Eclipse 3.0 Kick Start

Rating:
Summary: Excellent, perfect depth, good span of topics
Review: I needed a book to get up to speed on Eclipse 3.0 for work, I found it with Carlos Valcarcel's book. The chapters are just the right length and cover a vast array of topics, from MyEclipse, GUI Layout, CVS, Struts, building your own plug-ins, its all there and then some. The book's site can be found here: http://www.eclipsekickstart.com/

Rating:
Summary: shows how to use Web Services in Eclipse
Review: The latest Eclipse is well described here by Valcarcel. It has rapidly become perhaps the most popular IDE for Java programmers. Of course, being free didn't hurt the uptake.

He assumes you have already programmed in Java itself. The book has three parts and an Appendix. The first part covers the basics. Essentially, it shows how to write and debug a standalone Java application in Eclipse. Competently done. But frankly, little to distinguish from other Eclipse texts. At this level, we are basically in an IDE equivalent to IBM's earlier Visual Age for Java, circa 2000. From which Eclipse is derived, by the way.

The second and third parts of the book are far more interesting. Part two is all about using plug-ins to build up an application. Here is where Eclipse really shows its power. Also, the author describes how to make a Web Service using Eclipse. Web Services are a hot topic, and for those of you wanting to get into it, without giving up your familiar Eclipse environment, that chapter may justify the entire book.

Finally, part 3 is about the basics of writing a plug-in. You can really dig deep into the Eclipse framework for this. It may be the most advanced part of the book.

Rating:
Summary: Field guide to Eclipse 3.0
Review: The value in this book is it's breadth of coverage. It never digs very deep into topics. The coverage of UML editing, for example, is about 30 pages. But that's thirty more pages than most of the Eclipse books have on UML. And the coverage is of a wide variety of these topics, including Struts, web services, JSPs, and others. The basics are covered as well, starting with installation and the basics of starting up a project, going through source control, unit testing, and refactoring. It's all there. It's just set to a whirlwind pace that may leave you a little breathless. Good book, just not for very beginners.