Customer Reviews

Mastering Java 2

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

 

 

A thick book that covers too many topics, from programming syntax to CORBA, JDBC, and servlets, all superficially, many poorly. The hard-to-understand explanations provide little insight into the topic areas covered.

One has a sense that the author rushed to print just to be the first with a Java 2 title, by adding a few Java 2 items to a Java 1.1 text. Some chapters use Applets (Java 1.1), others Japplets (Java 2). Much of the Java 2 material is just filler--listings of the class definitions. Important Java 2 Swing concepts such as the various "panes" that are used to overlay graphics (content pane, glass pane, etc.) are not discussed nor does the book mention overriding the paintComponent() method for doing graphics.

The advanced topics are same as developer's handbook by Roberts and Heller.

I have been through both the books and noticed that the chapters on advanced topics of Java are identical (word to word,figure to figure). Both the books have same wordings, diagrams,tables and even the same coding examples. I find it very hard to believe that different authors would write end up writing using same wordings, diagrams and think of even the same coding example.

I am giving below the comparisons for ready reference :

Mastering Java 2 | Java 2 Dev. Handbook

By John Zukowski | By Simon Roberts, Philip Heller

1. Ch 21. JDBC API | CH 11. Database Connectivity

2. Ch 24. Security | Ch 18. Security

3. Ch 25. RMI | Ch 12. Persistence and RMI

4. Ch 26. Java & CORBA | Ch 13. Java & CORBA connectivity

I gave up after this. Is this a strange coincidence or is someone cheating here (Either one of the authors is cheating or Sybex is cheating by selling the same material under different titles and using different author names and making more money). I know Sybex has the copyrights but is it ethical? And why are the authors silent or they just care about the money or maybe they are not the real authors in the first place? Just wanted to spread the awareness.

I bought this book yesterday and am returning it tomorrow after realizing that a lot of the example contained within it are incorrect and do not even compile. The book has references to: import com.sun.java.swing.*; which after some investigation I realized must have been renamed to import javax.swing.*; so any references to swing components in the example code do not work. A friend recommended "The Complete Reference - Java 2 - Third Edition" by Naughton / Schildt as an excellent book.

This book gives a high level look at the majority of Java features, but no serious detail. If you just want an idea of what Java can do for you, this book is fine. If you actually want to program, look elsewhere.

I wish I'd checked out the reviews here before I hastily went and bought this book. It is a terrible book, bereft of any useful, real-world examples and full of typos. It skims over topics giving the reader no hope of fully understanding the concepts. This would be acceptable if it had a load of examples that you could use to get coding straight away but it doesn't. By Chapter 5 the only fully compilable code example (as opposed to snippets) was the mandatory "Hello World" program in Chapter 1.

Terrible book.

In two words, it sucks. I need to develop real world applications, not rewrite 'diff' in Java. This book offers me nothing more than hints about how to address the tasks at hand. I have found myself relying almost exclusively on Sun's Java documentation, and programming examples, to get what I need. I keep trying to use this book as a reference, but am mostly just wasting my time when I do so. 'Mastering Java 2' will make a good back-stop for target practice.

If it were not for the fact that I _know_ Java is a superb development tool, this book would persuade me to return to C/C++.

Excellent book that explains the principles and underlying architecture of various Java technologies. Provides the full understanding of the features with simple examples focused on the topic. Easy to read and understand without too much surrounding words. I own a couple of Java books for different levels but I always end up going back to this book if I want to really understand the solution. Also has excellent index. It is easy and quick to find answer to any Java related question.

Having worked with Java technologies since 1995, I feel this is a brilliant book. Agreed - it does not go in depth into many of the topics it covers, but I do not feel that is its intent. The book is aimed at imparting a decent level knowledge of all the essential technologies behind the Java 2 enterprise platform.

The book does unfortunately contain a number of typing errors and non-compilable examples, mostly due to the fact that it was written before Java 1.2 was available (so the Swing package changed, for example) - check the errata list for this sort of thing.

If you are looking for a book that takes you through Java from the beginning to the end, without going too deep into any one topic, then this is the book. Business programmers especially will find this an invaluable aid. Hackers and people wanting to use fancy tricks and get the maximum power out of a particular part of Java should read the Java Docs distributed with the JDK, or get specialised books.

In comparison to the Heller-Roberts book this book isn't even close. Everything is in there, yet the explanation is that superficial that you have to go somewhere else to find out what it really is all about. My advice: don't waste your money one this one like I did. Yet, there's no point in arguing about taste.

This book is, by far, the thickest book I own at exactly 3 inches. It even surpasses my "GTE Everything Pages" phonebook! It truly could have been separated into 3 books. Had it been 3 separate books, I would have only purchased Part III, the advanced section. Currently, it is collecting dust on my bookshelf. Perhaps the mammoth book could be used as a makeshift bulletproof vest or boat anchor.