Rating: 
Summary: Amazing introduction to Object-Oriented Programming
Review: Jacquie Barker has done all people interested in programming a big favour by writing this amazing book. The main things I loved about this book were its a. tempo and b. conceptual clarity. The book wisely starts with an overview of objects and then quickly gets you up to speed on the basic syntax of Java. Then the book spends a great deal of effort on doing a much more thorough introduction to object concepts, very well-ordered and explained, than I've seen done anywhere else. These chapters are worth the price of the book alone. Once this is done, the book then actually goes into good design practices, providing the context for objects (major bonus). Afterwards, the book goes back into Java nitty-gritty. Throughout, a Student Registration System is featured - consistently and clearly.This is a very elegant, informative, thorough book. Most programming books either dive into too much detail too quickly or leave conceptual loose-ends. Jacquie's book, by contrast, is remarkably lucid and well-organized. She also has a great sense of humour. I'd recommend this book to anyone either learning programming or who wants a fantastic review of objects.
Rating:
Summary: Unlike any other introduction to Java
Review: I've found that many other texts on introductory Java get you started by saying Hello to the World as soon as the first chapter of the book. Barker takes a different approach by giving just a little "Taste of Java" by executing System.out.println("Wheee!!!!") in the introductory chapter. However, from then on very little new Java syntax is seen until Chapter 13, leaving us wondering what happens in the intervening chapters 2-12? As the title suggests, this book is not merely an introduction to Java, but an introduction to objects in Java. These first dozen chapters provide an introduction to object modeling, which every Java programmer, if not every object-oriented software developer, should understand fully. This is where the fundamental concepts of abstraction, classes, object instantiation, method invocations and even inheritance are first introduced, only to be re-introduced as Java-specific syntax later on in the book. Unlike the many other books written on learning to program Java, Jacquie Barker takes the time to make sure the reader understands how to design an entire system in an object-oriented fashion from scratch, by painstakingly taking apart the customer requirements list, specifying use cases, identifying classes and designing both the static hierarchy and the dynamic behavior of all the classes that will be involved. She spends these dozen chapters making sure all that is understood and even drawn out in UML or any similar modeling notation way before the system is to be implemented and actually built. Chronologically this would be what would happen in the real world anyway. There then is no better time to dive into Java syntax and learning the language well than after this extensive object introduction where we are finally ready to program. Obviously the principle of having a sound design reverberates throughout this book. So many times have I attempted to start coding in Java without first using pencil, paper, and my brain. Oh how I wished I had this book at my disposal then. The final part of the book deals with details that make Java useful and unique, such as single inheritance, casting, exceptions, I/O, garbage collection and even Swing, as she introduces these concepts while detailing how to transform the UML model you have just created into actual Java code. The books intended audience seems quite broad, aimed at developers who lack a sound object-oriented design knowledge to students learning both Java and OO for the first time. Personally even with my 4 years of Java experience, this book still did a fine job of finding and filling in gaps in my knowledge of OOD. One thing to note is that this book seemed to me to be best read from cover-to-cover, not so much as a reference guide you would thumb through. Leave David Flanagan's Nutshell series on your desk for that purpose.
Rating:
Summary: Good book for begininers
Review: I am doing a course in computing and AI and have had no programming experience before university. I found that I understood the examples in the coursework and recommended reading (Deitel and Deitel), but when it came to writing programmes myself I was confused about syntax etc. This book gave a much more comprehensible explanation of what java sytnax meant, and how object oriented programming works. I would recommend it to anyone beginning programming in java, especially those with no prior programming experience. I also think it would be helpful to those with no experience of OO languages.
Rating:
Summary: Unlike any other introduction to Java
Review: I've found that many other texts on introductory Java get you started by saying Hello to the World as soon as the first chapter of the book. Barker takes a different approach by giving just a little "Taste of Java" by executing System.out.println("Wheee!!!!") in the introductory chapter. However, from then on very little new Java syntax is seen until Chapter 13, leaving us wondering what happens in the intervening chapters 2-12? As the title suggests, this book is not merely an introduction to Java, but an introduction to objects in Java. These first dozen chapters provide an introduction to object modeling, which every Java programmer, if not every object-oriented software developer, should understand fully. This is where the fundamental concepts of abstraction, classes, object instantiation, method invocations and even inheritance are first introduced, only to be re-introduced as Java-specific syntax later on in the book. Unlike the many other books written on learning to program Java, Jacquie Barker takes the time to make sure the reader understands how to design an entire system in an object-oriented fashion from scratch, by painstakingly taking apart the customer requirements list, specifying use cases, identifying classes and designing both the static hierarchy and the dynamic behavior of all the classes that will be involved. She spends these dozen chapters making sure all that is understood and even drawn out in UML or any similar modeling notation way before the system is to be implemented and actually built. Chronologically this would be what would happen in the real world anyway. There then is no better time to dive into Java syntax and learning the language well than after this extensive object introduction where we are finally ready to program. Obviously the principle of having a sound design reverberates throughout this book. So many times have I attempted to start coding in Java without first using pencil, paper, and my brain. Oh how I wished I had this book at my disposal then. The final part of the book deals with details that make Java useful and unique, such as single inheritance, casting, exceptions, I/O, garbage collection and even Swing, as she introduces these concepts while detailing how to transform the UML model you have just created into actual Java code. The books intended audience seems quite broad, aimed at developers who lack a sound object-oriented design knowledge to students learning both Java and OO for the first time. Personally even with my 4 years of Java experience, this book still did a fine job of finding and filling in gaps in my knowledge of OOD. One thing to note is that this book seemed to me to be best read from cover-to-cover, not so much as a reference guide you would thumb through. Leave David Flanagan's Nutshell series on your desk for that purpose.
Rating:
Summary: This book is a godsend...
Review: Jacquie, thank you very very much for writing such a brilliant book! It is truly a god send! It is the best programming book out there! and I have read dozens and dozens. I've read ivar jacobson's oose book and grady booch's ooad book, plus roger pressman's software engineering book. Those three together are nowhere near as useful for me - as a java programmer - as your book has been. there aren't enough books like this one; one that explains both, the language and the concepts behind implementing the language, very well. i have learned the hard way. just knowing the syntax of the java language will get you nowhere. you've got to know how to implement the language in a systematic way. this book is exactly what a beginner java programmer needs. i sincerely wish i had this book when i was first learning object concepts. in fact one of the many reasons i enjoy reading it so much is because, even though i understand objects and java, your book sort of paraphrases the concepts for me in a way that makes me grok them even more than i thought i had. in particular: that helium balloon analogy is absolute genius on your part. now, if i had references explained to me that way when i first started learning objects, i know i would have got it immediately. a lot of beginner java books do not explain references clear enough. they are usually explained in a way that makes you think the author is more interested in impressing computer science professors instead of clearly illuminating a new concept in terms an absolute beginner can grasp. you have hit the nail on the head! you are a very talented teacher and writer. i disagree with the reader from hong kong, april 18 2001. i think (s)he overlooked the subtitle of the book, "From Concepts to Code". i think that reader, like myself when i was new to java, made the mistake of thinking that learning the syntax of the java programming language is the same as learning object orientated concepts. they're two different things. as a concept, object oriented analysis and design came before the java programming language. it seems logical then, to me at least, to learn how to apply the methods covered in this book such as, use cases, modelling, notation, etc, if you hope to ever become truly competent in java. with this book i have finally grokked object oriented analysis and design concepts. the syntax of any given language is more or less secondary in the larger scheme of things. I will be able to use what i learn from this book with the java, perl and lingo programming languages. i can't say that for laura lemay's java books. thanks again. please write more books like this!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent introduction to object-oriented concepts and Java
Review: Technical and didactical perfect - forget all this costly vendor courses - thanks Jacquie :-)))
Rating:
Summary: Two Thumbs Way Up
Review: I give this book a solid, very solid, 5 stars. Be forewarned, however, this book requires discipline. Ya gotta wanna study. There are plenty of books, on the market, that will teach you the semantics of java programming. But, what if you are asking yourself, "Why do professional java developers write their code the way they do?" The answer is because they intrinsically know OO methods and techniques. YOU WON'T LEARN THAT FROM A JAVA SEMANTICS BOOK. Ms. Barker's book takes a different tack. She spends 293 pages, of a 665 page book, explaing WHY the pros do what they do. You don't even touch a source code editor before page 293. That's why I say this book takes discipline. However, those who stick with it, will be amply rewarded. Source code for the book is available at http://www.objectstart.com and you can even contact Ms. Barker herself if you've got specific questions. If java represents your first foray into OO technology, do yourself a huge favor and read this book. You, absolutely, will not reqret it.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book!
Review: This book is an excellent choice for being introduced to Java. The analogies the author uses really help the user understand the concept of object oriented programming. You could also apply these analogies to other OO programming languages. In my opinion, all books on programming should be written like this. It would definitely help with the curve of learning other programming languages..
Rating:
Summary: It shows you the picture on the box
Review: Many books give you the pieces of the puzzle, but Jacquie Barker's Beginning Java Objects shows you the picture on the box. If you want to learn Java, this is the book you should read first.
Rating:
Summary: Great way to understand OO
Review: This book is great for self-study. In essence the book teachs you Java through the backdoor. The first portion of this book is dedicated to objects with enough basic Java code to serve as a gentle introduction. The latter portion is dedicated to coding what you have modelled. I have played with several non-OO languages for many years. Being old school, I never appreciated the benefits objects bring until working through this book. Now I understand the how and more importantly the why of it all. There are too many fun things OO can help you do to be constrained to the old ways of doing things. This book is a great start. After study you will know quite a bit about the OO paradim. If Java is what you want to work with you will probably want to get a good intermediate book dedicated to it, AFTER you have read this one.
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