Customer Reviews

Object-Oriented Software Design and Construction with Java

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

 

 

If you buy this book by choice, well, you've wasted some cash. If you have to buy it for a class, well, then your out of luck. The author's pedigogical style creates confusion by taking concepts of moderate complexity and making them uncomprehensible.

He does this first by not having had the book edited (and if he did, then his editor should be fired). Secondly, the author only gives you high level explanations of concepts that underpin subsequent material. If your not already intimate with the subject matter (like myself; the reason why I bought the book?) you will soon find yourself using a reference or in dispair.

As another reader noted, the on-line text (edited, to some extent) took some, but not much, of the mystery out of this book. Still, if I were to give the book more than one star I would be far too generous.

The individual who gave this book 4 stars must be a genious, a mind-reader, and omnipotent.

The authour should know that this text is basically garbage. Summarizing: garbage in, garbage out!

First off, I commend the author and publisher for attempting to develop a useful combination of a printed book and a web site. The entire content of the book is available online, as well as auto-graded multiple-choice quizzes and additional explanation using Java-based applets.

However, the editing of the book is horrible; I have a difficult time thinking it was even proof-read once. Mistakes about in the printed version - the first chapter averages one mistake per page. There are errors both in text and in code examples. The reader must spend so much time decoding what the author's intent was in a sentence that it's difficult to follow the flow of the material. However, I should note that many of these errors have been corrected online.

What was the most distracting for me, however, is when the printed copy begins giving instructions for the online-only interactive Java demonstrations. There are a number of paragraphs that begin with something on the order of "Drag the blue area over the yellow area in figure x.y below..." These sections of text should have been presented online, but certainly not in print.

The content itself takes an interesting tact -- the author assumes the reader knows C, C++, or another language that describes the "C-style" syntax and programming logic. He also assumes a firm grounding in algorithmic design and some foreknowledge of where Java syntax varies from that of C/C++. He presents the methods of Object-Oriented Programming and a taste of UML diagramming around this "Java for the C programmer" dialogue... and this concept almost works.

This is the first attempt at such a print/web melding I've been introduced to. Unfortunately, there have to date been a number of problems with the web site (access, errors in the scripting at the site, and missing content). I think that at this point, the reader would have been better served with a more traditional print/CDROM format. I do see potential in the print/web concept, and encourage the author and publisher to keep working in this vein. Perhaps like most Microsoft products, the idea will become useful around version 3.

This book needs a good copyediting and proofreading job. It is full of typographical errors that sometimes make it impossible to understand. The author chose an environmental example to illustrate the use of Java classes. Why not a practical business example? Perhaps if the publisher were to issue a new edition with some serious copyediting to improve the writing and correct the errors, the book would be more useful.

This book is a horrible choice, whether you are trying to learn Java or object-oriented programming, or both. The diagrams are unclear, the prose is confusing, and there are numerous grammatical and spelling errors that make me believe this book was rushed out the door. The main problem with this book is that it attempts to teach Java, object-oriented programming, and some UML in one volume. More than likely if you are reading this book, you are required to do so as a result of taking a course. If this is your unfortunate situation, I feel your pain. I was a teaching assistant in a university course in which the poor students were required to use this book, and the following recommendations are the ones I made to them when they all became inevitably confused. First, I recommend that you buy "Core Java Volume One" by Horstmann to learn Java. It is in its seventh edition as I am writing this, and there is a good reason for that. Also purchase "OOP Demystified" by Keogh and Giannini for a good tutorial on object-oriented programming. Their examples are in both C++ and Java, so if you are already familiar with C++ it helps in the transition between languages. Finally, "UML Distilled" by Fowler is a good solid text on the Unified Modeling Language. There is no book that I am aware of that covers all of this ground in one volume and does it well.

Kafura is a professor at VA Tech. and this book is a compilation of his notes teaching this course over the years. As others have stated, it is riddled with errors, some that could have been caught by a spell checker. I assume the only people who buy it are the poor students at VA Tech. (like me) who have no choice. The online quzzes are also a mess sometimes displaying questions from his C++ book or even the wrong answer.

I found some of the writing to be OK but it really should be much better with less complicated examples. I can't imagine a sophmore in college having much success with this text. If you already have the basics of Java or OO down, then it may be plaltable. Remeber, professors are not really rewarded for being able to teach and this book is a classic example.

Also, I noticed that many of the "other books people bought who bought this book" were also VA Tech required books (e.g., books by Larman, Christensen, and Daconta).

I have not found good books which necessarily talks about Java and OOAD. This books has done that. I would have still loved it, if it has had more elaborative topics on OMT and UML. Still I will rate this book as one of the best.