Customer Reviews

Sun Java(TM) Studio Creator Development Pack: Field Guide and Creator Software Package

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I just received my copy of this package, so I haven't had time to thoroughly review the book (but what I have seen is very good). I wanted to point out something for Mac OS X users... the CD that comes in this package does NOT have the Mac OS X version of Creator on it. It has the Windows, Solaris and Red Hat Linux versions. This might confuse some people, since Sun's web site says that this release (2004Q2) is available for Mac OS X and Solaris x86.



Even worse, there's nothing in the FAQ about this, and the updating instructions for this product assume you already have it installed. However, since the installer is a binary program, you can't install the Mac OS X version because you don't have it on the CD, so you can't update it.



It turns out that the serial number you are given when you purchase this package will work on the "trial" version from the Sun web site. Just download the Mac OS X trial version and, when asked for the serial number, use the one that comes with your package. The trial copy will become a fully purchased retail copy. As far as I can tell, this is perfectly legitimate since you are given installers for other OSs and Mac OS X is supported by this release.

I'm giving this 5 stars for two reasons. 1) Kudos to Sun for supporting the Mac, and 2) Kudos to Sun for producing such a cool tool!

This is a good deal considering that you get 1 year subscription on SDN which is already $99 from Sun. The book is good for beginners with detailed description on how to drag and drop using SJSC. It has covered UI design/creation to DB connection and access. However, the examples in the are pretty simple.

This package is a lot like that ice cream you get at the super market that looks great in the case and then you eat like half the carton before you realize you are being tantalized by something that has been ruthlessly pumped full of air. There are many things in this book that offensively wrong (like encouraging people to use System.out.println). On the whole, this is aimed squarely at the santa's elves market of would-be Java VBers.