Carl Tyler's Blog :: Head First Java

« Had our first snow of the winter last night | Main| Is it that time already? »

Head First Java

Category None
As so many people had recommended the above book, I decided I should get my hands on it, so I did what most people do and went and looked on Amazon.com, good price but then to get it shipped quickly would have cost about 15 bucks more on top, hhm that wasn't happening.

Then I thought maybe Barnes and Noble has a thing where I can see if the book is in stock at one of their shops and then just go and get it. Well it turns out Barnes and Noble had the book in stock, and they have this fast delivery for many locations on the east coast, and shipping is free if the order is over $25, so as my order was $27 the shipping was free. Placing my order at 10.59am yesterday, 1 minute within their faster delivery window, the book was schedulled for next day delivery the book just arrived a couple of minutes ago. That to me is impressive service.

Posted by Carl Tyler On 12/03/2003 | Permalink |

Comments

1 - The book is very good Carl. I have completed it and now I am writing as many Notes Agents as I can in Java. I have also installed WASD and using that as well to develop some simple Java apps. I don't if you will find the American humor in the book very funny but, all in all its a good read.

Bruce

Posted by Bruce Elgort At 09:41:45 PM On 12/03/2003 | - Website - |

2 - Keep in mind that JAVA agents generally (initialization, JVM overhead, etc.) are *slower* compared to Lotusscript agents doing the same thing. Granted, you can use network classes and do more cool stuff which you can't do with java, but if you can do everything in Lotusscript, then you're better using that...

Posted by Thomas Gumz At 12:56:10 PM On 12/04/2003 | - Website - |

3 - Understood Thomas. Thanks for pointing this out

Posted by Bruce Elgort At 02:54:37 PM On 12/04/2003 | - Website - |

4 - The Java agents are back-end, and really for the majority of day-to-day agents, I don't know that the performance difference is much of an issue. It hasn't been so far, at least, and I've been writing Java agents for several years.

If performance really matters, it's best to use formula-based agents if possible, rather than LotusScript or Java (and the fastest would be C programs). Of course, we have to choose the tool based on what we have in our toolbox

But the real reason why I think it's good to be doing the agents in Java is just to get used to the language (if one believes that knowing Java opens one to more opportunites to take advantage of IBM/Lotus technologies ...and I do believe that). There's a lot more to being a true Java programmer than coding a procedural-style java agent within the Notes IDE, but that's a great starting point.

So I think it comes down to:
1. If execution time is critical, then base decisions on that
2. If it's OK for an agent to run slightly longer at times, and if one wants a way to ease into Java, then coding Notes agents in Java makes tremendous sense.

Posted by Joe Litton At 02:30:15 PM On 12/05/2003 | - Website - |

5 - As a Brit, I will say here and now that I enjoy the humour in the book. And no, I still haven't finished it. I'm a real slack-arse when it comes to stuff like this compared with people like Duffbert, Bruce and Joe.

And I've got an EJB one to get through too!