Customer Reviews

Developing Java Software, 2nd Edition

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

First, let me say that I already have some knowledge of C and C++, so I can't comment with certainty on how useful this book would be to someone new to programming, although I suspect it would be great.

Having said, that, I must give this book a very enthusiastic recommendation. I've never seen a book which makes it so easy to learn a language on your own! The reasons for this are many: the book is very well organized, with each chapter covering a topic thoroughly and in depth; each example has a "solve the problem" feel to it, with a statement of the problem, the text of the program, and suggestions about testing the program; each chapter ends with really well-chosen exercises followed by harder "challenges" -- much better than the common "Write a program which uses inheritance"-type exercises which are usually found in programming books. The exercises are the highpoint of the book for me. They are actually useful programs that you might want to come back to and reuse, and they are just long enough and demanding enough to make them worth the effort, without taking you weeks to finish (most will take you a few hours).

All in all, I wish I had used this as a textbook as soon as I began to learn programming.

I had read a review of this book and bought it without a doubt. It's not a bad book at all, but I, being a programmer myself, found it very basic at first. I mean, they introduce you to the basics of programming but in Java which is incredible good for newbies and people learning to program but not for people trying to learn a 4th or 5th language.

Something I really love about this book are the examples it has. It's full of them, very well organized and structured. They give you a statement and then they proceede to the
design, implementation, review and testing phases. I find it very important, as a professional programmer that someone is teaching the new guys how important the reviewing and testing phase is!

One thing I miss sometimes, specially coming from a C/C++ background is that they don't explain the internals of Java. I mean, they don't let you know what magic Java does in the inside, like for example that when you declare an objects, it gets stored in the heap.

In conclusion, a wonderful book if you're a complete stranger or very new to programming with lots of examples to practice with as well as practical cases that are very helpful.

DJS is written in a clear and concise prose with excellent attention to detail, without cluttering the issue. The book explains many of tha basic programming fundamentals required to create robust and correct code with the Java language. Many books which I have seen up to now covering the Java language are too envolved with scraping the surface of everyting. This book does the opposite, it doesn't try to tell you everything there is to know about Java, but what it does tell you is how to use the language and the important libraries effectively. There is also a heavy influence of the use of algorithms (searching sorting etc) and data structures (binary trees, lists etc) which are the building blocks of effective programming. I used this book at Kings College Lonodon and found it extremely informative. Clearly the other student who didn't like it was not up the course or just couldn't be bothered.

I bought this book specifically because it did NOT assume that the reader had already used an object-oriented language, when many other texts assume that you've already dabbled in C++ to some depth.

This book explains not only how to program in Java, but elements of OO analysis and design, as well as good programming habits, areas that few other books bother to cover along with the language.

The book assumes little or no previous programming knowledge, though of course it helps to have some familiarity with C or C++. It has a dry, straightforward (and occasionally witty) presentation, which is to be expected given its origin as a textbook for undergraduates learning to program. That said, it does not claim to teach Java and OO concepts in a month (any book that does should be binned), and if you have the time and patience to work through its 850-odd pages, you'll be well rewarded.

This book provided a very good introduction for me to Object Oriented programming. Although I had previous knowledge of other programming languages, I never knew anything about Object Oriented programming. The authors give an OO approach to the language, explaining what objects are and why we use them instead of linear programming. Java seemed to me as one of the hardest languages to learn when I was 13, but last year when I got this book (I was 15 then), I was able to master Core Java and basic AWT/Swing in a matter of weeks (3 to be precise). I recommend this book to anyone who hasn't had any luck learning Java well before. Since I DID have programming knowledge before, I'm not in a position to recommend it for starters -- but please give it a try.

I checked this book out of the library (imagine that!) I found it to be pretty comprehensive and offered a lot of tips. It has a school textbook style but has a lot of meat. What I found interesting is thier mention of patterns and also UML, JavaBeans, etc.

The author of this book obviously knows his subject and it shows in the style of the book. It doesn't delve too deeply into areas, but covers all the essentials of the programming language. A good coverage of the Java libraries is avaliable, although the abstract java toolkit is barely touched on - a minor gripe with the book. From the content of the book it is clearly written as an educational book, with a big emphasis on data structures which many readers might skip. The best part of the book is worked examples of medium scale programs at the end in 'case study' section, a welcome change from other books which give a single class example of somthing unchallenging. A mail merge program or trafic light simulation show just how Java can be implemented. I'm sure a new Java 1.2 version is in progress, which will cover Swing and User Interface Components in detail, which would have meant five starts and not four. Buy it!

Quite a nice resource. One thing that hasn't been mentioned, I think, is that this book covers data structures. I looked around for some time for an enjoyable book that showed how to implement the standard data structures in Java, till I found this. I also like the case studies later on. Very useful!

This book provided a very good introduction for me to Object Oriented programming. Although I had previous knowledge of other programming languages, I never knew anything about Object Oriented programming. The authors give an OO approach to the language, explaining what objects are and why we use them instead of linear programming. Java seemed to me as one of the hardest languages to learn when I was 13, but last year when I got this book (I was 15 then), I was able to master Core Java and basic AWT/Swing in a matter of weeks (3 to be precise). I recommend this book to anyone who hasn't had any luck learning Java well before. Since I DID have programming knowledge before, I'm not in a position to recommend it for starters -- but please give it a try.

This book was a reccomended text for our degree course at Kings . I can say that this book would probably only appeal to programmers who are already familiar with C++ or other object oriented languages . There seems to be little structure to the explanation and is written in such an unfriendly and overcomplicated style that you're likely to go away feeling more confused and frustrated . As a reference tool it's poor as there are few definitions of terms used . It's aimed at the programmer producing medium to large scale java applications , if you're looking for something to explain objects or syntax look elsewhere .