Manning book for SCWCD 1.4

[Mirko Bonasorte]

Hi to everybody,

I've just read into the Sun Certification Results saloon about a rancher that passed the exam with the Manning book ( congrats Yasser ! ).

This is the same book I have adopted, but I don't feel so comfortable: it seems to me that lack a good approach to variable synchronization, it is not very exaustive for tag files and gives only a look to jstl. Moreover, it seems to be adapted from 1.3 to 1.4 exam version.
Is it only an impression or I should have bought another book?

Thanks in advance

[Marc Peabody]

I read the older version when I first passed SCWCD a couple years ago and it was terrific. The review we have in the Bunkhouse is also based on that version.

I have not read the later release myself, but I have heard negative things about it. Not that it's total garbage, but that it isn't as good as the original was for the exam. The original was awesome. One of the best technology books ever written, in my opinion. I referenced it for years after passing the exam.

This book and the negatives of the more recent release were discussed here quite a bit about a year ago. You might be able to search through old posts on this forum for some of those discussions.

[Timotius Pamungkas]

I found the book quite helpful, although for I still have to find another resources for JSTL, Custom Tag, and Tag files.

Plus, the book doesn't mention anything about env-entry, ejv-ref, ejb-local-ref, ejb-resource-ref, resource-env-ref, and jsp-property-group

But overall, in my opinion, it's nice.

[NDP Prasad]

That is a nice Book. I used both version, in the second version you can see the EL and JSTL, and exam notes at the end of the book.

[Christophe Verré]

I must be the only one who is bashing this book I've been really upset with it, because I had to spend a lot of time referring to the specs to check that the information provided in it were correct. It says that it is aimed for SCWCD 1.4, but the TLDs, DTDs... were not updated. It's very confusing, and you'll have to print out diagrams from the spec. Check the author's forum, and you'll understand what I mean.
http://www.manning-sandbox.com/forum.jspa?forumID=54

There's been no analogize whatsoever, which is a pity. I own a few Manning's books that I like very much. It's the only one I've been disappointed with. The first version (SCWCD 1.3) was highly praised, but the second one (SCWCD 1.4) is a disaster.