Mastering Rational XDE

Rating:
Summary: Another "Mastering..." masterpeice
Review: Do you see the word "Mastering..." in the title? That means, as always, leave this one on the shelf. I've never met a "Mastering..." book that was worth a dime.

Rating:
Summary: Another "Mastering..." masterpeice
Review: Do you see the word "Mastering..." in the title? That means, as always, leave this one on the shelf. I've never met a "Mastering..." book that was worth a dime.

Rating:
Summary: rushed overview at best
Review: I have to agree with the others, while a book on the real XDE is absolutely required. This is not it.

Rating:
Summary: Great for new XDE user
Review: I have used Rational Rose for many years and XDE is replacing Rose. This book does a great job of introducing all of the features of XDE and what buttons to push to get work done.

It did a very good job of explaining all of the new features of
XDE such as patterns and RAS. I was able to create complex patterns and save them in RAS for use in other projects based
on reading this book.

I recomend it to all new users of XDE.

Rating:
Summary: OK for Java, Bad for .NET
Review: Maybe for the Java part they did not so bad
but the .NET part is a joke (I mean mostly the sample code, but not only). One would think
that the both (java and .NET diagrams) will be
at least kind of close(like for example two books by "James W Cooper": "Java design patterns" and "C# Design Patterns", both books are almost similar, just for different languages) but after reading into this book...?!
Just compare the diagrams starting from chapter 5 for java and chapter 6 for .NET, a normal, standard multi tier Web application for Java with separate "Analysis Elements" Package, "Business" layer, "Integration" layer, "Presentation" layer, "Java Code Model", "Virtual Directory Model", "EJB Code Model" on one side and a VB Form with couple of data access classes on the other. Is this some kind of joke?, or this is how they believe
The .NET applications should be designed, then I am really sorry for them(the Authors)
I will not recommend this book for any .NET developer-designer, for Java it's maybe OK, But then they should change the name of the book, call it something "Mastering Rational XDE Java Edition" and take the .NET part out of it, because one will get much more from reading into standard help wich comes with XDE for
.NET than from this book

Rating:
Summary: It's unfortunate it's the only book on the subject
Review: The habit of certain publishers to rush out half-baked books is getting really annoying. "Mastering Rational XDE" should probably have been titled "A first awkward stab at the missing manual for XDE" or something of the sort.

The book is badly organized (XDE is mostly a tool for designers and developers, while the book has a heavy focus on requirements gathering and project management), and throughout the book, one gets the sense that the authors were far from comfortable with the tool. This is not really surprising, since XDE is quite a complex piece of software. Most of the functionality is quickly glossed over with a step-by-step approach which shuns (voluntarily, I'm guessing) any attempt at providing an understanding of the concepts and justifications behind them.

In addition, I must really point out that the authors' understanding of some of the technologies discussed is pretty weak. I don't really care about the .NET part, although I'm sure others do, and I'm not competent to review it. But the Java part is full of factual errors (like "In XDE, a JavaBean ... is modeled as an attribute of a class"; this is horribly wrong. The authors should really read a book on JavaBeans), some of which are mindboggling.

When one reads the back of the book, one learns that one of the authors is a project manager with an MBA, while the other is a consulting manager. I suspect that their understanding of Java technologies is of a bird's-eye, executive-level whitepaper type, rather than being based on hands on experience. I may be wrong, but this is definitely the feeling one gets when reading the book.

From the previous review, I get the feeling that the .NET section is no better than the Java one.

Whose fault is this? I don't really blame the authors, since they clearly were unsuited to the task. The blame should really go to Sybex, who (once again) rushed a book to market without so much as a technical review in order to make a buck.

The question remains, why doesn't Rational publish a book on the subject? XDE's documentation is pitiful (and recent attempts to improve the situation are only half-successful) and there is a real need for detailed information on the tool. The gauntlet is thrown. Let they who really understand XDE write a book. I'll be first in line to buy it.

Rating:
Summary: It's unfortunate it's the only book on the subject
Review: The habit of certain publishers to rush out half-baked books is getting really annoying. "Mastering Rational XDE" should probably have been titled "A first awkward stab at the missing manual for XDE" or something of the sort.

The book is badly organized (XDE is mostly a tool for designers and developers, while the book has a heavy focus on requirements gathering and project management), and throughout the book, one gets the sense that the authors were far from comfortable with the tool. This is not really surprising, since XDE is quite a complex piece of software. Most of the functionality is quickly glossed over with a step-by-step approach which shuns (voluntarily, I'm guessing) any attempt at providing an understanding of the concepts and justifications behind them.

In addition, I must really point out that the authors' understanding of some of the technologies discussed is pretty weak. I don't really care about the .NET part, although I'm sure others do, and I'm not competent to review it. But the Java part is full of factual errors (like "In XDE, a JavaBean ... is modeled as an attribute of a class"; this is horribly wrong. The authors should really read a book on JavaBeans), some of which are mindboggling.

When one reads the back of the book, one learns that one of the authors is a project manager with an MBA, while the other is a consulting manager. I suspect that their understanding of Java technologies is of a bird's-eye, executive-level whitepaper type, rather than being based on hands on experience. I may be wrong, but this is definitely the feeling one gets when reading the book.

From the previous review, I get the feeling that the .NET section is no better than the Java one.

Whose fault is this? I don't really blame the authors, since they clearly were unsuited to the task. The blame should really go to Sybex, who (once again) rushed a book to market without so much as a technical review in order to make a buck.

The question remains, why doesn't Rational publish a book on the subject? XDE's documentation is pitiful (and recent attempts to improve the situation are only half-successful) and there is a real need for detailed information on the tool. The gauntlet is thrown. Let they who really understand XDE write a book. I'll be first in line to buy it.