Rating: 
Summary: Top of the hill
Review: I am professor of Java technologies at University of Palermo Buenos Aires. I found this book a very complete guide to professional developement. Many cross-reference tips included for those people who already write code in another OO-language. Clear examples and notes about what happen behind the scenes below the underlaying platform. Very good for experienced programmers. Not for beginners.
Rating: 
Summary: Old wine in new bottle?
Review: I bought this book thinking that there will be a lot of new stuff as compared to the previous version - Core Java 1.1 Advanced features. Although a couple of new chapters have been added, the book basically presents the material and examples from the previous edition wrapped with "Swing" wherever applicable. If you already have a copy of Core Java 1.1 advanced edition and you been curious to visit the Sun's Java tutorial Web site for Swing and Java 2D examples, it is really not worthwhile buying this "Swing" wrapped edition.Plus, with books available in today's market that exclusively cover each of the topics presented in this book, I wonder what is it that is "advanced" one would learn from this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Buy this book!
Review: I have been training "Advanced Java" in companies and colleges for the past 4 years. With many new compiler versions, development tools, books, CDs, in the market place, it is difficult to get focus. This book is a little old using JDK1.2.2 not SDK 1.3 but the coverage is still excellent on JDBC, EJB, Advance SWING, Servlets, etc. Any developer needs to get deeper knowledge, other advanced books are required. Let me know if there is a book on Java applications in PDA or Cell Phone interface. Thanks. Don Hsu from NYC
Rating:
Summary: Good, but gets a bit boring
Review: I have read both the Volume one and Volume two of this series and I must say that this book lacked some of the excitement of the first book. The first book did a great job of getting one involved in JAVA and provided clear examples for those that have written C and VB. Gone are the VB/C++ user tips. Some sections are just very unclear like JDBC where I had to resort to other materials to figure out driver configurations and how to actually get a driver for the database I am using. The book is still otherwise well written and does retain some of the magic of it's first volume. The networking chapter in particular was very good as was the coverage of Advanced Swing concepts.
Rating:
Summary: Much Less Than Expected
Review: I purchased this book in Feb. 1999. The first time through, the book seemed like a decent read, but now it sits undisturbed on my bookshelf. I cannot recommend that anybody spend their money on this book. "Java 2, The Complete Reference" by Naughton and Schildt is a much better book than this one. That book covers all topics spread between vol 1 and vol 2 and does so in a much more complete and readable manner. Some of my issues with this book: * Many basics of Java programming are omitted from this volume (example, most of the collection classes are pushed into the "advanced" volume). * The example based approach leaves many topics covered incompletely. * The coverage of Swing in this volume is too incomplete to be useful (half is in vol 1 and half is in vol 2). Most of this material should be removed, as Swing is a large enough topic that is should (and is) covered by separate books. * The thick stock makes this 700 page book thicker than other 1100 to 1200 page books I own. * In general, the format of this book makes it very difficult to locate information. The bold VB, C++, Note and Warning blocks distract the reader from the real content. At one time I was mad about the delay in releasing the vol 2 version. I had read somewhere that the "advanced" volume would be released within a couple months of the "fundamentals" volume. This did not happen. In retrospect, I am glad that I had the time to evaluate this volume before wasting any more money. Note that I own the 1.2 version of this book. Things may have changed significantly between this and the latest version, but I doubt it.
Rating:
Summary: A great taste of java
Review: I really enjoyed this book, particually after reading the first volume. The authors style is easy to understand and the the examples are excellent.
My only problem with this book is the lack of detail, you really just get a taste of a subject before moving on. The authors really know there stuff and i highlly recommend this book, i just wanted more!
Rating:
Summary: A great taste of java
Review: I really enjoyed this book, particually after reading the first volume. The authors style is easy to understand and the the examples are excellent.
My only problem with this book is the lack of detail, you really just get a taste of a subject before moving on. The authors really know there stuff and i highlly recommend this book, i just wanted more!
Rating:
Summary: Used for an Advanced CS course - it's Great!
Review: I use this book (and its Volume I) for a course I teach at the University of Delaware. It's wonderul. It's definatly written with the experienced programmer with lots of experience but none in Java in mind. You can really pick Java up quickly with this book and it makes a good reference material as well. If you already know how to program and want to learn Java and experience the powerful features of the language and the APIs and class libraries that come with the Java 2 SDK, then this is the book for you.
Rating:
Summary: Used for an Advanced CS course - it's Great!
Review: I use this book (and its Volume I) for a course I teach at the University of Delaware. It's wonderul. It's definatly written with the experienced programmer with lots of experience but none in Java in mind. You can really pick Java up quickly with this book and it makes a good reference material as well. If you already know how to program and want to learn Java and experience the powerful features of the language and the APIs and class libraries that come with the Java 2 SDK, then this is the book for you.
Rating:
Summary: Not bad but not perfect!
Review: I was a little harsh reviewing Vol I. but find Vol II a bit better. Vol II dispenses with most of the fluff and get's straight to the point. This book is good for the intermediate developer who really understands the language - I didn't feel Vol I really taught you the language and found books more formal on the topic. When you decide to expand into more advanced areas of java this book will give you a great overview. However, the depth of each topic covered is just enough to allow an individual to accomplish the - bit more than - required task. An example is the chapter on RMI: the author does a great job of conveying how RMI works and successfully deploys a single JVM application. However - as another reader stated - there are issues when deploying as a client/server (two seperate pieces). These issues are not fully addressed. I don't blame the author for not digging deeper into each subject matter. Java is such a robust language that an author would have to have a series of 6-10 volumes (similar to the Cisco engineering set) to completely cover everything. My recommendation is buy the book to get a grasp on important (semi-advanced) features and look for alternate resources for more coverage. SCJP2
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