Learning Java, Second Edition (Paperback)

by Patrick Niemeyer (Author), Jonathan Knudsen (Author)
Key Phrases: wildcard instantiation, unbounded wildcard, type conversion characters, Thu May, Java Web Start, Song Fang (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Java is the language du jour, and plenty of books have been written about it. But with so many books available, new offerings should be something special. This one isn't.

Learning Java starts at the beginning with a "hello world"-style program that demonstrates using Sun's Java tools. Throughout, the book introduces features using examples--all thoroughly discussed and explained in as straightforward and jargon-free a manner as practicable.

A tricky aspect of Java is the way classes are related, so it's neat to see a whole chapter devoted to the subject early on. Even more opaque is the explicit use of threads. Again, this topic is made accessible in this text, especially with its discussion of thread synchronization. Basic graphics, video handling, and other media in Java are discussed, followed by Beans and the builder environment--but stopping short of JavaBeans. The book finishes with a section on applets, the Java plug-in, and digital signatures.

Overall, however, the reader gets no feeling of working toward a goal, and perhaps this would have been a better book if a project had been its theme. Another odd decision in the mix here was to ignore the several--some free--Java IDEs generally used to program Java. (The book makes a point of saying it hasn't discussed them but doesn't explain. Even beginners find Java more accessible in a programming environment.)

Still, Learning Java, which uses Java 2 v1.3, does a competent job of introducing the language to beginners. As with most O'Reilly books, it's authoritative, lucid, and well edited. Though this book may fail to inspire in the reader the presumed enthusiasm for Java felt by the authors, you won't go wrong with this one, and its coverage of object-oriented programming issues is particularly good. --Steve Patient, Amazon.co.uk --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
'Finally, for new Java programmers, and those wanting to update to 1.3, Niemer is excellent.' UNIXNT, July/August 2000 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 826 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly; 2 edition (July 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596002858
• ISBN-13: 978-0596002855
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (66 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #721,305 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not a tutorial and not for new programmers, October 19, 2002

By	macktheknife (Northern, CA) - See all my reviews

I had purchased "Learning Java" out of the conviction that some patience and thought was all that was needed to make sense of the book. "Learning Perl" (also published by O'Reilly) had a somewhat steep but manageable learning curve-I thought "Learning Java" would be more of the same. Unfortunately, I found "Learning Java" to be a disappointment. The book begins by creating a simple "Hello, Java!" pop-up box along with brief explanations of the basic concepts of Java (class, methods, etc). The book, however, then gives an overview of syntax and tools with no practice exercises. The book essentially went like this: "This is what a class is. This is what a method is. This is what an exception is." And so on. The book spends a few paragraphs describing many important concepts of Java without adequate examples and no practice exercises. The author's organization and presentation of the materials made the book more of a dictionary than a tutorial.

Don't get me wrong, the book does provide an excellent overview of Java's history and heritage. It also serves as a handy (but incomplete) reference, although "Java in a Nutshell" is a much more complete reference. However, like some reviewers, I believe that the title was a bit misleading for those wanting to actually learn to program in Java. This book is not for someone new to programming. "Learning Java" is actually more like an overview or tour of Java that introduces the program's features and tools. It is not a tutorial.

My recommendation: See if you can get a hold of "Learning Java" and take a look at a few chapters. If you like the author's approach (and several reviewers did), then by all means purchase the book. I was originally going to recommend that only those with C or C++ programming experience give the book a try, but I've noticed several reviewers with such experience giving the book a poor review. If you are looking for a tutorial, try the deceptively named but excellent "Teach Yourself Java in 21 Days" by Laura Lemay.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A very good book but not for beginners, September 21, 2000

By	"kalibjon" (Rochester, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Learning Java (The Java Series) (Paperback)

Learning Java by O'Reilly is an excellent book for someone who already knows the basics of programming(i.e - knows about syntax, decision statements, and a cursory understanding of objects). However, as a teaching tool in a classroom this book does not cover in depth the basic ins and outs of a language that would really hit home the concepts necessary to a learn how to program or to use java for a beginner.

Now from a professionals point of view or an college students point of view(I am both being an Engineer at RIT which has a coop program which is rotating work and school in your chosen field every quarter after your second year) this book gives a good explantion of the advanced topics such as Applets, Remote Method Invocation, sending seroalized objects, web programming, threads and a couple of others. So if you are looking to expand your programming base with a completely portable language this is the book for you or if you just want to get the background of the power house tools of Java this book is also for you!

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Suitable for experienced readers, January 30, 2003

By	N. Sriram (Singapore) - See all my reviews

I have experience in C but not C++. Prior to this I tried to read Eckel's thinking in java which I found to be overly pedantic and at times, irritating (with many exercises trying to display arcane syntactic or semantic points). In comparison this book is very refreshing and I feel I am learning new stuff really easily.

This book is dense but motivates using simple code. Explanations may not be complete (esp in Chap 2) but really this is a good compromise.

This is definitely for someone with a background in programming (preferably in C or C++). Ideally one should have a programmers editor on and keep trying the code snippets as one reads (which is why the online version at safari.orielly.com is handy). So, in a sense, this book is not for the uninititated. But for those who have some exposure this is well worth the money and effort.

The author also has a useful open source tool (BeanShell) which suggests some depth.

Some Tips for readers new to java on windows:

1. Download and install jdk 1.4.x
2. Get a simple programmers editor (editplus.com for example)
3. Get Jikes compiler as a replacement for javac (copy it to the jdk bin directory) as its really fast and use it to compile within the editor.
4. Make sure your classpath and path variables are set properly. The former could include the jdk jre/lib/rt.jar and . the current directory; the latter could include the jdk bin dir. in XP these can be set using the controlpanel advanced setting for environment variables

Once you can experiment with the code as you read, it becomes more interesting.

I would say the book deserves at least 4 stars; I am giving it a 5 to offset some really low ratings :-)