Customer Reviews

Using Visual J++ 6.0

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book does EXACTLY what it says it will on the back cover and in the "Who this book is for Section". I've read two reviews complaining the book doesn't cover Java Beans, but the book states clearly that is intended to teach readers how to write Java programs in Visual J++ 6.0, whic is obviously not centered around Bean development in case you haven't reviewed Microsoft's position on this. The book gives an excellent introduction to Java programming and an extremely thorough overview of Visual Studio. The J/Direct chapter is a bit limited, but the fact is, you don't really need this feature with the WFC. I teach Java and Visual J++ classes across the United States on a weekly basis and this is the book I now distribute in class. It is far superior to any of the other Visual J++ 6.0 books currently on the market.

I am a network engineer and webmaster with 25 years experience in the field. I was looking for a book that would bring me up to speed using Visual J++ in a minmal amount of time. Scott Mulloy's straight forward approach to Visual J++ did so in an outstanding manner. He did not waste space by including superfluous comparisons, or other topics that are better suited for coverage in more advance texts. I found his book to be useful for it's examples and concise in it's instructions. This book accomplished what it was designed to do, teach novice programmers how to use Visual J++. Highly recommended!

Upon quick review of the features documented in this book, I found it lacking in one very large area. In many of the chapters of the book it focused on using java.lang classes instead of the superior WFC related classes. For example, the I/O chapter focuses on using java.io instead of wfc.io which is more appropriate. It became clear that this book was a little premature and did not utilize the most important aspect of Visual J++ 6.0...WFC itself.

I had to use this book in a class on J++. I was not impressed.

The book has very wide margins, which it uses almost exclusively for comments on the text. Almost half of the page is unused for this reason. When code is printed, the lines must wrap onto two or three lines because of this layout. The comments are included after the code, making it very difficult for new users to figure out what is code and what is not.

Each individual section of code is numbered, even though several sections may wind up being in the same program. Many of the students in my class end up replacing one line of code which had been labeled 1 in a previous example with the code labeled 1 in a subsequent example.

The book uses terms without defining them or defining them 100 pages later. While it is acceptable to describe something briefly and refer to the place where it is described in depth, the book's method leaves the user constantly turning to the index to try to understand what is going on.

There is never any explanation of how a program works. The user is never shown how variables pass or call information between subroutines, classes, etc.

The book refers to HTML as Hypertext Marked Language. While this is common in the UK, the W3C, which wrote the standard, defines it as Hypertext Markup Language.

Almost all of the examples used to demonstrate different constructs like switches and while statements use sports metaphors. For those people who are not interested in sports, this leaves you trying to decode both the language of the example and the code in the example.

I would not recommend this book unless you have VERY limited options.

I have to write this review to tell the world, THIS BOOK IS TERRIBLE.

A little background: I'm a Visual Basic Programmer who wanted to learn how to program in Java using Visual J++ 6.0. I couldn't learn much from this book, so whether you are a beginner or an experienced programmer, this book is useless.

There are three things you need to learn to use J++ 6.0: (1) you have to learn Java programming; (2) you have to learn how to use the Windows Foundation Classes which are unique to J++ 6.0; and (3) you need to learn how to use the integrated design environment.

This book attempts to cover all three of the above, but covers nothing well.

(1) Java programming: there are many GOOD books written about how to do Java programming. If you search through amazon.com, I'm sure you can find a book you'll find suitable for that purpose. J++ 6.0 uses standard Java 1.1, so there is no need to worry about finding a book specific to J++ 6.0.

(2) Windows Foundation Classes (WFC): the WFC are new to J++ 6.0 and there aren't many books out that cover this. But this book has pitiful coverage of WFC. Why, it doesn't even tell you how to show a form!! Imagine that. How could the author leave out something so basic? The book Visual J++ 6.0 Developer's Workshop is the only book currently on the market that has useful information about using the WFC. Buy that book instead.

(3) Using the integrated design environment (IDE): I admit that this book was somewhat helpful in this respect. Is that a good enough reason to buy this book? I don't know.

I am a student with 5 years of C++ experience and have decided to teach myself Java. Coming from a Visual C++ background, I naturally chose Visual J++ as my development platform. This book has got me up and programming in Visual J++ 6 in a very short amount of time, and I am continuing to write more advanced programs as I skim through the latter chapters. I would recommend this book to any Java programmer who uses Visual J++ as it covers all of the most critical topics. Finally, a book that doesn't waste several chapters on useless topics just because other books did.

It's interesting how somebody can write such a long book and not say anything important. I thought it was a real waste. For example, he mentioned JavaBeans in passing, then said they were beyond the scope of the book. I'd pass.

I have been programming in Visual Basic for 4 years (version 3.0, 4.0, and 5.0) and have recently decided to learn Java. The initial sections of this book are excellent for Java and OOP newcomers. I also found the multithreading and exception chapters very helpful, displaying to me some of the advantages Java has over VB. This book is very helpful for Visual J++ newcomers.

I am an experienced Visual J++ 1.0 and Visual J++ 1.1 programmer who is beginning to switch over to Visual J++ 6.0. This book has been a tremendous help with that, guiding me through new topics such as the Windows Foundation Classes and the built in HTML Editor. The Network chapter that develops a client and server program is the best I've ever read.

I was (and my team) extremly disapointed with this book. We have been working with Visual J++ 6.0 since the first pre-release in a commercial product. We were expecting this book to help us in the areas we are struggling with - to ADD to what is supplied with the product as documentation. Instead this book provides nothing more than a rehash of the documentation with extremly simplistic samples. The section on "Code Behind DHTML" is a mere 3 pages (should be a large chapter) and is totally incorrect - based on Preview 1 information. There is nothing on deployment. The so called Advanced topics are really Beginner at best. One of my team members just said he was going to throw his away. The market is crying out for an Advanced book on Visual J++ 6.0 and especially WFC in the areas of COM and DHTML. We don't need yet another book that really tries to teach simplistic Java - there are hundreds of books that do that.