Java 2: A Beginner's Guide (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Bestselling author and programming guru Herb Schildt brings you Java 2 essentials in this newly updated introductory guide. Covering the latest I/O classes and features, this book teaches you Java 2 fundamentals through hands-on projects, end-of-module reviews, annotated code samples, and Q&A sections.

From the Back Cover

Essential Skills--Made Easy!

Learn the fundamentals of Java 2 programming from master programmer and best-selling author Herb Schildt. Fully updated to cover Java 2 version 1.4, this step-by-step guide will have you programming in no time. You'll start at the beginning, learning why Java is the preeminent language of the Internet, how it relates to object-oriented programming (OOP), and the general form of a Java program. Next, it's on to the foundations of Java programming, including data types, operators, program control statements, classes, objects, and methods. You'll then progress to more advanced topics, such as inheritance, exception handling, the I/O system, multithreading, applets, and much more. Get started programming in Java today using this self-paced, easy-to-follow tutorial.

Designed for Easy Learning:

• Modules--Each concept is divided into logically organized modules (chapters), ideal for self-paced learning
• Critical Skills--Each module opens with the specific skills covered in the module
• Mastery Checks--End-of-module reviews test knowledge using short-answer, multiple-choice, and fill-in-the-blank questions
• Ask the Experts--Q&A sections throughout are filled with bonus information and helpful tips
• Progress Checks--Quick self-assessment sections check your progress
• Projects--Practical exercises show how to apply the critical skills learned in each module
• Annotated Syntax--Example code annotated with commentary that describes the programming techniques being illustrated

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media; 2nd edition (November 25, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0072225882
• ISBN-13: 978-0072225884
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 7.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #793,513 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #92 in

  Books > Computers & Internet > Programming > Java > Beginner's Guides

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Book for Novice & Experienced Programmers Alike, October 12, 2003

By	M. Hart "Sci-Fi Fan" (USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

When I needed to learn the Java programming language very quickly for work, I read many reviews and narrowed down my search to handful of few books. I looked at copies of my final possible choices in a local bookstore and finally purchased Herbert Schildt's "Java 2: A Beginner's Guide, Second Edition" and have absolutely no regrets.

Herbert Schildt's book was written for people to learn the fundamentals of programming in Java as easily and as quickly as possible. (Of course, each reader can go at his/her own pace.) After I began reading the book, I started to become accustomed to Java's terminology and downloaded Sun's free Java compiler online. Within a few days, I was writing my own simple stand-alone Window's applications and applets. After that, I started exploring more complex concepts.

Herbert Schildt's writing style and book organization made it possible for me to start writing a complex, multithreaded, work-related application within 4 weeks. He begins the book with a history of the Java language; it's relations to C, C++ and C#; it's built-in security & portability; bytecode; and object-oriented programming. He then explores data types, operators, and program control statements before explaining the heart of a Java program: classes, objects and methods. From there, the reader is ready to be introduced to some of Java's more powerful aspects: inheritance, polymorphism, abstract classes, packages and interfaces.

Next, what elevates Java over many other languages is its built in exception handling. Being able to track and locate programming errors is often one of the most difficult aspects of programming, especially when the program is large and complex. Java allows programmers to test various blocks of a program using the statements "try" and "catch". Some methods require the use of the "try" and "catch" block because of their potential to generate an exception that is outside of the program's control (such as file streams).

The next very powerful aspect of Java that Herbert Schildt explores is multithreading. Seasoned real-time programmers will be very familiar with the concept of multitasking, but for many novice programmers, the concept of multitasking or multithreading (as it is called in Java) can be daunting and confusing. Herbert Schildt's explanations of how to use multithreading (and its potential problems) are thorough and relevant. Finally, Herbert Schildt explores the creation of applets.

As your knowledge of Java expands, you'll find it very worthwhile to purchase a more comprehensive Java reference book that contains a broad list of the various classes and methods available within the language. For this, I highly recommend Herbert Schildt's "Java 2: The Complete Reference, Fifth Edition", which is geared for J2SE 1.4.

Overall, I rate "Java 2: A Beginner's Guide, Second Edition" by Herbert Schildt with 5 out of 5 stars. Java is a great programming language, and Herbert Schildt's instructions make learning the language is painless as possible.

35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Best intro I've found so far., October 15, 2002

By	Michael J Edelman (Huntington Woods, MI USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Java 2: A Beginner's Guide (Paperback)

I've been reading a LOT of intro Java books, and most seem to suffer from the same errors. One common type of book builds the entire text aorund the construction of a complex transaction engine- which I don't happen to have any interest in writing. Others start with a few examples, and then give you 200 page sof details of the language with no examples whatsoever, promising that "we'll see how this works in following chapters". Another type repeatedly provides examples in which we are encourged to ignore the confusing bits and just accept on faith that it's important they look that way. And then there are all those books that assume you know C++ and just need a little transition information.

Happily this book suffers from none of these flaws. It covers a wide range of applications, it's full of detail on the latest graphical interface tools, there are plenty of small examples, and no command or definitions is introduced without a clear example.

This is an excellent book for someone with some programming experience, but no experience in object oriented methods. Storngly recommended.

48 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Decent Introduction for Absolute Beginners, June 1, 2001

By	"schapel" (Hillsborough, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Java 2: A Beginner's Guide (Paperback)

Overall, this book is a good introduction to Java for those with little or no programming background. Concepts are explained "from the ground up" so that first-time programmers can understand them. However, for a book that teaches Java to beginners and covers nearly the entire Java language, multithreading, I/O, and graphics programming, 600 pages is not long enough to give thorough and accurate descriptions.

I found many oversimplifications and half-truths throughout the book:

"Static methods may call only static methods." Not true -- static methods may call non-static methods if called on an explicit reference.

"A call to a superclass constructor must be the first statement in every constructor." Not true -- you can call the current class's constructor with "this" instead of "super". This is an important technique called "constructor chaining."

"Wait and notify may be called only from synchronized methods." Not true -- they may be called from non-synchronized methods as long as they are called from a synchronized block and called on a reference to an object the thread holds a lock on.

The explanation about how Java "passes objects by reference" confuses many beginning Java programmers, and the trick of passing an Integer to simulate passing an int by reference doesn't work because Java passes references by value and the wrapper classes are immutable. The explanation about method overloading supporting polymorphism is confusing because which overloaded method to call is decided at compile-time, whereas polymorphism means that the method to call is decided at run-time.

There are numerous examples that demonstrate the mechanics of Java without showing how the constructs should be used in an actual Java program. The example of a finalizer neglects to call super.finalize() as all finalizers should. The example of a catch block sweeps the caught exception under a rug instead of recovering from it. The example of a static initializer simply prints a message to show that it was executed instead of doing something useful like loading a class or library.

Readers who learn Java from this book should be prepared to study a more thorough and accurate Java programming book after this one. For those who just want to program in Java as a hobby, this makes a decent introduction to the topic. Just be aware that not everything the book says is true or as simple as it appears.