Customer Reviews

Teach Yourself Borland JBuilder 21 Days: With CDROM (Sams Teach Yourself)

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

 

 

This book is a good start for entry level java programmers but lacks in advanced topics for those wishing to continue in learning.

I like the book overall, but it seems to be very long simply so that it can be a big book, and get that "Bookshelf Cred", simply to sell more books. The pages themselves are printed on very thick paper, which makes the book even bigger than neccessary. It also lacks much info on Java itself, and a Java intro/reference is also needed. The example programs are mainly toy code -- I would like to see a project being developed over the period of the book, to give experience in the whole RAD developement process... All in all, a decent introductory text, but rather cynically overmarketed, as are most Teach Yourself ... in 21 Days books -- I guess you'd expect that from the title. I recommend you buy a more in-depth, more thoroughly written and edited book that wasn't rushed to market, and contains some real meaty examples...

I bought this book in the hope that I could build a few simple applets and get started building programs in Jbuilder. Chapter 8 caught my eye in the bookstore after reading favorable reviews here. Several frustrating hours later, I have yet to get a functioning jbuilder application working at my ISP. I have noticed some serious omissions in this book which suggests it was not written or edited with the latest version of Jbuilder. Chapter 8 fails to mention where I am likely to find the jbuilder class files which must be deployed on the web to successfully run a java applet. ( I learned about the class file location from Borland's FAQ page ) It should have been covered in Chapter 8. While discussing the CODEBASE HTML code, the book does not discuss the command CODEBASE = "." which is the HTML generated by the the most basic applet wizard. When I deploy my applet to my public html account and attempt to run the applet with Netscape's latest browser I get the message "Applet1 can't start class hello.Applet1 not found." Some key information is missing from Chapter 8. Thus, this book has failed me in attempting to construct the most simple application. I think it belongs among all those here today gone tomorrow books that were written with Beta software and never tested or edited by serious technical people. Rushed to the market the book quickly looses relevance.

This book does not contain a working version of JBuilder. I chose this book because of the 90 day Trial Version of JBuilder included. The first time I tried to run JBuilder after installing it I got a message that the installation had expired. I called the publisher and was informed that the software provided by Borland shut down in October of 1997. The book itself is good, but you absolutley need JBuilder to learn from it.

This book is a very clearly written introduction to the Java language. Also a good introduction to the JBuilder IDE. Especially appropriate for someone with only modest programming experience. Misses some of the fine points but those who wish to become expert should follow this with a meatier text. (I am).

The book is clear, concise, well organized and very helpfull for starting your Java programming experience. It is conceived as a guide to the JBuilder Development Environment with all its goodies. But it goes far beyond into the escence of Java, without unnecessary complications and a balanced feeling of what is needed to begin creating Java applets and applications. Theoretical issues on Object Oriented Programming are treated with a natural approach and no misleading oversimplifications. Explanations are not mere descriptions, they are relevant and alert the reader on possible mistakes and how to avoid them.

I like the way the book was written, I am only a beginner in the JBuilder series but was really helpful in making my understand the concepts in step by step basis. Some may not agree but for me I'll keep this in my library!

This book purports to teach someone how to use JBuilder, as well as java. It doe neither. Examples don't work and should be proofread. If you start working with the practical exercises and mess up, forget it. Not user friendly at all. Needs more specific examples, with detailed discussion on what is happening.

NOTE: This applies to the "Borland teach yourself JBuilding in 14 [not 21] days" by the same author.

It is the $40 learn Java in 14 days kit with Jbuilder 1.1

After learning the basics of Basic, Visual Basic, Pascal, C, SQL, HTML, I figured I'd spend my last summer of college learning to program Java. Lets put it this way, I've gotten to page 300 (out of 500) and I've learned about a couple pages worth of information.

This book "explains" the entire Java language in days 3-5, but explains it in a very technical and very difficult to understand way. And I've had a lot of programming experience.

I may just have to buy another Java book and hope that after ANOTHER couple of weeks maybe I'll learn a little Java!

I found this book to be atrocious. Completely useless, provided you have a copy of the manual Borland (Inprise) provide with JBuilder. In fact, most of the examples in the text seem to have been taken directly from the JBuilder's JavaDoc files! I learned much more about JBuilder by following along with Borland's tutorials than be reading "Teach yourself Jbuilder...". My advice: read the manual to learn about JBuilder's idiosyncracies, and spend your book money on "Object Oriented Design in Java" by Gilbert and McCarty.