Pro:

*) Covers a lot of ground on up to date (01/2000) server side tech, Servlets, JSP, RMI, XML, EJB, JINI, CORBA, JNDI, LDAP, JDBC, Mime, cookies, Internationalization.

*) Lots of hands-on details with many examples.

*) Very fluent and usually clear.

Con:

*) Very little on theory, concepts, server architecture using these technologies or trends, goes straight to the details.

*) Many exercises don't work without some hacking (they could still fix it, the code is on their site).

*) So much is about Java Servlets you would think Sun published it.

*) Not all the chapters are in the same level, you can feel many people wrote the book.

This book is one of the must-have books for anyone serious about writing server-side Java programs. Sure you can find a lot of the information on the net, but I don't think that most professionals want to rely just on the net as their only resource now do they? I've had this book for many months now and it's the most popular book at work. It's jam-packed full of good server-side programming ideas and techniques. And it covers a lot of the bases with enough depth to get you more than started.

There are over ten chapters dealing with Servlets. There is only one chapter on JSP (29 pages), but anything you need to know about JSP you can get out of that one chapter. Servlets are what you should be concerned about anyway as you are looking for a hardcore Java Server Programming book right? The chapter on Smart Servlets is a better approach than JSP anyway.

The book isn't just about Servlets, however. There's also good coverage of XML, Distributed Computing with Servlets (using RMI), and Enterprise Javabeans. And more!

Want a big bonus this year? Get this book! Want to eventually lose your job and end up at McDonalds? Don't get this book. It's nice to know you have choices. :)

Everything you need to get started with server-side Java programming is in this book. It starts off with several chapters covering Servlets, then a solid chapter on JSP, followed by coverage of JDBC, and a chapter on database connection pools. This would have been enough for a complete book, but it doesn't stop there. There is also good coverage of XML, RMI, JNDI, EJB, and more.

To me, this book is an essential reference for anyone doing server-side Java programming. It has been an invaluable resource on my current programming project. I continually recommend it to my co-workers.

The book has a good balance of example code and explanations, and the authors generally have very good writing styles which make the technical material relatively easy to understand. However, at times you can tell that the book has many authors because not all of the chapters are of the same quality. In particular, I though chapters 5 and 6 were not as well written as most of the others.

One minor criticism of the book is that even though it is over 1,000 pages it is printed in a rather small font which made it a little hard to read. I would have preferred that one or two of the less important chapters be excluded so that a normal font size could have been used.

This book is also a great value for the price. Many technical books don't cover half as much material for the same price. I highly recommend it.

Some what predictable, but fine if you want a police novel. Not much suspence.

This was, without a doubt, the worst movie I ever suffered all the way through in a movie theater (I walked out on Jodie Foster's "Hotel New Hampshire"). From what I understand, this film doesn't do the book justice, but I never read the book. All I know is that a movie should be made to hold one's interest, even those who didn't read the book. The script was roundly uninteresting, and hard to follow, to boot. And the acting... What acting?? This is the worst work of Tom Hanks' illustrious career. It must pain him, to be reminded of it. And Bruce Willis is as stiff as a cardboard cutout. To say that he has all the acting skill of a mannikin, would be an insult to mannikins everywhere! If Melanie Griffith's acting is the best thing you have to hang your hat on, you don't have much to speak of. I have always thought that Melanie's looks, facial expressions, and sympathetic voice were the best things about her acting. She has proven to be rather one-dimensional. Still, she deserved better than this, and it seems that her career is the one that suffered the most from being associated with this stinker.... For "The Bonfire of the Vanities" to AVERAGE out to a 3 stars, should tell you all you need to know. Avoid this one, or you'll be sorry... If, that is, you can stay awake through it.

I rented this film purely on it's reputation. This film is considered a gigantic turkey, which is an embarrassment to those involved in it. True, the Bonfire of the Vanities isn't a great film, but it's not terrible. I did find the casting puzzling. Tom Hanks, as fine an actor as he is, is woefully miscast as Sherman McCoy. He did not give a believable performance for a moment. As for Bruce Willis. Well, he is a mediocre actor at best, and didn't leave an impression. Morgan Freeman is annoying. He was probably just told to shout. Melanie Griffith is rather good, showing herself to be adept at comedy, and F. Murray Abraham too is good as a stereotyped Jew. The story is at times thin on the ground, but remains interesting enough. The direction is impreesive, but you really wonder why a director of Brian dePalma's calibre wanted to make a movie like this. An amiable film, but nothing more.

I read the book and loved it, and I saw the movie and loved it as well. How people can complain about a movie having a different feel than the book that it is based on is absurd. They are two different mediums and can never be the same. Books go into so much more detail and insight that it is almost impossible to recreat it in a movie. Anyway I thought this movie was very close to the idea that Mr. Wolf was expressing. I've lived in New York city all 43 years of my life and have seen this story played out so many times it is sickening. I guess too many of the liberals and elite can't handle seeing what goes on behind the scenes(...). That's why the bad reviews. Liberals have a problem with the truth. This movie was well acted by all concerned. I feel the casting was fine, Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis, maybe F. Murray Abraham doesn't come off like Ed Koch, but he was very amusing as the mayor. I feel this movie was the best satire made in a very long time. Rent it then you will buy the DVD from Amazon. Thank you Amazon for letting me express my views and reviews on your web site.