It's been quite awhile since I've written anything here, so I thought I'd break the silence by giving everyone a status on Spring in Action, 2E.
Let me start by saying that it has taken me a lot longer to get this done than I (or my wife) ever expected. Part of that is because this is the first book I've written solo (Ryan decided to sit this one out, but was still very helpful in reviewing some of the text and some of my ideas) and I didn't realize how big of a difference having a co-author makes. But also, there's just so much Spring goodness to write about, it was hard to decide what should go in and what shouldn't. As you'll soon find out, there was so much to be written that the printed book overflowed and some material will end up being available as a free download at the book's web site (it's not there yet...but it will be by the time that the printed material is available).
Starting last week, SiA2E is in proofreading mode. As some of you know, that was the mode we should've spent more time on in the first edition. But this time we're giving it a deep look and there are more eyes on it, so hopefully there'll be far fewer errors. Inevitably, there'll be some snafus that slip through the cracks, but it won't be for lack of us trying to stop them.
I'm also taking the next few weeks to check and double-check the code examples to make sure that they work and make sure that they're consistent with what will be in the printed book. I made the mistake of letting the code examples from the first edition evolve independent from the printed examples and it caused a lot of confusion (and some anger) among the readers. This time, I'm trying really hard to keep the downloadable code examples in sync with the book. In addition to being available for download from Manning's web site, I also intend to host them in a Subversion repository--that way I can still evolve them independent from the printed book, while keeping the history of the changes intact. (More on that when it becomes available.)
As I said, we're proofreading everything right now. If we stay on schedule, the first pass at proofreading will be complete by July 4 (or maybe July 6--there was some debate on that, as July 4 is a holiday). After that, a second set of typeset pages will be produced and we'll take another pass or two over them to make sure we didn't miss anything. If everything goes to plan, the book should go to the printers around July 15th.
That means I'll likely have printed copies on my doorstep by the end of July and they'll be available from Amazon and on a bookshelf near you within a week or two thereafter.
Which brings me to my next point: I'm scheduled to speak at the Spring Dallas User Group on July 18th and again on August 15th (the topics will be announced soon). To celebrate the release of SiA2E, we're planning something special for the August 15th meeting. If you're in the area at that time, you'll want to mark your calendar to attend. Keep your eye on this blog, Manning's web site, and The Spring Dallas UG site for more details when they become available.
Finally, I've been chatting with Jay Zimmerman lately about rejoining the No-Fluff/Just-Stuff tour. Nothing's been nailed down yet, but I anticipate visiting a handful of cities later this year with NFJS talking about things like Spring configuration tricks and tips, Spring in general, Spring-WS, Maven 2, and maybe Spring-OSGi. Keep an eye on the NFJS site for more details.
