C H A P T E R  1

Introducing Spring

When we think of the community of Java developers, we are reminded of the hordes of gold rush prospectors of the late 1840s, frantically panning the rivers of North America looking for fragments of gold. As Java developers, our rivers run rife with open source projects, but, like the prospectors, finding a useful project can be time-consuming and arduous.

A common gripe with many open source Java projects is that they are conceived merely out of the need to fill the gap in the implementation of the latest buzzword-heavy technology or pattern. Having said that, many high-quality, usable projects meet and address a real need for real applications, and during the course of this book, you will meet a subset of these projects. You will get to know one in particular rather well—Spring.