Please ignore my review below
In the meantime, I've scrutinized the book more thoroughly. I've written the 1st review after comparing moslty the I/O and AWT chapters, the two being the worst of most Java books (and these two chapters are still as worse as they were in the 1998, Java 1.2 edition). As these chapters were similar to the previous edition, I thought the entire book is just a rehash too. However, other chapters are really updated, which I will also write about in the next review to be posted soon.Werner Zsolt.
Mediocre Introduction to Language
I wanted a book that for an experienced C++ programmer that would not waste time teaching me what a class is, etc. It did that, but unfortunately covers waaaay to much ground to be really practical to learn how to actually write code without additional reference material.There are long coding examples presented with little explanation, which the reader is expected to spend hours deciphering and then say "voila, that's how it works."
Major concepts lacking. For e.g, nowhere could I find an explanation of when you have to use "throws" in a declaration.
The index is a joke. Try to look up Vector, implements, throws, Set...not there!
Overall, very dissapointing and flawed.
Although slightly thought provoking in its tactics, the main theses were misconstrued. There were many instances of erroneous teaching methods which led to unfavorable results. This book does have its bright sides, mainly pertaining to general layout of the book. The relation of Javascript to C++ makes the book very difficult to comprehend. Overall, as a Javascript programmer, I would not recommend this book to anyone.
Almost the same as the 1.2 ed - useless for a beginner
Read what I wrote about the previous, 1.2 edition here on Amazon. The book has not been changed much - it just has a new cover.What is missing from my review (the 1000-word limit has cut out the last 3000 words) is that the book is definitely NOT suited for a beginner. Just an example> check out the I/O and the AWT chapters. No beginner will understand them - even books like Lemay's Teach Yourself Java 2 in 21 Days are much more comprehensible.
You can buy this book if you already know the language and are eager to discover the differences between C++ and Java (too bad only the first 4 chapters emphasize them, the other chapters spend NO words on C++ at all), you can give it a try. Or just get the previous (and, therefore, cheaper) edition, as it's alsmost the same as this one...
Very good book. Exactly what the title says.
The index is throughly useless, but otherwise the book is great. I gave it five stars because, for once, the examples really helped. He gives you a practical example of just about everything you could expect from a book of this size. Its easy to read - plus, its organized so you can skip sections you're not interested in and then later go back. I'd really like to see more books like this out there.
(7 reviews)
