Java How to Program, 7th Edition

Java How to Program, 7th Edition
Authors
Harvey M. Deitel, Paul J. Deitel
ISBN
0132222205
Published
06 Jan 2007
Purchase online
amazon.com

The Deitels' groundbreaking How to Program series offers unparalleled breadth and depth of object-oriented programming concepts and intermediate-level topics for further study. The Seventh Edition has been extensively fine-tuned and is completely up-to-date with Sun Microsystems, Inc.’s latest Java release — Java Standard Edition 6 (“Mustang”) and several Java Enterprise Edition 5 topics.

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  1. Editorial Reviews
  2. Customer Reviews

Customer Reviews

James Ryssman said
Coming from a background in instructional design I immediately recognized how poorly this book was constructed. No doubt the author knows Java very well and can code at an advanced developer level, but presents how best to impart that knowledge poorly. The chunks of code used to instruct are paired with a rambling narrative often is not even positioned on the opposite page for easy reference (a good thing with teaching beginning programming, right?). I found myself often confused about what code example was being elaborated on. The instruction is dry and assumes a level of programming background inappropriate for a "how to program" book.

The many positive reviews are truly perplexing as I cannot even consider the reviews referring to the same book I suffered through. I simply cannot see them as honest reviews from a beginning programmer's perspective or even valid critiques of such an incredibly flawed teaching adjunct. Unfortunately this is used with several educators. A quick stop at my local library produced several far superior aides in learning Java. At the top of my list would be: Java: A Beginner's Guide, 4th Ed.. It is well composed and eminently more readable which again is kind of important when using it to teach

L. Pak said
I'm a programming newbie but am definitely not a computer newbie. Over the past decade, I've found myself modifying lines of code in some scripts to have them perform the way I want them to, without any programming knowledge. To me, as long as you understood the basics and some theory behind how computers work, you'd be able to make simple modifications to code without problems. I decided to take an intro to Java class to finally start to learn how to program from scratch, so here I am with this book, and I totally regret purchasing it.

That being said, I'm not hating on this book because I failed the class. I actually did pretty well in class and I've enjoyed everything in the class that didn't involve reading the book.

My biggest beef with this book is that it is written in the blandest and driest way possible! No doubt, these Deitel guys really know their stuff, but their writing style conjures up thoughts of what it would be like to be learn from anti-social cave-dwelling professors who speak to themselves all day in their own version of English. (You probably know what I'm talking about if you've taken math classes in college.)

I've read many books in my time and this is one of those books where you'll catch yourself re-reading a paragraph several times because it just fails to catch your attention with it's super bland, super dense style. If you want to know what it feels like to have ADD, get this book! Oftentimes you'll ask yourself why they didn't explain something more straightforwardly -- there is a tendency to have concepts explained in a long-winded way when just one or two sentences would do.

Terminology in this book is absolutely abused -- these guys expect you to follow their technical speak after they consistently explain terminology in a vague manner. Eventually you'll just try to figure out what they're saying on your own and define the presented concepts in your own way.

The book also teaches in a way where it will have you do things without explaining them, much like: "Oh, don't worry about that! We'll explain that line and concept several chapters later, just type it in for now!" And it does this very, very often. If you're like me and you like to know the logic behind every single thing you're doing when you're doing it, this book is not for you.

It might be a good book for Java newbies who aren't programming newbies. But for programming newbies, avoid this book, unless you actually liked being the kid who was thrown in the swimming pool without any swimming instruction.

UPDATE: I'm taking another class at the same school, continuing my Java education. And guess what? Using the same book. I want to kill myself.

Since writing the original review I've had a chance to read several chapters of three other programming books (one for Java and two for C++). This book is still by far the most boring book of them all. It's quite literally one of the most boring books I've ever read in my whole life -- that is NOT an exaggeration.

Do yourself a favor, read the reviews of older editions of this book, as well as other Deitel books, and see how many times you see the word "boring", "bland", or "dry" written. You'd be amazed! (Actually, you wouldn't, if you've had a chance to read the book.)

Your money would be better spent on something else.

Oliver K. Nguyen said
Yes this book is worth the money. It is written towards beginner programmers with no experience whatsoever, which is a good thing, but for others it can be extremely annoying.

The book gives you everything you need to know for java explaining concepts through examples and sample programs. But one EXTREMELY annoying thing they would do is repeat themselves unnecessarily and make things more complicated than they needed to be. I suppose that isn't too bad since it is aimed for beginners, but on more than one occasion I would find myself screaming in my head "MOVE ON ALREADY!!!"...

Other than that, good book :)

Linda M. Tabbert said
THE DESCRIPTION WAS FALSE. THE PRODUCT WAS RIPPED AND TORN AND THEN TAPED TOGETHER. IT WAS IN HORRIBLE CONDITION. IT WAS RETURNED TO THE SELLER.

De Huynh said
This is a great book, easy to understand. It covers extensive materials in all programming aspects.

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