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86 of 88 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Well written and comprehensive, July 29, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Beginning Java 2 (Paperback)
There is a lot to like about "Beginning Java 2." It provides excruciatingly detailed coverage of Java, written in a clear, intelligent way. The author does an effective job of tempering the extensively technical content with a friendly writing style that is never flip or insulting to the reader. I also appreciate the abundance of examples, illustrations, and diagrams, which support the text well and are easy to read. Pertinent code samples are shaded in gray, which enhances readability. Diagrams are clear and and are supported with well-written callouts. Although the book's title is "Beginning Java 2," it could be daunting to readers with little or no programming background, especially as they progress beyond the first two chapters. Chapter 1 provides an excellent introduction to Java and object-oriented programming concepts. The first part of Chapter 2 provides a good introduction to variables and data types. About the middle of Chapter 2, however, when the author begins discussing additional mathematical concepts, the reader is led into deeper waters and at this point, "absolute" beginners may start to feel overwhelmed. This doesn't mean that they should abandon the book, but they may need to take additional time to absorb the concepts. Each chapter concludes with a summary of its content and several practice exercises. Although such practice is certainly valuable, I would have liked to see an additional appendix with "answers" to the exercises so that readers could check their work and benefit from the author's expertise. Without such author feedback, the exercises are less effective as learning tools. Overall, I see "Beginning Java 2" as a potentially valuable addition to the bookshelf of any programmer new to Java. I recommend it with some caution to "absolute" beginners -- although with patience, determination, and a commitment to learn, they, too, may find the book very beneficial.
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55 of 58 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good introduction to Java but lacking in certain aspects, September 10, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Beginning Java 2 (Paperback)
This book is a pretty good introduction to Java, especially for beginners. However I would like to point out certain drawbacks of the book: 1)As the previous reviewer pointed out, Horton uses too much of math to illustrate his examples. He'd be better off tackling real-world problems. 2)Lot of coverage is given to Input/output streams, filing, printing etc. Infact these topics span 3 chapters in the book which is a bit excessive. 3) There is absolutely NO mention of network programming. A chapter on network programming would be greatly appreciated instead of the excessive coverage of streams. 4)However there is excellent coverage and explanation of JDBC. Also threads are explained very well. Overall the book is definitely worth a buy, especially for the beginner/intermediate programmer. Object-oriented concepts are very well-explained. Also it has much better coverage of Swing than books like Thinking in Java. It is definitely better than Just Java which I found to be too superficial and elementary.
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29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
COMPLETE, February 10, 2000
This review is from: Beginning Java 2 (Paperback)
I feel like i have been in a race for the last 9 months trying to learn Java, and go beyond and be productive. Some guy said he learned Java in 2 weeks, its not going to happen. Then again there are different levels of what people mean by, "know a language." I have so many java books in my room people who come by think java is some sort of porn. First off most the books out there take people from a C or Java haha, background and let them learn a few new sentax moves in java. Problem is they do not tell you the full story. You will be there reading over 20 pages of stuff in these other books and not have a clue what was just going on. You will have a fuzzy look on your face, with a side note in your mind going,,yeah ill come back to that. All these java books are the same, they give you the basics the first 3/4 and then the last 1/4 they tell you how to make a art program,,etc with basic class files etc. This book is complete, you will understand what is going on, its worth it being a bit longer. In fact the 1/2 this book is on basics and 1/2 is on the extra stuff. And remember the only way to really know "JAVA" is to program. Just don't read the 1000 pages, you will get no where, because you will forget it fast. From day one you should think of something app you would like to create, and your desire to learn what is going on will be much better. The only thing i question is Ivor Horton, the guy has to take drugs to write a 1000+ page book like this. There has to be a better way of making money.
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