Customer Reviews

Java 1.2 in Record Time with CDROM

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

 

 

Holzner does a good job of helping beginning java programmers learn to code some little applets. HOWEVER, the Java 1.2 examples in the book do not work! If the author (and/or editors) would have taken the time to test them with the JDK 1.2 , they would have discovered this. Obviously they did not.

These examples were written for a previous version of Java and simply not updated. Another example of slapping a Java 2 title onto an old Java 1.1 book.

This present a critical obstacle to the newbie who will not know how to alter the programs to get them running. This flaw is serious enough for me to disuade anyone from purchasing this book unless they have a Java expert handy to guide them through the correction process.

Very sloppy job of editing, guys!

I recently passed SUN certified Java Programmer exam. This book is the best Java book I have seen so far.

For a beginner, this book teach you Java in a fun and clean environment. You learn by doing and seeing, not just dry reading. You will have a real feeling on what Java can do for you. And in short time, you have learned the most important part of Java a beginner should know.

For an experienced programmer, you will get good understanding of Java's capabilities and the differences between Java and whatever you already know by quickly going through those examples.

Many years ago one of my high school teacher once told me that only when you TRUELY UNDERSTAND something, then you can explain it in a few sentences in plain words. I think this applies to the authors of this book. They fulfiled their "record time" promise.

This book really helped me a lot.

I've reviewed quite a number of Java titles written for the beginner. Some are fairly ordinary, others are exceptional. Unfortunately, Java 1.2 In Record Time falls into the former category. That is not to say it is not a good guide to learning Java quickly, but it does have its flaws.

Firstly, the book was written for an early beta of JDK1.2 (now named Java 2 v1.2). Any of the code written for the Swing platform will not run -- it uses the old com.sun.java.swing.* packages, rather than javax.swing). This means you must manually change all the import statements, and recompile. This is an annoyance, particularly for those who are unaware of the changes from early betas. If you visit the website, you can find out how to fix this by reading their errata.

Secondly, fourteen out of fifteen "skills" taught in the book concern graphics and GUI programming (that's 87.5% of chapters). While GUI programming is certainly a useful skill, the book stops just after briefly touching threads and JAR files -- there is no networking, no coverage of data structures, files, I/O streams, etc.

Putting these two flaws aside for the moment, Java 1.2 in Record Time is a good way to get your feet wet. You'll learn the Abstract Windowing Toolkit (AWT), and Swing libraries. As an introduction to the language, Java 1.2 in Record Time does a fine job, but readers will have to purchase other titles to cover all the skills a beginner needs. <i> -- David Reilly, for the Java Coffee Break</i>

I bought this book in the bookstore, because I was confused by so many contrasting reviews of Beginner Java books on Amazon. The only thing that I knew about JAVA was what I read in a book that was written in 1996, which if you're learning a new program, is of course of no use. So I needed something up to date and simple. This is both. As stated many times prior to this message, the author did not include the JDK package on the CD that comes with the book. The code is all there but if you're planning on starting from scratch with this book, it doesn't provide the most necessary resource, the Software. So you'll have to get it online (which takes an hour of downloading). The book is easy to follow and up to date (at least as of the time I'm writing this). If your relatively intelligent and starting out, I recommend this book

Since the source code text is not included in the book, having non-working and incorrect example programs on the CD is a significant problem.

The book gives you step-by-step examples that gradually increase your knowledge of the language by actually doing something. You're not left guessing at what the author is showing you because a drawing of intermediate steps is shown.

A little Java background is helpful, but probably not necessary. I found it explained some more difficult concepts (i.e. interfaces) that I had been left wondering about in other books. It does this by letting you code working examples.

Since I had already installed jdk 1.2, its absence from the CD didn't bother me -- it's probably best the download the lastest version anyway.

The author makes good use of learning enablers such as repetition, visual aids, and comprehensive explanations.

I'd recommend this book to those having just a "little" experience with Java and want to get away from those System.out.println() calls. You won't want to stop learning after you finish the last chapter.

I am another of those who were cheated by the page which clearly states that the JDK 1.2 is included in the CD. The publisher should at least have written a note at the back stating that the JDK 1.2 is not availible. Consolation can be give, though, to the clear instructions.

This book is just suited for beginners and really does'nt cover any advanced topics. The code samples are very narrow and cannot be reused extensively. The CD does not contain JDK1.2

THE CD DOESN'T WORK. I continuasly experienced 'File Not Found' errors. Never before have I had this kind of problem with a CD included with a book. I e-mailed the author and publisher; but they never got back to me. I did keep the book because I was pleased with the easy-to-follow examples and head on approach. I am a beginer with Java and the book was a good start. I was dissapointed with the lack of indepth explanations of the lines of code, and as stated before, I was really upset with the lack of publisher support and CD. BOTTOM LINE: SAVE YOUR MONEY. YOU CAN DO BETTER!

I made the mistake of picking up this book to quickly learn to use the AWT. The book doesn't really teach you anything aside from providing code for narrowly designed applets. If you are interested in examples, you can probably do better with the "Java Examples" book by O'Reilly.