Customer Reviews

Just Java 2

5 star:		(78)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

It's not often that you find a book that can both teach you a new language and function as a great reference. This book is it. Aside from the JDK help, this is my only reference and for the most part it has served me well.

I started from a C++ background and had no trouble learning from this book. It might be tempting to skim through some of the beginning chapters that seem like something any C++ programmer would know (e.g. Object-Oriented Programming), but I recommend reading them. There are a lot of really good Java tips you don't want to miss, such as how constructors are invoked and how static blocks are loaded in the JVM.

Probably the biggest benefit of this book is that it tells you both the how and the why in many cases. Another positive is that the examples are small and to the point. In general there was a good amount of information per page.

The book's biggest weakness is the chapter on File I/O. This is common functionality that many Java programmers will use, but the presentation is not as easy to follow as the other chapters. Another drawback is the networking chapter, but there seem to be entire books dedicated to this subject.

If you are learning Java from an object oriented background, you will be glad you got this book. It's one of the thinner books on the shelf, believe it or not, but the information is top notch.

This book succeeded in getting me started with Java. I'm not a great programmer, so that's saying something.

Other reviewers have complained about the difficulty of picking up OOP concepts from this book. I can understand their point of view, but in van der Linden's defense I think it should be pointed out that OOP is fairly hard to get ahold of the first time you're exposed to it, and I'm not sure other books are much easier.

I studied math in college, and I found that I didn't learn things from the teacher as much as I did by wrestling with the problems on my own. If you want to understand why the main method in your class has to instantiate an object of the class that contains the aforementioned main method in order to access an object member that isn't static, you're going to have to work through it on your own. It's the sort of understanding that a teacher can't really hand you on a silver platter. It's not really hard, but you do have to know what all the words mean. The experience of wrestling with these kinds of concepts is what makes them sink in.

So I would argue that this book is complete, in the sense that it takes you through the OOP concepts you need to learn. But fundamentally you have to confront those concepts by yourself, alone in front of your own computer with your own copy of the JDK. If you try to run through the book without confronting the issues that fly over your head in the early chapters, the rest of the book will be incomprehensible. It's analogous to what happens to you in French class if you don't learn the early grammar and vocabulary.

I enjoyed the style of the book. Linden makes you feel like there's a human being on the other side of word processor, with a personality, a sense of humor, and his own style and sensibility. I wish more computer books were like that, so many of them are impersonal and devoid of human content. Spending time with this book is a little more like spending time with a person, which is a good thing in my opinion.

Part of Linden's personality is a fairly ideological approach to the computer industry. He's down on Microsoft and an evangelist for Java. I'm not sure that's a bad thing, but the anti-Microsoft stuff might rub some people the wrong way.

I think it's a great book overall.

I bought this book after reading the reviews. The impression I had was that this would be an excellent introduction to Java. What I discovered is that this book ASSUMES KNOWLEDGE OF C++. If you dont have some background in C++, then skip this and go for something else!

Firstly,Amazon's own review about this book - "If you want to learn Java FROM ZERO..." is entirely misleading. The author has written this book as if he is talking to his collegues(who obviously know Java) over the coffee table. If you want to learn Java from Zero , are new to programming concepts,OOPS etc. just stay as far as possible from this book and PLEASE dont go by the 4 and 5 stars this books has.THIS BOOK IS NOT FOR BEGINNERS and I STRONGLY REQUEST AMAZON to remove their recommentdation about this book for beginners.I have returned this book and am pretty comfortable with the following two books Thinking in Java and Beginning Java2.0 Please trust me and dont waste your time and energy and money on any other books to learn Java.

If you want to learn Java in a hurry, go for this book. But if you have some time at your hands, forget it. I say this because of the following

1- It's a small book on a big language which means brief explanations and very few examples.

2- Even with this size, the author has wasted quite a lot of book space to show his sense of humor (which I didn't find very humorous, sorry Peter).

3- The book is not very well organized.

4- The author claims that you don't need to know C++ to learn Java from this book. I find this claim a bit ambitious. Specially when author himself refers to different aspects of C++ to clarify certain concepts.

In short, if you want to read some jokes, learn how to make a paper airplane which can carry payload (I'm not kidding), know authors views about how software are and should be named, read some inside information on Sun Systems, enjoy digs at Microsoft and learn Java, buy the book now. But if you just want to learn Java in an organized and professional manner, read Wrox Press' book "Beginning Java 2" by Ivor Horton. You won't be disappointed.

This is a great intro to Java. Contrary to what another person said, this book contains no C++, and does not use C++ as a "stepping stone" to Java at all.

Likes: well organized, with related material grouped together, and clear summaries after major explanations. Also liked the HUGE amount of code and further material on the CD; also liked very clear explanations of difficult topics like inner classes.

Dislikes: would like it better if it had a complete API listing printed as an appendix, even though that is also on CD. Also would like more info on the obsolete features like JDK 1 event handling.

The book was as good as the other reviews said. The explanation on the topics was detailed and didn't have the patchy treatment I have seen in other books (e.g. "21 Days" or "For Dummies"). It's probably a better book if you already know one other prog language. I recommend it for everyone except complete non-programmers.

If you're a programmer already, Peter van der Linden's book is an excellent introduction to Java 2. Never mind Jack Woehr (Dr. Dobbs') supercilious, snotty and smug review - I found this book to be not only an informative and well-written view of Java from an altitude of a few hundred feet, but also relaxed and amusing. Guess I'm a lowbrow. I give the book four of five stars only because the author chose not to deal with explaining topics such as JavaBeans and CORBA, which IMHO shouldn't be considered optional knowledge. He does mention that these topics deserve books in their own right, but so do many of the other topics he covers.

This book is not meant for people who have never programmed before, nor is it comprehensive enough to be a cert exam text, but it is great for someone who is already a programmer and wants the broad view of Java to use at work. If you're the serious-minded type (and especially if you're self-consciously so, like the Dobbs' reviewer), you'll probably want to pick something from the broad array of other Java books that explain, in oh-so-detached passive voice, technical topics with dry EMP - EMPLOYER sample programs. If you want to learn Java, and aren't too sophisiticated or busy to have a few chuckles along the way, this book's a great place to start.

This book is written by a programmer for a programmer. It could have been more like "Java programming for C++ programmers". I find that some of the concepts are more readily understood by Smalltak or C++ programmers. The author illustrates the various access modifiers(.e. pacakage, protected,etc) as well as inheritance really well.

The one thing I like about this book is that the authot uses good diagrams/picture to illustrate his point really well.

It is a very readable book. I find it better than the "Java in the Nutshell" book. It's a balance between readability and jamming dry material..

I strongly recommend it for the busy programmer!

This book is a good introduction for programmers with a C or C++ background (regardless if you know OOP or not). I would not recommend it for people that have backgrounds in other programming languages, unless they like a challenge. I recommended this book to a friend, who programs in VB, and he could not finish the book (although he mentioned to me that he enjoyed the section on OOP). I have a C background and enjoyed the book thoroughly, and still use it as a quick reference. If you are an advanced Java programmer, don't bother with this book, get something more advanced.