It was very well written with lots of examples and with very clear and patience type of explanation.
Pros:
1. The very clear and well-organized layout of this M&T Books is definitely a PLUS for easy reading.
2. Even though this book was written for JSP 1.0 or 1.1 that used a lot of scriptlets but the codes are not clutters especially with Java Beans.
3. The online message board case study is one of the fine examples.
Cons:
1. It has omitted the detail of how to compile the Java code especially those with packages. This may be tough for those are new to Java programming.
2. Limited to Microsoft Access database. Since this is a Java related technologies, the cross-platform RDBMS should be used such as the freely available open source databases like MySQL and PostgreSQL (with cygwin).
3. The rather restrictive Hungry Minds, Inc. End-User License Agreement imposed on the accompanied CD. So, the book's examples may within the scope of this agreement. Most of the books published to date have used GPL license for their accompanied codes.