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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
For beginners who want to become competent Java programmers, January 21, 2010
This review is from: Introduction to Java Programming, Comprehensive (8th Edition) (Paperback)
Try to learn Java from the tutorials available online, and you encounter breezy references to unfamiliar concepts and examples so complicated you can't tell the predefined Java classes from those the programmer has added. But if you make an investment and buy this book, a master teacher leads you by the hand.
The organization of the text seems odd at first. Why, for example, does Liang introduce a single GUI component, JOptionPane, at the beginning? It turns out he is showing you how to parse strings into other data types. Why does coverage of the String class intervene in the middle? It turns out to be a good example of an object, following up on the previous chapter. Every concept is presented in a logical progression.
Along the way, Liang makes excursions to topics like 2D arrays and Wrapper classes. I recently finished the brief version of this book and then needed to use a Swing feature, tables, which is covered only in the comprehensive version. So I had to rely on Sun's tutorial, which is excellent but assumes you know the basics. It gives no explanation of the object type used to hold a table's data -- but Liang's intro had prepared me to recognize and use a 2D array. My first attempt didn't work. Closer review showed that booleans and integers should be surrounded with extra code -- which, having read Liang, I knew were wrappers. That's when I decided to continue on to this comprehensive version. Liang is that good, you'll want all 1300 pages.
Throughout the book are beautifully designed examples, presenting exactly the code necessary to illustrate the target concepts and no more, and presented in full. If you're new to OOP and unsure where to place certain code, you can use Liang's examples as guides. Well thought-out reiview questions at the end of each chapter help consolidate what you've learned, and the exercises give you hands-on learning experience. These are particularly helpful in the early chapters -- and fun; no other entertainment could beat the exercises on loops. The solutions are provided online for half of them, and you pick up new points by noting how Liang's solution differs from yours.
The book's layout is a paragon of clarity, with green text used to set off literal values and code. There are handy topic descriptions in the generous margins, which makes it easy to find what you're looking for when you use the book for reference. The index is good. There are a few serious typos that can trip you up -- i.e., the order of addition and subtraction is backwards in exercise 4.25, computing pi -- but most of them are obvious (and, dear publisher, they ought to have been fixed by edition 8).
Supplemental materials are available online. The video notes are a bit of a snooze, but they may be valuable to those with a different learning style. They are walkthroughs of the examples in the text, presented in a calm, pleasant voice.
Pearson-Prentice Hall has, however, made two lamentable decisions. One is to offer no hardback edition -- this is a reference book that is destined for heavy use and doomed to cellotape repairs as a flimsy paperback. The other is to publish brief versus complete editions, when what is needed is two separate tomes for first half and second half.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Don't waste your $$ and time! GET THIS BOOK NOW., February 3, 2011
This review is from: Introduction to Java Programming, Comprehensive (8th Edition) (Paperback)
Trust me. I'm a first time Java/programming novice, with barely any experience in C++. When I was trying to find my be-all end-all Java book, I started with Head First, also tried Sam's Teach Yourself Java in 24 Hrs.
Head First was a mistake from the beginning; it's written for programmers, as an easy intro into simply a different language and style (with OOP).
Sam's is better for programming novices; however, is very skimpy on the details. Personally, I feel like if you're new to programming, you really need to know the basic basics. And in "24 Hours" you simply cannot get an overarching, complete view of programming and Java.
To me, this book has it all. It starts from the ground up, introduces basic programming practices first, then introduces methods and OOP in a totally, non-intimidating strategic order, such that things actually make sense; all the i's are crossed, all the t's are dotted. (That's how the saying goes, right?) :P
PLUS, with the great amount of review points, exercises, and actual PROGRAMS the book has you write, it's just spectacular all around for learning Java.
If you are SERIOUS about learning Java, and you're new to OOP/programming in general; heck, even if you already are a programmer, Liang's Intro to Java Programming, is IMO, the BEST option you can go with and TOTALLY worth the steeper textbook price.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best on Java, February 3, 2010
This review is from: Introduction to Java Programming, Comprehensive (8th Edition) (Paperback)
this book is excellent. It is very easy to read and it covers all the topics from basic programming to more advanced programming in a sequential order very well. I highly recommend this book to beginners and advanced programmers due to the clear explanations, the ease of the reading comprehension and the well illustrated examples.
The book begins by telling you the basics of how a program is executed by your computer to give you a little knowledge of what is going on in the background. The author then dives into basic and advanced topics., don't worry, if you buy the book, the author does an excellent job of clearly explaining the topics to the reader which is the best part of the book because it is so easy to read.
It explains all the topics step-by-step without any holes or gaps in the explanations, so you can easily comprehend what the author is talking about.
Finally, the author uses colored code to show you examples of what the actual program would look like in order to get it to work. The illustrations are enough to understand the concept.
In conclusion, I would HIGHLY recommend this book to any beginner because the book is delivered in a sequential order from basics to advanced concepts, ease of comprehension, and very well illustrated examples. This is the only book I have read where I have wanted to send a letter to the author complimenting how well the book was written. I only wish math books were written as well as this book was. I just have to say it is a definite MUST BUY!
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