Customer Reviews

Ground-Up Java

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Review
You would think that by now there would be no new ground to cover when it comes to books on learning Java. There's everything from teaching yourself in a certain number of hours/days to dry academic textbooks to entertaining tutorials using adult learning techniques. Each one appeals to a certain type of learner, and that's good. Ground-Up Java (GUJ) seems to find an interesting niche that will draw in beginners with a variety of needs.

At its core, GUJ is a solid tutorial on Java. All the basic features of the language are covered, as well as concepts of object-oriented programming. The writing is concise, intelligent, and readable, and the reader will not feel like they are being "talked down to". The author covers both the typical application style Java programs as well as the graphical (GUI) programming techniques to allow you to create visually appealing applications. All well and good.

Where the book shines is with the enclosed CD. Heller has taken the difference concepts (such as boolean logic or conditional looping) and written graphical Java apps that will allow you to watch and interact with code. For instance, there's a Boolean Lab application that allows you to create a boolean expression with three variables, complete with NOTs, ANDs, parenthesis, etc. You set the variables to true or false, and click the run button. You can then watch an animated breakdown of the code as each part is parsed and evaluated. Very helpful to see how order of evaluation plays into the answer. Another of the programs allows you to enter a numerical formula and then watch the animation parse and evaluate it. This is the type of learning that can take you into a much deeper understanding of what's going on.

Conclusion
Ground-Up Java is an excellent choice for those developers who want a serious yet readable tutorial guide, as well as an opportunity to visually interact with coding logic. I recommend it.

I recently finished my first semester in Java. My instructor is something of a superstar in the Java world; I learned a lot, and thought I was doing well in the class.

Then I got this book.

WOW! I realized what I was MISSING in class. Besides having some cool (if sometimes not completely relevant or even illuminating) animated illustrations on CD, Heller covers all the stuff your teachers in class WON'T tell you. Like, why you will copy object references, rather than the objects themselves. Or what in the heck exceptions REALLY are. (They're a class like anything else... something that WASN'T apparent in my class.)

This is a tremendous book for people who want to learn Java from the very beginning. Plus, it's a pretty fun read too. For those who are learning it already, it's good at covering what you probably missed.

The book has been a great help in my study of java programming, and programming in general. I don't have much time to study nowadays, and it has been easy enough to take it with me and absorb as I have time. I had taken an intro to programming course years ago and thought I knew much of what I needed, but the book introduced me to some things I didn't know that I didn't know. It's been my primary source of study, and I definitely recommend it.

After buying and going a through a wide number of intro to Java books, including the usual dummies guide, there is no other book that will give people with little or completely none programming the ability to learn and write their own Java programs within a few weeks.

Firstly, the accompanied CD is a great visual tool and I think it is a good learning tool rather than a gimmick.

Secondly, the chapters are broken down in just the right portions and ordered so logically that you really will wonder why others haven't wrote a Java book like this.

Other than covering the bare basics which are variables, inheritance, methods and operations, the book continues to explain more difficult topics such as arrays and interfaces with ease.

I am not a big programming fan but going through this book has made me enjoy learning to program because it is easy and worded so practically anyone can learn a subject that is full of techical jargon in plain english.

Thumbs up to the author!

An outstanding intro for non-programmers. The book starts out with an explanation of what a computer IS, not just what it does. I especially liked the animated illustrations, which let me experiment with the language and see "cartoons" that explained the results.

I'm a total beginner and this book unfortunately failed in what it promised to do, which
is teach Java to a total beginner from the ground up. A future updated version, should
also offer a video instruction version, where what's written is spoken and shown via video.

I recently read Beginning Programming in Java for Dummies by Barry Burd. That was a great book for a beginner.....this book is not. I was going to try to make it through the first 100 pages before looking to another book, but I've fallen about 30 pages short of that. Nothing is explained well in this book and it seems like he is introducing aspects of Java that don't belong in an introductory book. He succeeds in confusing more than instructing. Should've spent the money on something else, and I'm certainly not wasting any more time on it.

I picked this book up when I was just eleven. I heard about java and I really wanted to learn it. The first book I got about Java (Sam's teach yourself...) was harsh and difficult to understand.

Ground up Java starts out with computer basics, then how computer languages work and goes step by step into Java. The descriptions and animations (on CD) were helpful to understand concepts easier. The stories about the author were fun and helpful. My favorite part was Chapter Eleven where the author gives the analogy of a runtime exception being like turning to page 1963 or to -47 in a book of only 500 pages.

Ground Up Java was the best book I found to get me started in Java. I am starting "Complete Java 2 Certification" soon for more learning.