Java Server Pages from Scratch (From Scratch)

This book immediately caught my eye. It seemed to have everything I was looking for. While working through the first couple of chapters, I was utterly confused. The author tells you to name a page one name, but refers to the same page with a completely different name for its examples. this happens several times throughout the book. By trial and error I eventually got some of the code to work but with way too much effort.

This is not a simple walkthrough like the books title dictates. There are too many leaps from example to example and too many holes to fill. Most of my time was spent figuring out how to piece the several bits of code together to make the examples work. I am sure this is not the author's fault, but the publisher's rather. It's a shame, because this could have been a winner instead of the jumbling mess that it is. Also Que offers no errata to help out and the source code is just as confusing as the book!

If you wanna learn jsp quick, definately check out Wrox's Beginning JSP Web Development, or Forta's JSP book, and "scratch" this one of your list. Shame on you Que.


Way to many editing and coding errors.   December 10, 2001
David (St Paul, Minnesota)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful

As a very skilled web page designer and beginning java programmer wanting to learn JSP, the coding errors in the text of this book made it nothing but frustrating. The author makes huge assumptions about the readers skill level, or the "intermediate" rating from Que is way off. That on top of the very frustrating editing errors in the sample code makes this book a burden and a waist of time for any non-java expert. If you like a challenge to make you learn a subject, then searching through the java doc finding the stupid capitalization errors in the sample code in this book is for you.


A book for those who love code errors   December 2, 2001
Robert A. Vasseur (Newberry Springs, CA USA)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful

Most of the negative reviewers are right about this book. Don't see how you can rate this book very high unless you really don't need to read it in the first place. There are a lot of code errors. The author seems to be making assumptions that you already know enough to make getting through this disaster a breeze.


Nice idea. Poor implementation.   July 13, 2001
C A Herbaut (Delft, ZH Netherlands)
I agree with Dan Green. The author has a hard enough job putting his work together, let alone fixing every typo. That's the publishers job. As far as I am concerned Maneesh Sahu has been let down by would-be vanity publisher QUE. There are typos galore and just too many code errors. It's as if QUE printed the wrong draft. I am just glad I am an experienced enough developer to see around the bugs. This work has the potential to rank amongst the better jsp books. Buy it if you have some programming skills, but still expect problems. Else get Web Development with Java Server Pages by Duane K. Fields and Mark A. Kolb. To quote Dan Green, "QUE get it together"...