Bitter Java is a new J2EE antipatterns book. It's preview was the #21 book at Java One this year. In it, author Bruce Tate explores the common traps, called antipatterns, that mire intermediate J2EE programmers. Bitter Java’s antipatterns explore servlets, caching, memory management, performance tuning and EJB issues like round tripping.

Check out Bitter Java, by Bruce Tate.

Press Release
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Manning Publications Releases Bitter Java

GREENWICH, CONNECTICUT

It is a well-known fact that most software projects fail. Drawing important lessons from failure is the goal of Bitter Java, a systematic account of common server-side Java programming mistakes, their causes and solutions. This book covers antipatterns for base Java and J2EE concepts such as Servlets, JSPs, EJBs, enterprise connection models, and scalability. It illustrates common pitfalls of Java programming through code examples and then presents re-factored code and explains why the new solutions are safe.
Written in an engaging style, this book begins each chapter with an extreme sports adventure gone wrong, and cunningly weaves the moral of the story into the discussion of Java development problems. Bitter Java begins with an overview of antipatterns and lays the foundation for server-side Java development. The author quickly builds momentum with a set of core server-side antipatterns for servlets and JSPs. He uses a bulletin board example to discuss common mistakes in basic server-side design, and iteratively refactors it until he reaches good design. This example is reused as the author guides the reader through increasingly complex antipatterns of caching, database connections and EJBs. High-level discussions of programming hygiene and performance tuning, complete with related antipatterns, help to round out the coverage.

The intermediate developer is the intended reader of this book but developers at all levels will gain insight from the discussions of basic design patterns for Java JSP programming, round tripping, the perils of ignoring caching and connection pooling, etc. More advanced topics such as performance tuning, EJB and XML are also included.

Readers can benefit from direct access to the author at the publisher-sponsored Author Online forum (www.manning.com/tate/forum.html) and a site built by the author to support the book: www.bitterjava.com. Bitter Java is published in both print and pdf ebook editions.

About the Author
Bruce Tate has 14 years' experience at IBM and at a startup, half of this time as an Internet architect. He is the author of two other computer books and he lives in Austin, Texas.

About Manning Publications Co.
Manning Publications Co. is a growing and well-respected independent publisher of computer books with a reputation of publishing in-depth books on Java, written in a clear style, without the fluff. Bitter Java joins other best-selling Manning Java titles as Web Development with JavaServer Pages, 2nd ed., Server-Based Java Programming, Swing, and Java Network Programming. Bitter Java debuts at the JavaOne Conference in March 2002 along with five other new Java titles - Java 2 Micro Edition, J2EE and XML Development, The JDK 1.4 Tutorial, Java 3D Programming, and Java Instant Messaging: The Jabber Protocols.

Bitter Java
By Bruce A. Tate
ISBN 1930110-43X
Print edition: Softbound, 368 pages, $44.95

Why is there a $3.50 processing charge for the eBook? I assume the author didn't choose that, but it sure put me off from buying the pdf version (from the publisher's website). Am I wrong in thinking $3.50 is obscenely high for letting someone download a pdf file?

I'd say it's about 10 times better than paying $35 for a hard copy (for several reasons)

Actually the ebook costs $13.50.

Yeah, I wasn't too clear. The price to download the book from the publishers as a pdf is $13.50. I thought that was fairly reasonable and something I was willing to pay. But after you click through a few screens for the purchase, you are informed that there is a $3.50 handling charge above that. It's this that gripes me. I can't see $3.50 worth of handling in allowing me to download a pdf. Smells a bit funny.

It is a great book, I registered and wanted to buy the PDF eBook edition after I read the sample chapters, but the $3.50 handling fee stopped me from buying it. Why there is a handling fee since everything is automatic?

By the way, when is the free "EJB design pattern" PDF book going to be available for download? I have been waiting for it since March.

<quote>
It's a great book.
</quote>

Thanks. We spent a whole lot of time editing the book, and I invested a lot of effort into making it fun to read. I plan for this book to be a more practical introduction into antipatterns, and will follow this effort with more advanced books on EJBs, extreme programming and XML.

Some are even saying that Bitter Java is the best written and edited computer book they have ever read. That blows my mind, but I've heard it four times now, and I take great pride in it. It's nice to see the efforts paying off. Bitter Java is the top selling Java bookon Amazon today.

<quote>
The 3.50 handling fee stopped me from buying it.
</quote>

Lots of issues wrapped up in this one. For example, credit card fraud is much more prominant for e-books, since you immediately walk away with merchandice that cannot be returned.

Thanks again for your kind words. Shoot me a private e-mail. (info at bitterjava dot com)

I am Manning's Publisher.
    We also thought the transaction was going to be friction-free: no human intervention needed for a PDF sale. So we priced the eBook as low as we possibly could so that we and the author still made the same dollar amount. That was roughly 70% off the book's list price.
    But, real life involves real friction, in this case lots of credit card fraud which costs us chargeback fees from the credit card companies, and labor costs to handle.
   To me the $3.50 still looks fair.

The issue here isn't the 3.5$, I believe most people interested in buying the book would have paid even 20$ if that was the price, the issue is those 3.5 where *hidden* until the last minute. When you buy something (on a shop or on the net), you expect to pay only the price tag, and delivery costs if there is any ( which is not the case for downloads ). off course you have associated costs relating to c.c. processing, so just increase the price tag to reflect that, like all other commerce business does.

Because the way you are doing right now probably making you lose more business that it gains you.

<quote>
The issue here isn't the 3.5$, I believe most people interested in buying the book would have paid even 20$ if that was the price, the issue is those 3.5 where *hidden* until the last minute. </quote>

Exactly, that is what I think. I think if the publisher can add the handling fee to the current price, and get rid of the handling fee, it will surely attract more people buying it. Because it was the price that attracts them to buying the book, when they see there are still additional fees, they will feel being cheated.

It sounds like the concensus is that the 3.50 should be merged into the sales price. It also looks like Marjan's committed to taking care of the problem.

Thanks for the feedback, guys.

I'd also be interested in what people would like to see in a possible second edition.

I just bought this ebook a few minutes ago, and was surprised to find out that you can print it out! Now THAT is a great deal. Most ebooks don't let you do that I don't know if Manning's other titles are printable, but it makes it well worth the $17. I also noticed that the service charge is front and center now on the page.

-- jason

[quote]
I just bought this ebook a few minutes ago, and was surprised to find out that you can print it out! Now THAT is a great deal. Most ebooks don't let you do that I don't know if Manning's other titles are printable, but it makes it well worth the $17. I also noticed that the service charge is front and center now on the page.
[/quote]


I think all of them should be printable because it really hurts to read on the computer screen. If they are not printable, then they should be free of charge. :-)

I am going to buy some books there too. A suggestion for everyone, get yourself a laser printer that supports duplex mode and can print multiple pages per side. That will save you a lot of paper.

"A suggestion for everyone, get yourself a laser printer that supports duplex mode and can print multiple pages per side. That will save you a lot of paper."

Two words. Office Printer. God bless it. ;-)


"I agree. With $35.00, I can get 2 books already. "

I did. Picked up Neward's server programming book too. ;-)


-- jason

Hi! Any plans of releasing a low priced edition in India in the near future?

Regards,

Yannick Menager said:
>The issue here isn't the 3.5$, I believe most people
>interested in buying the book would have paid even
>20$ if that was the price, the issue is those 3.5 where
>*hidden* until the last minute...

OK, I understand. I will look into how it appears and correct that problem. Thanks.

Not to be a pain, the standard credit card processing fees are between 2% to 3.5%. (Amex is 3.5%) These fees also cover fraud. Not 20%, that is an unreasonable processing fee.

Doug, thanks for your feedback. If you'd like, you can drop me an e-mail with your concerns and I'll hook you up with Manning directly. I think you will find them very responsive.

info at bitterjava dot com.

Where do I buy the eBook from I do not see it at amazon.

I found it
http://www.manning.com/ebook_buy.html?project=tate

[quote]
I'd say it's about 10 times better than paying $35 for a hard copy (for several reasons) [/quote]

I agree. With $35.00, I can get 2 books already.

Greetings from the author. I'm working with my publisher on other options for inexpensive e-books for the future. You'll just have to trust me on this one.

I hope you enjoy the book.

I read chapter 6 which tackles memory leaks and found it interesting.

Bruce,
Is the book available in Canada/Toronto? If not is it going to be available soon?

Yes, it should be on the shelves. I know that the major chains all bought in pretty good quantities.

Amazon also has a pretty good discount, and ships in 24 hours (while supplies last...grin).

Guys, two points on e-books. First, thanks for pointing the service charge thing out. It should be much more clear now...thanks Marjan.

Second, Manning has a whole lot of great books, and the e-books are a fantastic deal. If you really like an e-book, you can always get a discount when you buy the paper copy. It's a great way to "test drive" a book, and nothing beats a bound book. I highly recommend the XML/J2EE book and the JDK 1.4 book...they are very well written and have plenty of meat. For you (gasp) .NET fans, check out the Grimes book Microsoft .NET for Programmers. It's a surprisingly good read.

Bruce: "If you really like an e-book, you can always get a discount when you buy the paper copy. It's a great way to "test drive" a book, and nothing beats a bound book."

A test drive should be free, IMHO, like the Mastering EJB and EJB Patterns pdf's, although I think the EJB Patterns pdf took a wrong turn on its way here and headed straight into /dev/null.

Taking $13 off the retail price for the bound version is nice, but Amazon already does that, so I'm not sure I see the extra value in that pdf discount.

Regardless, a REALLY good reference book, like Mastering EJB, makes it a no-brainer to purchase the bound version. It looks like Bitter Java may be one of those as well. An excellent read so far.

-- jason

To clarify, that would be $13 off of the Manning discounted price.

Also, I don't know about other payment options.

I bought the bound version on Amazon when it first became available on the UK website.

One thing which would be very useful would be to be able to get to a searchable e-version on a web site or a CD. Particularly one which I could copy and paste from into my own documents so I could organize and cross-reference things in my own way. To excerpt into a handout appendix for a presentation for example.

I haven't spoken up about the book as yet because it's very dense material and requires a good deal of study. A little like Floyd's book in that respect.

Hello !

As far as I could see, it seems a very interesting book. I wanted to ask if there is any possiblity to pay for the e-book other than the credit card. I am from Eastern Europe and I don't have a credit card :(

Keep up the good work!

Thanks!

Gee, this book must be pretty good if all people can complain about is the $3.50 download service fee... Other than the price of eBooks or the handling fees thereof, does anyone have anything useful to say about this book?

As the author, I would also like to hear how people liked the book, and what people would like to see in the next edition. Since we're up to 11 on Amazon overall today, I think that a second edition would be worth while.

- What server side antipatterns bite you the hardest?
- Would you like to see the code using STRUTS?
- What are the common XML programming antipatterns?
- Do the short stories work for you, or do they turn you off?
- What other subjects would benefit from an antipattern-based approach? (What are the areas that have good market acceptance, but maybe a little backlash due to misuse?)
- What platform should we support, if we only support one? (J-Boss?)

If you don't feel comfortable giving your feedback here, drop me an e-mail at info at bitterjava dot com.

After seing postings about Bitter Java on Slashdot (http://www.slashdot.org) and here, I decided to pick up a copy at the book store -- being an impulsive buyer, Amazon just wouldn't have cut it (maybe once they come out with same hour delivery I'll reconsider).

I personally can't get into the short stories as they a) make me wish I was outside kayaking rather than reading a book in my office, and b) cause my brain to lose focus and bounce between different subjects too frequently. I would not say that they turn me off, however. The stories do add a touch of difference and personality to the book, and because they are in an alternate typeset, I can easily skim or skip them at will.

The book was read from cover to cover in a single sitting. I really didn't think that I would get into it as much as I did, but it the book is extremely well written and the content is very accurate, clear and concise. I typically read several books or focus only on white papers during one sitting because I find it hard to get into a lot of the longer technical material out there (due to the average geek's writing style or lack thereof), but I had no difficulty with Bitter Java. Good job Bruce!

Lastly, in response to proposed STRUTS and J2EE vendor-specific material, I personally enjoy reading straight Java antipatterns. No "proprietary" (or other) extensions, unless you're talking about a JSR. Of course, this is my personal taste which most likely does not mesh perfectly - or even closely - with the rest of the world.

Anyhow, I'd love to see more material on this subject. I look forward to future publications by you, Bruce.

Best Regards,
John Duffy

Need the PDF link for Bitter Java -J2EE Antipatterns.do mail a copy to ramji.viswanathan@tcs.com