Rating: 
Summary: excellent for beginners
Review: I had (unfortunately) bought a couple other Java books before this one. After starting them and having to put them down, then go back and forth between them to get an accurate representation of the concept they were describing, I happened onto this book. So far, it has been the most comprehensive, thorough, and accurate of ANY Java book that I have looked through. I am only on page 277, and aside from a few minor typos and errata, I highly recommend this book to those who are new to Java, like myself. I have a programming background on the AS/400, so OO would have been daunting had it not been for this book. My only complaint--the pages should have been thicker to prevent highlighter from bleeding thru to the facing page!
Rating: 
Summary: Well written and comprehensive
Review: This book is a fantastic book for anyone thinking of working with Java2. Although, I feel it would be easier if you have programmed before, don't let that deter you from giving it a glance. For me ( with absolutely no OO or Java knowledge), this book has been great especially if you like explicit and detailed explanations.Among the better books on Java2. You won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Good book for Programmers
Review: The title is abit misleading. I my self program in MARKIV and COBOL, and found this book very useful in helping me to learn JAVA programming. My friend on the other hand wanted to learn JAVA, with no programming knowledge and found it to be extremely useless. If you have no programming knowledge I suggest another book. My only beef is that he goes into too much detail on little things like variables. On the other hand great to learn concepts like OOP when coming from a structural programming backround. Also if your only desire is to lean applets this book may not be for you, the book builds from the bottom up and teaches the foundation of the language before getting into the more advanced stuff.
Rating:
Summary: Review of another review
Review: The review by PK (Washington DC) is utterly incorrect. "Just Java" presumes a higher level of initial understanding than "Beginning Java 2." I would use other reviews to critique this book, and ignore his uninformed bash.
Rating:
Summary: The title is" Beginning Java 2"....
Review: This book is for programmers who want to learn programming in Java... The title is so clear if you concentrate on it before buying the book.. please do not make negative comments on it without thinking because too many people buy books before reading this comments... I don't mean this is the best java book but after examining 4 books before this one, I have seen that they all start from the beginning and prove that you are learning something but they dont really explain whats going on behind the scenes... I suggest this tome to all programmers ...
Rating:
Summary: An Outstanding First Java Book
Review: This book is outstanding. With very little programming experience, I have been able to read and understand the book. There are lots of example programs and workable end of chapter exercises. I would highly recommend this book for anyone interested in learning Java.
Rating: 
Summary: Not for beginners
Review: I read several reviews and against my better judgement, bought the book. Beginners should buy something like "just java" or if you are an ex (I use the term loosely) cobol programmer, consider "Java for the cobol programmer".
Rating:
Summary: This is a good book
Review: This is a good java book. You have to FINISH reading the first 5 chapters before you can judge it. Okay its wordy, okay the examples s**k, and yes you do work on the console for 7 chapters of this book. However, if you READ it and read it slow, you will gain a solid understanding of the Java language that you can NOT get from other Java books. Buy this book !
Rating: 
Summary: GOOD BOOK BUT WORDY
Review: Good book if you want to read 300 pages to find out how to write text on a DOS prompt! Anybody can read this book. I bought this book when I was 15 (about 6 months ago) and reading off and on I am about half way through this book. I am only 16 and I am still going through high school, yet I can understand what is going on, So when I read about these 35 year old college graduates with computer science degrees and programming degrees saying it is too hard....they are just lazy. If you are in no hurry to read this book, you CAN learn JAVA! The only prior programming experience that I have is HTML, Dynamic HTML, and Javascript....ALL FROM WROX! Wrox publishes good books, and this is one of them! Some things he talks about he doesn't explain too much, and other things he explains to an extreme! If you are up to reading all 1000 pages, then you can become a good JAVA programmer, even if you are a beginner to JAVA.
Rating:
Summary: OK, but not for absolute novices with IQs less than 140
Review: I have mixed feelings over this book. Firstly, apart from being interested in Basic programming on an Apple 2e, some 15 years ago at high school, I have had no further experience in programming. Most reviewers of this book were much further along the path than I was when I started and unfortunately still probably are. So I am a true (almost) beginner of Java, not a beginning Java programmer who doesnt mention that he's a professional C++ programmer or 3rd year computer science major. I wanted to learn programming primarily as a hobby, specifically to draw fractals. And for some reason I chose Java! This book is good for at least the first half but then things get (it seems to me) unnecssarily complicated and I have learnt more from the online Sun tutorials re. GUIs and listeners (and much more quickly) than I have from the specific chapters on them in this book. I guess I havent approached it in a very linear fashion but then like most people I'm impatient and want to find how to do something I want to do NOW rather than type in a 1000 lines of example code and then probably still not understand. I have somehow managed to create an interactive applet that draws mandelbrot and Julia sets but I still don't feel really confident about objects so creating an application of same is proving puzzling. If you were doing a structured course in Java this book would probably be more helpful than it has been to me. There have to be better books than this for absolute novices like me who still want to do something interesting. Good luck!
|
