Introductory Java for Scientists and Engineers

Rating:
Summary: Begins well, but becomes very complex
Review: Java is an incredibly popular, albeit arguably difficult language. Many of us in the 'technical trades' may want to learn Java because of its cross-platform or built-in graphics capabilities, but may be put off by many of the Java books intended for computer scientists or web developers. This book begins well, but by chapter 4 is becoming all too complex. I would have liked to have seen far more 'hand-holding' explanation in the middle chapters, and more information couched in terms that may be more familiar to established engineers and scientists, e.g. more examples showing the similarities and differences between Java and older languages such as Fortran, Basic and Pascal.

Rating:
Summary: Accessible and useful
Review: This is a pretty accessible book. It's the first book I ever looked at on Java, and I didn't find it at all difficult to understand the presentation of ideas. About the first half of it is very useful, as well. The second half gets into a graphics library and a numerical functions library, both of which were written for this book. If you have need of such things, you'll find the second half of the book as useful as the first; if not, you'll probably want to move on next to the 4th edition of "Java In A Nutshell," by David Flanagan.