Rating: 
Summary: Java for Real Business Applications!
Review: Finally there is a Java book for serious programmers doing real life business applications. Although the first five chapters must be read sequentially to ground the student in Java syntax and to understand the conceptual base of OOP - subsequent chapters may be taken out of order with little or no loss in the conceptual continuity. The examples and the projects are about real business implementations and not about toys, shapes or animals barking. The code examples work - and the explanations are direct, easy to read and lead the reader to total comprehension. This book is not only for anyone who wants to learn how to program in Java (including those with no previous programming experience) - but for the seasoned Java programmer as well. It was the first time topics such as Date, Array, Vector and the file IO classes were covered to expose the depth and power underlying them. After using several books that boast of "being the best" to learn Java 2, I have concluded this latest publication really is the best book on the market. When used in a classroom the material is seamless and the exercises work toward reinforcement. The book can also stand alone for the independent learner or the Java programmer who wants a deeper understanding. Don't be fooled by the title "beginning java 2" - this book is 700 (8x10) pages and it covers advanced topics such as Swing Layout Managers, JDBC and threads.
Rating:
Summary: BLOWN AWAY BY JAVA 2! :-)
Review: First I would like to state that I am new to Java but not new to programming. I have a background in Visual Basic, VBScript and Oracle. I looked into Java about a year ago but was never able to find a good book or tutorial on the language. This book is it! I bought it a week ago and I am already writing useful programs "not toy!" I understand the syntax, the author does a GREAT JOB of explaining the terms and there are plenty of excellent examples! It starts with the basics and builds on each lesson in a clear and thought out lesson plan which by far is not boring at all! I am convinced that if I keep at this pace I will be a Junior/Entry-Level Java programmer in no time! I had read one "21 day" book prior to this one and got lost in the pages, but this book is not only a learning tool, but a reference manual. Thanks! Java World here I come!
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent overview of Java for people new to OO Programming
Review: Given the fact that NO book can be comprehensive enough to teach everything, as well as the fact that it takes practice, practice and MORE practice writing code to become proficient, this book IS one of the finest I have seen in getting a person "ramped up" quickly. I initially purchased Sam's Teach Yourself Java 2 in 21 Days and found it to be convoluted, difficult to follow and full of inane examples that were not applicable to the "real world." Invariably I find that I get halfway through these books and give up, because they do not address my needs. I understand that it requires tremendous detail to understand ALL the theory behind the language, but that is not what I am looking for here. I can get that by augmenting my study with different source material (for example, Sun's tuturial on their web site (...) is extremely helpful, but it takes MONTHS to get through from beginning to end. This book is good because it allows one to be able to produce functional, practical programs in a relatively short period of time. It is a good entry point which can be enhanced as one pursues the subject in greater depth.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Way to Learn Java!
Review: I'm glad this book was our textbook for a four month Java course at our local technical college. As a student, I appreciated this book's very practical, "How to" approach to learning Java. The book's 2-page format put A clear, "How to" commentary on the left page along with illustrations, code, and tables on the right page. Exercises and projects follow the text. The instructor's package included Power-Points that mirrored the text, making it easy to follow. I especially appreciated how the author brought her insights as a working programmer to her commentary and selection of illustrations and projects. The CD-ROM enclosed with the text included SDK 1.4, Java API documentation for SDK 1.4, source code & data for all the examples and exercises in the book, and two different IDE's, TextPad (very cool little tool) and Sun's Forte...everything you need to learn by doing. I'm looking forward to studying Andrea Steelman's next book, Murach's Java Servlets and Jsps... just as soon as I pass my Java Programmer's exam!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Way to Learn Java!
Review: I'm glad this book was our textbook for a four month Java course at our local technical college. As a student, I appreciated this book's very practical, "How to" approach to learning Java. The book's 2-page format put A clear, "How to" commentary on the left page along with illustrations, code, and tables on the right page. Exercises and projects follow the text. The instructor's package included Power-Points that mirrored the text, making it easy to follow. I especially appreciated how the author brought her insights as a working programmer to her commentary and selection of illustrations and projects. The CD-ROM enclosed with the text included SDK 1.4, Java API documentation for SDK 1.4, source code & data for all the examples and exercises in the book, and two different IDE's, TextPad (very cool little tool) and Sun's Forte...everything you need to learn by doing. I'm looking forward to studying Andrea Steelman's next book, Murach's Java Servlets and Jsps... just as soon as I pass my Java Programmer's exam!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Way to Learn Java!
Review: I'm glad this book was our textbook for a four month Java course at our local technical college. As a student, I appreciated this book's very practical, "How to" approach to learning Java. The book's 2-page format put A clear, "How to" commentary on the left page along with illustrations, code, and tables on the right page. Exercises and projects follow the text. The instructor's package included Power-Points that mirrored the text, making it easy to follow. I especially appreciated how the author brought her insights as a working programmer to her commentary and selection of illustrations and projects. The CD-ROM enclosed with the text included SDK 1.4, Java API documentation for SDK 1.4, source code & data for all the examples and exercises in the book, and two different IDE's, TextPad (very cool little tool) and Sun's Forte...everything you need to learn by doing. I'm looking forward to studying Andrea Steelman's next book, Murach's Java Servlets and Jsps... just as soon as I pass my Java Programmer's exam!
Rating:
Summary: Best I've seen for a non-object-oriented programmer!
Review: I've been programming for over 25 years, the majority in COBOL.
That's where I first heard of Mike Murach's books and, although
I hadn't seen any recently, I remember them as being among the
best books for learning computer languages. I was really pleased to see that this one is no different. Java's
been scaring me for a long time, after an abortive attempt to
learn C++. But Andrea Steelman makes learning Java as easy as I think it's possible to make it. Concepts are introduced one very
small chunk at a time, and examples and illustrations are more
than plentiful. I run a site called BestOfJava.net and I've made this book our
Editor's Choice for learning Java.
Rating:
Summary: Best Java2 Book for a beginner
Review: I've been struggling to learn Java for a few months now. I started out with other popular books and found the examples confusing and ridiculous. Finally, a book with examples I can understand! I also found the text to be well written and easy to comprehend.
I recommend this book to anyone who has no programming experience at all or to those who want to learn object-oriented programming in Java.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent first Java book
Review: Learning Java without a teacher can be a treacherous task. Murach's books teach you what you need to know, one topic at a time. The author does not overwhelm the reader with complexity. If she's teaching public, private, and protected access modifiers- she'll teach each one (at a time) when it is needed- and explains why it's needed- and why the alternative choice is not used.
The author is not intent on impressing the reader with her knowledge. Rather, she covers the topics slowly and with care. By the end of the book, one has a solid foundation in Java 2.
If you've been coding in Java, this book isn't for you. If you're new to Java, this is the best investment you can make; even Deitel's books take backseat to this one. Kudos to Andrea Steelman, the author.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Start with JAVA
Review: On the front cover of this book it asks, "Know the basics?". I know the basics and my first questions when evaluating any beginning JAVA book is how do they handle GUIs and Threads. Scanning the table of contents I found "How to display a frame" and "How to close a frame". In Chapter 11 on page 339 are two short classes that display the frame. On page 341 you add a few lines to the LoanCalculatorFrame class and you can close the frame. There is a mention of threads, but not a long explanation. At this point you just want to know how to display and close a frame. An extensive discussion of threads is left for Chapter 20. That little bit of information from Chapter 11 would have saved me hours when I was acquiring the "basics". Another great time saver that I didn't think of is on page 28. "Why we don't recommend using an IDE when you're learning JAVA." I use IDEs all the time, so I started with Forte for JAVA. That means I was learning two languages at the same time. Not a good idea. Learn JAVA first before you take on Forte. This book is a great way to do that. I used TextPad, included on the CD with the book, to edit, compile, and run the applications. That worked very well and is easy to learn. My advice to students of programming languages is to write small programs and make them all work. I was able to do that with the samples in this book. I recommend keying the code from the book, not copying the code from the CD. Keying the code gives you a chance to learn to debug your inevitable typos and other errors. TextPad is a great help in debugging the code. In Chapter 13 I encountered a problem it took me awhile to find. The Book Maintenance application in this chapter uses the binary file books.dat as a data source. All of the classes compile without error, but the application would not execute. I got a FileNotFound exception. The file was there, right where it should be. Why couldn't the application find it? I had copied the file from the CD. The copy had a read-only attribute so the application could not update the file. When I turned off the read-only attribute the application worked as expected. That is not the first time I have made that mistake. Each time I make it, it takes me less time to find and fix it. Everything you need to run the applications in this book is on the CD that comes with it. It is a very effective learning tool. I highly recommend it.
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