Customer Reviews

Sams Teach Yourself Java 2 Platform in 21 Days, Professional Reference Edition

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

It took a little more than 21 days, but I feel that Sams Teach Yourself Java 2 gave me the java insight and understanding I was looking for. I am new to java, but I have been a COBOL programmer for years. I took a C++ class several years ago and was totally stumped by all the new OO concepts. Sam's leads you step by step using silly examples that increase in complexity. This approach allows you to mentally see what is going on.

There is a lot of hand holding here. I would imagine that an experienced java programmer would regard this book as a review. On the other hand, it provides more than a just a high level introduction, there's some real meat and potatoes here. It was a committment, but I read it cover to cover and afterwards found that I could understand any java program I came across. This course will keep any beginner busy for 21 days (at least!), but in the end, I think you will be able to put your new java programming skills to the test.

I am an experienced Unix C++ programmer who was looking for a good introduction to Java in a manageable format. This book was the best I saw on the bookshelf at Borders bookstore in London. It has been proven to be everything it was claimed to be, though it is only an introduction in my opinion. I was a little disappointed in the depth of the information for the last 7 days, and methinks the authors could have put in information about J2EE (Jave Servelets), CORBA, et al. On the positive side, I was impressed with the Appendices showing how to get the JDK going. It is an excellent introduction to the Java Foundation Classes. There is no question that the book leaves one with a firm grounding with which to go on to 'expert class' books in JavaBeans, J2EE, Swing, etc. One caution to beginners: Don't assume that the coding style used in this book is the optimum OO style. Look elsewhere to learn more about this topic. As an experienced OO designer I found myself cringing occasionally. Apart from that, very valuable!

Though the writers call it "Professional Reference Edition", this book completely skips threads, collection frameworks and other important stuff. Nearly 50% of the pages are about creating a user interface (which is useless old AWT style anyway). Newbies can make some use of it, but I really DONT recommend it to professional programmers.

I got this book not too long ago and have just recently finished it. I found it very helpful to someone who is new to programming in general. The examples were very good and the book overall was an excellent overview of the Java 2 Platform.

Comprehensive and often funny _introduction_ to the Java language.

It is not for seasoned programmers who want a no frills in-depth description of Java 2 (I would recommend Java Unleashed or Java in a Nutshell for those programmers).

It is for anyone wanting a light-hearted, full of examples (sometimes silly), introduction to the basics of the language (including i/o streams, applets, exceptions etc.).

I have had a background in Pascal C++ and VB and have found this a very good book for a conversion to Java. I wouldn't recommend it to somebody new to programming but it was a great help to me in that it changed my mindset to view the applications that I write as containing "Objects" or "instances" instead of a whole bunch of code.

A great read with some fast paced conceptual learning at the begining, but it could improve by explaining the code more in depth.

For a professional software developer, there is nothing more aggravating than spending time re-reading things that you already know. Especially when your time is limited.

Since Java has borrowed so much from C++, when we went looking to learn how to add a Java client to TheQuoteForToday.com, we looked for a book that would offer us a "smorgasbord" approach. We needed a title that would allow us to "skim past" all of the topics that a C++ developer already knows, and allow us to focus on what's "new" with Java.

By clearly organizing the flow of their chapters from novice to not, Sam's "Teach Yourself Java 2 Platform in 21 Days" helped us spend less time reading the things we knew, and more time learning the things that we did not. Moreover, since the book was designed with a novice programmer in mind, I can also hand this title to newbies and they will be able to use it as well (talk about re-use)!

This book covers the theory of Java pretty well, but does not give the reader much practical application through exercises, etc. You might purchase this book to brush up on Java theory, but will probably need another source for learning through working exercises.

I`ve read this book, and I`ve understood it! It`s the third book about Java that I try to read, and so far it`s the only one I`m done reading (and understanding). The examples are great, and really helpful. The style is really good too, and you`ll never get bored of reading. Even if like me you`re completely new to programmation languages, you`ll enjoy this book, and you`ll learn a lot from it.

Easy Approach. This is a good book to start with, to know what is java for a beginner,even who doesn't know about object oriented programming.But it doesn't deal with the subject in detail,but makes the concepts clear.

If a reader has already come across the earlier version of the book 'Learn Java 1.1 in 21 days' by the same author,he need not buy this book,but can refer this to know about extra new things added.