Rating: 
Summary: This book is not necessary to learn Swing
Review: Be aware that the material in this book is a cut-and-paste of Sun's Java Tutorial, which is available free from java.sun.com.The swing docs as well as the tutorial alone, are insufficient to learn Swing. The material is very skimpy, and does not explain the event handling and update interactions. A few of the examples in the Tutorial were useful, but most were trivial. The book is pages and pages of generally simple code. If you do not have a fast connection and would rather have a book handy, I would still download the Java DOCs from Sun and install them on my local disk instead. What I found useful were the demo examples that come with the JDK. I am still looking for a good swing book.
Rating: 
Summary: Just finishing an application now!
Review: I am just now putting the finishing touches on an home-brew app. Thanks to this book, it's all GUI using Swing. I find the book to be a great help to me because of the number of examples shown. I do agree that the book may come up a little short in some areas, but hey that's why we're called hackers. If we don't hack at this stuff we'll never fully learn it's ins-and-outs. If you want a cleary written tutorial with examples - go ahead and buy it. It sits on my desk within easy reach at all times. That way, I don't have to go to the dreaded (slow) Sun site.
Rating: 
Summary: Good book, but you can find the same information online
Review: I do use this book as a reference, but I was dissapointed to see that all of the material and lessons are available on line for free.
Rating: 
Summary: Very good book
Review: I have little experience with AWT and Swing. I got this book to finish my SCJD. The book is excelent reference and tutorial. I like the way the book structured. First chapter it gives an overview of every compnent in Swing, then in the rest of the book it explains these component in details.
Rating: 
Summary: A maze of unnecessary trails
Review: I've been a professional analyst/programmer for 27 years. I am familiar with C++, JavaScript and other flavors of OOP. I found this book to be a quagmire of confusion. It seems as if the authors have purposefully sought to scatter information throughout the book instead of organizing it into relevant packets. Tutorials typically teach, not show, by building examples from the simple into the more complex, demonstrating and explaining the addition of functionality in a step-by-step manner. This is how humans LEARN, which is the objective of a tutorial. This would more appropriately touted as a cut-and-paste collection with minor explanation. I feel the book and public would have benefited had the authors spent more time on actual instruction of how the GUI components could be made into a cohesive whole than in providing the plethora of trivial cute examples which, taken individualy, do not demonstrate much. The sample programs in the back of the book are the only saving grace, and these can be accessed via the Web.
Rating:
Summary: the fastest track to writing GUI using Swing...
Review: If you know Java, that is, Java without the GUI, and you want to write applets or programs that use GUI components (buttons, menues, text boxes, etc), pick up this book and you'll be writing your own GUI applications in under an hour. Don't bother with the "Differential Equations For Dummies" or with the Web Programming in 21 Days type of books -- Many of them use the older GUI and others, even though they do use Swing, use the older event handling model. If you want to program GUI, then do it right: The book is systematic and accurate and has plenty of examples of code. Use this book for textbook and/or reference.
Rating:
Summary: the fastest track to writing GUI using Swing...
Review: If you know Java, that is, Java without the GUI, and you want to write applets or programs that use GUI components (buttons, menues, text boxes, etc), pick up this book and you'll be writing your own GUI applications in under an hour. Don't bother with the "Differential Equations For Dummies" or with the Web Programming in 21 Days type of books -- Many of them use the older GUI and others, even though they do use Swing, use the older event handling model. If you want to program GUI, then do it right: The book is systematic and accurate and has plenty of examples of code. Use this book for textbook and/or reference.
Rating:
Summary: A beter Swing "tutor" is hard to find
Review: It is clear to me that tutorial (i.e. an aide to "tutor") is what defines this book's purpose. While I agree with the other reviewer's comments about what this book lacks, I would like to complement the authors on what I believe is the greatest benefit of "The JFC Swing Tutorial". This is it seems that no matter problem I'm having with a particular aspect of Swing, this book gives me a "place to start" (isn't this what a tutor is for?). Yes, there are some gaps in its explanation of the Abstract/Default Table and TableColumn Model classes and some of the Event Handling material is too terse, etc. However, time and time again, I've been in able to jump into this book "mid-trail" and wind up "on course" for solving a Swing-related problem. Some times the journey leads me to the constituent WEB Pages. Other times it's a trip into a JAVA IDE Debugger and/or a look at the javax.swing class soruce files. In any case this book has been the tutor I needed to learn Swing fundamentals and has led me to discover some advanced Swing features as well.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent reference!
Review: OK, the book is available online from Sun's Java website. Also the book as a hybrid of hytertext (with underlined 'links' everywhere) and a regular book is not well-organized. Nevertheless, I found it a useful reference. The code examples are very useful. The companion CD provides various Java documentation and the other 2 Java Tutorials. The book and CD are great for people who prefer portable references or don't have high-speed connection 24 hours a day. There just aren't many (or any) good Java Swing books and this is one of the better ones.
Rating:
Summary: The 2nd edition is a great book...
Review: Target Audience
Java developers who want to learn to develop graphical applications using the Swing classes Contents
This book is part of the Sun tutorial series, and concentrates on the Swing classes of the language. The book is divided into the following chapters: Before You Start; Learning Swing By Example; Using Swing Components; Laying Out Components within a Container; Writing Event Listeners; Performing Custom Painting; Component Reference; Layout Manager Reference; Other Swing Features Reference; Event Listeners References; Troubleshooting Reference; Index Review
Most of the coding I do in Java involves background agents that don't involve any sort of a user interface. But that's not to say that I haven't wanted to put a front end on some of my routines and allow for some user interaction. In order to do that, I need to learn more about how to use the Java GUI classes. This book, The JFC Swing Tutorial, is definitely what I need. The book is a nice blend of tutorial and reference guide. The first six chapters are definitely tutorial in nature, with a number of examples and things you are asked to try and work through. At the end of each of those chapters, you'll find a series of questions and exercises that will allow you to assess your understanding of the material. Starting in chapter seven, the book moves more towards a reference manual, but not in the typical "here's the documentation" format. Each reference section has a series of "How To..." topics that give you more detailed information and examples about that feature. For instance, the formatted text field section has a demo of that feature, instructions on how to work with features in the JFormattedTextField class, and an API chart of the related classes and specific methods in JFormattedTextField. The blend of information and examples helps you to bridge the gap between theoretical and practical use. The only "complaint" that one might have about this book is that much of the information can be found online at the Sun Java site. To that I say, "so what?" When I'm looking up a quick answer to something and I don't have my library available to me, online references are great. But when I'm learning a new skill, give me a book that I can carry around, mark up, and have open in front of me at the keyboard. It's how I work best. Conclusion
This is a very complete and well-written volume on how to use the Swing GUI classes. If you need to learn how to move your Java programming in a graphical direction, you'll like this book.
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