Head First Servlets & JSP - examples?

[Richard Quist]

Hi,

Can you give us an idea of the kinds of examples you work through in the book? Is the focus on "one big" application developed throughout, or are there a number of smaller, "self-contained" examples?

Also, what, if anything, do you cover on working with a backend/database tier?

Thanks,

[Nicholas Cheung]

Based on the experiences on HF EJB, I guess the examples should be self-contained.

Moreover, there should be no real DB applications or implementations, as these applications do not appear even when discussing with Entity Bean.

Nick

[Kathy Sierra]

Howdy Richard,
We do some of both--there *is* a basic app that is modified and changed throughout the book, but our philosophy is that we pick whatever examples will best make the points that you most need to learn for a given topic, and that have the *least* amount of cognitive overhead. In other words, we don't want you to spend any brain bandwidth on figuring out what the heck the *example* is about, so that you can devote the most brain power and memorization to the actual thing you are supposed to be learning.

The book does have a LOT of code. If you've seen the EJB book, this Servlets & JSP book is substantially different in the amount of code and examples. But there isn't a huge project that you're required to keep up with throughout the book.

cheers,
Kathy

[Nicholas Cheung]

Hi Kathy,

How about the EL and JSTL examples?

The questions of these 2 parts are very tricky, how deep be these topics discussed in the book?

Nick

[Richard Quist]

Thanks Kathy,

I've been working through the HF EJB book and I also used your SCJP&D study guide when I got my SCJP certification....

Your track record is pretty good as far as turning out helpful tomes. Although I'm not eyeing the SCWCD exam just yet... Do you think (because I know you're completely un-biased ) that this can serve as a primary reference, or is there another book, in addition to this, that you'd recommend?