Rating: 
Summary: Has some pluses, has some minuses... worth buying though
Review: I heard so many good things about this book - and can't say I was not disappointed! First, I must say, this book has *A LOT* of material. It covers much more subjects than any other java book I saw. However, it's not very clear. and it uses "too many words", so to speak. For example, there is a chapter comparing some strange nuances that C++ and Java differ in... Who cares?? I spent so much time reading these things, it was difficult to tell what is important, and what isn't. Also, there are no code sample runs, which makes the examples difficult to understand. Last, for every small thing the author uses 2-3+ pages of examples, which makes understanding cumbersome, sometimes 1 page would be enough. However, it's still worth buying, because of the depth. When I just started learning Java, I bought another Java book which had considerably less material than this book, and read it, and if I needed more information, I would just read the appropriate chapter in "Thinking in Java".To sum it up, in my opinion, worth buying, but not as the only book. Good as the 2nd java book.
Rating: 
Summary: The easiest reading I have done
Review: This book rocks period! I read half the book online and decided to give Bruce credit and bought it. I have never had such an easier time reading a huge book. Bruce Eckel's writing style keeps you coming back for more even when you have finished with the book. Don't listen to those reviewers who state that Bruce doesn't use real world examples. Bruce uses concise and "to the point" examples and syntax that are used in everyday programming. He doesn't boggle your mind with huge source code that will confuse the reader. The purpose of this book was to get the reader a solid foundation in Java and OO. If you are looking for some real world examples for projects then get the book Design Patterns by the Fab 4. Hats off Bruce, I await your next book!
Rating:
Summary: Study Java as an OO language
Review: I'm dealing with OOD and UML for 5 years and this book gave me the opportunity to study java not only as an programming language ( Like all those "Teach yourself on 24..."). but as a real implementation to what I'm dealing with on OOD
Rating: 
Summary: the continuation of my previous article
Review: This is the continuation of my previous article, which has been crippled off at the 1000-word-boundary. It starts off with the next word where the previous article ended. ************************************ ponents (still existing in Core Java 3rd ed Vol1 but NOT in the most recent edition) and using the AWT event queue is great. Basic clipboard operations (Core Java 3rd ed Vol2 discussed the subject much more thoroughly) and JavaBeans are also discussed here. Basics of Swing are introduced - this section is one of the worst in the book. There is no MVC and the author doesn't even describe panes in a JFrame. This chapter is one of the chapters in the book that need complete rewrite. Chapter 14 discusses multithreading. It also describes why suspend/resume/stop are deprecated - it's also the only book to discuss this subject. Compared to SL-276, the first explanation of the deprecated stop() methods is a bit problematic, albeit the later use (and explanation) of a stop flag is OK. Explanation java.net. Both TCP sockets and UDP datagrams are thoroughly presented (with presenting the usual multithreaded server application too). JDBC is also quite thoroughly (8 pages) discussed in the chapter, which closes with RMI (also a thorough description - it should have presented a working, large example, though, just like Core Java vol2). Later chapters discuss design patterns at a high level (unique with a Java book! The other general Java book that discusses this subject I've read is Wiley's Programming Mobile Objects with Java - a real failure), some real-world examples (without Swing), JNI, CORBA. A separate chapter is devoted to comparing C++ to Java - the book excels in this area, too. Java authors should emphasize this subject in their books more. The performance comparison in appendix D rocks. What did I compare? I tried to evaluate each book in a comparative fashion. Unfortunately, when it's time to evaluate a book's being comprehensive AND discussing / mentioning everything with ONE rating, it's hard do decide which to prefer. Should we give a better mark to a book that is more comprehensive but less wide-reaching, that is, lacking the discussion of some features of the language? Should we do the opposite? Fortunately, there weren't many cases where this caused me headache, as, in general, the books are both comprehensive AND fully discuss everything. Nevertheless, I included a row in the table. This row evaluates each book's being both beginner-friendly (that is, whether it's intended to a newcomer) and discussing everything at much higher depth than the API docs. The higher the mark, the better suited for the target audience (beginners or the experienced) the book. These two ratings, of course, don't have to be equally high for a good book - for example, Java in a Nutshell, an outstanding reference, would hardly get a rating higher than 2 when evaluating its suitability for beginners. A book, on the other hand, that receives ratings that are both below 3, isn't intended for outstanding, far better than any other book References in italic reference for the experienced or an introduction for beginners? 5* (1) Basics of procedural programming (w/o OOP) 4 (3) OOP comprehensibility 5/5 Threads / 1.2 thread deprecation 5 Exceptions, error handling 5 (8) Packages 5 AWT 1.0 event model 4 (no GBL, Box) Layout managers 4 AWT 1.1 event model 2 Basic Swing widgets 2 Advanced Swing widgets 4 1.1 I/O 1 java.math - BigInteger, BigDecimal 5 Java.net 5* Collections 5* inner classes 0 JDK 1.2 security 4 1.1 clipboard handling 4 Java Beans 5* RTTI, Reflection, Class 5 CORBA et al (DCOM etc) 4 RMI 0 i18n 4 JDBC 5* Comparing Java to C++ 5*/0/0 Object serialization / versioning / object file format 5* JNI 4/0 Applets / conversion to applications and vice versa 5/5 Describing / Using naming break/continue is very cool; so is the "Ulcer addicts really like C a of the books reviewed in this article discusses packages as they should be discussed - that is, the relationship between the packages and the file system is introduced at a very late stage, if ever. All books miss crucial information of actually compiling classes that belong to a specific package. This is why there is no clear winner in this subject - this is a bit annoying, as, for a beginner, it's one of the most complicated questions to understand how the packages are located in the file system and what CLASSPATH is. Unfortunately, this subject is only introduced by Sun's own SL-276 revision B course book, the book that discusses mapping of packages, object locks, synchronization, wait/notify and 1.2 thread deprecation (suspend/resume/stop) the best. Core Java is the only to mention some practical info (the compiler doesn't automatically place .class files of a given package to the subdirectories in the current dir). It doesn't show the user how the -d parameter should be used of javac to avoid manually copying the compiled .class files. All books that have been reviewed lack this, extremely important, explanation (except for Sun's far as Swing widgets are concerned. The only exception is Core Java. This book doesn't cover many widgets (only the basic ones), but is very thorough. Let's hope vol2 will cover all the missing widgets. There is no clear winner. Core Java, Just Java and Thinking in Java are all great for a beginner. Core Java is more of a reference, so you are not guaranteed to understand OOP from that book - a reason for getting Just Java as well. Just Java, on the other hand, is a bit superficial and terse - a reason for getting the other two books. Also, as can be seen from the table, these books are strong sometimes in entirely different areas. Just Java's strength lies in its comprehensibility, while it's not suited for the experienced. Core Java is much harder for a beginner to understand, but is a great reference. Thinking in Java excels at some areas, while there are certain subjects that the books just suck at. You indeed should get the book, but don't expect to become a Swing programmer after reading it. The same stands for the emphasis on the 1.0 event model - most AWT components are presented using the 1.0 event model. It's indeed a bad move from Eckel. Nobody wants to learn / code the old event model any more. Rather than trying to say which is the one perfect Java book, I recommend that readers look at the strengths and weaknesses of each, and choose from any of the 3 excellent books according to their needs. For example anyone that hate the JDK 1.0 events knows to avoid the Thinking in Java book, but they might buy it for its great coverage of Collections. There are clear losers. IDG's Java 1.2 Bible and Steyer's Java 1.2 Kompendium are plain bad. Java 1.2 Bible is just an outdated compendium with a lot of mistakes. The biggest error is that it says we synchronize on a method, so 2 or more threads can't call the same METHOD. The author doesn't seem to understand what he writes about. Furthermore, some information on Java is wrong (e.g. private protected) as they have been removed from the language a long ago (that is, in JDK 1.0.1). Java 1.2 Kompendium is a real disaster. It's one of the worst books I've ever read on Java. As can be seen from the table above, it doesn't discuss the 1.1 I/O classes. It introduces the AWT widgets using the 1.0 event model - this is also a big problem in Thinking in Java. There are NO practical examples of using the new event model. And the list continues - the author just collected some outdated information on Java 1.0 and tried to re-sell it by including some new info on the capabilities of the newer Java versions. This info is practically useless. The cover has the buzzwords RMI, JavaBeans etc... on it - too bad only 2-3 pages are devoted to these subjects (if any). If you happen to know German, do NOT buy anything from Ralph Steyer before thoroughly scrutinizing it! Werner Zsolt Leader of Sun Microsystems Hungary's Java courses Budapest, Hungary werner@ttt-atm.ttt.bme.h
Rating:
Summary: This book is IT!
Review: Just want to say 'Thanks' for the wealth of information...
I'm currently taking a Java class that leaves something to be desired. :-) Your explanations and examples have been very helpful to this Java Newbie... :-) This book and I have been inseparable for the last 36 hours while I worked on my class assignment. Couldn't have done it with out it. :-) Thanks Bruce!!
Rating:
Summary: A must have for Java programmers
Review: This book is a must have for Java programmers. It's not a useful reference for the language (hence my 4 star review), but it does let you get inside the minds of the creators of the language. You understand how it was intended to be used. This is huge and is more important than pure reference or how-to info, which you can get from lots of other books.
Rating:
Summary: Read from Cover-to-Cover or Don't read at all!
Review: This book is just what the title says it is. This is not a book to learn Java from, and it is not a useful reference. It is a book to help the reader understand the mindset behind Java. It makes frequent reference to C++ (which I don't know and don't care about) and contains several multi-page examples that sometimes seem to go on forever. By all means, read this book from cover-to-cover but look elsewhere if you wish to learn Java or want a reference book to help you look-up Java syntax or "how to" type examples.
Rating:
Summary: A good book
Review: i am trying to learn Java and I couldnt find any good books for a 13 year old. I bought one of the Deitels books, but it stank.
the code was too big when only a small program would have sufficed.They were making a mountain of a molehill.
But when i heard about this book i downloaded it and found it to be very helpful with short, succint, examples and i am already on my way to writing a game
i suggest everyone buy it
Rating:
Summary: Perfect book for anyone interested in jumping into Java
Review: I felt obligated to thank you for you countless writing, specifically "Thinking in Java, Second Edition". Amazingly comprehensive book for newbies to coding and those who have experience but have never touched Java before. I myself have been poking around the programming and web development field (C, C++, Php and the such, but I'm only 16, your experience in these obviously dwarfs mine lol) and I find this to be one of the best books I have ever read. It's allowed me to pole vault over classes in a mere two weeks that would have taken my school a year-long course to cover.
Thank you again for you generous free web-published version of "Thinking in Java".
Rating:
Summary: Study Java as an OO language
Review: I'm dealing with OOD and UML for 5 years and this book gave me the opportunity to study java not only as an programming language ( Like all those "Teach yourself on 24..."). but as a real implementation to what I'm dealing with on OOD
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