Customer Reviews

Introduction to Java Programming, Comprehensive (8th Edition)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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!

It would help if the readers of this book have some background in programming. Even though, the author tried to simplify and explain that in Chapter One, still, some of the concepts such as multi dimensional arrays, methods, and exceptions handling might be troublesome for someone who is not familiar with such concepts.

Its large variety of programming examples and ideas along with the exercises at the end of each chapter, that vary in complexity and application, make it a helpful read.

The book is an excellent reference that covers best practices and structured OO programming techniques. The author clearly listed both advantages and disadvantages to choose when it recommended tip.

The structure of the book and the order of topics discussed throughout the chapters are amazingly designed. Overall, the book is excellent.

Frankly, I just want to write that this book is awesome and be done with it, but I think the author's thorough work merits an equally thorough review.

Essentially, every part of this book is taught through EXAMPLE alongside theory: it boasts an unending series of concise, well-written SNIPPETS OF CODE which clearly explain how to utilize each new keyword or concept. Almost all of the code is presented alongside a SCREENSHOT OF THE OUTPUT. The author makes outstanding use of highlighting, margins, and spacing such that every new keyword or java term is highlighted in blue, and important concepts are clearly illustrated and emphasized through use of spacing. The spacing and margins in the text are used effectively to draw attention to important concepts. He also includes icons with important NOTES and TIPS to make sure you do not miss an important detail or to ensure you avoid common mistakes.

This book is also organized in a modular format so that the author does not include knowledge gleaned from previous chapters unless it is necessary. For instance, after finishing the chapter about arrays, you can jump straight to the recursion and there is no disadvantage at all since he keeps code simple and straightforward. Exceptions can be studied independently from the more esoteric OOP info and graphics.

This book is making me love Java. I have a copy of almost all the major textbooks ( I am a thorough student) and this one is THE BEST.

The online quizzes with the book are really helpful as well..

In sum, Dr. Liang does NOT write a three-page, patronizing, and tedious romance novel about a few lines of poorly written code AS OTHER AUTHORS love to do; instead, he gives a plethora of small snippets of code frequently and has explanatory notes (arrows indicating different things) beside the code. There is no need to keep referencing previous pages or trying to read five paragraphs to explain what an array does. INSTEAD, he JUST SHOWS YOU HOW TO DO IT.

This book is amazing.

Several of my courses have been in Java for my Comp Sci major. When my more advanced classes cover topics I go over Liang's book first before going over the required text for my other courses.

Reason being: tons and tons of practice problems and programs...

I learn programming by doing, and you get like 10 - 50 programs per chapter that by the time your done doing the practice programs it is ingrained in your head that you could write it out without a nice IDE like netbeans or eclipse.

This book is a much better learning tool than "Java How To Program" by Deitel. As a new-comer to Java, I was struggling learning Java with Deitel, not knowing that this gem by Y. Daniel Liang existed. The Liang book explains the concepts in a natural-flowing way, with tons of code examples and clear explanations. All those new and complex programming concepts are demystified, and explained in a non-intimidating way. It is a joy to learn programming with this book. It covers lots of details, and gives clear examples of correct and incorrect ways of doing things. The instructor from the Java class I'm currently taking insisted on this book, and I'm so very glad he did. This book is making my progress so much easier. I'm a happy Java junior-programmer now.

I see many Java text books in my role as an educator and Prof Liang's book is by far the best reference book I have ever seen. It is my "go-to" book when I need to understand a concept and see some code that implements that concept.

As someone with almost no programming experience, this book has been very helpful in learning and using java.

I started with a few different on-line tutorials, but after the first few lessons I felt the material had proceeded too quickly, and that there were too few problems with which I could practice programming. I finally decided to buy a real text book.

After a few searches, I bought this book; I couldn't be happier. I highly recommend this product for anyone without a lot of programming knowledge.

If you really want to learn Java from the beginning to the more advanced, this is the book. I already knew C++ before reading this but I read the beginning chapters anyway because of the excellent examples and explanations. The book is much bigger than I thought it was going to be but like I said it starts out for beginners and teaches you everything you need to know about Java. I will keep this on my shelf for future reference. Comes with video tutorials as well.