Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Intro to Java for Programmers
Review: This is an excellent introduction to Java for someone already experienced in another programming language (C, C++, etc.). The going can get heavy at times, but Van Der Linden concise style, clear text and humorous attitude make what could be a painful process fun and enlightening.
Rating:
Summary: The BEST language overview book I've ever read.
Review: This is the BEST language overview book I'veever read. It gives excellent background ofthe concepts behind java, and great simple examples. This is NOT a reference book (see Java in a Nutshell for that.) It is a great book for someone who understands programming and what's to answer the question "What's all this java stuff anyway?"
Rating:
Summary: Great book with breadth, but not for complete newbies
Review: This is the third edition of Just Java that I've bought (this review is on the 5th ed), and I've found that the author has always been able to introduce new topics to me in a clear and humourous manner. This book isn't for complete newbies though; it seems targeted for those who already have programming experience and just want to get into Java. Myself, I had already had a university education in comp sci (with C and C++) when I picked up his 2nd edition in 1997 and started learning Java. Since then, these books have taught me basic Java semantics, RMI, AWT, applets, I/O, etc. The best characteristic of this book is that it provides fantastic introductions to a wide range of topics; that is, it has great breadth but is otherwise lacking in depth on each topic. That's fine for me, and probably for most experienced programmers, because typically when learning a new topic, I just want a quick start (including what packages to use, how to get it working, and seeing initial results), and if I need a deeper understanding, I'll look online or buy a more focused book. This is how I've learned almost all my Java. Indeed, I recently bought the 5th edition to start learning about server-side technologies like JSP, servlets, and JDBC. It hasn't disappointed me. One chapter I found outstanding is the one on I/O. The number of Java I/O classes is huge as all Java programmers know because the I/O library sacrifices ease-of-use for extreme generality. The author's explanation of when to use which classes is incredibly clear and is perhaps the best of any Java book I've read at giving you the big picture of the I/O library. I really like this author's writing. His explanations are crystal clear. Example: his step-by-step explanation for setting up the Tomcat JSP/Servlet server was excellent (although some key points have been changed by the Tomcat folks since this book was published). This level of clarity probably comes from the fact that the author is a programmer himself, whereas most of the other intro Java books out there (especially those in the Core... series) are written by university professors or professional lecturers who try to keep everything extremely general. Such generality is not always helpful. In earlier books, the author seemed to intermingle his dry humour throughout the book, but thankfully he seems to have placed such humour only in isolated areas, such as the anecdotes at the end of each chapter.
Rating: 
Summary: Everything you need to start
Review: This isn't the best Java book in the world, but it's a good one for beginners. It explains all of the basic concepts and gives examples that are aimed to be understandable, not impressive. This is sort of the "Turbo Pascal Tutor" book for Java.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent for programmers new to Java !
Review: Who is PVDL? I have to declare a bias with this book, I am a fan of Peter van der Linden. I first came across Peter when reading newsgroup postings in the java.lang.programmer group. He is also the keeper of the most excellent web based Java FAQ at ... Peter is a man with opinions and knowledge and the ability to express them. Peter is possibly not the biggest fan of Microsoft but he backs up all his opinions with good evidence. When I was studying for the Sun Certified Java Programmers exam I used his book for the JDK1.1 as one of my primary texts. When I later wrote a web based tutorial on the subject I found I kept quoting him as he has such an excellent way of expressing technical ideas. Peter worked for Sun Microsystems for 14 years and has around for the birth of Java. In chapter he refers to a meeting in 1996 where he asked a question of the James Gosling, main designer of the Java language. I mention that because it shows how close to the history and development of the language Peter has been. Just Java comes out under the Prentice Hall/Sun imprint so you can assume it has a certain degree of "official" Sun approval. 1077 Pages, no padding This new version of the book book has 1077 pages, nicely laid out with appropriate screen shots and diagrams but with zero wasted space or padding.. There are none of the multi-page rambling code examples that plague some books. Code examples are tight, readable and relevant. It was written for JDK 1.4 and so covers some of the new topics like regular expressions, the assert statement, and the new I/O (nio) classes. The book comes with a CD with some very interesting software, not all of it strictly Java related. It includes the Gnu C/C++ compiler, Emacs, TCL Perl and python language kits. I was slightly taken aback to discover the CD included a complete pure Java based database system called McKoi that I have never heard of before. I was taken aback because I read just about all the discussion forums, magazine articles, announcements I can find and I had never heard of this product before. It looks like Peter was reading more stuff than me. Check out the JdiskReport included on the disk, it is an excellent antidote to the creeping belief that Java is purely for server side work. One of the good things about getting the source code included on the CD is that it avoids the possibility of code being scrambled between author and printed page. I'm not aware of any errors, but every non trivial technical book has them and Peter maintains errata pages for the book. The man can write Peter is an excellent writer, he can bring a topic like Java to life, he writes in a way that blows the dust off. Each chapter has a light relief section with a story or insight into some aspect of the world of software. With a less talented or insightful writer this might run the risk of alienating the reader but with Peter it is an integral component and enhancement to the text. I have been programming in Java since 1998 and I have the version of this book for JDK 1.1. I thought I was well up on developments in the language till I read this book. I read the popular Java related websites such as JavaLobby and JavaRanch but reading this book taught quite a few entirely new things whilst giving some terrific additional explanations of topics I was already familiar with. His insights into I/O and the portability of I/O are specially worth the purchase price. To give an apparently trivial example Peter gives an excellent explanation of packages, access modifiers and directories. He gives an illuminating explanation of how packages are used to solve the problem of name conflicts and how internet domain names are usually used to come up with those names. Throughout the book Peter comes up with useful analogies from other areas of life to explain the concepts used in Java. When explaining the uniqueness of package names he compares with the uniqueness of street addresses. A nice example of his laconic style of delivery is where he says "The Java Language Specification tells us that package names should be formed from Internet domain names. If an organization that is writing software for sale doesn't have an Internet domain name at this point, they should go into some other slower-paced line of work." Another quotable quote is where Peter is explaining just how large are the numbers that can be represented by floating point primitives. "A googol is 10100 meaning that it is only a 1 followed by 100 zeros. Is the largest double precision number bigger than Madonnas capacity for self promotion?. No, we have to admit it probably isn't that big." A single book cannot cover all aspects of Java in depth and Peter errs on the side of covering the basics in depth in the first half of the book and touching on other important Java technologies in the rest of the book. Thus in the first half issues such as Keywords, Types, I/O,Object Orientation, and threading. In the rest of the book some of the more "glamorous" advanced topics are covered in lighter detail such as JSP, EJB XML and JDBC. Many of the chapters have exercises at the end so you can check you really have absorbed the information and the book has heaps of URL's for looking up further information. Who is it for? This is not an idiots or dummies book and no page is intentionally left blank.It is written with a single authors voice rather than a committee. If you don't know what a for loop is or have never come across an if statement this is probably not the place to start. If you have some experience with just about any other programming language, even just a few VBA macros and you have a desire to learn Java, this is an excellent place to start.
| 
