Rating: 
Summary: DOESN'T EVEN EXPLAIN THE PACK() METHOD!
Review: the book is badly organized , always uses things never explained properly it doesnt give you a skeleton of what an application / applet is until far too late and confuses you with a chapter on OOP which you dont understand a bit since its like the 2nd Chapt. there are loads of bad examples errors (not typos proper errors)The worst example why it [STINKS] go and check this yourself in the store etc. go to chapter 9 "building a swing interface" all the 4 examples use a "frame.pack()" line of code (at the end of the program) this is the FIRST TIME (ie. in chapt. 9) its used and check the code explanation do you see it explained in even ONE of the examples?? skim thru the examples in the next chapt. do you see it mentioned there? is it in the index? NO NO NO! the careless authors have forgotten or left it out ... i checkd in ivor horton's book the pack() method has 3 references its quite crucial too it sets the window size to an optimum and this book didnt even explain it! what does SAMS expect it to GUESS what methods do>?!?! is that we pay em for.. the correction was added to the book supporrt site but why PAY for a book only to get printouts off the net?! its not good enough! I beg amazon.com to print this review and people can check verify the 2nd edition of this book truly is rubbish...
the only thing it has in its favor is a appendix and good explanation on installing configuring using the java SDK 1.3 ..... but is that why u buying this book? or u wanna learn java 2 ? I CAN FORGIVE SPELLING ERRORS BUT I CANT FORGIVE NOT EXPLAINING KEY LINES OF CODE!
Rating: 
Summary: best book to learn java !!!
Review: this indeed is the best book to learn java !!
Rating: 
Summary: Practice, Practice, Practice
Review: I used this to overlearn Java and pass the Sun exam. How do you learn to do anything well - practice. This book helped me a great deal.
Rating: 
Summary: OK, but not worth the money
Review: The examples are OK, though the flow of the book is not the greatest. It does teach bad programming to a biginner though. A common example of this is repeatadly using the word "type" as a variable name.
Rating:
Summary: SAMS Teach Yourself Java 2 in 21 Days
Review: I am finding this book to be next to worthless. I knew nothing about Java prior to acquiring the book and my knowledge base has not expanded much since. I bought this book because I want to write Java Applets for incorporation into webpages. Every example in the book that I've tried either does not compile, uses deprecated methods, or simply does not work. Don't buy this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Close but...
Review: I have used several of the "Teach Yourself" books before (to learn C and C++) and enjoyed them because they provided test programs for you to write with answers in the book. This does not do that but suggests you type in the programs they provide. It does not have the same effect. The writing is clear and the examples are not bad but it's not quite enough.
Rating:
Summary: A fat bag of goodness!
Review: I have read this book and I love this book. I curl up everynight with my Sams Java book and dream of a world where little Java Applets run free and java beans are never, EVER mistaken for coffee. Or maybe I'm totally full of .... Have you seen the size of that book. And with the hardback covers - whoa! I would never get a good night sleep; but it does make a nice stand for my tv. Annyway, I guess this review should offer something useful about the book so here it is: Teach yourself Java2 offers an organized structure for teaching intro to intermediate level Java. In the first couple days you will start with basic programming concepts and then get right into Java syntax. Teach Yourself offers a number of examples and exercises to work off of. An overall good introduction to Java.
Rating:
Summary: A Comprehensive Amateurs Book
Review: This book gives a board, complete overview of the java language. From no knowledge of JAVA, really in 21 days you will be an adequate java programmer having at least an idea of all the capabilities of this language. I you are a beginner or an amatuer this book is for you. If you are a java professoinal user the book won't help you much. All in all, I enjoyed the book it is my first step in the long path of Java.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book for Beginning Java Programming
Review: I am a mainframe programmer and I wanted to branch into Object Oriented Programming (OOP). This Java book is an excellent source for learning both Java Programming and OOP concepts. All of the code samples were great and the authors explained in detail what the code was actually doing. I was very pleased and would recommend all of the "Sams Teach Yourself..." books especially to beginners. I have also have the HTML and XML books and they are great as well.
Rating:
Summary: 100% pure fun
Review: How can you complain about a book that gets the object oriented terminology out of the way in the first chapter or two so it's smooth sailing the rest of the way; it has a lot of good humorous examples even your kids will enjoy and I think is the perfect book for beginners or advanced of any level as it's easy on the brain; and then it gradually builds up steam into more advanced topics, professional topics. I loved it. This book is so much fun, you could almost read to the kids at bedtime, and they'll like it too. I especially like the example about the special kind of dragon that feasts on peasants. For example, { if peasant reviewer below == too critical, dragon = hungry }
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