Murach's Beginning Java 2, JDK 5 [Paperback]

Doug Lowe (Author), Joel Murach (Author), Andrea Steelman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 2005 | Series: Java Developer's Guide

For the current edition of this book, please see Murach's Java SE 6 (ISBN 9781890774424).

If you want to be a professional Java developer, this book is designed for you. It moves at a quick professional pace, yet doesn't leave you wondering what in the world it's talking about. As one programmer said in an email to us: "It cuts right to the essential information, providing the perfect balance between too many details and too much information. Example apps are incredible - they give a great starting point. I bought another well-known Java book, but they crammed too much information in it, to the point that I spent several hours trying to learn what I learned from your book in about 45 minutes."

As you'd expect, this book teaches you all the core Java skills you need on the job, showing you how to take advantage of time-saving Java features like:

* the Scanner class
* type-safe enumerations
* enhanced for loops
* typed collections
* generics
* autoboxing
* the StringBuilder class

But beyond that, it gives you the practical training you need in both object-oriented programming and data access programming. In particular, it shows you how to use a 3-tiered architecture to separate the business classes, presentation classes, and database classes of an application. It shows you practical techniques for populating business objects with data from files or databases. And it shows you how to use inheritance, polymorphism, interfaces, and the factory pattern in a way that is not just understandable but also reflects what's done in the real world. The result is, you'll soon be writing Java applications the way the best professionals do.

To download the book applications...
You can download the code for the book applications, the starting code and test data for the exercises in the book, and sample chapters from the Murach web site.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Of course "Murach's Beginning Java 2, JDK 5" presents all of the important new features of Java 5.0 (also known as version 1.5), but here are the four reasons that I believe this is the beginning Java book you should buy first!

1. The first six chapters get you off to a fast start. By the time you complete these chapters, you’ll be writing bulletproof, object-oriented applications with business classes and objects. These chapters work well for the complete beginner. But they also get the experienced developer up-to-speed fast.

2. The class summaries throughout the book help you master the Java API and save you hours of research. Although most books present dozens of coding examples that illustrate the use of some Java classes, they don’t try to summarize all of the classes, constructors, and methods that you’ll use the most. Our book does both. For instance, to learn how to use the new LinkedList class, you’ll first see a summary of its primary constructors and methods. Then, you’ll see coding examples that show you how you can apply those constructors and methods. This can save you hundreds of hours of research over the course of the book.

3. Our unique paired pages method of presentation makes our book work better for both training and reference. If you haven’t ever used one of our books before, maybe you should download chapter 1 or 2 to see how our "paired pages"—with explanation and perspective on the left page and essential details and coding examples on the right page—work. First, the "paired pages" help you learn faster because you read less. Second, they provide the best reference format that there is. That’s so important with a language like Java because no one can remember the details of its hundreds of classes, constructors, and methods.

4. Chapters 7 and 8 show you how to use inheritance, polymorphism, and interfaces in a way that is both practical and understandable. You won’t find any toy applications or cat and dog objects in these chapters. Instead, you’ll study practical applications that show you how to use inheritance, polymorphism, interfaces, type-safe enumerations, and the factory pattern. This at last takes the mystery out of object-oriented programming. And we just haven’t seen this done right in any other book.

From the Author

Java 1.5 is a major improvement over previous versions of Java, with many new language features such as generics, autoboxing, the enhanced for loop, and the Scanner class. When Joel and I looked at these new features, we realized that it would be a challenge to integrate them into the book. Most Java books take the easy way out and cover the new features in a separate chapter, almost as an afterthought. That may save the author's time when they revise their books, but it sure doesn't do the reader any favors. So we worked hard to incorporate the new features into the book from the very start, and to use the new features throughout the book wherever they're appropriate.

An even more challenging issue was deciding on a useful set of Java features and API classes while holding the book to a reasonable size. Mark Twain once said that if he'd had more time, he would have written less. I think the authors of the 1,000+ page Java tomes should have taken that to heart. They tend to ramble on about anything and everything, filling up pages with tables of fields and methods you'll never use. Yet amazingly enough, they manage to gloss over or completely ignore some of the most important aspects of real-world Java programming, like validating input data or doing decimal arithmetic correctly. So we focused on a useful set of JAVA features, then set about to show how to use those features in real-world situations.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 782 pages
• Publisher: Mike Murach & Associates (January 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1890774294
• ISBN-13: 978-1890774295
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 8 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #978,234 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Java for Real Business Applications!, August 18, 2001

By 

Donna M. Dean (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Murach's Beginning Java 2 (Paperback)

Finally there is a Java book for serious programmers doing real life business applications. Although the first five chapters must be read sequentially to ground the student in Java syntax and to understand the conceptual base of OOP - subsequent chapters may be taken out of order with little or no loss in the conceptual continuity. The examples and the projects are about real business implementations and not about toys, shapes or animals barking. The code examples work - and the explanations are direct, easy to read and lead the reader to total comprehension.

This book is not only for anyone who wants to learn how to program in Java (including those with no previous programming experience) - but for the seasoned Java programmer as well. It was the first time topics such as Date, Array, Vector and the file IO classes were covered to expose the depth and power underlying them.

After using several books that boast of "being the best" to learn Java 2, I have concluded this latest publication really is the best book on the market. When used in a classroom the material is seamless and the exercises work toward reinforcement. The book can also stand alone for the independent learner or the Java programmer who wants a deeper understanding. Don't be fooled by the title "beginning java 2" - this book is 700 (8x10) pages and it covers advanced topics such as Swing Layout Managers, JDBC and threads.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mainframers, this is your book!, September 29, 2005

By 

Ron Tiemens (Bealeton, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Murach's Beginning Java 2, JDK 5 (Paperback)

As a mainframe software engineer with over twenty years in the business, I have for several years now seen the need and have endeavored to learn some Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) language such as C++ or Java. Until recently, though, all I have had to show for my efforts is a stack of highly-rated but little-read books on the subject. The reason they are little-read is I would get about 4 chapters in to the book, only to get utterly lost and give up, and toss the C++ or Java book onto a stack of similar books in the corner of my home office, fighting the despair that I would ever learn any of this stuff.

Eventually, I got hold of Beginning Java2 (JDK 5) by Lowe, Murach, and Steelman; published by Murach and Associates. As a result of working through this book, I am glad to report that I am finally successfully writing programs using weird and bizarre (to us mainframers) things such as Classes, Objects, Constructors, Methods, Inheritance, and Polymorphism; and I am actually understanding what is going on. Even more shocking, it is fun!

I think the problem with all those other books was that they assumed the reader either knew something about Object Oriented programming, or knew nothing about any kind of programming. However, I think for some of us, when approaching OOP, knowing mainframe programming is worse than knowing nothing. This Java book clearly explains things in ways that we mainframe people can easily latch onto.

If you want to finally, successfully make the jump from legacy work to Object Oriented, this is your book.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A "Must Have" for business application developers!, September 28, 2001

By 

James Roach (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Murach's Beginning Java 2 (Paperback)

This book has taught me more in the first 175 pages than the first 500 pages of most other Java books!! This is the only book I have seen which spends its entire first chapter providing step by step instructions for setting up a Java environment so that you can get started learning Java immediately. Topics that frustrate beginners and novices alike, including setting path variables, package creation, and using Sun's JAR utilities, are explained in such a way so that you spend your time developing your business applications and not being bogged down by minutiae.

The exercises are well thought out and present real examples of how to not only approach the development of Java applications, but also how to go about maintaining existing code - as a Java professional would.

The Murach approach to writing textbooks really pays off when applied to learning Java. Detailed, but concise paragraphs are featured on the left hand page, while bulleted items and useful screen captures populate the right hand page, including the step by step instructions and examples that will save you hours of head scratching and frantic page turning.

This is a fantastic book by Andrea Steelman, and another home run for Murach and Associates!