Don't go too far into learning JSF just to learn seam. My take is this...
1. Know and understand the JSF lifecycle, which looks daunting at first, but actually makes a whole lot of sense.
2. Know the basic tags <h:inputText>, <h
utputText>, <h
ataTable>, etc.
3. Know what a converter is.
4. Know what a renderer is.
5. Know what a validator is
5. Know what actions and actionListeners are.
and that is it. For 3,4,5 you just need an idea of what it is not necessarily how to create and implement them in JSF. Because in Seam, using Facelets, creating and implementing converters, validators and renderers are so easy it makes us jump for joy! Plain JSF had some promise but was very difficult to implement. With Seam, it makes JSF very easy and wonderful to work with. In fact, I try not to use the word JSF with Seam anymore since Seam is just that freaking awesome.
