Programming for Everyone in Java

Rating:
Summary: Good intro to programming book
Review: I recently bought this book while looking for books for my younger brother to learn programming with. I bought this book as a bridge between him knowing nothing and him starting in on "Thinking in Java" by Eckel. It is aimed towards someone new to programming who needs to get basic concepts common to any language (loops, I/O, variables, breaking a problem into pieces, etc.) and covers up throught the beginnings of O.O. It is a well thought out book and has exercises that range from relatively easy to challenging. It will be most helpful (like any intro book) combined with an experienced programmer to ask questions of. This book will not teach you all of the cool new features of Java, but if you have little to no prior programming experience, this will help you.

Rating:
Summary: Good intro to programming book
Review: I recently bought this book while looking for books for my younger brother to learn programming with. I bought this book as a bridge between him knowing nothing and him starting in on "Thinking in Java" by Eckel. It is aimed towards someone new to programming who needs to get basic concepts common to any language (loops, I/O, variables, breaking a problem into pieces, etc.) and covers up throught the beginnings of O.O. It is a well thought out book and has exercises that range from relatively easy to challenging. It will be most helpful (like any intro book) combined with an experienced programmer to ask questions of. This book will not teach you all of the cool new features of Java, but if you have little to no prior programming experience, this will help you.

Rating:
Summary: terrible
Review: I'm sorry, but I've never had a worse textbook for a programming class. I actually took this class at Syracuse University with Professor Hansen, but it didn't help much. My advice for most readers out there would definitely be not to buy this book. It gives little to no explanation for any action keywords that are used in java, and in order to use the book, you have to get his own special text program to use the classes he calls for. The one redeeming factor is the examples in the book, which are not plentiful, but are well thought out and insightful. But on the overall, don't buy this book!

Rating:
Summary: terrible
Review: I'm sorry, but I've never had a worse textbook for a programming class. I actually took this class at Syracuse University with Professor Hansen, but it didn't help much. My advice for most readers out there would definitely be not to buy this book. It gives little to no explanation for any action keywords that are used in java, and in order to use the book, you have to get his own special text program to use the classes he calls for. The one redeeming factor is the examples in the book, which are not plentiful, but are well thought out and insightful. But on the overall, don't buy this book!

Rating:
Summary: Insightful & funny exercises
Review: It is an interesting book to read and the examples, exercises make it lots of fun. Quite readable all through.