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Summary: Yet Another 5-star Review
Review: This is just a great book for the Java programmer who has mastered the language first before buying this book, and who now wants to learn all the advanced techniques and pitfalls that would be discovered in 5 hard years of programming experience, but who would like to learn this in 50 days instead of 5 years. This MUST-READ book will become one of the classics in the Java literature. I can't wait for Volume 2, "Advanced Effective Java". OK, I made that up that title. And think of the 3td book, "Effective J2EE"! Then, "Advanced Effective J2EE"! And Volume 5, "Effective Object-Oriented Design with Java". Wow!
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Summary: Absolute must-have
Review: Every Java developer MUST have this book. You will learn a lot with relatively little effort. I have worked with Java since late 1995, and this book has taught me a lot. If it taught Gosling, it will teach you.
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Summary: Useful tips, tricks and
Review: A very readable book that an aspiring developer should read after mastering the basics of Java. The contents is well-thought out, Java specific, and thus very good. No fluff here, and it does live up to the expectations set by C. Meyers! It won't turn you into a Java guru (for that, you need to know the core libraries very well - collections, networking, threads), but will move you in that direction quite a bit.
I loved the sections on Methods Common to All Objects (an equivalent of the 'canonical form ' in C++), immutable objects (author presents coherent reasoning behind them, it got me thinking and I saw the light!) exceptions (this is a very pedestrian topic, the advice is excellent and time-saving). Also, the typesafe enum pattern was very good.
The book is very well written and a real treat. Definitely buy it as your second or third book on Java :-)
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Summary: Good but not Extraordinary
Review: This book was alright, and good. But in comparison to other books with the same theme, such as Practical Java it was not extraordinary. Still it does contain a few gems for java.
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Summary: Comparable to Scott Meyers' Effective Books
Review: I was initially skeptical about this book because I felt the adoption of Scott Meyers' Effective title was a gimmick. But this book lives up to the high standards set by Meyers' work. It uses a similar itemized style to present information in easily digestible chunks. Each item is useful in it's own right, filled with insights from a veteran Java programmer.The best thing about the book is the concrete examples Bloch provides from the Java APIs. He is honest about where they went right and where they went wrong. The only thing I can find wrong with the book is the chapters on threads and synchronization as I don't use those features of Java these days. But when I do, I'm sure I'll be happy to have them.
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Summary: Not Just another 'How To' Book
Review: While many java book will give cookbook instructions on how to use some aspect of the API, Effective Java focuses on principles that span all of java. There are many 'rules' of java, such as always overriding hashCode when you override equals. Voilating this isn't caught by the compiler or JVM, yet will introduce many subtle bugs into your code if ignored. Mr. Bloch addresses the types of fundamental best practices that are easy to overlook in the rush to learn the latest API This is the one book that every java developer must read.
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Summary: Mandatory reading for Java developers
Review: This book is targeted for intermediate to expert Java developers. The book itself is very well written, with clear examples and references between related sections. A lot of the content focuses around how you develop good public APIs - but as the author notes these practices improve the quality of your program in general. There is also tons of other information pertaining to commonly used idioms, patterns and anti-patterns. Not only is this mandatory reading for anyone who is serious about writing beautiful, well performing, maintainable code in Java, but also very useful for programmers in general. I've developed a public API myself and through experience realized a lot of my follies. Unfortunately you are committed to supporting those follies since your API is public. I could really have used this book three years ago! This book is a classic.
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Summary: Good points but a bit heavy handed
Review: I cannot disagree with any of the points Mr. Steele makes in his discussion of best practices. He gives examples of what to do and what not to do. However, if one were to attempt to follow all the guidelines laid out in the text, it would increase programming time quite a bit. I suppose, with experience, many of the suggestions would become second nature. Overall, a very good text that explains many Computer Science/OOP topics in a Java context. Worth the price.
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Summary: Theoretically Grounded Practical Advice
Review: Having read Chapter 3: Methods Common to All Objects, which is available along with Chapter 5 on developer.java.sun.com, I'm going to buy the book. Like other chapters, the third is loosely organized into a series of essays vaguely labeled as "Items", the generic naming of which is a direct insult to the genre that brought you rules, propositions, theorems, corollaries, conjectures, desiderata, axioms, patterns, and even tips. Chapter three's contributions include Item 7: Obey the general contract when overriding equals, Item 8: Always override hashCode when you override equals, Item 9: Always override toString, Item 10: override clone judiciously, and Item 11: Consider implementing Comparable. Not exactly forceful advice. Luckily, Bloch's content rises above the item-oriented organization. Taken together, the suggestions in the third chapter provide a clear and well-reasoned articulation of the citizenship requirements for a good Object as imposed by the Java class libraries.
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Summary: Great book!
Review: I like this book a lot. All the discussed topics are highly relevant and useful. For example, when to throw checked and unchecked exceptions, and what are the many benefits of writing immutable objects. The sample codes and the arguments are very convincing. One of the features that distinguish this book from most other CS books is that the presentation is so thorough and complete. This gives the book a quality one usually only finds in the best academic texts. However, this doesn't mean the book is just academic. On the contrary, I've found nothing purely theoretical about the book. The author seems to know exactly what are crucial to programming in Java and programming in general. In summary, it's a great book. I've found much joy and benefits in reading it.
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