| This book targets beginning to intermediate Java developers looking to build enterprise Web applications with the latest offerings from the open source Java community. In this book you’ll explore different approaches to building a Java Web application using a step-by-step approach.
Java’s history is a thorny and convoluted one. From its origins at Sun, better known for its hardware than its software, Java was born as a stealth project targeting consumer devices. Along came the Web, and Java provided the only way to do anything remotely close to rich animation. Applets running on the HotJava Browser showcasing a dancing Duke was my “oh, now that’s cool” moment of 1995. So we set out to write enormously large applets that were slow to run and then the browser wars began and you could only guess whether it was going to run or your user would see a big gray box on their browsers. Today applets still have their niche, mostly in the least-expected places, like the computer in an oil lube bay or a conveyor-controlling application in a distribution center.
But Java was still the new kid on the block. In the late ’90s, Web applications were being built on the CGI platform and a trove of scripting languages. At that point Java came into its own with the servlet API and what was viewed as the golden hammer of its time, the EJB specification. At that point I was already tainted by the complexity of the Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) and Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA), so to paraphrase Bruce Tate, I ate the elephant and it was good! Well, guess what? By the time we entered the 21st century the elephant already was the animal of choice in large corporate IT departments, it started to face fierce competition in the wild. It had to run on Pearls, fight Pythons and lately tried to avoid the red light at the end of the tunnel (is that a Ruby on Rails?).
About the Author
BRIAN SAM-BODDEN has spent over ten years working with object technologies, with an emphasis on the Java platform. He holds dual bachelor degrees from Ohio Wesleyan University in computer science and physics and is the president and chief software architect for Integrallis Software (www.integrallis.com), where he focuses on object modeling and Java, particularly Java EE. He has worked as an architect, developer, mentor, trainer, and code monkey for several Fortune 500 companies in various industries including taxation, insurance, retail sciences, telecommunications, banking, finance, distribution and scientific data management. As an independent consultant, he has promoted the use of open source in the industry by educating his clients on the cost benefits and productivity gains they can achieve. He is a frequent speaker at user groups at both national and international conferences. He is a Sun Certified Java Programmer, Developer, and Enterprise Architect. Brian also co-authored the Apress Java title Enterprise Java Development on a Budget: Leveraging Java Open Source Technologies (2004). Aside from spending time with his wife and son, Brian spends most of his time writing code or on the mat practicing Brazilian jiujitsu. |
