Rating: 
Summary: Decent Book....But
Review: what they don't stress is that this is a text primarily aimed at beginning Comp Sci classes. Though you can use it as a professional, I've found that a lot of the more challenging things are left to the exercises at the end of chapters, which they don't supply the answers to, unless you have the teacher's manual which of course you can't buy without a Prentice Hall rep. They will however supply the answers to half the exercises in a companion CD called their Cyber Classroom, but that's an additional cost. Which definitely pushes the book into a price range way above most books designed for IT professionals. So if you're required to buy this book for a class, it's a decent textbook, but if you're a professional looking to buy a book to teach yourself Java 2 I feel there are better more cost effective books available.
Rating: 
Summary: Best Series on Programming
Review: This is by far the best introduction to Java. I've also read the C++ books and they too are excellent. Most of the computer science students I speak with use the Deitel books, and for good reason, they're comprehensive text books. I've read a lot of books on programming and these are by far the most well thought out and extremely well documented, with lots of examples, quizes and code. Don't let their deceptively simple mascots, 'the bugs' fool you, this is an extremely sophisticated book. Buy this book, you won't be dissapointed.
Rating: 
Summary: don't buy this piece of sh-t
Review: This thing is full of errors. The examples don't run, so it's very frustrating. They obviously didn't bother to check their code. Verbose, un-edited and un-tested. You can find better books for half the price.
Rating:
Summary: Great book for beginners
Review: I used it for a class I took and loved it. Very thorough with a lot of useful examples.
Rating: 
Summary: Classroom text
Review: This book was one of the 2 required books for my class on Intro. to Obj. Oriented Prog. So far it appears to be an excellent book. Each line of code is explained thoroughly and, so far at least, nothing is just presented and the student left there to wonder why it's there. Extensive use of color in both illustrations and text makes the book much easier to follow in my opinion. Since I'll need this book for at least 2 courses, I hope that I continue to feel as positive about it as I do now. Seems to be an excellent choice for a textbook.
Rating:
Summary: New to Java?... this 4th edition is great!
Review: The format of the book is excellent. Written from a point of view that assumes very little, the usefulness of this book in my programming career has been great. I am new to Java, but not new to programming. So, I really appreciate all of the code samples on the CD as well as the easy-to-understand examples. They compile and run just as expected. Also, the color-coded source code examples are a great improvement over the 3rd edition. If you are learning Java, like me, you must have this book!
Rating:
Summary: Terrible as a Text Book
Review: I have some experience programming in Java for real world solutions. I decided to take a junior college course in Java to solidify my understanding of the concepts. This book was the required text for the course and I found it to be a complete waste of money. It seems that the authors spend much of their time asking the reader to mimic code and saying that they'll explain later in another chapter. Then when you come to the so called "detailed explanations" they seem to talk in circles. The exercises at the end of the chapters are often related to topics which they've dedicated around 3 lines of text and no code samples - this greatly decreases the entry level Java student's chance of succeeding. This book is an expensive waste of money.
Rating:
Summary: Well Done
Review: I am very happy with this edition of the Java How To series. My school uses the 3rd edition which I did not like at all. When I got my hands on the 4th edition, I could not put thr book down and I was always at my computer running the examples in the chapters. I feel that this is an excellent book for people that want to learn the basics of Java and some prior programming experience.
Rating: 
Summary: Swinging in the shrubs
Review: The book is improved over the prior edition. Currently, I use the book to teach introductory Java and it works for most students. However, the introduction of Swing components from the 2nd chapter is a mistake for two reasons. First, it leads many students to miss core concepts while focusing blindly on copying Swing logic into sample programs. Second, Swing should follow AWT not lead it so the dependencies of Swing on AWT can be clearly understood. In short, the topic sequencing can be improved.
The audience for this book should have a basic understanding of program logic, control structures and a solid introduction to object-oriented design otherwise it may confuse the reader. This is not a beginners book, especially if used for independent study of Java.
Rating:
Summary: Could use better typesetting for accessibility.
Review: I don't think I need glasses. I regularly print documents at 75% and keep my monitor resolution at 1280 by 1024(20-inch). But with the combination of thick fonts, glossy paper, and no line spacing between paragraphs, the book gives me eyestrain after reading a page or two. The book is best not read under strong florescent lights. (This comment is about the third edition)
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