Book - chapter nine available for download

I've put a PDF copy of chapter nine up on www.box.net for download here. Chapter nine is two things - a seminal chapter in terms of the exam content it covers (Parts II and III of the SCEA exam) and also one that Safari Rough Cuts (SRC) keep missing out on in updating it. The version of the book on SRC is a lot older than this version. I'll keep this download link live until SRC is updated with the latest version. Enjoy.

Google Go overview for JEE and .NET architects / developers

A few days ago, Google released a pre-release / early look copy of a new programming language and platform - Google Go - for general consumption and feedback. After working with Go for a couple of days, I took my notes and thoughts on how it compares to the Java (J2EE / JEE) and .NET platforms - specifically as far as enterprise computing goes - and wrote them up into this article. All feedback appreciated.

From the Conclusion: "Go has the potential to completely supplant both C and C++ in the systems programming space and that is clearly it's first goal, but it also has the potential to do much more than that - to reach into the enterprise computing / web+application tier as well. It would be short-sighted in this day and age to design a platform that was restricted to low-level systems programming only, when most companies invest far more time and effort in building applications that are used by consumers to communicate, collaborate, transact ecommerce and more. In this author's opinion, Go has the legs to go further".

Another book update (aka where is it..)

The book is still moving through pre-production at Pearson. I'm sure a good number of you will be wondering what kind of impetus can be administered to push it along and I feel the same way myself!

It looks like the book content got caught up in a major upgrade to Safari Rough Cuts that is just about sorted now. A new version has just published, but I know that it does not have the latest chapter nine content that I wrote last month. Chapter nine is a key chapter in the book, focusing as it does on the JustBuildIt scenario that I outlined at JavaOne 2009 and solves it completely. This chapter maps onto Parts II and III of the exam, where candidates download a business scenario of equal complexity and have to propose and defend a solution to it.

I'm waiting to see when this chapter will show up on Rough Cuts. If it's only a few days away, I'll write another post advising that it's there. But if the delay is going to be as long as the previous delay (essentially four - six weeks to get some content updated), then I'll publish chapter nine as a PDF file on www.box.net, like the other sample chapter and the JavaOne 2008 and 2009 slides. Again, apologies for the delay - I'm pushing as hard as I can.

Addressing book comments on previous post

I just wanted to address some of the comments posted against the previous post in a standalone post (posting my comments against previous comments inline isn't a great way for people to see replies).

A new version of the book was pushed to Rough Cuts late last week and there is another one waiting to go as well. As I understand it from Pearson, Safari are in the middle of a software upgrade at the mo, hence the tardiness in pushing updated content onto Rough Cuts.

Once, the next version of the book makes it onto Rough Cuts, I'll be happy that it represents the content for most of the chapters that you'll see in the published book, i.e. go ahead and use it to revise. The one exception is chapter nine, where I consider the content in that chapter to be the bare minimum you need to provide in part two of the exam to pass. We'll be beefing up the UML diagrams and associated English text in that chapter. So the content in chapter nine is correct, but not yet sufficient, for part two.

SCEA study guide - progress update

We're pretty much finished with the book edits now. One chapter still looks light and that content will be finished this weekend. But we've underestimated the time the publication process takes at Pearson. Greg tells me that we're looking at late December / early January for the book to be physically on the bookshelves.

Apologies for setting expectations of mid-October in my blog posts - I didn't realise the time the publication process takes. To mitigate this publication delay, we'll be getting the Rough Cuts content updated with the latest version as soon as possible.

Addressing Rough Cuts feedback received

Since the book draft has been released on Safari Rough Cuts, I've received feedback on it, both as blog comments and also directly through the Rough Cuts feedback mechanism.

Focusing on the areas of improvement that people have commented on:

1. The final version of the book is significantly longer than the rough cuts version, but it is no weighty tome either. The whole point of the book is to focus on the material that we believe is directly relevant to the JEE Architect exam, as opposed to the JEE platform itself;

2. The next version of the book contains chapter six (JEE security) which is missing from the current Rough Cuts version - that was a trade-off that we took - to get the book on Rough Cuts in order to get reader feedback, without chapter six; and

3. The next version of the book contains a completed chapter nine - a fully-worked Part Two and Three solution to an assignment (the JustBuildIt business problem) of similar complexity to the exam assignments.

Thanks for all the feedback so far - it helps us to make the book better. Unfortunately, time does not permit me to respond to feedback left anonymously, but rest assured that your comments have been read. Finally, we're still shooting for the October date to production.

Book update

Well, the book edits continue apace, and most of the artwork has been sent to the Pearson graphics team to be transformed from the raw, blocky diagrams that we have created into beautiful images for the book.

We're basically left with chapter six and nine edits now. There's a bank holiday tomorrow so I'm planning on using that to get my work done and then send it to the editors for review. We're almost there!

Humphrey

SCEA study guide now on Rough Cuts

Well, the book draft has finally made it onto Rough Cuts here. All feedback is truly appreciated and we'll be looking to get a more rounded / completed version up as soon as possible.