Customer Reviews

Introduction to Java Programming, Comprehensive Version (7th Edition)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I saw Dream a Little's review and came to the conclusion it may be peoples learning style that determines if they like this book. I am new at programming and the book used in the college course I took was Deittel's 7th ed. Java How to Program. This book left me with a lot of unanswered questions that other books I had checked out from the library could not answer. I was about to give up when I stumbled upon this book and was amazed and wishing I had found it sooner in the semester.
I found it explained a lot of the basics very clearly. It also had a lot more understandable examples given. Even though Deittel's book is over 1500+ pages it came nowhere near as good as the examples I found in Liang's approx 700 pages.
I was a bit spooked at the price when I bought it, wondering if I was going to regret it. But after using the book I concluded this maybe one of those instances where you get what you pay for.
Liang uses a lot of diagrams to show how the pieces fit together as well as simple to understand explanations.
If you are already a programmer in Java then I doubt this is worth the price, but for the beginner/novice who likes to see how the pieces fit together and wishes to understand why things go in the order they do, then this maybe the book for you.
If I later move to another language, I will be looking to see if this author has anything written in that category as well.

I'm 40 years old and I have very little programming experience - a few years of basic and lisp way back in the 80s, some HTML, a touch of pearl. Point is, before attempting to learn Java, I had a basis in concepts such as loops, arrays, and so on. I did not, however, have any experience with object-oriented programing. After spending a lot of time looking for a book on Java, including going to the book store and searching on line and reading reviews, I was about to give up and get a "learn Java the easy way" type DIY book when I stumbled upon this book. I immediately liked the idea of getting a book that was the basis for college-level programming. My only concern was that the book would be too much too quickly.

I was quite happy, you'll understand, to discover that this book is not only comprehensive and extremely detailed, it is also a square-one type book, by which I mean that it covers every single concept from a basic introduction and definition to an implementation through examples. The book has many examples, and while there is redundancy in the examples, it is, IMO, a huge bonus. It is much better to have a few too many implementations than it is to not have an example of the one concept you need.

I am currently finishing chapter 6, and I've already gotten my money's worth out of this book. I have already written programs through a text editor that test my children in multiplication. Pretty darn neat, considering I've only been reading this book for about a week or two.

In my opinion, this book would be great for any beginning learner, with or without a background in programming.

I very much recommend this book if you want to learn Java. It's very clear, very well laid out, and there is no filler - no ADD-type crap - lots of pictures, lots of attempts at humor, and so on. If you want that, consider the "Java for dummies" type books. This book WILL hold your hand all along the road to learning the language, but it won't coddle you with unnecessary garbage to keep your interest. If you have the interest already, this is a great choice.

Two notes - 1. I read through the official java site beginner tutorial on the Net - too much too quick, not enough examples, and so on. This book is much much better. 2. For International Students, there is an International Edition that is substantially cheaper.

Good learning!

I'm not in the habbit of writing reviews, but for this book I felt I had to, because its the best IT-book I've ever read.

In almost any book there is some passage you don't understand, no matter how many times you go over it. So you buy another one on the same subject and in that one its clearly explained. With 'Introduction to Java Programming' I've never had that. On the contrary, the more I read the more I knew I wouldn't need another book on Java, not for a couple of years at least. Its the most complete book I know.

I mustn't forget to mention the companion website at [...] . It has 6 bonus chapters and supplements on various subjects. The supplements are a bit unformatted, but you don't look a gift horse in the mouth, do you?

If you buy any book on java then buy this one. Its a peach.

I am new to Java programming and took a java/programming course at a community college. This was the required text. Overall a fantastic book. Make sure you look the the erratas on the author's website and the programing exercise solutions too - great resource.

Dr. Liang's style of writing is easy and simple to understand even for the novice. This book covers a wide range of java programming concepts, these concept are so many to list here,to give you an idea of how big this book is, it has about 43 chapters,that span over 1290 pages covering the basics to the most difficult database programming principles.

This book is meant for those individual who are really serious and determined to learn, and the price tag clearly shows that. If you wanna half-learn java, this book is not for you. If you want to be a java geek, I would recommend you dig deeper into you pocket and get this book as soon as you can. You will never regret it. All the concepts are clear and easy to understand except one or two, which really won't hurt that much considering the abundant material locked down in this text.
Introduction to Java Programming, Comprehensive Version (7th Edition)

I used this textbook for a Java 2 class and I guess it was alright at explaining concepts. The author did a decent job at explaining things in a sequential "building block" fashion, but my main gripe are the types of examples that were used.

Often times the examples used were rather abstract and unexplained. For example, the author frequently asks review questions where you're supposed to implement some sort of loan amortization, but fails to provide the formulas necessary. I often had to look up outside formulas and such while working through this book.

Also, there was extremely frequent referencing back and forth to figures in completely different chapters which proved annoying. I'd have to go back 3 chapters look at a figure, but then go back 2 chapters that referenced ANOTHER figure.

Anyway, I got an A in the class so it got the job done, but there's definitely room for improvement with this book.

Needed it for class and it is helpful. However, there could be some chapters in the end or middle that will save you from manually adding matrix items....the depth is great but there are flaws to this mammoth book

This book not only teaches you how to program but also teaches you a lot of programming techniques . In addition, the student companion website has a lot of useful materials such as tutorials, answers to review questions and much more. This books has it all , it walks you from the basics to the advance programming techniques such as data structures, user interfaces and web programming step by step. I have read How to Program series before which are hard to understand and follow. The books is well organized, very clear and easy to understand. Now i have replaced all my How To program series books with Daniel Liang books. I really like this author.

Thanks for getting this textbook to me so quick. That is what I call good customer service! ! ! !

This is a great book for beginners like me. There are LOTS of coding samples to help you SEE what is being taught in each chapter. I recommend this book.