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Editorial Review :
All true craftsmen need the best tools to do their finest work, and programmers are no different. Java Power Tools delivers 30 open source tools designed to improve the development practices of Java developers in any size team or organization. Each chapter includes a series of short articles about one particular tool -- whether it's for build systems, version control, or other aspects of the development process -- giving you the equivalent of 30 short reference books in one package. No matter which development method your team chooses, whether it's Agile, RUP, XP, SCRUM, or one of many others available, Java Power Tools provides practical techniques and tools to help you optimize the process. The book discusses key Java development problem areas and best practices, and focuses on open source tools that can help increase productivity in each area of the development cycle, including: Build tools including Ant and Maven 2 Version control tools such as CVS and Subversion, the two most prominent open source tools Quality metrics tools that measure different aspects of code quality, including CheckStyle, PMD, FindBugs and Jupiter Technical documentation tools that can help you generate good technical documentation without spending too much effort writing and maintaining it Unit Testing tools including JUnit 4, TestNG, and the open source coverage tool Cobertura Integration, Load and Performance Testing to integrate performance tests into unit tests, load-test your application, and automatically test web services, Swing interfaces and web interfaces Issue management tools including Bugzilla and Trac Continuous Integration tools such as Continuum, Cruise Control, LuntBuild and Hudson If you area Java developer, these tools can help improve your development practices, and make your life easier in the process. Lead developers, software architects and people interested in the wider picture will be able to gather from these pages some useful ideas about improving your project infrastructure and best practices.
Customer Review :
Good book for Java Tool-smith
I was really surprized how much info is in this book, most of them is very useful for me and my team, with this book we can reach more automation in ours work ;-)
Rating : 
Higly Recommended
If you want to be efficients and productive as a Java programmer I highly recommend this book to you. It is not about the Java language, but how to use various tools to use deploy your time productively. It introduces you to tools such as maven, SVN, JUnit, etc. which are very useful. And it is a well written text, well organized.
Rating :
Offers some 30 open source tools designed to improve Java practices and developer routines
John Ferguson Smart's JAVA POWER TOOLS is a key foundation pick for any library strong in Java programming. It offers some 30 open source tools designed to improve Java practices and developer routines, from metrics tools and those used to generate good documentation to issue management tools and web interfaces. Lead developers receive a range of specific tips important for optimum Java management, making this a basic library choice. A 'must' for any collection serious about Java development.
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Excelent book, should read "Configuration Managment and Productive Power Tools for Java"... but that will be too long.
As Indikos mentions in his review, this book "...is not about the Java language.." but it is an excellent resource for tools that will help you set up a controlled and productive development environment using available Open-Source tools. The organization and order of the topics covered thought the book match the process that you will normally follow when setting up a development environment.
The tools presented are well explained and their benefits are well reviewed as well. You should also be aware that this is not a specialized tutorial for each tool; you will have to review the tools' documentation too at some point, but I see this as expected.
I have been a technical lead for over 5 years and I love this book.
Rating :
Hits the Nail on the Head
Java Power Tools provides a fairly detailed introduction to a number of tools for Java programmers. It fits nicely between the O'Reilly Hacks series and having a dozen books like Ant: The Definitive Guide. Like the Hacks books, Java Power Tools provides an introduction to a bunch of tools. The Hacks books are great for answering the question "I've heard of that tool, but where does it fit?" But whereas the Hacks books provide just an appetizer, this book provides a main course, enough to get seriously started with the tool being discussed. And then, if you want all the gory details, a Definitive Guide could provide the full five-course meal.
The selection of tools presented was really good, at least for me. For example, I know about continuous integrations servers, but I haven't set one up. At one client site, they were using Hudson, which I had some exposure to, but didn't know much about the others like Cruise Control, Continuum, and Lunt Build. Similarly, I've been using JUnit 3.x for years, but I didn't really know what was different in JUnit 4 or how that compares to TestNG. This book provided me with a great overview of these and other tools. Java Power Tools provides a great way to get up to speed with a general area of tooling (e.g., continuous integration servers) or a good cross-section of the majority of the Java tools in use today.
If I had to pick something to complain about, it would be Part II - Version Control Tools. These aren't really Java tools, although every programmer (Java or otherwise) should be using them. Or given the decision to include version control tools, I'd suggest excluding CVS because it's old and including at least one distributed version control tool like Mercurial (used by the Open JDK project and NetBeans) or git (used by the Linux kernel).
So, in conclusion, unless you have no free will about tool selection or you already know all of these tools backwards and forwards, I highly recommend this book to almost any Java programmer.
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