Customer Reviews

Presenting Java

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

 

 

Presenting Java is a poorly written book by someone unfamiliar with Java. It seems that every page repeats the same words 'Interactive content'. The redundancy and repetition of phrases and concepts in each chapter makes the book unreadable. If there is valuable information in this book it is lost in the repetition of December's favorite concepts.

My advice - Don't buy it

This book is hopelessly out of date and is not at all relevant anymore to how Java is used today. The author seems to think that Java consists only of applets. Applets are by far not what Java is about today.

The book might be interesting if you would like to know what Java was like in 1995, but if you're looking for a book to learn about Java today then this book is a bad choice.

This was the very first book ever written on the Java language, so I will be somewhat lax in my rating since it is now more a part of computing history than anything. At the time it was published (1995), readers anticipated using Java browsers and applets, but very few assumed they would ever be programming in Java. Also, whereas HTML programming was accessible to most people because of its extreme simplicity, Java was a new "real" programming language probably best described as a subset of C++ with some extensions which required strict adherence to language syntax as well as careful planning and coding to develop an application. Thus, this was not a book for programmers. Rather, it was an introduction to what Java was about and what it could do in its first iteration. It gives examples of programs/applets that can be created with Java. The author also tells where to find the Hot Java browser and other Java resources that existed prior to Internet Explorer. There was also some discussion of creating Java applets for the technically inclined, but this book was written primarily for those who were interested in Java as the "next big thing" and wanted a quick introduction. I recommend it if you want to find out where Java started at in the very beginning. Just for fun, here is the table of contents:

Part I. Understanding the Potential of Java and the Web
Chapter 1. Java Makes Executable Content Possible
Chapter 2. Java's Design Is Flexible and Dynamic
Chapter 3. Java Transforms the World Wide Web
Part II. Exploring Java Applications
Chapter 4. Java Animates Web Pages
Chapter 5. Java's Applications are Interactive
Chapter 6. Java's Applications are Distributed
Part III. Using the HotJava Browser
Chapter 7. HotJava is a View into Java
Chapter 8. HotJava is Different from Other Web Browsers
Chapter 9. HotJava Can Navigate the Web
Part IV. Developing Java Applications
Chapter 10. Java is a Programming Language
Chapter 11. Java is Object-Oriented
Chapter 12. Applet Development Involves Design and Implementation
Appendix A. Further Information Sources
Java Online Information Sources
Java Online Bibliography
Appendix B. Java Language Reference
Appendix C. HTML Tag Reference