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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Summary: MURACH JSP
Review: SIMPLY SUPERB. WAVVV. NEVER SEEN SUCH A BOOK. NO WORDS TO APPRECIATE
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Summary: A "Must Have" for business application developers!
Review: This book has taught me more in the first 175 pages than the first 500 pages of most other Java books!! This is the only book I have seen which spends its entire first chapter providing step by step instructions for setting up a Java environment so that you can get started learning Java immediately. Topics that frustrate beginners and novices alike, including setting path variables, package creation, and using Sun's JAR utilities, are explained in such a way so that you spend your time developing your business applications and not being bogged down by minutiae. The exercises are well thought out and present real examples of how to not only approach the development of Java applications, but also how to go about maintaining existing code - as a Java professional would. The Murach approach to writing textbooks really pays off when applied to learning Java. Detailed, but concise paragraphs are featured on the left hand page, while bulleted items and useful screen captures populate the right hand page, including the step by step instructions and examples that will save you hours of head scratching and frantic page turning. This is a fantastic book by Andrea Steelman, and another home run for Murach and Associates!
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Summary: The Worst Book Written about Java2 Ever
Review: This book has very confusing explainations along with convoluted logic and poor examples. The editor of this book should give me some money back due to all the spelling errors I found. Page after page of grammatical errorS and a reference to example 10-4, blah, blah,....The whole right-side page is the Example! The author has a poor imagination about naming variables and objects. Can you imagine tying to figure out what a constructer is with an example like Book book=new Book ? Can't you create more imaginative examples about explaining constructors or Objects or Inheritance? Objectobject refers to object....RIDICULOUS. My background is VB and some of the concepts are similiar to VB but this author has NO CLUE about writing a WELL-WRITTEN book aimed at people that are not C++ Programmers! Please don't waste you time and money on this book.
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Summary: Excellent book to learn Java and OOP.
Review: This book is well written, well organized, and includes real-world business examples which other java books tend to lack. The double page layout is extremely helpful when the book is used a reference later on. (Explanation on one page, example code on the other.) I really liked the fact that they include JDBC and other database connectivity examples. This is rare in most beginning books, but is essential to building serious business applications. After going through the exercises I finally feel comfortable with Java sytnax and Object Oriented programming. Andrea Steelman and Mike Murach have done an outstanding job with this book.
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Summary: Still using it for Advanced Java class!
Review: This book rocks. I was fortunate to take my first java class after this book had been published. The author tells you in a straightforward manner everything you need to know - and no more. There's certainly enough to learn about java without a bunch of filler to clutter your mind. One day trying to learn a new topic, I referenced the official book for the advanced class. After about 15 minutes of digging I thought, "For cryin' out loud. Just tell me how to do it and show me an example!" Picked up Murach's Beginning Java 2 and sure enough, it did just that. Delighted to see there's another book on the way from Andrea Steelman (with Joel Murach), Murach's Java Servlets and Jsps. Can't recommend it highly enough. If you're interested in Java and are not already an expert, get this book. You'll be using it for years to come.
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Summary: Writing is Fantastic! Easy to understand and learn
Review: This is an excellent introduction to the Java programming language. This book has several good things about it that make it an excellent resource for the inexperienced programmer. First, it is simple and easy to follow. Second, it allows the inexperienced programmer to quickly start writing programs. Third, it covers only the basics avoiding anything that would make learning more difficult than necessary. The book works by concentrating on how things work. Sections are entitled, "How to work with the String class, " "How to catch exceptions, " etc. The book gives brief descriptions followed by practical examples. However, the book needs to be updated. Although the cover says that it include version 1.4, only the CD has been updated, not the book itself. Inner classes are given brief mention and the discussion of local classes is reduced to a sentence. The Collection and Map frameworks are not mentioned at all. Only the Vector class is discussed and that is only given four pages. On the positive side, JDBC is discussed as well as file I/O and threads. Overall this book is very good for the person with little or no programming experience wanting to get some practical knowledge of Java. Other books might provide more information and be more current but they are also more difficult to follow. You are unlikely to find another book that has as much hand holding as this book. If you want to learn Java and would prefer a book that will gently teach you the basics then this book would make an excellent choice.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent for the novice
Review: This is an excellent introduction to the Java programming language. This book has several good things about it that make it an excellent resource for the inexperienced programmer. First, it is simple and easy to follow. Second, it allows the inexperienced programmer to quickly start writing programs. Third, it covers only the basics avoiding anything that would make learning more difficult than necessary. The book works by concentrating on how things work. Sections are entitled, "How to work with the String class, " "How to catch exceptions, " etc. The book gives brief descriptions followed by practical examples. However, the book needs to be updated. Although the cover says that it include version 1.4, only the CD has been updated, not the book itself. Inner classes are given brief mention and the discussion of local classes is reduced to a sentence. The Collection and Map frameworks are not mentioned at all. Only the Vector class is discussed and that is only given four pages. On the positive side, JDBC is discussed as well as file I/O and threads. Overall this book is very good for the person with little or no programming experience wanting to get some practical knowledge of Java. Other books might provide more information and be more current but they are also more difficult to follow. You are unlikely to find another book that has as much hand holding as this book. If you want to learn Java and would prefer a book that will gently teach you the basics then this book would make an excellent choice.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent beginner's book
Review: This is the most practical beginning JAVA 2 book I have ever seen.
If I saw this book first, I would not have wasted money (and time) on 6 other books!
This one is highly organized, clear and very effective as a learning tool.
Mr. Murach, please publish an Advanced JAVA 2 with the same writing style !
Rating:
Summary: Writing is Fantastic! Easy to understand and learn
Review: Two thumbs up! Why can't all publishers adopt this style of practical writing. I wish I had purchased this book to supplement my teacher's Java Programming class. It would have literally saved me hours of frustration. I think Murach books will revolutionize how to write computer programming book. They clearly have a knack of explaining something complex into simple terms - extremely effective writing. This publisher KNOWS what frustrates readers and absolutely saves you from that experience. They even offer a satisfaction guarantee that their book is well written. Wow.
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