Rating: 
Summary: Still THE best book for beginning Java programmers!
Review: (Just to let you know I do not personally know and am not affiliated with the author or the publisher of this book.)I posted a review here before. After working through part of this book, I have these additional comments: The book can be useful to both unexperienced and experienced programmers alike. For unexperienced programmers, it might be helpful to read an introductory book on programming before reading this book (as of this writing, both "Sams" and the "For Dummies" series have beginner programmer books that are good). Experienced programmers migrating to Java will also find this book a good way to study the fundamentals of Java. To run the programs that you make from the book, you either have to have something called the Java2 SDK or an IDE. The SDK is a tool that allows you to run your programs on your computer and can be downloaded for free from the Sun Microsystem website. An IDE is a tool that also lets you run programs, but you have to buy it from a store. If you download the SDK, you might have to set something on your computer called the 'CLASSPATH'. I think the SDK documentation explains this. This book will teach the fundamentals of Java. The Java language is a very big language - there are lots of other things you can also learn about Java. However, before you can walk, you have to crawl. This book will teach to how to crawl. A final thing I did not mention in my previous post was that each chapter ends with a "Mastery Check" mini-test with different kinds of questions. What is cool is that they also have questions that ask you to write mini-programs, and the sample answers are in the back of the book.
Rating:
Summary: THE book for beginning programmers to learn Java!
Review: (Just to let you know, I do not personally know and am not affiliated with the author of this book or the publisher.) I just bought this book, and I cannot agree more with the previous poster (a reader from Arizona). At first, I was skeptical, thinking that it it would be just another "teach yourself book". But, after a cursory view, as of this writing, this is probabaly THE best book for people with little or no programming experience to use to learn the basics of Java on their own. This book looks like a masterpiece as far as teaching a beginner how to program in Java. The author Herbert Schildt seems to really have spent a lot of time figuring out how to present what could be difficult material to learn and simplify it for beginners. He seems to have limited the amount of difficult "computer jargon" in the book and instead explains everything using plain English. This isn't a book that you just read; it contains a lot of clearly explained step-by-step exercises and projects as the book goes along to allow the reader to practice what he/she is reading. The book is extremely well-organized and thought out. I can't believe I'm writing this, but I think he has actually produced a book that will make it fun for a beginner to learn Java! The font type is of the friendly sort, and he smartly uses bold typeface to emphasize important terms. He also includes little dialogue boxes within the coding presentations to explain material. The book also contains quick drill questions (with answers at the bottom of the page) to reinforce blocks of material and "Ask the Expert" boxes where a reader can delve deeper into a topic. And he also explains everything efficiently and consicely. I even like the cover of this book; I think it has nice and non-intimidating colors. The book isn't really a reference, rather it is a study tool. I suppose one could use it as a reference. (However, I bought his The Complete Java2 Reference 4th Edition, and I'll probably return it for now and buy it later if I do a lot of Java programming. As a study tool, this book seems better). I might write another review after I finish working through this book.
Rating:
Summary: A great book !
Review: A very basic but the same time very informative book! A must for all those who want to learn Java step by step!
Rating: 
Summary: Overall, it's a good book
Review: After reading Herbert Schildt's "C the complete reference", I am convinced that he is a succinct writer, who teach programming in a shrewd way. Schildt is adept at organizing complicated materials in a concise structure and at home concealing some disturbing technical details from his readers. The manner helps beginners grasp the main idea and swiftly put the knowledge into practice. But, on the other hand, advanced programmers will consider his book oversimplified. This book, "Java2 a beginner's guide", inherits both the merit and deficiency his teaching style provides. As far as I am concerned, Module1 through Module8 teach both the basic programming concepts and the OOP well, especially for those who come from structure programming background. And Module9, the Exception Handling, clearly introduces this Java subsystem as well. Still, those drills and exercises do help reinforce what has been acquired. Nevertheless, Modules for using I/O, Multithreaded Programming, and Applets are disappointing and need more supplementary contents. Overall, it is a good starting line for Java programming.
Rating:
Summary: Darn good book.
Review: Alot of what schildt tells you is readable, and is presented in a way that makes sense.
Rating:
Summary: Super Book
Review: As an introduction to Java programming, this book has no equal. Its artful orginization and pristine writing actually make it simple to learn this complex language. Just its creative use of font styles, text shading, and imbedded code commentary outshine the other half dozen books on Java that I've read. Besides its excellent formatting, the books clear, concise, and yet rigorous explanation of Java's rules and regulations present the logic of the language's design in a manner anyone can appreciate---from first timers to veteran hackers. Most definitely, this should be your first Java book. Five stars!
Rating:
Summary: Super Book
Review: As an introduction to Java programming, this book has no equal. Its artful orginization and pristine writing actually make it simple to learn this complex language. Just its creative use of font styles, text shading, and imbedded code commentary outshine the other half dozen books on Java that I've read. Besides its excellent formatting, the books clear, concise, and yet rigorous explanation of Java's rules and regulations present the logic of the language's design in a manner anyone can appreciate---from first timers to veteran hackers. Most definitely, this should be your first Java book. Five stars!
Rating:
Summary: Great for the beginner!
Review: Excellent learning tool! After checking out as many Java books as the library systems in our surrounding three counties had to offer, I believe that this one was the most readable and understandable for a beginner like myself. I found that the chapters stayed focused on their topics while building on each other in a straight forward manner. Technical jargon was used only after it had previously been introduced. There weren't the continual comparisons and references to predecessor languages that other authors seem to regard as useful, even though, most beginners in java today probably have no background in those languages.
Rating:
Summary: A Must for serious beginner who has no programming
Review: First, I would like to correct what one the of reveiwers mentioned that the author of this book made a mistake on the topic 'overloading' which was wrong, the author is correct as Please note that (*****important) "overloading methods" is also a means by which the same method name in the same scope can be used to do different things, it is not polymorphism. With overloading the determination of which method is actually called is determined at compile-time, not run time. At the same time, I strongly recommend "Beginning Java Object" from wrox, and you will fall in love wtih that book. Go take a look of both of them With different from "polymorthis" the determination is ar run-time, and cannot be done at compile time. This the only java book that I did reveiw for this year which is best fit a beginner who really wants to start learning well in Java. The materials covers are very well orgainized and easy to understand.The expert questins remind you the critical points for using java. The nested loop section is very comprehesive and practical reference. For eg. the explanation of using Array variable and Function Array in Java is different from other languages as meanwhile you have to ceate an object and it walks you through from the ground in a easy understandabe way with deep knowledge. I did check out few beginning Java Books like the black book which did not tell you the critical point for creating an Array variale. You better check them our first before buying any of them. But i agree with other comments from those reviewers. For myself, I really like this book and want to say thanks to the author of this book.
Rating:
Summary: Great beginners book
Review: Having a little C++ experience helped, but even to a beginning programmer, this book stands apart from the crowd. Being a Computer Management major, I have had to read and study my fair share of poorly written programming books. With this book I was able to get a grasp of Java concepts and apply my knowledge of C++ to gain an understanding of this language.
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