Customer Reviews

Core Java 1.2 : Volume 1 Fundamentals

5 star:		(54)
4 star:		(31)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Overall, this book is easy to read, has good to-the-point examples, and covers the material in the right depth for someone with some programming experience who wants to start learning Java. It has such a nice presentation of the material that I wanted to rate it five starts.

The sad part is that this book has a near-fatal flaw: it teaches novice Java programmers some really awful programming habits.

For example, here we have a supposedly up-to-date cutting-edge intro to Java 2 that is teaching newbies that the Vector(!) class is the latest and greatest way to hold groups of objects. Vector and its cousin the Hashtable were retained in Java 2 only for 'backward compatibility', and Java 2 programmers should be using one of the (much better designed) new collection classes. This book never mentions them, instead presenting Vector as 'the way to go'.

Another set of 'bad habits' the authors are pushing is their approach to AWT event handling. Creating inner classes as event listeners (the OO way to do this) is touched on briefly, but almost every example shows a primary class implementing the ActionListener interface and 'if' statements being used to determine the source of the event. (!?!) Here, Horstman and Cornell have pulled out the 'workarounds' required by the old Java 1.0 event model and presented them as 'the way to do this' to legions of unsuspecting Java students.

I cringed everytime I found something like this in the book. The fact that this book is so well written and designed (not to mention that it comes from Sun and is quite likely outselling all other Java tutorials combined) just makes it worse. IMHO, giving a student bad information, and training him or her in bad habits that will be hard to unlearn, is about the worst sin a teacher can commit. These guys do it over and over again.

Look, this book gets glowing reviews because it looks good, reads well, has clear examples, and *appears* to be a solid intro to the language. Stay away from it anyway. The 'perfect' Java tutorial doesn't exist, but I'd recommend Bruce Eckel's "Thinking in Java" instead, even if it is getting dated. It covers in one book what C&H take two volumes to cover, it is generally accurate and thorough, and Eckel gives you a real insights into *why* things work better one way than another. TIJ is denser, and therefore harder to follow, than Core Java 2, but in the end you'll be glad you put in the extra effort. (And you'll be able to help all the poor victims of Horstmann and Cornell to shed their bad habits.)

I have noticed that some readers give the rating very low, while others give very high. I read the Core Java 1.1 (vol 1 and vol 2)from ends to ends. Here are my remarks: 1) If you do not already know some object-oriented programming (such as C++), you may find the books a little tough to comprehend. But if you persist, I think you will do fine. 2) The books contain some remarks here and there, comparing java with Visual Basics and C++. Some of these remarks are helpful and others are annoying. On the whole, it does not help or hurt much. 3) The book teach java, irrespect of the computer platform. Because most people use PC platforms, the authors pay more attention to PC users. However, this preferential attention is so minor in comparing to the books overall contents. 4)Personally, I like the books. I bought the second volume because I like the first volume. I like the second volume too. I truely believe that my remark is a fair, objective one. I Hope you'll find this comment to be useful.

I'm an experienced VB programmer who understands advanced object-oriented concepts and has been itching to learn a language that can implement them. Coming from a strong VB background, this book was IDEAL for me. I don't think I would recommend it to someone who was new to programming, but this book has really gotten me up to speed quickly. I honestly can't imagine a better way they could have laid it out or presented the information.

The tone was conversational, and there were lots of high-level discussion paragraphs (for me, this is good, because I hate thinly disguised reference material). The whys are covered, as well as the whats and hows. Maybe this book isn't appropriate for people coming from other backgrounds, but I think it's ideal for VB developers who want to learn about Java - not just semantic differences, but the core philosophical undercurrents of both language. (Note - the book is peppered with mini-sidebars for VB programmers and C++ programmers.)

This is a revised and updated edition of the authors' excellent Java 1.1 book. In a sea of horrible Java books (including garbage by Grand, Walsh, and Deitel), this volume provides welcome relief.

The explanations are clearly written and backed up by good examples. The material is accurate and up to date.

This book is the best Java tutorial for people who already know how to program. Readers who know C++ or Visual Basic will appreciate the scattered notes that compare Java to those languages. The only possible drawback is that non-programmers may have trouble understanding some of the concepts.

This is a large volume that provides good coverage of most major topics, including more than a hundred pages about Swing. However, some important topics (e.g., threads) have been moved back to Volume 2. I can hardly wait.

BTW, Sun renamed Java 1.2 last December. It is now called Java 2. This book has just appeared with a new cover that reflects the name change. Buy either one -- they're really the same book.

Core Java 1.2 was disappointing on several levels. Despite the cover claim "hard core java for serious programmers," the book is most appropriate for beginning programmers. It takes over 100 pages to explain basic datatypes and program statements -- including flowcharts for if-, while- and do- statements! Pretty handy for a "serious" programmer. Two chapters and another hundred pages are devoted explaining objects and inheritance. With big type, large chapter headings, and figures of questionable utility, the book has pretty low information density, making easy to read. Unfortunately the index is not very good so you have to flip through many pages to find that pearl of information.

Most disturbing is the authors' lack of understanding. The book is filled with jibes like "The interal architecture fo the list component that makes this generality possible is rather elegant. Unfortunately, the designers at Sun felt that they needed to show off that elegance, rather than hiding it from the programmer who just wants to use the component" p420. They are discussing the JList UI component and apparently fail to recognize the benefits of the model-view-controller architecture and the advantages of orthogonal design. The nadir occurs while they are demonstrating how to create an custom event. They derive their TimerEvent class from AWTEvent which requires mucking around with the system event queue which they could have avoided had they derived from EventOjbect, like all the other data model event sources.

I bought the book because it was published by Sun Microsystems Press and I expected them to have particular insight into Java and how it should be used. Alas. At least Sun could have gotten authors who understood what the Java architects are trying to accomplish. Maybe next time.

I have read several Java books, and looked into many others. This is the mose detailed and in-depth books on Java that I have read. It's perfect for anyone who has a good grasp on Java fundamentals and wants to take their programming to the next level. It is also great for a reference book since it is chuck full of facts and examples. If your a beginner, this book maybe a little difficult to learn off of. For beginners, I would recommend Just Java by Van der Linden.

This book excellent for those who want to learn Java and for those who need an excellent reference. All examples actually do make sense. I didn't know Java, only C++ and build a game by just reading the book and apply the clear examples in my own code. Now I'm using the book as a reference. I bought about 10 books on Java but this one and Volume 2 are next to my keyboard, ready to be used.

I've been programming primarily in VB and C++ and using components within my ASP scripts. I wanted to expand my development knowledge to Java and this book got me started very quickly! Some people may have been annoyed with all the comparisons, but I was familiar with both so it made learning a lot easier.

Language comparison was key to my java learning. It got me off the ground very quickly (once I found the time to write some of the code!) I would highly recommend this book to someone who is interested in getting up to speed with Java quickly and has background in any programming lanugage. Introduction to Objects and Classes was straightforward along with the other attributes of an OOPL.

If you don't have any programming experience this book may still work for you just ignore the VB and C/C++ highlights sprinkled throughout the book. Your learning curve will be a little steeper but the end result is a solid understanding of the "core" basics of Java.

I also have the "Core PHP" book which is an excellent read as well and with the release of PHP4 having support for Java, it makes the whole thing come together nicely!

If you are not a programmer already, go find a different book. This book assumes you all ready have an inkling of what you are doing whether it comes from C++ or VB(I knew both coming into this book). This is the one reason I loved this book.

It didnt go into blaringly obvious details when describing the basics like looping constructs and conditionals. When the book gets to OOP it really shines giving the VB people in this world(yes, VB is NOT an Object oriented language) a good understanding of real OO programming.

The information on SWING and graphics is a good start to get someone going on their own and the chapter on error handling was also very well written. When read with the sequel to this book, Volume II, someone will have all the basics to be a competent JAVA programmer. Additional material can be read on specifics like Swing, Servlets, and just about every other JAVA technology out there.

All, in all, if you have programming experience, get this one to learn JAVA.

There is no doubt that this one of the best books out there. But, you have to have some experience with java before you start reading this one. The simple tutorials on the internet will do that job. The C++ and vb notes are very helpful for understanding the differences between those languages and java. Some things in those are important, like java's "always pass by value" concept. Another minor annoyance is the authors' consistent use of stating obvious things. For example, consider the following line in the book. ".... has a listener for action events called (naturally enough), actionListener...". And this naturally enough business is repeated several times. It was cute and natural the first time, but became trite and annoying when it started appearing frequently. The authors' could have simply stated the fact without feeling too conscious that it was something obvious. Weren't java's methods supposed to make remembering them easier? And if so, they would obviously have a good mnemonic name.