Rating: 
Summary: Great Book- If all u need is to write Hello to Java programs
Review: This book is pretty thick. But I haven't finished the book yet and it has been over a year since I've purchased it. I'm on page 489, and I DON'T intend to finish the (...) thing.For starters, every example in the book shows you how to do one thing and one thing only - how to convert "Hello to Java" to "Hello from Java" and vice versa. I admit that there are plenty of examples that show you the different technical aspects of the language... but all of them do the same freakin thing. I would have preferred seeing some more variety in the examples. Secondly, this book is ANNOYING. Not only does the book only concentrate on one task (and the fact that the task of converting "Hello to Java" to "Hello from Java" has absolutely no place in the "real world" of programming is of no apparent concern to the authors), the book uses the scenario of "the Boss" and "the Novice Programmer" wayyyyyy to much... wayyyyy to much.... wayyyyy too much (Oh I'm sorry... am I being redundant here and ANNOYING?... well the book is much worse). Besides, in the real world, if all my boss is going to ask me to do is to write a program that converts "Hello to Java" to "Hello from Java" and vice versa, I would most likely CONVERT HIM from "my current boss" to "my ex-boss"... and guess what? There ain't gonna be a vice versa to this conversion. Actually, if that was all I could do, it would most likely be me that is CONVERTED to an ex-employee... and no vice versa here either! Although not completely useless if you would sit around and try to imagine the examples given in the book in other programming situations, I have to admit that by half way through the book I have become quite proficient in programming applets that would convert "Hello to Java" to "Hello from Java" and vice versa. If that is all you are wanting to do then by all means this book is for you. By the end of the 1000 or so pages, you should be beyond an expert in that area. My honest opinion: Please don't buy this book thereby supporting such stupid writing styles and teaching methods.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book- If all u need is to write Hello to Java programs
Review: This book is pretty thick. But I haven't finished the book yet and it has been over a year since I've purchased it. I'm on page 489, and I DON'T intend to finish the (...) thing. For starters, every example in the book shows you how to do one thing and one thing only - how to convert "Hello to Java" to "Hello from Java" and vice versa. I admit that there are plenty of examples that show you the different technical aspects of the language... but all of them do the same freakin thing. I would have preferred seeing some more variety in the examples. Secondly, this book is ANNOYING. Not only does the book only concentrate on one task (and the fact that the task of converting "Hello to Java" to "Hello from Java" has absolutely no place in the "real world" of programming is of no apparent concern to the authors), the book uses the scenario of "the Boss" and "the Novice Programmer" wayyyyyy to much... wayyyyy to much.... wayyyyy too much (Oh I'm sorry... am I being redundant here and ANNOYING?... well the book is much worse). Besides, in the real world, if all my boss is going to ask me to do is to write a program that converts "Hello to Java" to "Hello from Java" and vice versa, I would most likely CONVERT HIM from "my current boss" to "my ex-boss"... and guess what? There ain't gonna be a vice versa to this conversion. Actually, if that was all I could do, it would most likely be me that is CONVERTED to an ex-employee... and no vice versa here either! Although not completely useless if you would sit around and try to imagine the examples given in the book in other programming situations, I have to admit that by half way through the book I have become quite proficient in programming applets that would convert "Hello to Java" to "Hello from Java" and vice versa. If that is all you are wanting to do then by all means this book is for you. By the end of the 1000 or so pages, you should be beyond an expert in that area. My honest opinion: Please don't buy this book thereby supporting such stupid writing styles and teaching methods.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the Best, But Not for the Complete Novice
Review: This book stands out among introductory Java 2 books. Each chapter includes an "In Depth" section that covers a specific topic, followed by an "Immediate Use" section that walks you through some real-world hypotheticals based on the topic just covered. I found this approach not only unique, but very readable, even when not sitting in front of the PC. The author's writing style is accessible and clear, and even if I couldn't quite follow something, I found that my questions were answered within a few pages if I just kept on reading. The author claims that his goal was to fit as much Java into a single book as possible, at at 1200 or so pages, it's hard to doubt him. I have read several introductory Java books, and found this the most comprehensive and user-friendly. I will say that, having read some other books first, this material was really easy for me -- this might not be the case for someone who picks this up as a very first Java book. Still, I suspect that this, coupled with Sun's online tutorial "trails," should be enough for anyone serious about a course of self-study. Comparing this with others I've read, I'd say it's much easier reading than the excellent Core Java or Ivor Horton's Beginning Java 2, but much more comprehensive and sophisticated than Java Programming for Dummies, SAMS Teach Yourself Java 2 in 21 Days, or Sun's official The Java Tutorial (A Short Course on the Basics). I must also say that I preferred this to Deitels' Java 2 How to Program, although I have not seen the new 4th edition, which is supposed to be a substantial reworking. Another book to supplement this one is Bruce Eckel's Thinking in Java, which provides a much more thoughtful presentation of object-oriented programming with Java. In short, you really can't go wrong with this book, although if you are completely new to programming, you might require at least one additional very introductory text.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best, But Not for the Complete Novice
Review: This book stands out among introductory Java 2 books. Each chapter includes an "In Depth" section that covers a specific topic, followed by an "Immediate Use" section that walks you through some real-world hypotheticals based on the topic just covered. I found this approach not only unique, but very readable, even when not sitting in front of the PC. The author's writing style is accessible and clear, and even if I couldn't quite follow something, I found that my questions were answered within a few pages if I just kept on reading. The author claims that his goal was to fit as much Java into a single book as possible, at at 1200 or so pages, it's hard to doubt him. I have read several introductory Java books, and found this the most comprehensive and user-friendly. I will say that, having read some other books first, this material was really easy for me -- this might not be the case for someone who picks this up as a very first Java book. Still, I suspect that this, coupled with Sun's online tutorial "trails," should be enough for anyone serious about a course of self-study. Comparing this with others I've read, I'd say it's much easier reading than the excellent Core Java or Ivor Horton's Beginning Java 2, but much more comprehensive and sophisticated than Java Programming for Dummies, SAMS Teach Yourself Java 2 in 21 Days, or Sun's official The Java Tutorial (A Short Course on the Basics). I must also say that I preferred this to Deitels' Java 2 How to Program, although I have not seen the new 4th edition, which is supposed to be a substantial reworking. Another book to supplement this one is Bruce Eckel's Thinking in Java, which provides a much more thoughtful presentation of object-oriented programming with Java. In short, you really can't go wrong with this book, although if you are completely new to programming, you might require at least one additional very introductory text.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Book
Review: This is a really wonderful book for novice programmer. I have read the Java Tutorial book. I bought this book from bookstore, and read it.This book really good.but not enough for Java Certicification.I throw java tutorial to garbage when i get this book. Black book, I found it better on several topics than several other books I read. Exam or no exam, this book makes one an adept at programming in java, which I feel about myself during coding. Highly recommended for an academic understanding of the Java language. It's guaranteed to make you a better programmer (at least much smarter than your colleagues!).
Rating: 
Summary: ok but could be better
Review: This is the third book by S. Holzner of the Black Book series
that I bought. To the others I gave the highest rating, but this book is just
so-so. It does have lots of short input-processing-output samples that I liked best in the previous books; that is, complelte self-contained programs. Unfortunately, especially as the book goes along, it deteriorates into what looks lik just wholesale copying from the
online documentation, with no explanations and no clarifications. Where his sources are obscure, they remain so. Also, lots of the sample programs (especially later in the book)
illustrate just one or two features of the class where it would not have taken much more space to illustrate ten or twelve features (e.g., of the classes that read and write files). It's sad that I can no longer count on S. Holzner to produce books that I can count on being good just because they bear his name and are of the Black Book series.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointingly Shallow
Review: This isn't really a tutorial; it's a reference. In fact, it seems like most computer books I pick up these days are references. That's understandable: a tutorial is much harder to write than a reference. (It's probably harder to sell, too, since a tutorial has to be pretty squarely aimed, so I don't necessarily blame the author.) Of the 1,000+ pages this book, I'd say half just list all the attributes of Java objects, and a good portion of the remaining page consist of code listings showing help-file-level examples of how to use them. In cases where things are built up incrementally, often an entire page of code is repeated to show one or two new lines. It'll definitely boost your ego and possibly your reputation among those who might be impressed by your "reading" of a 1,000 page book in a few hours, and it won't hurt your Java skills. But you won't see any serious Java programs in here either, or learn how to make them, or learn anything about object-oriented design--a pretty important topic if you're going to work in Java. This Black Book is constructed in the form of a running dialogue between yourself--apparently a master of Java already--and a gallery of irritating "characters" like the "Novice Programmer", the "Big Boss", the "Product Market Specialist", etc. Sometimes these dialogues have the right hint of smat-alec, but by page 500, a sense of deja vu sets in, and they begin to seem like a crutch. There are some seriously irksome things about this book, too. A third or more is dedicated to the "Advanced Windows Toolkit" (AWT) of Java. OK, no problem. Java's "Swing" system has taken over from that, but you might still use AWT, right? Except the Swing section begins with a discussion of how bug-ridden AWT was. What? How can I have read a book's worth of material on a subject and this be the first I've heard about the bugs? Swing is relatively glossed over, but not as badly as interfaces, threading, beans, and a bunch of other topics where reading a list of attributes does not give you a good sense of how to use them. I expected a lot more from a Coriolis Black Book.
Rating:
Summary: Too much of it looks like just excerpts from the online docu
Review: Unlike others of S. Holzner's books, this one contains large portions
that look like just excerpts from the online Java documentation,
with no explanations even when sorely needed. There are several
better books, ... The author should remember the rule: give a specific example for EVERYTHING!
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