Rating: 
Summary: Neither An Introduction To Programming Nor A Java Intro
Review: A nearly incomprehensible book. There's little introduction to programming here. It's strictly a book dealing with Java programming. The first two chapters are OK. Then the third hits you like a ton of bricks. Consider this excerpt from page 81: "To create a BufferedReader object that would allow lines to be read from a disk file, we had to create a File object, use the File object to create a FileInputStream object, use that object to create an InputStreamReader object that finally could be passed to the BufferedReader constructor."Then in Chapter 4 the authors write: "Are we as programmers therefore condemned to cumbersome compositions each time we want to read a Web site or write to a file...No we can define our own classes to provide the behavior that we require." That form of textbook teaching is like Chapter 3 telling you how to build a computer from scratch--the circuit boards, the power supply, the disk drive, the memory chips, etc. Then in Chapter 4 we're told we can buy a pre-assembled and tested machine from Gateway or Dell. NO! Tell us how a computer works first. THEN tell us how to assemble the various parts. The book also contain separate sections titled "GUI Supplement" dealing with applets. So the reader is simultaneously struggling with an object-oriented standalone programming language and with a somewhat distinct object-oriented applet programming language. Buy this book only if you're required to. Then supplement it with something useable. The only thing this book is an intro to is headaches and trouble.
Rating: 
Summary: A textbook equivalent of a beta release -- lots of bugs.
Review: Although the aesthetics of the book are pleasing, and the GUI sections are very good, I found too many errors in the code examples, which became apparent only after hours of beating my head against the wall. I would not recommend this book to beginners. The book could do a better job of introducing new concepts with short, simple examples (as done in Core Java 1.2 -- Volume 1). Some explanantions are not as clear as they could be.
Rating: 
Summary: best java book i ever read
Review: Author makes the concept of oop very early and message pass, stream is very easy to understand. I think the authors make great effort to try to make everything easy to follow. I highly recommand it.
Rating: 
Summary: New version includes Java 2 material and all corrections.
Review: David Arnow and Gerald Weiss have written a truly object-oriented introduction to programming using the Java programming language. This version of the book (known as the "Java 2 Version") includes correction of any bugs in the original version, along with new Java 2 compatible code, and coverage of some new Java 2 features (like SWING).
Rating:
Summary: get real!
Review: First off I cannot understand how anyone gave this book a good review. This is the text book for a course that I am taking and I have not heard any of the other people in the class say one good thing about it. The authors are unable to explain anything in plain english, it was as if there was a poor translation from some other language. The examples that they use make things even more confusing. If you want a good book get Ivor Horton's Java book. Ivor makes things seem so simple, almost too simple. Maybe that is one of the reasons that I dislike this book so much is that I had the opportunity to read a book that was well written. Another thing that I disliked about this book is that it seemed to jump right in to writing applets before the reader has had a good introduction to the language. Anway I could go on all night, but I won't (I only have a 1000 words!) Anyway if you are looking to buy a book get Ivor Hortons it will save you unnecessary pain.
Rating:
Summary: get real!
Review: First off I cannot understand how anyone gave this book a good review. This is the text book for a course that I am taking and I have not heard any of the other people in the class say one good thing about it. The authors are unable to explain anything in plain english, it was as if there was a poor translation from some other language. The examples that they use make things even more confusing. If you want a good book get Ivor Horton's Java book. Ivor makes things seem so simple, almost too simple. Maybe that is one of the reasons that I dislike this book so much is that I had the opportunity to read a book that was well written. Another thing that I disliked about this book is that it seemed to jump right in to writing applets before the reader has had a good introduction to the language. Anway I could go on all night, but I won't (I only have a 1000 words!) Anyway if you are looking to buy a book get Ivor Hortons it will save you unnecessary pain.
Rating: 
Summary: Not an intro book for beginners
Review: I bought this book as a required text for my csc class last semester. As a begginer in programming , Java is the first language I've learned. And to be honest, I don't think this is a very good text for new programmers who don't any prior background in programming. Most of the time I used other books to learn Java myself. If you're a beginning programer looking for good Java books, I recommand Bruce Eckel's "Thicking in Java" and Deitel & Deitel's "Java: How to program".
Rating:
Summary: A MUST for procedural programmers and beginners.
Review: I have been programming in procedural languages for over 13 years and lately I have been trying to learn Java & OOP. I read "Learn Java in 21 days" but I still didn't understand OOP. This is the book that made me "get it". I found the explanations and exercises in this book outstanding! I have a few other Java books and I have read parts of other on-line books but this one explains OOP the best. Even with many years of programming experience, I found OOP difficult to grasp. This book not only helps you understand what objects are but it shows you how to design them. Other than OOP, the book does a good job of explaining basic programming concepts such as conditions, loops, recursion, etc. The book is designed so that these chapters can be skipped if you are familiar with the subjects but I read them anyway and found them interesting. I think the book gives beginners a big head start by explaning not only how things like loops work, but how to design them and why. So if you are a procedural programmer, I think this book is a MUST HAVE. I also think it would be a great start for beginners.
Rating:
Summary: A MUST for procedural programmers and beginners.
Review: I have been programming in procedural languages for over 13 years and lately I have been trying to learn Java & OOP. I read "Learn Java in 21 days" but I still didn't understand OOP. This is the book that made me "get it". I found the explanations and exercises in this book outstanding! I have a few other Java books and I have read parts of other on-line books but this one explains OOP the best. Even with many years of programming experience, I found OOP difficult to grasp. This book not only helps you understand what objects are but it shows you how to design them. Other than OOP, the book does a good job of explaining basic programming concepts such as conditions, loops, recursion, etc. The book is designed so that these chapters can be skipped if you are familiar with the subjects but I read them anyway and found them interesting. I think the book gives beginners a big head start by explaning not only how things like loops work, but how to design them and why. So if you are a procedural programmer, I think this book is a MUST HAVE. I also think it would be a great start for beginners.
Rating: 
Summary: A torough introduction into good OO programming principles
Review: I have reviewed dozens of books on Java programming. This is one of the very few which teaches (OO) programming as the art it should be. It helps very much in understanding what all the tiny details are which you need to know to become a good programmer. I also like very much the chapters about details of good programming, like those about loops. Such details are very important, but too often neglected in other books. The reason I did not rate it as a five star book is that it concentrates in the beginning too much on string objects. This is excellent for understanding the basics, but I would have liked the book even better if it had explained more about other, more 'realistic' types of objects and if it did so sooner.
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