The author, Richard Monson-Haefel ,
What makes this book so good?
Dear Reader,
While some of the EJB books available today took the
authors only a few months to write, this book took over a
year to complete. This time was spent refining the content to
ensure that it was both technically accurate and a pleasure
to read. Delivering content that meets these standards isn't
easy, and while my name is on the cover, credit is shared
with many people.
O'Reilly spared no expense engaging the best staff of
technical editors available. Ordinarily, a technical book may
employ four to six experts who review a book for technical
errors and completeness, but to deliver the best quality book
possible we used twelve technical editors. This group of EJB
experts included engineers from the leading EJB vendors like
BEA, IBM, and Gemstone. It also included industry analysts
specializing in distributed object systems, like Anne Thomas
of the Patricia Seybold Group, and individuals involved in
deploying large-scale real-world systems in EJB.
Getting the technical details right was critical, but
readability was equally important. Working with my friend and
O'Reilly editor, Michael Loukides, we went through several
drafts and revisions making sure that the content was
balanced, fluid, easy to understand, and enjoyable to read.
Getting the technical stuff right was easy, making this book
a good read was the biggest challenge of my life. I'm proud
to say it's the best thing I've ever written.
Purchasing an EJB book from Amazon is simple, but choosing
a good book is difficult. I hope I have given you an idea of
the pains we went through to make this EJB book the best
available. I started writing this book in March 1998 and
finished in May 1999. It was a long difficult journey and I
could have finished earlier, but quality can not be rushed.
Thank you for considering my book, Enterprise JavaBeans,
and good luck in your career as a distributed object
professional. It's an exciting field with unlimited
challenges and rewards.
Yours truly,
Richard Monson-Haefel
