Customer Reviews

Programming Mobile Objects with Java

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

 

 

Some of the reviews here complain about typos and other non-related babble. This book is not about agents or Java. If you have ever actually programmed in Java or written software using "mobile" objects you will find this treatise helpful, informative and educational. Unless you spend all of your time re-reading your CS 303 books the latter half of this book will come in handy as a valuable reference when sketching out object models. The examples are simple and clear. I would highly recommend this book to developers who are interested in the future of distributed computing.

Chris Henderson CEO The Gluons

I bought this book because of the chapter talking about Voyager. However, reading the book from cover to cover, I found many mistakes:

- classes extending interface (instead of implementing) see pages 42, 168, 379

- methods without return value; see pages 43, 62

- code with compiler errors; see page 121

- utilization of non-existing classes (see page 180: Invite)

- Instantiation of abstract class (see page 200)

- Unfinished code (see page 203, catch without type)

- declaration of throws exception when those exceptions are never thrown (page 239)

- error in the program logic (see page 285, where anExtension.actions should be used instead of anExtension.bundles)

- strings not closed (see page 381).

I reported these problems to the author and received no response. So, if you want to buy this book, forget about the code, because it won't compile...

Looks like a really nice introduction to the area! I'm glad we have a good book like this. Nice to see "Sea of Objects" end up in print, too :-)

I'm glad you've made the distinction between mobile objects and mobile agents; I've long held the belief that a "mobile agent" is just a mobile object with some fuzzy logic/AI behind it. I find much more exciting ideas in mobile objects than I do in mobile agents. :)

I purchased your book "Progr. Mobile Objects with Java" and find it totally outstanding. I like it so much that I borrowed your Chapter 8, "Building a Dynamic Upgradable Text Editor" for my Software Engineering class term project at DePaul Univ.)

I like the book, althu it's a bit outdated (it went to print this January but contains really outdated stuff - no Java 2 features - the author only mentions very early betas, sore remarks only discuss the situation in late 1997 etc.) and FAR too verbose. It discusses trivial things and ideas in 2-3 pages. I've read much better books that discussed the same ideas in 5-6 rows as comprehensively as this one.

The book's title is a bit misleading - it has nothing to do with mobile agents at all (some 5 pages are dedicated to agents). So, if you're looking for a book on agents, go for something else. (Fortunately, the author explicitly tells this in his review above; unfortunately, Wiley's book catalogue in July 1998, when I ordered the book, didn't mention this. But it doesn't matter - after all, I've learnt a lot from the book).

The book contains several typos (e.g. pp. 222: discuss <> Task; its = it's; in the examples too - e.g. pp. 59 wrong constructor names), 64 (resume() in readExternal), 66. (the same)), and sometimes serious mistakes (e.g. pp. 210: 'Applets cannot be distributed to IE browsers located accross the Internet using this technique [locally making CLASSPATH point to 1.1's LOCAL classes.zip in order to make 1.02-compliant, old IE's 1.1-compilant] because the JDK 1.1 class file cannot be placed on a web site for two reasons. First, the JDK 1.1 class file is licensed from JavaSoft and can't be redistributed without permission. Second, the JDK 1.1 class file is larger than 8 megabytes, which is impractical to distribute accross the Internet for applets.' - it doesnt say a word about using REMOTE java.* classes and ClassLoader's refusing to load them. It is indeed a very severe error.

Class/method/etc names / keywords arent highlighted, unfortunately, in the text.

The book could be MUCH better - the author should have updated the menuscript to discuss Java2 (Wiley announced the book last summer, but the book actually went into press this year so he DID have time!) and should have read it to eliminate the errors / make it a bit more informative and less verbose.

Still, I recommend the book - it discusses things that were completely new for me. If you want to get ALL books on hot technology, get this one, too (after getting Orfali's books from Wiley, of course). If you just want something more accurate, go elsewhere. The 2nd edition should be made a LOT more accurate, with more diagrams, highlighted code etc.

Buy it only if you want the overview in the first half. The "design patterns" second half is dreadful and the sample code hasn't even been formatted. The author's Java credentials are somewhat undermined by his belief that class definitions are terminated by semi-colons.

You made a mistake in giving the number of pages: it's 601, and not 4xx.

Werner.

DO NOT PUBLISH THIS ONE!

Hey - I'm reading your book! I'm working on a small DARPA research project in which we want to demonstrate that mobile objects will work between disparate projects with a little work.(I dindn't know that they were called mobile objects, but it seems like a good name) . I'm just getting started with the book, but it seems to cover pretty much what we need.

Somebody below me said the book is a great introductory book as far as the future of Java is concerned.

This book is indeed an introduction. But, if you REALLY want an introductory book, you should go for other books from Wiley - a book written by Orfali, for example. They're a magnitude better than this one.

I'v read Orfali's most books and am pretty happy with them - his Distributed Objects Survival Guide is the best intro book on CORBA I've ever read. Also, Peter van den Linden's Not just Java is also a good introductory book to most topics covered in Nelson's book - except for the vendor-specific subjects, of course - voyagee (sp?) et al. But they only take up some 70-80 pages. The other 530-540 pages are just plain bad - just compare this book to those of Orfali...

Do NOT buy this book.