BOOK REVIEW: JBoss – A Developer’s Notebook

After meeting with Bill Hilf, Director of Microsoft’s Technical Platform Strategy R&D Group, and discussing Microsoft’s recent agreement with JBoss Inc. (read more here), I went on a bit of a Java refresher. (I used to be a Java Developer)

After interviewing Jesse Liberty on his Visual C# 2005 Developer’s Notebook, I got turned on to the “Developer’s Notebook Series”, from O’Reily.

So I picked up “JBoss – A Developer’s Notebook”. I did some work with JBoss 3.x and wanted a quick tour of the new 4.0 features.

Obviously, I don’t do too much Java development any more, though I have started doing some Java/Windows specific stuff.

On like lots of developers, my affinity for my technology of choice does not negate my enthusiasm for other cool technology. (Quote: Good Information Does Not Displace Other Good Information – Tony Blauer)

I find many aspects of Java academically interesting. I just don’t think it’s commercial delivery makes good economic sense for new development.

I do think that JBoss is very interesting and make for a cost effective alternative for running existing applications without the need for the unnecessary complexity. JBoss’s micro kernel architecture makes for some interesting architectural options.

The book is a great quick tour, though it assumes knowledge of Java and J2EE and especially XDoclet.

Since I’ve moved on from Java, I think that even using XDoclet makes the developer write too much plumbing code to get even a simpl application up and running, but Java developers love Java in spite of itself. (As, I suppose, .NET developers do and PHP developers do, etc.)

I liked the book, the authors are very pragmatic and to not avoid pointing out the shortcomings of Java in general and it’s JBoss implementation.

If you’re a Java Developer or are staying abreast of Java technology, JBoss 4 is a significant technology and this book is a very good quick tour.