Customer Reviews

Multimedia Introduction to Programming Using Java

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

 

 

Note for the public:

Springer, the publisher, has failed to include the CD in some of the new printed copies. This is a known issue. Considering that the other reviewers consider the CD the key benefit of this book, this is a serious error.

You may be able to get a replacement software download from the publisher.

One of the authors of this book, David Gries, is my Computer Science teacher and hearing his voice (and that of his son Paul) on the multimedia CD is a weird experience, but extremely helpful. I can't stand just reading textbooks, and the multimedia CD allows me to have an interactive learning experience and not just stare at pages. The book is great as well but the learning CD is really what stands out. There are videos, exercises, sample programs, labs, you name it. Very easy to learn Java with it.

The multimedia CD is clearly the most distinctive aspect of the book. I found the recorded presentations to be quite interesting and these can be helpful to the Java beginner. They would specifically be useful to a reader who learns best from a live teacher than from text. But who, for whatever reason, lacks that teacher.

The text of the book is competently done. With Springer's usual technically accurate content. Though I can't say that the text is necessarily distinctive or better than other pre-existing texts on Java.

On a passing note, the CD's content must have been quite expensive to produce. Given that Springer's texts tend to be fairly small circulation, one might wonder if they will ever recoup the cost of development.

This book might as well be 500 pages of random words lined up together. It makes no sense at all, and without following step by step on the computer you will gain nothing. If you have to do all this, what is the point of the book? Hated it.