Customer Reviews

Jbuilder 2 Bible (Bible Series)

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

 

 

This is a great book for learning how to program in Java using JBuilder...but it does have some problems. First, the good stuff:

The book is divided into four parts. The first part covers the basics of object-oriented programming and using the JBuilder 2 environment. Part II covers the Java language in more detail, giving the reader a solid basis in Java programming. Part III covers topics in advanced object oriented thinking and goes into greater depth about the JBuilder environmnet. Part IV leads the reader through building two medium-scale projects: an Othello game and a scheduler.

The author does a very good job in parts I, II, and IV, but falls down somewhat in Part III. The advanced object-oriented topics could have used a bit more explanation, for example. I had to go over them a couple of times to really understand the concepts. Additionally, the section on deploying applets is fairly useless (as is the JBuilder help documentation on this subject). I had to find assistance on the web in order to get my applet to successfully run from my web page.

But the most glaring problem with the book is the lack of single- and double-quotes in the program listings. Someone at IDG Books didn't do his or her job, failing to catch the fact that the typesetting process had inadvertently replaced both forms of quotes with spaces (albeit only in the program listings). This makes some of the listings _very_ hard to follow, especially for beginning Java programmers. However, once you realize the problem exists, you can start looking for where single- and double-quotes should have been placed, so it's not an insurmountable problem.

Without the author's strong skill as a teacher, the book wouldn't be worth the purchase price. As it is, though, it remains worthwhile to put up with the typesetting problems in order to gain the benefit of Eric Armstrong's knowledge and teaching skill.

If you're new to Java programming and JBuilder 2, I strongly recommend the purchase of this book.

I found this book to very useful to quickly learn Java.

I was in a bind, and needed to learn quickly and away from the computer. The throrough steps and provided screenshots made learning Java without the computer possible. I read the first 60% of the book in three days, got back to the computer, and was producing basic applets in no time.

I don't think, however, that it's appropriate to call this book a bible as a "Bible" book to me covers many general subjects, whereas this is more of a "Learn Java in XX days" type of book.

This is a really good book for someone beginning Java, OOP and JBuilder all at once (as I am). It is well written, logically organized, and many of the example exercises are fun, worthwhile learning experiences. As mentioned in a prior review, IDG left out some single and double quotes from the printed code examples; knowing this fact is critical to getting the examples to work properly. A complete list of the omissions can be found at the publisher's Web-site. If you are serious about developing applications and applets in Java, THIS IS NOT THE ONLY BOOK YOU WILL EVER NEED. But it is a good, solid start, the BEST OF THE INTRODUCTORY BOOKS I've tried to use.

I grabbed this book because I needed all the dope on JBuilder fast. This is not the book. It appears ( and I must admit that once I realized this book was not going to fulfill my requirements, I stopped reading it) that this is a nice introduction to OOP in java, but says little about JBuilder!?!?!? If this book had a different title, it would probably get more than two stars.

JBuilder2 Bible is not so hot. When I first received the book, I read the intro on how to create a project. Ten minutes later I put it down. This book is elementary and has an extremely limited scope of JBuilder2. You will find the Borland JBuilder2 help file quantitatively more informative and just as friendly.

Aside from the missing quotation marks, which indicates a distinct lack of professional publishing, overall this book is poorly organized. The author explains exceptions before he even touches loops or conditional statements. An explaination of the 'if' statement comes on page 255! If I was a true beginner, I don't think I would be able to use this book at all. The author spends approximately 200 pages and 4 chapters on two example programs. These are very large programs with no real-life applications. I think these pages could have been used to present smaller, more digestable examples rather than these two titantic programs.

I was anticipating that this book would be either an excellent reference or an excellent tutorial, chock full of examples. However, my expectations were not met. The examples are somewhat difficult to follow - I found myself skipping around through chapters. Also, this is not a "definitive guide", my mind is still quite hungry for information.

To say good, I do think the book is a decent "jump start" for someone new to Java programming (me). Part I and Part II really helped get me going.

I was expecting a Bible to provide a good reference about the subject it intends to cover. However, the book has only superficial information about JBuilder and instead focuses on other topics.

If you are looking for a 'good' and 'advanced' reference to JBuilder, this is not the right book.

This book will not help you learn Java, AWT or the JFC. There are better books on all these topics.

What this book will help you do is use the JBUILDER IDE.

Unfortunately, the Borland tutorials that come with the JBUILDER product provide more confusion than light.

This book comes to the rescue teaching you how to use the IDE to do things.

Other than that, it is not useful as a reference or a Java learning tool.

However, it will get you started with the IDE and for that I give it 5 stars.

The fact that the text of the book is missing all the single and double quotes can be dishearting for the beginner trying to make the programs work! The book was written with the total beginner in mind but the topics like loops and conditional expressions need to be addressed by another book that allocates more time and exercises to key areas. I find the book very helpful in learning the JBuilder environment for the intermediate programmer (that is a person with one programming langauge under their belt and some knowledge of Java). Overall I have found it beneficial and plan on finishing up the book. I don't recommend it for anyone who wants to actually learn Java (there are better books) and it doesn't touch database programming (see JBuilder Essentials). The lack of quotes is irritating but manageable.