Rating: 
Summary: Still bad
Review: Many bad reviews of the 2nd edition were from experienced programmers who understand Java and object-oriented programming. Nothing has changed in this edition - Programmers new to Java and OO will not get a thorough understanding of Java or OO with this hodgepodge. The book's code is poorly written and explanations are hard to follow. You'll learn more bad habits than good from this thing.
Rating:
Summary: Amateurish and confusing
Review: This book is the worst Java book I have seen. The authors don't even use the standard Java terminology. As an example, their explanation of reference passing is very confusing. Their "explanation" makes a very simple topic confusing. They say things like variables are passed "call-by-value". They use terms common in procedural programming in ways that demonstrate they don't understand object-oriented programming. Reading this book is like reading grossly over commented code. Not only because the truly valuable information is hidden in all the minutia, their explanations are sophomoric. If you think VB is a good language then you standards might be low enough to think this book is worthwhile. The only reason I can think of that a college would use this overpriced book is that the suggested price is not printed on the book and the university bookstore can charge whatever they want for it. There are much more insightful books available that are reasonably priced. A well written book doesn't require a teacher to explain it.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Book!! I recommend it to everyone!!
Review: I really don't understand why there are so many people who don't like this book!! I think it's great! Not only does it provide full working Java programs in every chapter, but it also provides a line-by-line explination to them. And then there are exercises at the end of every chapter. What more could you want?? I do believe part of the reasons for the bad reviews is that anytime you're learning a programming language it's not easy, you cannot read a chapter just once and get all the concepts. It takes time a patience when learning ANY programming language. And besides you CANNOT just read a book and expect to automatically know a programming language, you HAVE to pratice. That's where the exercises at the end of every chapter come in, what a great learning tool!! This book was designed for college classes so if you have the class and you don't have a good teacher that could be a problem. But over all I love this book and all the other books that Deitel & Deitel write. I reccomend this along with the Java Documentation and you'll be on your way!
Rating: 
Summary: Java How To Program
Review: I'd like to add my comments about "Java How to Program" 3rd Ed. I just started reading it, and I believe some of the poor reviews are due not so much to the content, but to the poor editing and bad visual design of the book. For example, in the preface, there starts a many paged "A Tour of the Book", then on page 20 of chapter 1, starts a many paged, but slightly different "A Tour of the Book". During one of the rewrites, I imagine some cut and pasting occurred, and not caught. (Maybe that should be programming tip?) Each chapter starts with an outline, and quite a few quotes from various sources. The quotes are not relevant and they are distracting. They should not be present. The graphics that indicate performance, tip, etc., are too small and too complex. In fact all those things should be removed from the text and put as separate sections at the end of each chapter. Putting them "inline" ruins the cohesiveness of both the text and the tips. Tips along with the text can be done well, see "Code Complete" by Steve McConnell". In that book they are along side, rather then inline. Going further, should one want coding tips, etc. They should again refer to the excellent book "Code Complete". I should think Java How to Program would be improved by removing the "coding tips" completely. Maybe this book was rushed to print, a [how-to] book should not exhibit these types of editing and visual design mistakes.
Rating:
Summary: Overpriced, Confusing and Worthless... Ouch!
Review: I *HAD* to purchase this book as it was used as a textbook for the introductory Java course that I took in college.
Luckily, the professor supplied us with decent in-class notes, because studying from this text was a nightmare. The OOP concepts and language features are explained poorly and only confuse the reader. Code examples are also poor. It's hard to find something useful in the book if you want to use it as a reference when building your own applications. And finally, you can buy at least 2 excellent java books for this price. Try Sun's "Core Java" series or Herbert Schildt's titles, they are better written and are a lot more useful.
Rating:
Summary: Java How to Program (3rd Edition)
Review: A great book! Plenty of coding examples and enough information to help you understand what it's all about. Great to teach from. I would recommend this book to a seasoned programmer or to someone who is just learning the language.
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