Dimitri Shvorob said
.. why is a book on sale in 2008 typeset as if it's 1970s? Is $40 per copy not enough to hire a designer - or provide a binding that is not going to fall apart in a week?
As far as content is concerned, my benchmark has been the SCJP prep book by Sierra and Bates. I took a random topic, generics, and how much more lucid and to-the-point the SCJP book was.
Grant S. Robertson said
Although this book purports to be written for anyone with even a little bit of prior programming experience, I am finding it very difficult to follow. This, even though I have been dabbling in programming since 1976 and I have gotten 'A's in several programming classes.
The author makes three major mistakes all throughout the book:
First, he uses compressed code formating that makes it difficult to see where one part of the code ends and another starts. I know it is common for advanced programmers and authors trying to save paper to use this format, but it should not be used in a book for beginning Java programmers. I spend more time just trying to sort out which curly bracket matches to which curly bracket than anything else in trying to read his code.
Second, he continuously uses advanced techniques and Java features in sample code meant to illustrate beginning concepts. This leaves the reader confused about what the code is doing at all and forces them to simply take on faith that what the author says about the code is true. For instance, in the section titled "Your first Java Program" (page 78) the author instantiates an anonymous object and passes it to a method. There was no reason to include this line of code. But the author stuck it in there and then waved his hands at it saying merely, "The argument is a Date object that is being created just to send its va1ue (which is automatically converted to a String) to println(). As soon as this statement is finished, that Date is unnecessary, and the garbage collector can come along and get it anytime. We don't need to worry about cleaning it up." In those few sentences the author has made reference to several more advanced features without even explaining them. So, in trying to understand that one unnecessary line of the reader is spun off on at least three different tangents.
The next sample program is even worse. The very first line that actually does anything is " System.getProperties().list(System.out); " Holy cow! The System.getProperties() method returns a Properties object which is an extension of the Hashtable class. Then the second dot operator calls the list method for Properties object that has "replaced" the System.getProperties() part of the code as far as the second dot operator is concerned. The list() method then accepts as an argument a static PrintStream object which the list() method then sends its output to. And the author says merely, "The first line in main( ) displays all of the "properties" from the system where you are running the program, so it gives you environment information. The list() method sends the results to its argument, System.out." But to someone who is only just now reading this page in the book, "System.out" is how you print something, NOT something that can be passed as an argument. And have you ever tried to Google a period (.)? How is a beginner supposed to figure out that the list() method is a member of the Properties object that was returned by the System.getProperties() method. Sure, you can dig it out of the JavaDocs but a beginner won't be able to do this easily. Besides, if you are going to force the reader to dig everything out of the JavaDocs then what the heck is the book good for?
This same pattern is repeated throughout the book. Every single example has something in it that is more advanced than a person who has gotten to that part of the book could reasonably be expected to be able to figure out.
Finally, the biggest problem with this book is that the author has created his own set of libraries and uses them heavily in his code but doesn't indicate where. So, if you don't have the entire JDK memorized you have no clue when he is using something from the standard libraries or something from his own libraries. If you are trying to learn the basics of Java, you don't want to have some other stuff mixed in at random. Sure, the author's libraries may solve some interesting problems and it may make some things easier to code. But it DOES NOT teach the reader about how Java works other than it is possible to completely obfuscate everything you do.
So, my conclusion is that this book is really good for nothing. It is too confusing for the beginner and is way too wordy for an expert. Intermediate users will spend more time digging through the JavaDocs than they do reading the book.
L. Ivey said
Ok, I have read about 200 textbooks or better in my day, 20 - 30 or so in the programming area, and I have to say this was the worst text book I have ever looked at. It was poorly written and poorly organized.
Fuga Federico said
This is a beginner addressed book on Java: if you are already skilled in programming with procedural or even OO language, you'll find this book very useful.
The text is very simple and clear, the examples are incisive and at the end of each chapter you'll find a couple of exercises that can be very useful to focus the concepts.
A "thinking in enterprise java" would be a great successor to this good book.
5 stars!
Deha Peker said
Thinking in Java is a quite comprehensive book for intermediate to advanced level for Java programmers. Each chapter can be read individually in order to learn inner details of Java 5/6 language. This is not a book for a new comer to Java language.
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