Customer Reviews

An Introduction to Computer Science Using Java

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1 star:		(4)

 

 

Don't be fooled by the Hawaiians ... this book is not as bad as the previous reviewers say it is, by any stretch of the imagination. Three professors from my school wrote this book (which, some would argue, biases me, but I've never met them...) and I must say, it is much better at teaching CS principles than the C++ book I had to read for my Intro to CS class at Eastern Illinois University. The author tries to make you think in a CS mindset, without going to fast or overloading you with Java particulars. Granted, I thought the book started out slowly, but as it got more advanced, it introduced topics at a good pace. Don't be mislead: This book is not for Java programming ... it's for introducing you to what a computer scientist does. And I think it does a great job at doing it.

I'm an instructor at a small university and am teaching with the Kamin book. I have received several negative comments from my students about the quality of its instruction, and (now) tend to agree with them. Many of them have given up on Kamin and bought either the Deitel and Deitel book or the Lemay book in hopes to overcome the book's apparent lack of JAVA! instruction (and worry about the computer concepts later). This may seem the opposite approach of what the author took (computer science first, then JAVA!), but by doing this, students are less likely to become frustrated and will have some skills before tackling CS problems.

Students have said "the book is more confusing than enlightening", that the book "doesn't give enough examples" (when it does, the word 'wrong' is plastered behind them), and when they read the text they "feel like [they] have fallen off of a cliff". Others said things that should not be posted to a publicly readable web site.

If you intend to teach computer science using the JAVA! language (or any language), I recommend choosing a more user-friendly textbook that covers the language before the CS specifics. By doing this, I believe the students will be more capable of focusing on CS topics (by overcoming the syntax phobia - which most students worry about) and then naturally extending into more complex problems.

No flames, please..

Of course, they talk about getting JDK from Sun website in the *preface*. If you want to start out on your own this book is a good place to do that. A page of minor errata is available from Kamin's website, which perhaps bothered previous readers. Good book with a conversational style.

Many textbooks that try to teach intro cs using Java get distracted by Java syntax and miss some important conceptual material. This book does a pretty good job of covering what I think is the core of an intro cs class. One of its strengths is a series of Debugging Alerts that warn students about the most common errors. I used Lewis and Loftus' book in a previous semester and thought this book was much more readable.

This books covers both first and second year
concepts in computer science, as well as a variety
of topics relevant to using Java. For an introduction
to Java with minimal computer science, consult Deitel
and Deitel. I would also recommend the book "Discrete
Mathematics" by Rosen, or a similar book, to be used
in conjunction with this text. If you learn using
this book or perhaps SICP by Abelson (used at MIT),
you will be much better off in the long run than using a
less rigorous approach.

Don't buy this one if you are actually looking for a book that will teach you the ins and outs of programming with Java. Simple topics are explained so in-depth that it confuses the reader more than it helps. Conversely, complex topics are breezed through with little or no mention as to their inner workings. Its the perfect book for a college weed out course, though; confusing and lacking a point. The authors do not even bother to tell you that the Java Development Kit can be downloaded for free from the Sun web site. That might have helped!

I thought it was a pretty good book. Some of it didn't get into detail about certain concepts of java, but I did like the debugging sections of the book as far as syntax and logical errors which can occur.

We took this books in a CS class. The instructors made a bad decision selecting this book since it's full of errors. Examples are boring and repeated. In other words, if you didn't understand the example, here goes the chapter without any comprehension. If you are a reader, don't buy this book. If you are a teacher/instructor, don't give your students a hard time with contents in this book.

This book is not for those who do not already know Java. This book suffers from a lack of concise explanations of concepts. It also jumps from basic concepts to more complex ones with almost no transition. Therefore anyone who fails to comprehend earlier concepts (a distinct possibility due to poor explanations) will be at a total loss for later, more important concepts. I urge any teacher who desires a book that aids the learning of Java (or computer science in general) to forego this book and search for one of higher caliber.

I thought that I had some computer smarts after 17 years of experience in that field, then I took a class using this book. The class started with 30 students and there is about 15 left, and most of us are ready to walk out. This book does not reinforce what it is teaching. It adds features within a chapter that they never explain. The exercies are filled with problems that they have never given an example of how to solve.

This book could not even be used for a door stop!