Eugen Cojocaru

Migrating Applications to IPv6
Dan York
O'Reilly Media, 2011
50 pages

It is a fact that Internet growth is on an ascendent slope and IPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4) limits will soon be reached. Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) developed IPv6 a new Internet Layer protocol for packet-switched inter-networking that will allow much more addresses. Scope of this book is to explore the changes that needs to be adapted in order to migrate existing applications to IPv6 and the implications that will occur when the Internet protocol will change.

The author's purpose is not to present all solutions but rather the questions that should be asked. This is actually an initial overview on possible issues that can be encountered in applications migration process and the author's desire is to make updates of the book in time, while receiving feedback with new identified issues.

From Chapter 1 to Chapter 4, possible issues are presented and additional changes that should be applied on the existing applications(desktop and server based). IPv6 migration will have multiple consequences and the book is suggesting some possible situations that the reader has to consider for the adaptation process. Front-end and back-end critical possible changes are analyzed with focus on GUI, DNS, API and IP addresses storage. Transport layer (Chapter 5) was specifically addressed "for those of you who do need to work at the network layer". This contains information about messages transport from and to the applications, dual stack support and security issues. The migration process will also involve changes on applications documentation, training or testing operations and Chapter 6 suggests what should be reviewed in these areas. Other resources and next steps to be followed related to IPv6 migration are described in the last chapter.

The book doesn't have many illustrations and sources, as it is a short one, but still, an index would have been useful.

This is just the first edition of the book and it is actually a collection of suggestions organized in categories, of what to consider when you will be involved in applications migration process, though many of the suggestions should be already known by a professional. It is also a fairly good introduction on IPv6 for the people who never studied about it yet, but real examples are lacking in this version and you should probably wait for an updated edition if you are interested in real issues and fixes.

You can purchase the book from O’Reilly here.

Learning Android
Building Applications for the Android Market
Marko Gargenta
O'Reilly Media, 2011
268 pages
978-1-449-39050-1

This book's scope is to offer an overview of Android platform and set fundamental knowledge in order to start developing platform oriented applications. The author describe this book as being the result of observations during multiple training courses and a "perfect way to master the fundamentals".

Author's experience in training people makes him one of the most recomanded person to create a book like this. His approach using the step by syep presentation and examples is the perfect way to achieve the main objective: learn how to build applications for Android market.

Along with the details regarding Android platform and how to build applications for it, one of the book's objective is to follow the development of a social networking application (Twitter like). The development is also made step by step creating new modules and features in each chapter. Source code pieces are well highlighted, followed by explanations and together with screenshots and diagrams facilitates a lot the study process and also the development of the training application. The way this book "is gluing" the technical parts without missing modules from the software development cycle, allows the reader to build an Android application from scratch to it's final form.

The author makes a perfect transition from basic to more complex details and when you will finish the book you will realize that you have built an Android application and you have learned the fundamentals of developing applications for Android market without much effort.

As an assessment of the book place in the literature of its subject, I consider this book to be among best publications in it's category for the targeted public. The information is structured in a way that makes the learning process much easier than other similar books.

From the Java developer's point of view, I think the content of the book is easy to understand and I recommend it to everyone who would like to study the fundamentals of Android application development. Even that for a good understanding, the author is asking at least oriented programming skills, I believe that this should be used by intermediate developers in order to understand completely it's content.

You can purchase the book from O’Reilly here.