Katrina Owen said
Wicked Cool Java reads like a blog. I'd probably visit the blog regularly. Some days I'd skim, some days I'd read through thoroughly, and occasionally I'd bookmark for future reference. I'd probably go to the blog and do searches now and then when attempting to approach new (to me) problems, and I'd browse the archives some days while procrastinating.
Topics covered range from generics and String manipulation to MIDI and harmonics, from graphs and graphics to scientific applications, from semantics to logic, artificial intelligence and neural networks to programming lego robots.
I'm sure every single bit covered is Wicked Cool to someone... though it is difficult to imagine any one person finding ALL of it to be Wicked Cool. Except maybe the author, who expresses an admirable amount of enthusiasm and interest!
The target audience is people who have a good basic familiarity with Java, and are ready to see what wonders will pop out if you poke it in unexpected places.
If you are very new to programming, a lot of the discussions might be difficult to follow.
Eli Lato said
This book is great! Eubanks ranks with my other favorites: Marinacci, Bloch, and Zukowski.
Part of the book covers nuts-and-bolts skills like new Java 5 API's, Cyclic Barrier, regular expressions, and Robot. My favorite part of the nuts-and-bolts skills was his examples of sophisticated regular expressions.
The rest of the book explains broader topics like the Semantic Web, charting, genetic algorithms, and programming directed graphs. My favorite part of the broader topics was his example of propagating signals through a directed graph.
We all need to keep up with the nuts-and-bolts of Java. On the other hand, we need a Big Picture of what's going on in our world. This book gives both. (And even his puns are neat!)
Alan T. Varghese said
Lot of cool info is provided in the book. I still haven't spend as much time as I would like to with the book as I was busy with other stuff.
But so far so good.
Look at this book as a pointers to cool stuff you can do with Java rather than a resource on how to do each of those cool stuff. Pick up the one of your interest and start off on it.
I was already working with many of the techniques mentioned but some like the sound API was pretty cool to try out.
John R. Vacca said
Are you a Java developer who is looking for interesting and useful APIs or for project ideas? If you are, you're in luck! Author Brian Eubanks, has done an outstanding job of writing a book that will help you enhance your code.
Eubanks, begins by discussing some of the core API features--some that are older, but less well known and some that are new to Java 5. Then, he discusses String processing techniques. The author continues by showing you how to process XML and HTML documents and other types of structured text. Next, he explores the Semantic Web, a next-generation web where the links are between concepts rather than documents containing text. Then, the author explores scientific and mathematical applications in Java. He continues with a discussion on how APIs make it easier to develop graphical applications or to add new features. Next, he deals with sound and music APIs; as well as, advanced thread synchronization. Finally, he looks at miscellaneous open-source projects and discusses ideas for creating your own projects and integrating code.
Not intended as a basic tutorial by the author, this excellent book will help developers and system architects capitalize on their preexisting knowledge and take advantage of everything the programming language has to offer. Filled with example code, this book will definitely be a welcome find for anyone who enjoys experimenting with Java code--and, who wants to make their code wicked cool.
Owen Densmore said
OK, I admit it .. I've become jaded like most Java programmers. Ruby, Python, Groovy .. wow, all those "agile" languages making Java so, I don't know, .. so 90's right?
Wrong! Bring me your sad Java hackers, .. give them this book .. and wham! .. they'll be back on line, humming like happy campers.
Read this book.
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