Eclipse: Step by Step

Rating:
Summary: unbelivable...
Review: As an profession software engineer for 15 years, I feel the need to update my review for new comers to the programming side of engineering... Learning is an long and expensive process, but no one should pay high price (this book is an example) to learn basics of installations, the meaning of menus and how a particular dialog box works, how to right click to bring up a context menus. These type of operations are everywhere on your computer, that you don't need to pay again to learn it. Just read the 'help' and following the tutorial should work for a programmer, or a programmer to be.

To get experience, one has to learn the proper way. One can't simply appreciate 'Agile software process' at the time beginning studying data structure, network theory and begain to use one of the major programming language. You learn step by step, but the meaning of 'step by step' doesn't mean you read such a book for using an IDE.

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totally unbelivable for such a book to be published and sold at this price. I am not sure what kind of programmer will need such a tutorial book for eclipse, had he/she ever learned how to program in school. But if you do buy it to get started, I doubt if you could ever get a programmer job.

For such a book, it may take a few Computer Science students a week from start to finish. If you need 3 pages of screen shot to tell you exactly how to click on a menu item, this is the book for you, and I'd suggest just read it at bookstore; you can finish reading in an hour and shop for a real Eclipse book.

Rating:
Summary: unbelivable...
Review: As an profession software engineer for 15 years, I feel the need to update my review for new comers to the programming side of engineering... Learning is an long and expensive process, but no one should pay high price (this book is an example) to learn basics of installations, the meaning of menus and how a particular dialog box works, how to right click to bring up a context menus. These type of operations are everywhere on your computer, that you don't need to pay again to learn it. Just read the 'help' and following the tutorial should work for a programmer, or a programmer to be.

To get experience, one has to learn the proper way. One can't simply appreciate 'Agile software process' at the time beginning studying data structure, network theory and begain to use one of the major programming language. You learn step by step, but the meaning of 'step by step' doesn't mean you read such a book for using an IDE.

-----
totally unbelivable for such a book to be published and sold at this price. I am not sure what kind of programmer will need such a tutorial book for eclipse, had he/she ever learned how to program in school. But if you do buy it to get started, I doubt if you could ever get a programmer job.

For such a book, it may take a few Computer Science students a week from start to finish. If you need 3 pages of screen shot to tell you exactly how to click on a menu item, this is the book for you, and I'd suggest just read it at bookstore; you can finish reading in an hour and shop for a real Eclipse book.

Rating:
Summary: A good choice for the right target audience...
Review: As part of my preparation for an Eclipse presentation later this month, I reviewed Eclipse Step-By-Step by Joe Pluta (MC Press). For someone with absolutely no exposure to the package, this will help you get started.

Chapter list: Welcome to Eclipse!; Installing Eclipse; Introducing the Workbench; The Resource Perspective; The Java Perspective; The Debug Perspective; A Simple Program; Running and Debugging; The User Interface; Adding the Database; Install a Java Runtime; Install Winzip; Download Eclipse; On Things GUI; Start Your SQL Engines; Index

I think to understand this book's style, you have to know the target audience of the author. He wants to show working code and examples that are well commented, and he wants to walk you through the steps involved in a task. He also wanted to show how Eclipse works from a Java perspective, even if the reader doesn't know Java. That's why you can type in the code he provides, or you can import it from the CD. The steps are very detailed with tons of screen shots to show you what each step should look like. Things are taken in bite-size chunks, so that really *anyone* could understand and use Eclipse by the time you get done with this book. If you have any experience with Eclipse already, you probably won't get much out of this book that you don't already know. But the beginner will be able to work through this material with no problem.

The argument could be made that there is too much handholding and screen shots of things that people have seen millions of times already. In addition, the screen shots are large. They take up a lot of space and make the book larger than it probably deserves to be. For a $60 book, I think I would have tried for smaller images and more content to make up the 362 pages. Experienced IT professionals might think it's too much step-by-step detail, but then again the hard-core IT person probably isn't the target audience. Finally, once you work through this material, you'll want to get a more detailed book on Eclipse to learn how to use the tool with all the whistles and bells. But at least you'll have the basics down before you get there.

So do I recommend it? If you want a no-threat introduction to Eclipse that assumes very little, yes. If you're looking for a single reference volume that will give you all the finely detailed minutiae of the platform, no. It all depends on where you're at and what you want.

Rating:
Summary: Should be titled "Eclipse for Dummies"
Review: Good job at hand-holding, but not enough for your $60.

As an experienced programmer who has never used Java or Eclipse, this was a nice introduction into the technology. It took about four hours to get through the 350 pages, and while I now feel comfortable with the basic mechanics of Eclipse I find myself looking for a book with more meat to it.

Definitely not worth $60. The content was more reminicent of a $19.95 Dummies book.

Rating:
Summary: Yes - it is simple, but not simple minded
Review: I appreciate books like this that assume you know nothing about the subject. I know something about IDE's but not about IDE's that incorporate database connections into them. I have some experience using PHP and MySQL, and it was a pleasant surprise that the second half of this book made adding the .jar for MySQL JDBC connnection much easier. Not because Mr. Pluta showed step by step how to incorporate a MySQL database into the IDE, but because he included step by step instructions to include another database. I feel confident now that I can use Java directly to write code to communicate with my database. Thanks for the 7 hour tour!

Rating:
Summary: Very helpful guide to getting started with Eclipse
Review: I found this book very helpful as a means to become familiar with Eclipse. The great thing was, it was just as the title advertised "Step by Step". I didn't have to read between the lines, and each step worked. The pictures looked just like my screen. There were even details on how to obtain a copy of Winzip, in order to unzip the software. This book is a winner as an introduction to Eclipse, just follow the steps.

Rating:
Summary: A complete tutorial for any experience level
Review: I have always been a command line and vi kind of guy and usually eschew IDEs. All of the buzz surrounding Eclipse has caused me to investigate it further. What I learned is that Eclipse is a very powerful, extensible IDE that can be quite daunting to set up and master. Joe's book provides a great guide, suitable for anyone from a rank beginner to someone like myself, with over twenty five years of programming experience. It is not a book on Java programming, which makes sense since Eclipse is capable of more than being a Java IDE. Instead, consider it a user manual for a programming tool.

I have read the other reviewers' comments and have seen some that were rather unkind and caustic, most citing what they deem to gratuitous screen shots. Okay, I found some content too simplistic for my needs. But I wouldn't presume to condemn the book because of this. This guide has been crafted to be of value to people in any level of sophistication -- kind of like the manuals that come with any electronic equipment. Everything is there, from "hooking it up" to learning more advanced features.
Thus, I would suggest that you treat it as a user guide... skim the material with which you already have familiarity (since you may still pick up some nuggets) and scan the material that is new to you.

In short, I think this is a well written, well edited book that deserves to be on the bookshelf of anyone wanting to learn how to use the Eclipse IDE. The cost of the book will be easily recovered just with the time it will save you getting up to speed.

Rating:
Summary: A complete tutorial for any experience level
Review: I have always been a command line and vi kind of guy and usually eschew IDEs. All of the buzz surrounding Eclipse has caused me to investigate it further. What I learned is that Eclipse is a very powerful, extensible IDE that can be quite daunting to set up and master. Joe's book provides a great guide, suitable for anyone from a rank beginner to someone like myself, with over twenty five years of programming experience. It is not a book on Java programming, which makes sense since Eclipse is capable of more than being a Java IDE. Instead, consider it a user manual for a programming tool.

I have read the other reviewers' comments and have seen some that were rather unkind and caustic, most citing what they deem to gratuitous screen shots. Okay, I found some content too simplistic for my needs. But I wouldn't presume to condemn the book because of this. This guide has been crafted to be of value to people in any level of sophistication -- kind of like the manuals that come with any electronic equipment. Everything is there, from "hooking it up" to learning more advanced features.
Thus, I would suggest that you treat it as a user guide... skim the material with which you already have familiarity (since you may still pick up some nuggets) and scan the material that is new to you.

In short, I think this is a well written, well edited book that deserves to be on the bookshelf of anyone wanting to learn how to use the Eclipse IDE. The cost of the book will be easily recovered just with the time it will save you getting up to speed.

Rating:
Summary: Good introduction to Eclipse
Review: I like the step by step approach, it let me work in small increments during my lunch break and after the kids were in bed. You don't need to know java to work the examples.

This book is good if you want to get an overview of the eclipse workbench and the java editor. It will also help if you are an iSeries programmer interested in using the WebSphere Developers Studio client and the Remote System Explorer because WDSc is built on the eclipse framework.

I would like to have seen more detail on the debugger but overall I really got a good impression of what eclipse can do and look forward to installing additional plug-ins.

Rating:
Summary: a good book for beginners
Review: If you are already an Eclipse user, there are plenty of books on the market that will show you how to make better use of Eclipse. However, if you are new to Eclipse or even new to Java programming, this book will take you through using Eclipse "step by step". Not every coder needs this basic of an introduction, but if you are new to the platform this is the only book you need to get started programming Java using Eclipse.

This book is perfect for it's target audience.