Note: Mastering JSP was published in 2002, and while many parts of it are still relevant, any basic software engineer will need lots of fortification in other areas such as design patterns and algorithms.
Mastering JSP presents much of my wisdom, experiences and opinions about web design and software engineering.
These days employees are being asked to do more work and take on more responsibilities than before. This trend has affected every corner of industry, and now even regular employees are being asked to cross over and support specialized domains. More often, employers expect employees to be aware of the web and use it to help the business. As a result, many people have an interest in going beyond the skills of creating and maintaining static html pages.
Many books on server-side development are not properly geared for easing the transition from casual HTML coding to server-side development. Designed for beginning and mid-level programmers with some familiarity with HTML, JavaScript, and Java, Mastering JSP helps those people grow to be competent server-side developers. The newer breed of workers often do not have the time to return to classes for a thorough computer science education. Although additional education is always a good idea, often mature students retain more information after they have been exposed to practical examples. That's one of the beautiful aspects of JSP: it's centered in the Presentation layer, so it provides immediate results, but it can allow developers to build and access Java objects and architectures of infinite complexity.
To educate casual users worried about the new demands of their jobs, and to teach seasoned Java programmers something about building a successful and responsible Presentation layer, this book focuses on preparing professional JSP web applications:
- Real-world examples are used whenever possible. This book contains no useless "Hello World" code.
- Standard Java classes are used as much as possible. All the examples compile cleanly and in most cases can be run independently of the other chapter examples. There are no mystery classes, and the source code for all the classes is readily available on the CD-ROM.
- The sample applications are thoroughly documented and commented. The code listings are formatted to encourage the reader to examine and read through the code. Part of becoming a good developer is being able to read source code and comments to get an understanding of what the code is doing before running it or stepping through the code with a debugger.
- Questions are raised, and solutions are provided, but you are encouraged to weigh the pros and cons and come to the proper decision for your situation. Success in the real world doesn't come from pat, easy answers, but more often from careful deliberation and decisive action.