Lewis Lavoie said
if you have no sense of humor and like to over complicate everything to make yourself look smarter, you probably won't enjoy this book. I can't believe some of the negative reviews out here... they're saying the book is bad because jokes distracted them?!
I've been developing sophisticated Java apps for over 6 years and I think the sequence of Java topics are presented in the best order i've ever seen. You'll be coding in minutes and be able to teach to others what you've read. Eben Hewitt cuts through the B.S.
Everyone learns things differently; I like straight answers... comparisions to other more familiar concepts and code examples. This book uses all of those techniques.... along with some funny blurbs that helped me remember concepts more than they "distracted" me. I fall asleep reading most java books... this one is much better than most in that respect. I'd recommend it to all beginners and most intermediate folks. I will definitely buy More Java Garage if/when it comes out.
A. Walsh said
I've been writing java code on and off for years, but never studied it formally. I bought this book to flesh out my knowledge and fill in the spaces, which it did quite well. If you have time and inclination for a thousand page book like O'Reilly's "Learning Java," great. If you want a quick refresher or intro - this book is perfect.
Thomas Paul said
Headache. That is what I got every time I picked up this book. Too cute. Too many short sentences. Sentence fragments. Headache. Recipes. Like reading my 12-year-old daughter's instant messages.
First thing to note is that this is a beginner's book. You won't find that anywhere in the description unfortunately. Second thing to note is that I blame this on "Head First Java". You know how when a successful TV show comes out and all the other networks try to copy it? You know how they never do it right because they always miss the point? It's as if someone saw "Survivor" and decided it was a success because people ate bugs so they made a show where people had to eat bugs to win. "Head First Java" uses humor to help focus the mind on difficult concepts. It makes use of educational techniques that have been studied by scientists. This book uses humor to be cool(?), funny(?) but most of the time the book is just annoying, which is a real shame because there is some good information here and some of it is very well presented. Other times I was left wondering why he stopped and didn't finish explaining a concept. Then there are these stream of consciousness blurbs that seem to just come out of nowhere and go on about anything except the topic at hand. I assume the author is trying to be amusing and be less like a traditional technical book but he fails at the former and overachieves at the latter.
At one point in the book the author suggests that if you still have questions that you should get some Zoloft and take up a hobby like gardening. I think it's a little odd for an author to suggest that his curious readers are in need of anti-depressants but if forced to read this book, it may not be a bad idea. cya.
Charles Ashbacher said
Your reaction to this book will largely depend on how you like your training to be served up. If you prefer a "just the facts and examples" approach, then there are things that you will not like. Three short chapters, 10, 23 and 30, present recipes for lamb chops, guacamole, and flapjacks respectively. At the start of the chapters, there is a brief segment called "Do Or Die", which contains a list of "things to do." Presented largely as a joke, for example the list at the start of chapter 16 is:
*) Clean my room.
*) Take out the trash.
*) Double RAM in server.
*) Take over the world by ruling a race of mindless robots that I control through my Tivo.
they really did very little for me. My philosophy is that I purchase a book for the content and it would be better if the extraneous material were left out so the book would be smaller, cheaper and a few trees could be saved.
This is also a part of my next criticism, in that while the book covers J2SE 5.0, since it is for beginners, very little of the material new to 5.0 is covered. Enumerated lists are covered to completion and generics are used in a few examples. However, since generics are to be thoroughly examined in a sequel, they are not really explained. Since I am familiar with templates in C++, I found them easy to follow, but there is no question that the beginner will be confused. Java is now a huge language, so why not take every opportunity to explain more about the language rather than give us non-directional padding.
The author occasionally goes elsewhere in the material. For example, on page 201, immediately after the section header, "Exceptions and Inheritance", there is the paragraph:
"Look. Let's be honest. I don't like this anymore than you. I just want to go go go. Maybe get a truck and drive. Out on the open road. I look out at the pool and it looks fantastic. I know that it's ice cold. I know it is a burning freeze of water. But it looks so serene and inviting. Maybe I could like being a giant block of ice. Drop in and freeze and then bob up and down forever, like a cat dangling its tail on a fence, lazy, slow, back and forth. This clock wouldn't tick anymore. In a meaningful way, for me, anyway."
Sections like this just bored the yawns out of me.
Independent of the excess, the author does a reasonable job of explaining the basics of Java. The book can be used to begin your instruction in the language, although I would not recommend it. Since, there are so many other books out there that do the same thing, there really is nothing in the area of instruction to make this one stand out.
Thomas Duff said
I've just found another favorite series/style of tech book for learning Java. This one is Java Garage by Eben Hewitt (Prentice Hall). Quirky, funny, strange, and it rocks...
Chapter list: What is the Java Garage?; Java Buzz; Java Editions and Platforms; Compiling and Running Java Applications; Where to Write Code; Primitive Types; Operators; Control Statements; Classes; Fridge: Mmm-mmm Lamb Chops and a Manhattan; Classes Reloaded; Inheritance; Strings; Arrays; Documenting Your Code with Javadoc; Abstract Classes; Interfaces; Casting and Type Conversions; Inner Classes; Blog: Inner Classes and Event Handlers; Handling Exceptions; File Input/Output; Fridge: Guacamole; Using Regular Expressions; Creating GUIs with Swing; Blog Entry: Software Development Black Market; Dates and Times; Using Timer Tasks; Applets; Fridge: Big Daddy Flapjacks; Using System and Runtime; Using the Java Development Tools; FAQ; Packaging and Deploying Java Applications; Toolkit; System.Exit; Java Glossary on Steroids; Index
And yes, there *are* recipes for guacamole, pancakes, lamb chops, and a Manhattan in the book. I *told* you it was quirky...
This book is hard to describe. Hewitt's concept of "the garage" is a place where you go on Saturday to bang on things and hack it out. It's a place to experiment. It's where you go to be alone and to be with your friends. I look at the book and I think "zen" and "stream of consciousness". The author is talking to you in the pages, and it's not so much a tutorial as it is a couple of geeks sitting down learning a programming language by doing. And like all conversations, there are little sidebars that fill in the color and flavor of the main topic being discussed.
Looking beyond the style, the content is solid. It covers Java version 1.5, so you're getting the latest in features and techniques. There are code samples all over the place in the book, and much to my pleasure, they are commented extensively. He tells you exactly what the code is doing in the comments, so there's no guessing as to what might have been intended. Since I tend to comment in this fashion, I am thrilled to see someone else who does that too. Anyone needing to learn Java will be able to pick up this book and absorb the concepts without much effort. Even if you're already somewhat knowledgeable on Java, you'll enjoy reading the book to get a new slant on things. It's one of the few techie books that is almost an enjoyable read even if you don't need the lessons.
Java Garage is a refreshing break from the ordinary, and it will force you to shelve your expectations as to what a learning guide should be. This is a highly recommended read for beginners, and worth reading even if you've been working with Java for awhile...
Comments