A parent who does not admit to having favorites is self-deceiving: children are individuals and we like them more or--heaven forgive--less, depending on how we respond to their personality. Yes, they do come from identical genetic and environmental backgrounds but to conclude that they are therefore "equal" is mistaken--they are only equal statistically. And so it is with a publisher and his "children," the books he has helped bring to life. I have to admit I cannot always manage to remain unbiased although I generally do try to keep my preferences to myself. Not so in this case.

"Swing" has qualities that appeal to me--it's a Manning book I'm proud of. Apparently, it also appeals to many readers: it has sold well over the years in spite of lots of available competitors. The first edition's entire content is available online, and has been since before it was first published in January 2000. The online content is mirrored in a couple of locations in Europe. It routinely comes up on the first page of Google when you search for "swing." We receive requests for permission to reuse the code from the book in commercial apps all the time. The second edition sales have started off nicely too, and the endorsement in its Foreword by James Gosling must not be hurting.

BTW, we got into this free-manuscript situation by accident: as we started working on this book the "Cathedral and the Bazaar" appeared and we fell under its spell. We decided that writing a book was not all that different from writing software and opened up the manuscript to the Swing community. But books are different from software and the experiment basically failed. I'll describe that experience one day. (Oh, and here's an example of why it's a Good Thing to write for publication: looking for the original CaB URL I found "A Second Look at the Cathedral and the Bazaar." I can't wait to read it.)

Anyway, what I really enjoy about "Swing" is that we keep hearing from people how much they appreciate it. They tell us how unique they think it is. The examples are industrial strength, not toy examples, and this is rare in computer books.

The editor who worked on the book during its long incubation, Ben Kovitz, came up with a way to counter the visual boredom of long code listings: he took all comments out of the code, which made it shorter, and added graphically attractive annotations next to it. The annotations guided the eye to the important code segments. Our market tests indicated readers would like them, and they did. We have continued using Ben's annotations in many later books.

"Swing" was originally a followup to another book, our "Up To Speed with Swing." "Up To Speed" was the first book to be published in what was a hot Swing market. It was a basic tutorial and we felt people wanted more depth. The best way--and really the only practical way--to give them depth was to show them lots of examples of how to do things.

So, we signed Matt and Pavel to write "Swing by Example." As they wrote, we kept getting asked by manuscript reviewers to include basic information about the library. The manuscript didn't include this information so they had to look for it somewhere else. They wanted it all in one place. Although the book was in danger of getting obese, I agreed to expand its focus and we ultimately changed the title simply to "Swing." A faint trace of that history remains in the "sbe" of the book's URL: www.manning.com/sbe.

In the past Swing had problems with speed. It was, and is, a powerful library that requires a large effort to master. The speed problem has gone away due to continuous improvements in the library and increased processor speeds. Its complexity remains, though, and a book like "Swing Second Edition" is a good way to master it. Well, let me restate that: this Second Edition is the best way to master Swing. And that is a biased opinion.

Marjan Bace, Publisher
Manning Publications