matter since it would be covering a different topic. Wrox does a good job in my mind

[Anthony_Castillon]

I browsed over the book last week and I'm quite impressed with the topics. Hope to be able to get a copy of it soon.

[Anonymous]

Jeremy,
Thanks for hanging out and helping out. I always like to have help from the big shots!
Welcome!



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Brian Hoff
Sun Certified Programmer for the Java� 2 Platform

[Ashik Uzzaman]

Well, I m a fan of Wrox books, specially Beginner's Series as i find Professional Series as a little bit tough! But now it's my time to work with Professionals... Hope me...

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Muhammad Ashikuzzaman (Fahim)
Sun Certified Programmer For Java 2 Platform
--When you learn something, learn it by heart!

[Stanley Tan]

A little *minor* thing I like about Wrox books is the road map at the back of the book

[Jayanthimeena]

hi boss
A great welcome.
i worked with oracle component XSQL, it is so great but i can't store it what ever i want to save. if possible can you help me.
Thanks in advance
Jayanthi

[Thomas Paul]

Originally posted by Stanley Tan:
Thomas Paul,
Great picture!

I have to admit that I am not the creator of that cover. The actual creator was --- hmphhhhhhh --- Hey! Stop covering my mouth --- hmpppphhhhhhhh!

[Ivan Tamayo]

Java will be the language for Web Services?
How interoperates with soap?

[Glade Wishart]

Does your book cover the XML standard for Java in relation to the J2EE 1.4 standard? If not what are some differences between the new standard and the old in relation to XML?

[Mapraputa Is]

Originally posted by Thomas Paul:
I have to admit that I am not the creator of that cover. The actual creator was --- hmphhhhhhh --- Hey! Stop covering my mouth --- hmpppphhhhhhhh!

Why people always accuse Mapraputa in everything??? Myself cannot understand...

[ben rowe]

Instead of having a database, could you just create an XML file and just keep adding to it? Or is it always better to have a database?

[ajay sagar]

Hi jeremy
nice to have you here
I was going through your book given to me by a colleague and
was facinated by the simplicity of your writing
keep up the good work

[Trevor Dunn]

Hi just read the sample chapter. It is good stuff.
Trevor

[Stanley Tan]

Sir Trevor Dunn,
Where did you get the sample chapter? Please provide a link

[Mazhar Choudhry]

This is good promotion. I like it...
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MAC

[jeremy crosbie]

Thank you for the kind words.
This was my first effort at publishing and I must say it was a lot of fun. The old saying "the more you know the more you realize what you don't know" was so true during the entire process. My approach is to assume nothing. Even though it is a "Professional" book you wouldn't be writing it if your reader already knew everything. I like to be deliberate and detailed when teaching something new. I hope that comes across when people read it.

Originally posted by ajay sagar:
Hi jeremy
nice to have you here
I was going through your book given to me by a colleague and
was facinated by the simplicity of your writing
keep up the good work

------------------
Jeremy Crosbie
Co-Author of Professional Java XML

[Stanley Tan]

Jeremy Crosbie,
With so many authors, were you assigned to write certain chapters or simply contribute to the overall progress? If you wrote separate chapters, what chapters did you write?

[Abhijit Kulkarni]

Hey Jeremy,
Do you intend to include some certification oriented chapters in your future realeases? This helps one test his fundamentals and even make them stronger. Something similar to what Philip Heller wrote in his book authored for Java certification study.

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abhijit from pune.
Ability alone is not enough for success,it must be sparked by ambition and sustained with determination

[jeremy crosbie]

I don't remember the chapter numbers off hand (and don't have a copy of the book handy) but I wrote the SAX chapter, the Socket I/O chapter, and the Server-Side Presentation chapters. I pretty much wrote them on my own with some guidance in that last chapter.
The SAX chapter assumes no knowledge of SAX. It takes you through the entire API soup to nuts and describe each part in detail. It centers around JAXP which is becoming the de facto XML parsing framework. Another part of this chapter is that is shows you how to take a non-JAXP compliant parser and make it into one. For this I chose Aelfred.
The Socket I/O chapter takes you through dealing with XML over a network. TCP/IP is explained in basic detail but design patterns are discussed that make reading XML over a network simpler.
The Server-Side Presentation chapter talks about generating presentation markup using server-side technologies. I talk about Cocoon1 and give examples as to its use. This was the most exciting chapter for me because it deals with a very real problem: supporting display of one's content on many different browsers/devices. Coming from a background in the Wireless Internet this is a BIG problem: so many browsers (and more everyday) to support how can I do it with one codebase?
I hope that you find the book informative and most of all helpful.

Originally posted by Stanley Tan:
Jeremy Crosbie,
With so many authors, were you assigned to write certain chapters or simply contribute to the overall progress? If you wrote separate chapters, what chapters did you write?

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Jeremy Crosbie
Co-Author of Professional Java XML

[Stanley Tan]

Sir Jeremy Crosbie,
One of my favorite books is Debugging Java by Will David Mitchell. He says in his book that he had to quit his job to work on the book. Did you have a similar experience? Hopefully, one day, I'll be good enough to write my own book and I'm wondering if it's a really full-time job. How was your experience?
By the way, where do I get the sample chapters for the book someone else was referring to?

[Zoe Peng]

Jeremy,
welcome..
--Zoe

[Ajith Kallambella]

Jeremy,
I have read all the XML books published by Wrox and I can't stop wondering about the oversteppings. Consider XML Databases (by Kevin Williams), Professional Java XML and Professional XML. These three books have about 30% common content. What is the rationale in making the book FAT with redundant stuff? If you follow the career path at the back of the book, most of the times you end up reading the same stuff again and again in different books. This doesn't make sense even from the marketing standpoint. This is very typical of Wrox publications. If you look at others( O'Reilly, Sams, AW etc ), their books are very focussed and two books on the same subject has no or very minimal overstepping.
I personally feel there is a lot of fat that can be removed from the "Professional Java XML" .
Jeremy, do you have any insight into this very unique nature of Wrox publications?


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Ajith Kallambella M.
Sun Certified Programmer for the Java�2 Platform.
IBM Certified Developer - XML and Related Technologies, V1.

[Mapraputa Is]

Sample chapter
Chapter 15. Client-Side Presentation Logic http://www.wrox.com/books/samplechapters/401x/content.pdf
or http://www.perfectxml.com/wp/401x/css/401x_SampleChap15.htm

[Mapraputa Is]

Originally posted by Stanley Tan:
Sir Jeremy Crosbie,
One of my favorite books is Debugging Java by Will David Mitchell. He says in his book that he had to quit his job to work on the book. Did you have a similar experience?

Before Jeremy got chance to answer , I'll sneak in my guess that Wrox's marketing model with multiple authors was probably developed to prevent such drastic experience
Another design goal apparently was to shorten book writing time. Technology changes so fast, so if one author had to write the whole book, it would be pretty outdated by the time it was published
Yet another impication is that if authors do not have to quit their job, they are able to support themselves during writing process, thus lightening Wrox's financial burden