37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic Beginners Book, December 11, 2009
This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself Java in 24 Hours (5th Edition) (Paperback)
I favor this over the 'Java for Dummies' book as it is much more recent, published Nov. 2009. Plus it includes Java 6. Very entertaining to read. Lessons are taught using the NetBeans IDE, which is supported on the Mac -- the 'Dummies' book uses JCreator which is Windows only. Definitely recommended for the absolute novice with little to zero programming experience.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
41 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Introductory JAVA - Self-Help Study, August 20, 2010
This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself Java in 24 Hours (5th Edition) (Paperback)
Sam's Teach Yourself JAVA in 24 Hours, 5th Edition, by Rogers Cadenhead, is a decent introductory text for those wanting to get a basic hands-on exposure to the JAVA programming language. You will cover most of the major topics that are needed in any programming environment. However, don't expect to be a JAVA programmer when you finish working through the book. This is a quick-and-dirty book that spoon-feeds you through each chapter and various programming projects.
The initial tutorial will assist you in finding, downloading, and installing the JAVA Developer's (Programming) Kit (JDK). Netbeans is , also, found on the site. Netbeans is the Integrated Developer's Environment (IDE) used for creating, compiling , and running your programs. Other IDE's are available should you choose to research and use another.
Some of the nice features of the text are its short explanations of coding protocols. This is, also, a short-coming. You won't find any in-depth explanations to the syntax or keywords used for coding.
I, personally, had some problems with getting all the programs listed as exercises to run. Many were typos I introduced and later corrected, but others were Errata. I cannot speak for the author as to the source of these errors. They could have been introduced by the publisher when typesetting, or had worked under a different version of the JAVA JDK and Netbeans.
However, as of today, August 20, 2010, there is still no Errata page for the text. And one is definitely needed.
Lastly, a final warning, do not get creative with separating chapters and projects. This will possibly introduce glitches with the projects being unable to find other class'es that are required for inheritance issues.
Having had some previous major programming experience, I wanted to get some exposure to the JAVA language and nuances. As a text used to get familiar with both the JAVA JDK and Netbeans, I found this text a nice easy introduction before I started into serious in-depth study of the JAVA language.
I previewed several JAVA texts of this type before selecting. It is better than many others in its class, IMHO.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bought this book as a College reference, December 29, 2009
This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself Java in 24 Hours (5th Edition) (Paperback)
I bought this book, simply not knowing whether or not I would like it, and because I wanted to get a basic understanding of Java before my next college term. I have two terms of Java classes coming up for my Computer Science major. I really enjoyed how simple this book was to understand. If you spend the time to review and think about each hours lesson, you will definately come away with a basic understanding on how Java works. It's definately written in a very easy to understand for the beginner who may not know even the basic terms in Java programming. I highly reccomend this book for any beginner wishing to understand how to write in Java.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
