Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
62 of 68 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You get what you pay for..., October 6, 2004
I think I have bought just about every 'learning Java' book out there, with limited exuberunce, until this book. The advantage this text has over others is to successfully 'weave' the learning of Java as the chapters progress. Other texts do accomplish this to some extent, but I've never seen this achieved to this degree of balance. This book is a heads down, hands on learning device.
Many books provide a single example that gets more and more complex as the chapters, and (hopefully) your skills, progress. Deitel certainly does this (via an Elevator simulation), but also accomplishes this on many different levels with plenty of smaller programs. Each example is explained *line by line* without exception. Additionally, you are provided with example program output right on the page.
I've noticed many 'learning Java' books show you code snippets and little output if any (e.g. Eckel's book, which I love for other reasons), leaving it up to your imagination to put it all together in the context of a complete program.
This text appears to be prepared for the classroom, from its thorough content (25 chapters, 7 appendices, 1400+ pages, cdrom) and available lab and instructor companion books. There is a nice, effective use of color without being distractive like some other texts I've seen.
The negatives are the length, cost and (ouch) the weight. It is one of the heavier books in my collection, for sure!
To summarize, if you are a C programmer looking to quickly jump into Java, or perhaps a genius with a photographic memory, this may not be your first purchase. If you are a newbie, have limited experience with Java, or have been disappointed with other texts, I think you may find this to be the most complete book out there.
|
|
|
18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
I hate this book, August 22, 2006
I am a programming newb with a geek streak a lifetime wide. I took a Java class this summer hoping to begin groking the one final frontier of computing that has always eluded me. We used this as the text. As somebody who teaches postsecondary courses in an entirely separate field, I feel this book is not a good first choice for an instructor in comp sci, especially for courses for nonmajors or beginners. The prose is exceedingly dry and longwinded *without real purpose*, and tests even my attention span... which is ordinarily sufficient for a continuous performance of the Ring Cycle. What really hacked me off is the way that the book handles terminology and syntax-- from the very beginning, the code examples often use parallel terms within the code in a way that makes it utterly unclear to the newbie whether they're staring down the barrel of a method name, a parameter/argument, what-have-you, which makes it very difficult to trace the logic of the code and get a good handle on the syntax. I have had far better luck grasping the concepts of Java and programming generally with Beginning Java for Dummies, believe it or not. I am a mature and educated adult actually INTERESTED in this topic and this book was absolutely dreadful to me-- instructors, please do not think you're going to choose this text for the present generation of undergrads and have it be anything but an utter waste of a hundred bucks for them.
|
|
|
22 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Confusing and challenging to understand for typical audience, March 26, 2006
Im a tutor of Java students and a Java instructor at a community college (tutoring on this edition, instructed 3 courses using 3rd edition) with a Sun Java certification and Computer Engineering degree. With all the introductory Java books available, this book (and preceeding edition(s)) is garbage. Im truly surprised that it hasn't improved in any of the newer editions.
My consistent complaint is the meaning or point the author(s) are trying to present in the paragraphs throughout the books. The author(s) make valient attempts to cover the language in detail by drowning the reader in examples and stories. Examples are good (how, what), but you have to explain why (where and when can be inferred if not explained). On numerous occassions, the author(s) dives into the architecture of the computer to explain how the data bits work together in the CPU to try to relate it to Java. Huh??? Java is a high level language! Keep computer architecture with low-level assembly languages, guys. This may be the author(s) way of explaining why. This absolutely doesn't work with people who are expected to learn Java as their first programming language.
It seems this book tries to make this introduction to Java more than just an introduction to Java. Many important concepts are presented in the Table of Contents - kudos! But the read is frightful and endured. The beginner reader essentially walks away exposed to Java, without ever understanding it. For introducing Java, it is way too much to read for the average student!!
For example, 6th edition Deitel, take the Java reserved word "return". Covered in roughly 5 pages without ever explaining what it is for, how it works, and usages that vary. The book index references several different sections where it is used, but none of these sections actually explain what it does. "Head First Java": 1 page and very clear what 'return' does; 2-3 pages if you want to explore more complex situations (various data types, overriding methods, etc) that use "return" in the language.
The 3rd edition was horrendously difficult to teach from, it hasn't changed much in the 6th.
If your instructor has issued you this book or a previous edition for an introductory course on programming using Java, save your GPA and grade and go pick up "Head First Java" - Head First Java, 2nd Edition. You'll spend weeks reading the Deitel book on this page to gain the same knowledge you could achieve through any other introductory Java book but in a vastly shorter amount of time.
Looking for an advanced Java book? Read Sun's Java Language Specification and Java Virtual Machine Specification instead. For a moderate skill book and starting to get serious on Java? Hands down, Oreilly is the book publisher you need. To start, pick up "Java in a Nutshell," - Java In A Nutshell, 5th Edition a summary of most of the essential language information that will impact your moderate (how to write a 'for' loop, etc.) and advanced programming (e.g. performance and optimization) are in the first 8 chapters (depending on your skill, you may be able to skip the first few of these chapters). Heck, I'd even use the Nutshell book to get through an Introduction to Java college course (depending on skill).
This book is good for recycling only.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
by Bruce Hallberg
by Stewart Venit
by Harvey & Paul) Deitel & Deitel
by Harvey M. Deitel
