Customer Reviews

Java, Java, Java, Object-Oriented Problem Solving (3rd Edition)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Despite the other reviews, it's apparent others have not seen the learning light when they passed this book off as low rate. Critics who may brand this author with lengthy eloquence just don't want to know more than a nutshell of java.

I am a web developer and a wanna be java programmer. In the last year I have looked at many a books, taken several intro courses from Sun, and others; they all have prepared me for where i am now, but I will have to say much of the journey has not been pleasurable learning. Many teach Java who are not well trained themselves. From the parts I have read in this book, it is an essential learning primer.

Let me say, this book is pleasurable learning, from the couch to the Desktop. I recommend it to all levels of programmers. Even for just cognitive review...which we all need sometime in life.

Cheers to Ralph Morelli.

This is a review of the 3RD EDITION, published December 2005.

The book starts from scratch. You do not have to know anything about Java. What Morelli and Walde offer is an education that emphasises an object oriented programming mentality, from the very start. The text shows how Java enforces a strict OO coding. Unlike C++, for example, which was bolted onto C as a superset, and accordingly has to accept (endure would be a better word) procedural C code as valid. So thoroughly do the authors want you to learn OO programming that there is no mention of the alternative of procedural programming in other languages! They don't want to confuse the reader, who is probably assumed to be new to programming in general, and not just Java.

Now the book also holds true to its claim in the title of "Problem Solving". It causes the book to be relatively weak in explaining how to write a user interface with Java widgets. Yes, there is a couple of chapters on this. But the topic is deprecated.

The book's clear strength is in the majority of its space being devoted to tackling various problems. Chosen so that you don't need a fancy UI over them. The problems can be handled as pure computations, with perhaps a minimal I/O and stdout user interface. Of course, the problems were also chosen so that the authors could demonstrate solutions that take advantage of OO design.

An important extra benefit is that you get acquainted with the various Java collection classes. These come with the standard Java distribution. They implement key ideas in computer science, like lists, queues, stacks, arrays and hash tables. Professional Java programmers use these extensively. They have a lot of functionality, that is stable and well-tested by Sun itself. These classes address both the OO and problem solving themes of the book. Being Java classes, they are inherently objects to be used in an OO manner. But the sheer utility of these for handling many problems is also a good education for you.

I think this a text for computer science students, so it explains a lot of basics. It is for those who want to understand "object-oriented" programming. If you are already familiar with "structured" programming, then buy this book just to understand what object orientation is. What I got most out of it is an extremely clear concept of Object Oriented design and programming.

While there are some small errors (ie: spelling , etc), as others noted, I found this overall to be an excelent intro book. The fact that Morelli covers each subject from multiple angles is a GOOD thing , espcially in an intro book. Not all of us learn the same way after all. Now, perhaps I am a tad biased, as I go to Trinity (Professor Morelli is a CS Prof. here). However I must say my initial reaction to using a "locally" written book, was one of worry. I was, of course, pleasantly suprised to find the book very well written with plenty of examples, lots of neat little "tidbits" which are clearly marked as non-essential if you're trying to find the key theme.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book for classes as well as for reference , heck, this almost puts the teacher out of work !

(a star is taken off for the occasional typographical error)

I was surprised when I read the reviews, because I find the book exceptionally good. This book helped me pass the exam in programming. Our professor recommended us two books: Java, how to program from Deitel&Deitel and this book. I made a wrong decision. I bought Java, how to program. When I started reading it, I was getting nowhere. Then I decided to learn from this book. And it paid off. Our professor said too, that if he knew better he'd recommend us Morelli's book, because Deitel&Deitel talks about JOptionPane and everything while Morreli talks about concepts behind Java. It doesn't try to describe you everything Java can do like many books try, but instead teaches you about the basic things and gives you insight to what is possible with Java. And that's what's good about this book. You don't get lost in details but instead like the author says: it gives you the big picture!

If reviewer number two hopes to become a Java programmer I would suggest a different book from which to learn from. This book is badly organized and offers little in good code examples from which to learn from. There is a mistake concerning classes and some of the code does not work. Online resources are poor.

I was required to read chapters 0-8 and I don't care for this book very much. It was helpful in the class due to the instructer being a little wishy-washy in teaching the course. However, the "terms to know" listed at the end of each chapter, were not defined well within the chapter. Sometimes the terms weren't even defined or used in the chapter that it referenced. The examples were confusing, mixing Applets and Application information. I note that this may have been confusing because of the way the course was taught. There should be answers to the exercises at the end of each chapter not just the ones 'within' the chapter. The exercises with the answers were the most helpful. It would have been much more helpful to have the answers to the additional exercises, as well as having a glossery for all of the terms used. I will continue to need this book for the next course in succession to the one I just took. I am not looking forward to the next course, partly because the book is not very dependable in teaching the material. My Cyber-Pet never made it into existence in my world and the disk did not provide much help, at all, while taking this course. Overall, the book gives necessary information, but I don't see how a person who is trying to teach themselves can make use of this book. It was a struggle with College instruction. If you tried this book to learn Java/Object Oriented Programming, don't give up. I am sure the right book is out there to help the self-teachers. If you haven't baught this book yet, there are better ones out there, I am sure. Note:I did receive an A- in the class.

This is the worst example of a textbook that I've ever seen. It gives lots of fluff and very little that is concrete...it doesn't even give you the basics of the language. Don't waste your money.

This book is meant to be read by the novice programmer interested in learning Java. The author covers the basics of the language and object oriented principles. The author also does a good job of whetting the reader's appetite to learn by introducing some of the features that made Java so popular, i.e. Applets, Client/Server and GUI development. I found it quite original to start with "object first" approach followed by programming fundamentals and topped up by more advanced topics. It is only natural that the author starts with easy introductory overview of objects, methods and applets to progressively builds up to more complex and advanced concepts such as exceptions,threads and recursions. The breadth of details given to exercises, examples, case studies, self-study, laboratory guide bears witnesses to the years of experience and amount of research works required to produce such a comprehensive masterpiece. I thoroughly recommend this book for all students or professionals who want to take a quick grasp of the fundamentals of Object Oriented Concepts

This was the first book on programming I purchased, when I decided to teach myself Java as my first language. I understand a lot of the other reader's gripes with the writing style; I often felt my eyes glazing over as I read, and often found myself going over and over the same material when I realized that I had missed an important point. I also wished that the solutions were available somewhere, and there are exercises in the book that I don't think I will ever solve. Some of the traits that distinguish this book from the others I have amassed in my collection of "beginning programming" books are as follows: 1) I have yet to find a book that devotes this much detail to strings and some common methods for processing them. After that chapter I felt that I could do most anything. 2) This book truly is aimed at the complete beginner. The author does not dive right into a bunch of topics at once. The book is well organized into basic programming concepts, and then increases in complexity at a comfortable speed. 3)The exercises (even when there is no solution available for the non-instructor) are decent and vary in complexity. I know that there are probably better, more comprehensive tutorials for the complete beginner, and anyone who happens to read this book first will want to move on to other books for newbies. This is a gentle, patient introduction to programming, and to Java, and it is a good springboard into more advanced topics. One final word, I found that it was helpful to ignore all of the examples and exercises related to AWT and SWING until I was comfortable with the basic techniques of programming.