Good ... but...
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Firstly I am a big fan of Head First books. Head First Design Patterns was a revelation to me.
I have Head First EJB & impressed with that. I am a SCJP so no stranger to Java.
But...
Head First Servlets & JSP I have found hard going. At times I have found it absolutely mind numbing. Yes, it may give you a basic intro. to the concepts, but then you are quickly immersed in chapter after chapter of configuration details in the deployment descriptor and the vagaries of EL versus JSTL. On and on it goes. Yes you need to know this stuff but what it really lacks me for is small, full, working *real world* examples for each point you are covering, that you can see in your browser. But of course that would make the book twice as big, so editorial contraints had to apply. Check out Head First Java if you want to see what I mean. There are some really cool complete examples across a wide range of areas.
So yes it covers a lot of ground, will prepare you for the exam, but look to buy another book to give you the means to glue all the theory together. There is the real world lurking beyond the exam and for me this book is too theoretical. There are some great gags in it though, had me laughing out loud at times.
So in conclusion its a very good book overall, but not the right one for me. I learn by doing and applying, and there isn't enough of that for me. I had to wait wade through 10 chapters of theory before the gold dust in the last few pattern oriented ones - thats fine if you're only interested in the exam but I'm not. I want to get my sleeves rolled up & hands dirty...
3.5 stars.
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best book for anyone new to JSP
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This is by far the best book on Servlets and JSPs for anyone new to them. This is not a reference book for seasoned veteran of J2EE, nor is it too good if you don't have any background in JAVA, (you don't have to be advanced, but should definitely have some experience... why not look at head first's book on Java or Sam's teach yourself Java in 21 days).
I would however highly recommend this book to anyone with some java experience who wants to learn and understand Servlets and JSPs.
This book combines informal language, humour and images to great effect to retain the things you read and keeps your attention. I don't believe I'm alone when I say most text books are interesting, but incredibly boring and not really accessible.
Head First's methodology is based on the latest research in cognitive science, neurobiology, and educational psychology, then know learning requires more than just text on a page, for example, their is up to an 89% improvement in recall and transfer studies when graphics are used with words and students perform 40% better on post-learning tests if the language is informal. These may be just statistics I've read from the book, but it made me learn these technologies in less than a month and I was able to produce a professional and secure E-democracy solution for my dissertation.
I can't praise this book enough, I tried to learn Servlets and JSPs from two other books produced by programmer to programmer before I bought this book and got nowhere. If you need to learn Servlets and JSPs buy this book.
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Comprehensively covers all the basics
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Very good book if you are new to the world of JSPs and servlets. Use of diagrams makes it a lot more fun to read than some other dry books on the subject. Highly recommended!
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Where is the 4.5 star option?
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Headfirst books are like marmite - people either love it or hate it. I have met people who say the Headfirst books are the best they have seen on the planet and THE way to prepare for java certification. And then there are others who say they are crap because they waste too much space and time with stupid jokes. I have done both programmer and developer certification but so far I have stayed away from Headfirst. Nothing personal. They just didn't seem right for me. And I started preparing for the Web component exam with Marty Hall's book. (An excellent book indeed!) But Although Marty's book is great (And in some ways better than this one) He is focused on giving a very practical guide to the world of servlets and JSPs. But the authors of this one really want to help you get through the exam. So if you are after the exam this one is indeed the better book. I started reading this one after finishing a little more than half of Marty's book and now I wish I had started with this instead. (By the way I did buy the Manning (Hanumant Deshmukh) book before this one while I was holidaying in India but after coming back I read all those angry reviews for the second edition and not to touch it!)
The plus points are
The explanations are very clear and very logical
100% focused on the exam
Quite a lot of questions and answers
Easy to read
The only negative point is you waste a lot of time because of all the funny 'head first' stuff. I agree it is a matter of taste. I was a fan of the 'C for dummies' once upon a time. But now reading a techie book is not my idea of fun (unless it is written by Dan Gookin maybe). So I am not so amused when they give advice about Herbal Decaff tea and stuff. Some of their jokes make me laugh but I feel I could finish this book a lot quicker if they take away all this stuff. They could have added more review questions instead of those I think.
But over all this is the best I could find for the exam.
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Head First: Servlets and JSP
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An excellent book that has a very good introduction to java web development, I was converting from .NET and the nicest feature of this is it's heavy integration with Tomcat. It demonstrates thoroughly how to set up a tomcat web application and details configuration procedures. Good ocverage of JSTL and Struts - but also a healthy coverage of best practices for developing servlets. I recommend to anyone starting out with Servlets - a good introduction.
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