Beginning Java Google App Engine Review

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(More customer reviews)I was very frustrated with my purchase and I was contemplating to write a review out of frustration. However, after I've seen the 5-star reviews from other users, I couldn't believe my eyes. One review was raving about the code samples (absolutely ridiculous) and then I saw one other reader leaving a comment for the review saying that he's been working on the sample code for weeks and still couldn't make it work and I can relate to that.
I pre-order this book from Amazon and when I start reading it, it was a total disappointment. I've been working on GAE/J for a while now and I bought this book specifically to learn more about Google Accounts. The example projects are not complete and it requires you to fill in the blanks to make them work. I've also looked at the other chapters and they lack in content. The book tries to give you overall, breadth-first view of the technology (as you would expect from a beginner level book), but while doing so it mentions about bunch of GAE topics, but fails on giving good coverage for that topic. Especially in chapter 4, when the author(s) talk about frameworks, they don't mention about gotchas on how to make these frameworks work at the first place, because if you're using Spring, BlazeDS and GraniteDS (or any other frameworks, you need to do certain tweaks to make these frameworks/technologies/APIs work with GAE, because some of the Java APIs are "black-listed" by the App Engine for the obvious reasons.
If you're a beginner, this is not a book for you. If you're advanced, then again this book doesn't give you enough in-depth information of the GAE/J topics. In conclusion, it's sad to say, but this book is useless! You can save money just by going to Google's App Engine website and find more up-to-date and complete information, because they keep changing/upgrading the SDKs for GWT and the App Engine almost every month.

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Google App Engine is one of the key technologies to emerge in recent years to help developers build web applications. A great number of the developers approach the App Engine are Java developers, and this title is especially focused for this large audience sector.

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Sams Teach Yourself Programming with Java in 24 Hours (4th Edition) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I am just finishing this book, and it is one of the best programming books I have ever worked with. The author has a sense of humor that completely complements the work. I usually find humor in a programming book cheesy and distracting, but Cadenhead's humor is informative and fun at heart, and makes the work go more quickly and make more sense.
The DOS issues mentioned in another review are not a problem with this book. Learning any powerful programming language these days does involve understanding a little bit of what's going on under the hood in your computer. That learning curve exists in almost any language, and each book needs to include it. There is extensive coverage in this book for the difficulties that may arise in this stage, and help for getting around those issues. Once you get your particular system set up properly, you will enjoy playing with the language. There is also extensive online support for these issues.
I am also sticking with the Sams 24 Hour series for other languages, because they are very well done for a wide range of readers.

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If you have been wanting to learn Java, check out the newly revised fourth edition of the best-seller Sams Teach Yourself Programming with Java in 24 Hours. This step-by-step tutorial will teach you how to create simple Java programs and applets. Comprised of 24 one-hour lessons, this new edition focuses on key programming concepts and essential Java basics, has been improved by dozens of reader comments, and is reorganized to better cover the latest developments in Java. The book's coverage of core Java programming topics has also been expanded. A great starting point for learning Java, this book is also a great primer to reading sams Teach Yourself Java in 21 Days.

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