RMI/CORBA studies

[Dieter Quickfend]

I want to get up to speed on this technology and learn how to use it best...
I was looking for some good books, but found really little since, like, 2001, and I don't want to buy a 10-year-old book.
The only book that looked decent was this: Distributed Object-Oriented Architecture
But it's apparently only on Amazon, it has no reviews, I'm not even sure if it's in English.
I really would prefer to have a book rather than use the internet tutorials, because I'm on the train about 2-3 hours a day, which is an ideal time to study up.

However, I would also welcome a few links to interesting RMI/IIOP tutorials. I followed one but it wasn't very helpful.

I am also ordering Head First Servlets & JSP, and the SCWCD Study Guide, will I be able to garner some knowledge from that front?

[Lester Burnham]

The problems you're having locating a recent book probably have something to do with RMI and Corba having fallen out of favor in recent years. I can't think of a good example where I might choose RMI (or Corba) instead of web services these days. What prompts your interest in it?

I am also ordering Head First Servlets & JSP, and the SCWCD Study Guide, will I be able to garner some knowledge from that front?

No, RMI doesn't have anything to do with Java web apps.

[Dieter Quickfend]

Oh! So everything that involves client/server architecture can be solved with Web Services?

Great! I think I'll have a look at that then. Sorry =)

[Lester Burnham]

So everything that involves client/server architecture can be solved with Web Services?

I wouldn't go that far - there are scenarios where other approaches (like remote EJBs or, indeed, RMI) make sense, but web services work cross-language (RMI is Java-only), generally have an easier time crossing firewalls (port 80 is generally open, as opposed to RMI's default port), and don't depend on JRE versions (RMI is based on serialization, which can't be relied upon to work if both sides are not using the same JRE version).

Be sure to look into both SOAP and REST web services; the latter has gained much acceptance in recent years. The WebServicesFaq points to some good material.

[Dieter Quickfend]

Thanks a lot!