Review by Billy Barron, Tek-Tools

"Enterprise Java with UML" (Wiley Computer Publishing; ISBN 0-471-38680-4) by CT Arrington is a book that Wiley must have really wanted me to review. They sent me two copies instead of the usual one. That's fine as our users group will have another book for a future drawing.

The book takes a different approach than any Enterprise Java book I've seen to date. Most of them explain the individual technologies one by one, but they do not give you an understanding of when to use each technology. This book instead focuses on modeling and then takes the model and applies it to the J2EE technologies. The two chapters that tie the modeling together with the technologies are chapters 7 and 8, which both contain the words "Evaluating Candidate Technologies" in their title. This is a critical point. It is all too common in this community to decide the technology before doing the analysis work. This book shows the correct way to do things.

The book also follows an example application from start to finish. Therefore, you can see how model a J2EE application the right way.

However, you should be warned that this is not a book which will teach you all the ins and outs of the J2EE technologies. It is a book on modeling them not the details of understanding the technologies fully.

This book's only real competitor is the J2EE BluePrints. This book is much better than the BluePrints book. It is easier to read and is a more balanced view of the real world than the BluePrints book, which had to tow the official party line. I recommend this book.