Rating: 
Summary: It does the job but short on examples.
Review: I am new to programming except a couple of lessons in BASIC which I took almost 20 years ago. I have a business degree but I always wanted to get into coding just for my own fun. I bought this book because I wanted to get the easiest there was out for a total beginner who wants to self-study. I selected JAVA following some programmers' advice because it is a great and relatively easy language to get into without getting too much frustration right when you don't need any... at the beginning.I must say the book did a good job satisfying my basic goal. I do understand some major concepts and I was already been able to do my own little and very basic programs. So far I flew through the chapters. I am currently at Ch 9 out of Ch 13 in 12 days spending 6-8 hours with it every day. I flipped through the next chapters and I can see the most difficult part of this book is behind me. If you don't want to read the rest, than let me state right here that I do recommend the book. For $28 you can't go wrong, it is definitely worth it. Unfortunately I still can't give 5 stars for the following reasons: This book indeed is easy to understand, too easy. I think if you have been good at subjects like math or any subject involving logic, this book might not be enough. I felt the book was not dense enough for me.
The author uses a dialog like method where you learn through the questions of other students of him. While the conversations are easy to follow, after a while they become predictable and repetitive. Due to this classroom atmosphere often only a few lines of actual core information is included per page. My guess is that the total page count could have been cut down by 40%. Sometimes you feel you want to jump a line but since there are no text book style summaries, or definitions highlighted as one would expect it, you never know when you will miss an important point. For the same reason I had hard time referring back to, or locating a specific item even with the help of the index. Apart of a handful of figures, notes, and tables the major body of the book is text, mostly conversation. My biggest problem however is the lack of examples. There are example lines of code in every chapter but they are very simplified and it is hard to understand their real life value or how a specific item can be useful in a different situation other than printing out a line to the console. I would have loved to see less "chit chat" and more examples after each new concept. But the way this book goes is: You get a new concept, then you see how you can display "I love Java!" in a more and more complex way, your main project gets updated with this new concept at the end of each chapter (but it still does the same function). The consequence of this is that you can't always see real life value, when at the same time you do understand the concept. I had to come up with my own little programming ideas (i.e. a financial calculator) through which I managed to tie some loose ends. Another shortcoming was that the book did not tell me how to set up my Win XP for JAVA. It was not difficult to find the needed info on the internet, but I can see how some real beginners would have problems setting up paths under XP. There is some URL mentioned to Sun's site but only a half page of text out of the 500 pages could have saved me some 2 hours of frustration trying to make the complier work. Final verdict in short: This book is a good intro book. It provides a good an understandable frame of the major concepts but one must do practice examples to make the concepts stick. I have already ordered my next JAVA book from Dietel with the example collection. So I feel ready to advance to the next level thanks to this book. Well... after all the above.... Professor Smiley did teach me some JAVA from scratch. My criticism is due to the fact that I feel with some additional and colorful examples, and with a little less conversation this book could have been: 1. lot better
2. shorter
3. as a result of #2, involve more concepts
Rating: 
Summary: NOT FOR EXPERIENCED PROGRAMMERS
Review: I bought this book based off of the review's here and was greatly disappointed. Partially, it was my fault. I should have read the title of "Learn to Program" and realized that this isn't a very good book for highly experienced VB programmers. To start, I can't understand why an authur would write a book using the style Mr. Smiley did. The book is a Diary of his classroom experience teaching Java. For example, "I suppose," Peter said, "we could write seperate Java programs for different..." You get the idea. It is a narrative, complete with dialog between him and his students. The end result is you get about 150 pages of content in a 600 page book. And most of that is weak. My only guess is that he record a class he was teaching and he scribed the transcrips along with his personal thoughts and notes. It really makes for a complete waste of ink that could otherwise be used to add additional content. Beyond that, it is really slow. Chapter one discusses SDLC in detail. Of course he makes the textbook academic assumptions that the SDLC must be done this way or a project won't work. The third chapter is wasted, I mean used, to discuss data types. 56 pages dedicated to the differences between an int and a double and a String as well as math functions. That could have been covered in 2 pages. In the end the book takes you through one project. You will not be able to get a job based on this book, but it should prepare you for your next book, that is if you make it through this one. 2 stars because it probably is a good book for complete novices. But if you are an experienced programmer who is used to using advanced books books from other publishers like Wrox. Do get this book.
Rating: 
Summary: The best Programming books
Review: I have used John Smiley's other books, so picking one for Java was easy when I saw he wrote one for Java. Its great. I love the he uses the class approach and talks as though you are a begginer. With other books, you get a 'Hello World' type demo and by the 5th page of the first chapter they have you trying a 1000 line multiplattform program and not knowing why. Try it and you will see what I mean.
Rating:
Summary: Very good book for Learning or Reviewing Java
Review: I just finished reading the entire Learn To Program With Java book by John Smiley and I have to say, this is a great book to either learn Java or review Java.
I read this book primarily to review Java from taking some university courses. This book is just as good as taking a college course in Java. I was able to understand concepts provided by John Smiley's text better than my university class. So, I highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: If you are a beginner
Review: I just spent 7 days (mostly all day long for each) going through this book. It is the 3rd book on Java that I have read. I have a better understanding and grasp on Java that I have ever had. John writes in a great classroom style that reads like a novel - with code snipets. I feel comfortable now moving forward into the world of Java. The one drawback is that he has not written a second book.
Rating:
Summary: The best book I've seen for Java learning
Review: I just want to thank John Smiley for writing the book "Learn to Program with Java"!
It's great, and a fantastic way of getting the subject over that doesn't leave you thinking "...but how did you make that leap??" or "...where did that come from?" and the classroom format I find really useful as it has a more 'real world' feel and the author has obviously heard all these questions from his students. I've not yet come up with one that hasn't already been discussed in the book!
I have 4 or 5 books or other 'learning aids' for Java and none have them have enabled me to really get to grips with, let alone get enthusiatic about, Java! (or any other programming language for that matter!!)
I'm not a programmer by profession (I'm a mechanical engineer) but I have long wanted to learn. I find the subject fascinating but until now have found it almost inpenetrable with too much jargon and 'geek-talk' in those books I have tried.
I haven't yet finished the book/course, but progress is good and I wanted to tell all potential purchasers that John Smiley managed to open a window that has so far remained firmly closed. I would be happy to recommend this book to anyone who asks, and will do so whenever I get the chance!!
Rating:
Summary: The best book I've seen for Java learning
Review: I just want to thank John Smiley for writing the book "Learn to Program with Java"!
It's great, and a fantastic way of getting the subject over that doesn't leave you thinking "...but how did you make that leap??" or "...where did that come from?" and the classroom format I find really useful as it has a more 'real world' feel and the author has obviously heard all these questions from his students. I've not yet come up with one that hasn't already been discussed in the book!
I have 4 or 5 books or other 'learning aids' for Java and none have them have enabled me to really get to grips with, let alone get enthusiatic about, Java! (or any other programming language for that matter!!)
I'm not a programmer by profession (I'm a mechanical engineer) but I have long wanted to learn. I find the subject fascinating but until now have found it almost inpenetrable with too much jargon and 'geek-talk' in those books I have tried.
I haven't yet finished the book/course, but progress is good and I wanted to tell all potential purchasers that John Smiley managed to open a window that has so far remained firmly closed. I would be happy to recommend this book to anyone who asks, and will do so whenever I get the chance!!
Rating:
Summary: Like Being In Class
Review: I like the fact that this book was more light-hearted in it's teaching approach. All too often technical books are just that, too technical, putting you to sleep after reading page after page of computer code. This book, however, gives you the technical experience to understand Java and it's syntax, but does it using a "classroom experience" approach, including student-teacher dialogue, that breaks up the monotony often found in the average techno-manual. I would highly recommend this book to a first-time Java student or anyone wanting to get into their first experience with object oriented languages.
Rating:
Summary: Like Being In Class
Review: I like the fact that this book was more light-hearted in it's teaching approach. All too often technical books are just that, too technical, putting you to sleep after reading page after page of computer code. This book, however, gives you the technical experience to understand Java and it's syntax, but does it using a "classroom experience" approach, including student-teacher dialogue, that breaks up the monotony often found in the average techno-manual. I would highly recommend this book to a first-time Java student or anyone wanting to get into their first experience with object oriented languages.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent book for Java beginners
Review: I picked up this book as a self-study resource to prepare myself for a graduate program in systems analysis. Prior to reading this book, my only experience with programming was learning Pascal more than 10 years ago, as a minor subject for my business degree. I browsed several Java books before coming to this one, and none of them came as close as this for being layman-friendly. Professor Smiley does not assume you know anything about Java. As you read his book, you just have to visualise yourself sitting in one of his Java classes. He used a fictitious scenario to illustrate how Java can be applied to solve a real world problem, so you don’t have to learn or think in the abstract. Your fictitious fellow classmates asked questions that you yourself are likely to ask (a big plus if you are the kind of student who is too shy to ask questions in class), Professor Smiley is brilliant in anticipating questions â€" a knack which he developed over many years of teaching programming. The explanations are concise, but they don’t compromise on important concepts. You won’t become a master programmer after finishing this book, but it does give you a strong foundation on which to further develop your Java knowledge. If you have to take the first step in Java, take it here.
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