Customer Reviews

Ivor Horton's Beginning Java 2, JDK 5 Edition

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

 

 

This book is a decent read. However, I just concluded a swing class. There where several examples during class where I found information thru research that there were newer and better ways to accomplish the goal.

For example, our first assignment to deal with lists, recommended using a vector. Research revealed that arraylist is recommended a newer, better version of vector. And not to use vector. However, this book has several pages dedicated to vector and none to arraylist.

Another example is that we learned in class how to use toolkit to center a window. Using this method takes several lines of code. However, research showed that since Java 1.4, they added a null parameter to the setLocationRelativeTo command, so that if null is passed the whole window is centered. Once again, the book uses the toolkit method of centering.

These are examples I am sure of. This makes me wonder how many other examples in the book make use of technology from the Java 1.3 days. I'm not sure I'm learning proper coding by studying with this book

Unless you are one of those types that long for brevity, conciseness and the "nutshell" style this is the perfect book for you, newbie or beginner in the Java field. It gives a really extensive, friendly, smooth intro to the spirit and technique of Object Oriented Programming, the syntax and the principal areas of the language. You will also get get a sound, easy tutorial on programming with threads, graphical interfaces, parsing XML, and even java database connectivity. And it is updated to the latest release of Java, 1.5!

Ivor Horton's book is very good at explaining some of the certain features of Java and providing examples of how to implement something you might want to do, such as writing to a file. Even though he starts out with variables, loops, and conditions and such, he moves very quickly and doesn't give a whole lot of explanation, so you had better be either intelligent enough to understand as you read or already have had a strong foundation in important Java concepts. Learn the OO basics like Polymorphism, inheritance, extension, objects, etc...and then pick up this book to learn the Java features. Things will make a lot more sense.

"Beginning Java 2" is a well written book, over 1400 pages, that takes you by the hand and teaches you Java in a structured manner. In 25 chapters, it handles topic after topic in the most natural way starting at the very bottom and then building upwards. The chapters nearly all follow the same structure: a quick intro on what the chapter is about, a fair chunk of text explaining the topic at hand, interleaved with concise examples demonstrating the mechanism in source code in combination with clear walk troughs, and of course a summary and exercises.

"Beginning Java 2" is thorough. It really takes 750 pages before there is sufficient foundation to start topics on windows and GUIs. But, as windows and GUIs are heavily dependent on library code written by professionals, understanding the base concepts of Java 2 is really worthwhile.

Ivor Horton's "Beginning Java 2" is pleasant to read. The style is light, it addresses the reader as a fine class room teacher would do. I've read major parts on the couch, just like bed time stories after a hard day's work.

I was very happily surprised with Ivor Horton's book "Beginning Java 2". I'd tried to learn Java before, and made some attempts using Java-in-24-hours style books and thin tutorials from the Internet. That didn't work for me. Such material brings you really up to the level "monkey-see, monkey-do", without providing any oversight or the relation between concepts. "Beginning Java 2" allows me to make a real start with Java.

In summary: this is a great book to learn Java.

As the title says: "Beginning...", so the experts that wrote a review shouldnt be angry. The author explains every term he uses [excellent teaching practice!], does not assume that you should "of course" "know" this... Naturally, if you are an experieneced progammer this book may be too long, but alas: read faster in this case.

Four stars because of (some) mistakes. Otherwise 5*.

Great Java book for school and great price! got it quickly! I will probably reference it for a long time.

I am not the best programmer in the commonwealth but this book has taught some much about java that Deitel could not. The OOP part is quite well explained. Arrays,inheritance,Reading and Writing files are some of the many topics touched on;in this book.
Much as i do like it i think it could have said something about webservices and anything in developing wed applications. Hardly anything is said.Will be looking out for it in the next book.
The other thing are the exercises. These are quite few though im not complaining. If you go through the worked examples. You will be able to bring your own ideas to life as far as developing applications is involved. Its well explained ,not rushed.
If you want to understand the basic fundamentals of Java then this is the book.You dont even need tutor to learn. I know i didn't.

Great beginning book for anyone who wants to learn Java. Teaches the syntax of Java, along with the basics to programming. Book includes program examples with sections explaining how the programs work. Excellent source for beginning, as well as advanced, programmers.

First thing I need to say is that if you know another programming langauge, especially C++, then you already know about half of this book which covers the basics like variables, integers, boolean, string, the logics of if/else, case statements, function, etc. I agree with previous reviewer; Horton uses techniques from 1.3 and 1.4 JDK instead of the newer 5.0 JDK. Hello, isn't that what this book is about? JDK 1.5/5.0? Java is probably the easiest language to learn next to Visual Basic 6.0.
If you are a first time programmer then I would say this book is a fairly good choice, because it does explain in excruciating detail about all parts of the language. However, with this many pages also comes many typos and code errors, and you have to use the errata on Wrox's web site. These mistakes are easily picked up by veteran programmers but if you're a newbie, get ready for a big headache.
For people already know more than one programming language, you can simply search the web for some Java tutorials, and just buy a cheap book on Half.com or eBay(from $0.75 to $5.00) that covers 1.3 or 1.4, after that just read up on JDK 5.0 documentation on Sun's official site. You can probably easily find a book in your local library.

This is a great book, and the longest that I have ever read. Ivor's teaching approach, although frustrating and daunting, effectively teaches the language concepts you need to begin programming. You will find yourself adding code to an example and redoing it later and redoing it later... each time learning a tiny bit about design and some about the Java language. The big example (a drawing program called Sketcher) is developed over several chapters and is used to demonstrate all sorts of language features including a good intro into Swing. Even though I feel that this is a fairly solid book that I would recommend, I am only giving it 1 star to bias my vote and communicate a message to Wrox: Hire at least one book editor that has some quality standards. The book is fraught with mistakes (most don't appear in the Errata as of 2/16/06).