Customer Reviews

J2ME: The Complete Reference

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book should be retitled as MIDPand JDBC:The complete reference. It is in NO way a complete reference for J2ME.

If you are looking a book on using the MIDP profile, this is as comprehensive as a book can get.It has complete code listings to explain each concept and has extensive coverage of the MIDP API's.

J2ME also consists of CDC profile that is used to write J2ME applications for wireless devices that are NOT memory constrained. When one clainms that they are creating a complete reference for J2ME, they cannot leave out CDC. This book does not even devote 1 chapter to explain CDC which is such a crucial part of J2ME. Instead the author wastes space and piles on chapters by explaining JDBC and web services.

Buy this book if you want to learn only MIDP, else this one is not for you.

You have to be REALLY desperate for a J2ME book to think that this will end all your J2ME problems!
I have read this book thru and thru, and I had found it useful for the ultimate beginnner style of J2ME,but I could've pulled this info from the web. Often while reading it, I did have to consult the web a number of times, and still got a bunch of dead ends-
This book was not ALL bad, but the other reviews mention a embedded database usage that is out of date. No kiddin there! I was shocked to think that this was only as far as the technology had come, there had to be a better light!
If you want the ultimate intro guide to J2ME programming, and a lite to minimal amount of practice with few technologies that even in service anymore, anchors away! But again if you think that you need something more than a bouncing ball on the screen and out of date embed-able programs then head on to deeper waters.
Hope this helps

Skip the first 50 pages, they have just about nothing to do with the rest of the book. I want to know about J2ME, not about satallites orbiting the earth.
There were several small errors throughout, source code missing things here and there. But as I got deeper into the book I didn't know enough about the language to correct the errors. That's what I purchased the book for.
Instead I went to Osborne's website where they have the source code for the book (with errors intact) but otherwise don't acknowledge that the book exists. It would have been nice to have an "updates" section where a couple of the errors were corrected. At least run the source code before you put it in the book. I'm pretty disappointed.

Why are all the glowing, 5-star reviews, seemingly entered on the same day?

I smell a rat.

J2Me book should atleast make you feel the " little ness"
of the platform you are writing to. No where does this
book even hint at the severe and extreme constraints involved
in writing for this platform. Issues with UI display,
threading issues, problems with RMS persistence .

Man! talking about persistence, this author would make you
feel that you are gonna use full fledged SQL 92 compliant
database.
No limits to my frustration for having spent my money
on this book; equivalently, I could have dumped into
a garbage bin. Totally irresponsible of the author!

This book really gets to the core of J2ME. Keogh writes with a no-nonsense, down to business style that gets right to the heart of the topic. He covers all the different parts of J2ME. Along the way he points out opportunities for optimization and how to access built-in calendars, address and to do list databases. You'll find J2ME, The Complete Reference a valuable addition to your library because it contains practical information that you won't find anywhere on the Internet.

I have several books on J2ME. Yet, as good as those books are, I've found myself using only this book. This book does not simply gloss over or "introduce" you to concepts. Every chapter provides enough coverage to really get you programming. Keogh is informative in his concise writing style. You won't be disappointed.

The main problem with this book is that it is excessively wordy. Every single example is introduced with several pages of text. Every single time Keogh writes that any exceptions generated in the try block are caught by the catch block. Yeah... thanks a lot for that great piece of advice. After these several pages of text there is a box with about 10 to 20 steps that he suggests to accomplish the discussed task. Invariably these begin with:
1. Declare references to classes
2. Create instances of classes and assign those instances to references
3. a whole bunch more oversimplied pieces of garbage
My point is that Keogh puts in so much extra junk into this book that it is difficult to read. You generally have to read 5 pages to learn what one method does. Any intermediate to experienced programmer (not necessarily in java or j2me) will quickly become frusturated and beginners will too after a hundred or so pages. This book is nearly 800 pages long and could easily fit in 300 pages.
Another problem with this book is that the examples are overly contrived. Also it would be useful if Keogh constructed a small box that would stand out from the text for each method that he describes. This would discuss the parameters, return types, effects, and such. However, he does not do this. He discusses these types of things in several paragraphs of writing. On a minor note Keogh's variables do not follow official sun naming conventions (which doesn't really matter but someone writing a textbook should try to use good habits). That and his treatment of exceptions is generally very poor (always writes catch(Exception e) { // do something } which is poor because you in general want more specific information about the exception so it can be better handled).

Keogh deals with the obvious and subtle features of J2ME programming in an intelligent and helpful manner. He has an excellent sense of knowing when to slow down and go into depth on a topic. Reading this book greatly added to my appreciation and understanding of J2ME programming features. This book go far beyond what is available in online and is a must buy for professional J2ME programmers. It is the best reference I've seen in my 15 years of programming.

This book really gets to the core of J2ME. Keogh writes with a no-nonsense, down to business style that gets right to the heart of the topic. He covers all the different parts of J2ME. Along the way he points out opportunities for optimization and how to access built-in calendars, address and to do list databases. You'll find J2ME, The Complete Reference a valuable addition to your library because it contains practical information that you won't find anywhere on the Internet.