Goals and Objectives of the Book

I thought it important to share my overall goals for delivering the material:

• Thoroughly cover the topic area In each section of the book, my first goal is to thoroughly cover the topic area. When describing technical options, especially those for connectivity, the book will try to show as many permutations as possible. I think it's important to show interoperability at work in environments where many readers might be using technology in a variety of scenarios.

• Maintain a neutral stance on .NET vs. J2EE As mentioned earlier, the goal of this book is not to serve as a showdown between the two technologies. Instead, all the chapters remain as neutral as possible, concentrating on interoperability, not comparison.

• Provide sample code As you start to explore the book, you'll see that many of the chapters have been written to take advantage of the sample code on the accompanying CD. Because interoperability encompasses such a broad area, I believe it's important to not only describe how interoperability works, but also provide samples where appropriate.