ABAP to the Future (1st Edition) (SAP PRESS) Hardcover – April 30, 2015

This book reminds me of a scene in the great movie  As Good As It Gets  were Helen Hunt’s character asks Jack Nicholson’s character (who suffers from OCD) to make a quick compliment after he just hurt her feelings. And, surprisingly, Jack Nicholson’s compliment is that after their relationship developed he started taking an OCD medicine. This does not seem at first as a compliment to Helen’s character and she almost gets up to leave. But then Jack Nicholson quietly adds: “You make me want to be a better man”. And this book makes you want to be a better programmer.I feel the way it is written and presents information is a very welcome departure from the SAP literature of yesteryears. And I can only hope that more authors will come forward with similar styles.If you are looking just for the reference materials, there is ABAP keyword documentation available online free of charge. (Compared to the previous version that might as well have been written in German, the 7.4 documentation has been improved quite a bit and is surprisingly very helpful.) Code samples can be found in many SAP demo programs. One does not really need a book these days just to have information. But this book is much more than a collection of ABAP code samples. It's truly an inspiration (I hate this word, but it really is in this case) for the ABAPers, especially those who might have been stuck just repeating what they have been doing for the past 10-20 years (much like I feel sometimes).Paul’s book is a “sequel” to  Next Generation ABAP Development . Even though I admire Thomas Jung and Rich Heilman and believe they are the greatest SAP educators of our times, Paul’s writing felt more comfortable than observing imaginary programmer Russel in his natural habitat. Paul writes from the first person and his book reads more like a conversation with a friend. Unlike Thomas and Rich, Paul does not work for SAP (sic!). Other SAP customers should really appreciate his insights in this book (and on SCN).To address the concern expressed by another reviewer – yes, there are "monsters" in this book instead of our beloved orders, invoices and accounting documents. But being capable of looking at one object and seeing how it can relate to another project is an essential skill for any programmer. Also keep in mind these books are written using the IDES systems where limited business data is available.We don’t use 7.4 yet where I work, but even after reading just a couple of chapters it made me re-think what I am doing today and search for the opportunities to improve. If you want to become a better ABAPer – get this book.

It is a ok book, I just wish they can stop using monster objects and use real SAP data object examples.

It rarely happens that I’m really looking forward to a release of a book. The announcement of “ABAP to the future” by Paul Hardy was such an occasion. Reading the TOC, I was 100% positive that Paul picked the right topics which were needed in order to fulfil the promises of the title. I was particularly excited about the BOPF chapter, since I'm very fond of the framework. Until now there has not been literature out there describing it.The writing style is very entertaining, light-hearted and uses "funny" to "bizarre" examples. I liked it a lot (I don't need another dull-to-read-facts-driven-bookshelf-beautifier). However, if you're not willing to abstract technology which might be used for sales-order-processing to a monster-factory, you might be disappointed. I highly recommend to look-inside prior to the purchase to check on the compatibility to the style.While accepting a technical book to be entertaining, it still has to be correct. And this is why I can only partially recommend this book: there are too many statements and explanations which are just not true - particularly in the BOPF chapter. This chapter was so misleading I even wrote a long series of blogs on the SAP Community Network trying to clarify them (you can find them easily searching on SCN for the book's title).My verdict: If you want to get an overview of hyped and useful technologies on the SAP platform and like light literature, grab it.If you're looking for a serious introduction and want to understand the basic underlying principles, you at least have to buy an additional book.

Ich habe mir dieses Werk auf Empfehlung eines Kollegen besorgt und wurde nicht enttäuscht!Der Autor gibt einen ausgezeichneten Überblick über die wichtigsten neuen Entwicklungen im ABAP-Umfeld der letzten Jahre. Zwar bleibt der Informationsumfang einzelner Themen verständlicherweise hinter Spezialliteratur zurück, für einen Einstieg in die Grundlagen und die Abschätzung möglicher Einsatzgebiete genügen die Ausführungen allemal. Zumal jedes vorgestellte Feature mit sehr klaren (und kurzweiligen!) Beispielen illustriert wird. Besonders positiv seien hier die Code-Snippets im Kapitel über die neuen ABAP-Sprachfunktionen im NetWeaver 7.4 erwähnt ("So haben sie das bisher gemacht --> So können Sie das zukünftig einfacher tun").Besondere Stärke des Buches, vor allem gegenüber der meisten deutschsprachigen Literatur, ist der Schreibstil des Autors. Keine Spur von akademischer Steifigkeit, dafür jede Menge Begeisterung für die Materie und eine gute Portion Humor (wenn auch die eine oder andere Phrase vielleicht ein wenig zu oft gedroschen wird). Dieses Buch kann man wirklich am Stück lesen. Und am Ende fühlt man sich nicht nur gut informiert über die neuen Features, sondern hat auch das Gefühl (weiter-)entwickelt, wie man zeitgemäße Anwendungsentwicklung auf dem AS ABAP betreiben sollte.Fazit: Absolute Kaufempfehlung, auch und gerade für alle Nicht-Vollzeit-Entwickler, die schon lange "im Geschäft" sind und sich ein wenig von den Entwicklungen der letzten Jahre überholt fühlen.

Molto interessante divertente e ben esposto, l'ABAP non è una lingua morta!!! Very interesting, funny and so clear, ABAP is not a dead language!!!