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Keywords: Groovy, Java, JVM, scripting languages Title: Groovy Recipes Author: Scott Davis Publisher: Pragmatic Bookshelf ISBN: 0978739299 Media: Book Level: Introductory Verdict: Recommended. A good second book on Groovy.

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Now that Java platform is being recognised as a key asset to be exploited by programming languages other than Java, we've seen a flurry of activity in the area of dynamic/scripting languages. While JRuby has had plenty of support from Sun - including significant levels of support from NetBeans - there is also plenty of interest from in the Groovy programming language. For many Java developers the progression to Groovy rather than Java makes a lot of sense - the language has been expressly designed to make the most of a developer's existing Java skill set. And, for those looking for a good introduction there's the very wonderful 'Groovy In Action' to draw upon.

Now, there's a second book of Groovy that makes for essential reading. Scott Davis has put together 'Groovy Recipes' and supplied us with a cook book that shows developers how to make the most of the dynamic features of Groovy. Whatever the area of activity - from interacting with the command-line or shell to parsing XML, working with SQL databases to web services and more - there are recipes here to get you moving quickly.

For those completely new to the language there are a couple of introductory chapters to help get started. This goes from installing from scratch right through to writing your first Groovy scripts. Things like IDE support, integration with Ant or Maven and mixing Groovy and Java are also covered. While the material doesn't have the depth of something like 'Groovy In Action' it provides a more than adequate introduction.

Once through the introduction the book moves into gear and provides clear examples in a range of areas. The code is generally on the short and sweet side of things, providing succinct illustrations of the key points and showing the Groovy way of doing things. Aside from the code, there are short explanations and supporting text. The writing style is very natural, making this a very easy book to read.

To conclude, this is a great second Groovy book after 'Groovy In Action', which remains the definitive introduction to Groovy. Overall this is a useful sort of book to have around when making your first forays into Groovy code. It's useful as a source of ideas and bits of working code which you can lift, change and experiment with. Recommended.