Customer Reviews

Java Software Solutions: Foundations of Program Design

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

This is a very good book, to the right audience. It is first and foremost an introduction to programming, second an introduction to programming in an object-oriented language, and third, an introduction to Java.

So, the keys to liking this book are:

1. You have not programmed before, or only a little

2. You want to learn to program in an object-oriented language

3. You want solid skills, not to add Java to your resume

If your main goal is to learn Java, or to learn enough Java to apply for a Java programming job, there are better books. In this book Java is a means to an end, that of learning to write software. You'll learn a fair amount of Java -- nothing to sneeze at, definitely -- but it's only the first step of many towards mastery of the Java platform (which is *huge*, no one book will tell you all you need to know).

If, on the other hand, you don't know how to program, and think you might like to learn, this is a pretty good book, and you'll learn enough Java to be ready for the next level.

This is the book required of my Intro to Programming in Java class, which is a class designed for those intending to pursue Computer Science as a major. I believe the book itself is just that: a great introduction for those serious about learning to program and then take it to a higher level with further education.

This is not an easy book to read with a light head. You cannot breeze through the code, which is explained minimally, or not at all, and expect to understand what is going on. Careful tracing and retracing of the code is what it takes me to understand some of the example programs. This said, once I've done so, I come away with a solid understanding of the concepts introduced.

Some of the chapters are especially lacking. I found the chapter on recursion to be confusing and hard to decipher until the professor gave us some solid real world examples (Russian stacking dolls) and a thorough explanation of what the code is doing. Others chapters were better than my professor in explanation, namely the chapter on loops and that on objects and primitive data.

I am taking this course with absolutely no programming experience, and am finding this book to be an invaluable complement to the lectures. However if you have no programming background and want to learn Java solely from this book, you would need more discipline than I have to do it. If you already have experience in programming, I'd imagine this book would help you to learn Java quickly and easily. If you've already done object-oriented programming some of the first chapters may be a little too basic.

Overall this is a great book for those new to programming but dedicated to through study and further education, or as an intro to Java for those with prior experience.

This is a really great Java textbook. I used it to teach myself Java over the summer. It's really clear and explains everything pretty well, and I found the examples to be really helpful. Now I'm taking Java for credit at college, and it's a total breeze after going through this book over the summer.

In order to get the most out of the book, though, you have to do a lot of programming to practice the stuff you learn. I used Netbeans 3.6 (www.Netbeans.org or check out download.com) to do all my programming in. It sets up the font of all the different java programming commands the exact same way that this textbook does, which makes everything real nice.

The book is also designed in such a way that you can learn all the regular programming commands without learning graphics, if you want. It also has a good HTML tutorial at the end (which is missing from the 4th edition, sadly).

As for the CD included with the book, I didn't look at it, but Netbeans (the IDE I used) has everything that would've been on the CD. So you could buy the book used with no CD and still be fine.

This was the book I used for my first Java class, but whether or not one needs it for school, this comes highly recommended. It covers all the novice essentials, from keyboard input to separate classes to basic GUI designs. While the authors may write rather cryptically sometimes, they do offer A LOT of examples of working code. These examples alone make the book very valuable. I found that by following their programs, I quickly found out how to learn the ideas they were trying to convey.

I made the mistake of selling this book back when I was done with it. I wish I had kept a hold of it. This is a wonderful resource for those still working out the beginning difficulties that come with knowing Java.

Java is arguably the best computer language to use when teaching programming, especially for first year Computer Science students. This is mainly due to the fact that Java is easy to learn, widely available and most importantly free to use. For first year students who are just getting their feet wet, and trying to break into the complex and vast field of Computer Science, Java's wide acceptance in the real-world is certainly a big plus. But Java does have its flaws, and one of which is caused by the fact that it is free to use. Java is big, very big. A professional would have to spend his entire career trying to learn Java and its related technology in its fullness. For most professionals, however, one section is enough to build our careers on, whether it being Server Side Java, GUI and front-end, Wireless Java, Enterprise Java, Messaging, etc... The point is, if one is to understand and learn some of these advanced topics, one needs a good foundation and understanding of the core Java programming language.

Java Software Solutions by Lewis and Loftus IS that book. This book is self contained and had everything a first year Computer Science student would ever need. As I mentioned, Java is very big and there are lots of information available out there that a newbie would need to spend an unprecedented amount of hours making sense out of all the available information on this topic. The book contains the necessary Java API - the one's that were used in the book and some extra one's that are needed, so the student does not have to spend extra time searching for something rather trivial. The same goes for Regular Expressions, JavaDoc usage, GUI event handling procedures and many others. I agree that students need to be prepared and have to know how to find these types of information, but wouldn't you, as the instructor, like to have the option of not having to spend your lecture time telling your students where to download JavaDoc's usage guides? Wouldn't you, as the student, like to have all the necessary information you need at the tip of your fingers instead of having to search for something new all the time? This book is well packed with all the necessary and extra information required for the first time newbie students going thru a programming class. For someone new, having to learn to program and all the new concepts and terms is overwhelming, and it is rather nice to be able to go to the end of the book and get the information you need. The book also gives enough background and introduction to the topic that even a person new to computers can come up to speed with all the necessary information to get going with topic at hand.

How about the rest of the book? In one phrase, this book is well illustrated. That's right, illustrated. Code snippets, examples from simple to a large and rather complicated "PaintBox" project, using figures and graphs to demonstrate program flow and language syntax and inserting program outputs right after the program source code for easy access mark some of the illustrations of this book. The end of each chapter is used to wrap up the topic just covered with a "summary of key concepts" area, which is very thorough in fact, followed by "Self review questions", "Exercises" and "Programming projects." The answers to the "Self review questions" are given, and the exercises and the programming projects at the end of the chapter can be used by the instructors to further educate and teach the Java programming language to their students. Since this book is also CodeMate "enabled", which means students can view, compile, run, and edit select programming problems and all code listings from the text book.

If you want your students to succeed as Software Engineers or even good programmers, you need to start them of on a good foundation of Software Engineering best practices and sound engineering and programming guidelines and methodologies. Lewis and Loftus's Java Software Solutions promote best practices and object oriented techniques and methodologies throughout their book. Either it being simple UML class diagrams to further illustrate the design, talking about inheritance and why it's required or even coding guidelines and code documentation, this book it field with the necessary tools, techniques and methodologies to get your first year Computer Science students on the right track.

This book also comes with the required slides, tests, lab manual, solutions set and instruction's manual to aid the instructors in their teaching, and a CD packed with the source code, the latest Java (J2SE 1.5) and tools and goodies used throughout the book for the students.

We use this book in my Java programming class and it's one of the easiest text books I've ever used. It's so easy that if I just bought it and used it myself without a teacher, I would do just as well. The authors use GREAT examples of programs, applets, and classes to use inside of programs. They also supply you with a CDROM of all the examples, java sdk 1.3, java Forte, and classes to help make programs easier including a crucial Keyboard input class. This alone should be the reason you buy this book. Another great aspect of this book is that the authors use what was talked about in each chapter in graphics orientated examples which is one thing absolutely needed to know for success in using java in the business world. In all, the best java programming book I've ever used.

This book was far and away the best beginning programming book that I have read. The majority of other intro Java books, begin rather basically through the first few chapters, then jump from the fundamentals to some rather advanced stuff that usually had my head swimming. This book does a very nice job of progressing constantly without making any big conceptual jumps. I read this book well over a year ago in preparation for a 300 level University course where it was assumed that I would know Java, I only knew Pascal, and Basic at the time. In little over a month I had read this book and was able to handle my Data Structures class without any difficulty whatsoever. Over a year later I am now a professional Java programmer, and I recommend the book to all those who express an interest in programming. This is not a comprehensive book, and was not intended to be, it is however the best introductory Java book of which I am aware.

Although many books claim that they are books for people with no programming knowledge, this book is by far the most understandable yet not oversimplified.

Each example code is complete(not a code snippet), so we can copy, compile and execute it on the spot. The book never introduces any new materials unnecessarily until we cover the easier ones. Its explanations on object-oriented programming was especially great; I could not understand it when I read other books on programming at high school, but I grasped the idea with this one book. For example, the book uses many everyday examples to explain about the relationship between objects and classes. I finished my cs1 course but I still use it for reference. I recommend this book not only as a textbook but also for everyone who wants to start programming.

I took a CS1 course using this book, and the book has strong points and weak points:

The text excels in clarifying concepts through source code examples. Any program that is used to display a new concept is made intentionally simple and useless, except for the purpose of clarifying the function of a reserve word, a construct, etc. This allows the reader to quickly absorb the concept and apply it to his or her own programs. In addition, the book does not contain much "snow" at all. Clear and concise, in general. Some other string points are the chapter summaries, the "key points" that occur every time an important concept is revealed, the large API summary in the back of the book, and the various appendices in the back which discuss handy topics such as visibility modifier specifics, Java coding guidelines, and explanations of various Java tools that accompany the JDK.

Now for the bad points. Sometimes, its conciseness is a bad thing. For example, its very short chapter on threads and the lack of a chapter on Java I/O are simply painful. In addition, some concepts which I had difficulty with, such as abstract classes, and even when I was first introduced to objects, were not explained thoroughly before a code example was displayed. In the enhanced class design chapter, it would have helped if the text stated why we would want to learn about data abstraction before we were shown code examples.

However, after programming a second year in Java, learning Java technicalities in the process, I have come to appreciate the book for its clarity and conciseness. Nevertheless, a more thorough Java book with clear explanations for difficult concepts shoud be used for a CS1 class. Overall, the book is mediocre.

This is your standard undergrad textbook for Computer Science 101. It's structured in the same way as dozens of other modern texts: 1. each chapter begins with a bulleted list of objectives 2. each chapter concludes with a summary of key concepts 3. contains lots of end-of-chapter exercises and review questions 4. has much in-chapter sample code, flow charts and diagrams.

It assumes no previous computer knowledge so it begins with a chapter on computer fundamentals. Then it moves on to Java programming. It covers all the basics of OOP and Java for the beginner. It's clear and straightforward. Sometimes a little on the boring side, though.

One big complaint: this book has lots of in-chapter 'key concepts' boxes located throughout. These are positioned on the page so as to indent the main text. I found this VERY irritating as my eye kept being drawn away from the body of the text.

Overall, a solid, if unspectacular, intro to Java.

A better alternative is any book in the "Starting Out with Java" series by Tony Gaddis. He's a community college teacher so he gets even more basic than Lewis/Loftus. But he doesn't skimp on any of the coverage either. He's also published intro VB and C++ books, too.