Rating: 
Summary: Underrated at 5 stars
Review: Maybe it's unhelpful to say every java programmer needs this book Period, but it really is indispensable, at least in the first few weeks. When programming, nothing should really be vague, and this book has the advantage over the online Javadocs (at java.sun.com/products/jdk/1.2/docs/) for having the little implementation notes. For example, it mentions some tiny, fairly interesting things about Enumerations that aren't mentioned online.On the other hand, the advantage of the Javadocs is that they are newer. I just looked at Enumerations while typing this, and noted that the Iterator interface may be a halfway interesting replacement. Important? I don't know, but much of programming is the accumulation of little things that strikes one in little ways. And you can't cut & paste from the book, which is a much more reliable way of entering text than typing. But the examples are nice, and you can lug the thing around pretty well.
Rating:
Summary: Best Java book since their last Java book. Glarefree paper!
Review: Oh, when it comes to bookin' Javie in a fashion super-marvy, Boy, no other gang is gamer than your Chan and Lee and Kramer! Watch while they exemplify, explicate and amplify! They know just how to make it clear - so take a seat - don't interfere... And once you've weathered every page, you'll be a Vee one Point two Sage! (And this book's paper's very nice - those glossy ones outglared my eyes.)
Rating: 
Summary: A must have book for the beginner
Review: The 1.st sentence of the preface says: "This book is intended as a reference rather than a tutorial". Well for an experienced Java programmer this is certainly true, but for a novice who has just grasped the fundamentals of the language and starts to write down his first lines of code this book is an excellent tutorial. Every class has a description and practically every method of every class has its example code where nearly every line is documented, with links to related methods. Looking into these examples one can quickly learn tips and tricks smoothing the learning curve a lot. The Chan's book is miles ahead, in my opinion, the unuseful example codes one can freely download from the Sun's internet pages, full of magic words comining from blue skyes not documented at all, where one has to figure out what any of them is useful for and where you are on your own. One more time: what I say is true for a novice; the senior Java programmer may feel at his ease with the API's documentation of the Sun's JDK.
My last warning: since in Java things change often this kind of books goes into obsolescence quicky. For instance: my copy is the 5th edition (October 2001) and it lacks completely the new Collections class framework.
Rating:
Summary: A must have book for the beginner
Review: The 1.st sentence of the preface says: "This book is intended as a reference rather than a tutorial". Well for an experienced Java programmer this is certainly true, but for a novice who has just grasped the fundamentals of the language and starts to write down his first lines of code this book is an excellent tutorial. Every class has a description and practically every method of every class has its example code where nearly every line is documented, with links to related methods. Looking into these examples one can quickly learn tips and tricks smoothing the learning curve a lot. The Chan's book is miles ahead, in my opinion, the unuseful example codes one can freely download from the Sun's internet pages, full of magic words comining from blue skyes not documented at all, where one has to figure out what any of them is useful for and where you are on your own. One more time: what I say is true for a novice; the senior Java programmer may feel at his ease with the API's documentation of the Sun's JDK.
My last warning: since in Java things change often this kind of books goes into obsolescence quicky. For instance: my copy is the 5th edition (October 2001) and it lacks completely the new Collections class framework.
Rating:
Summary: A must have book for the beginner
Review: The 1.st sentence of the preface says: "This book is intended as a reference rather than a tutorial". Well for an experienced Java programmer this is certainly true, but for a novice who has just grasped the fundamentals of the language and starts to write down his first lines of code this book is an excellent tutorial. Every class has a description and practically every method of every class has its example code where nearly every line is documented, with links to related methods. Looking into these examples one can quickly learn tips and tricks smoothing the learning curve a lot. The Chan's book is miles ahead, in my opinion, the unuseful example codes one can freely download from the Sun's internet pages, full of magic words comining from blue skyes not documented at all, where one has to figure out what any of them is useful for and where you are on your own. One more time: what I say is true for a novice; the senior Java programmer may feel at his ease with the API's documentation of the Sun's JDK.
My last warning: since in Java things change often this kind of books goes into obsolescence quicky. For instance: my copy is the 5th edition (October 2001) and it lacks completely the new Collections class framework.
Rating:
Summary: A must-have for all serious Java developers
Review: The Java Class Libraries series is the one set of books that all serious Java developers should have on their desk at all times, and this volume is no exception. Great stuff...on one hand I wish they would turn them out faster but on the other hand I appreciate them taking the time to get it right.
Rating:
Summary: wonderful, marvelous, buy, buy, buy
Review: There is a reason this book is rated so highly. It is worth every penny you will spend on it. I would pay double the price, but don't tell the publisher. This is my favorite reference book, and my Java programming would not be as productive without this book. The book is huge, because it covers every class within the standard library (io, net, lang, etc.). As much as I appreciate the O'Reilly Nutshell book, this is far superior to that book. This has something Nutshell doesn't. Context. Not only does it have all the classes with all their methods, it puts each method in context. It shows you how they are used by providing relevant example code and descriptions. And the descriptions in the book are wonderful. You will look up a class and find a related class that will work better for your needs. I especially recommending getting this book for a team of developers. Leave the book in the room for office use. If you can so afford, get it for each developer. This is like the Post-it note. You would never live without it, even though you managed and may have even done well before it came along.
Rating:
Summary: wonderful, marvelous, buy, buy, buy
Review: There is a reason this book is rated so highly. It is worth every penny you will spend on it. I would pay double the price, but don't tell the publisher. This is my favorite reference book, and my Java programming would not be as productive without this book. The book is huge, because it covers every class within the standard library (io, net, lang, etc.). As much as I appreciate the O'Reilly Nutshell book, this is far superior to that book. This has something Nutshell doesn't. Context. Not only does it have all the classes with all their methods, it puts each method in context. It shows you how they are used by providing relevant example code and descriptions. And the descriptions in the book are wonderful. You will look up a class and find a related class that will work better for your needs. I especially recommending getting this book for a team of developers. Leave the book in the room for office use. If you can so afford, get it for each developer. This is like the Post-it note. You would never live without it, even though you managed and may have even done well before it came along.
Rating:
Summary: A Very Cool Book!
Review: This and Vol 2. are the best collection of Java References that I have ever used. I couldn't imagine programming in Java without them.
The examples are short and to the point. I also like the alphabetical listing of all the packaged classes rather than by package.
Rating:
Summary: The Premier Java API Reference Book Series
Review: This and Volume are the premier Java 1.1 reference books. Every bundled Java class library is covered in an easy to read format. It is trivial to find the information you are looking for in this book. The book part is that the book has an unbelievable number of example programs. It's great; you just look up what you need and get syntax, explaination and example code all in one spot. They are my favorite Java reference books and highly recommend them to any serious Java programmer. Out of all my Java books, these are the ones that I find the most useful.
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