Java 2 From Scratch (From Scratch)

Rating:
Summary: Has good features
Review: This book is not for a total beginner...would recommend something along the lines of the Java Tutorial or Dietel and Dietel. If you have some basic knowlege of programming java (intermediate), this book has a lot to offer in the use of understanding awt and swing. Not many books do a good job on building these 'applications'...although I've seen many examples of these types of applets. The beginning has some good software engineering / OOD procedure. Basically, if you want to learn how to make a neat swing app...using all java classes..(yes from scratch), then not a bad buy.

Rating:
Summary: Nicely done!
Review: This book is top notch from it's code examples, explanations, and listings to its design, layout, and typography. You learn Java while writing an application. The author really does teach you Java along the way and not just the Java needed for the app. He also goes further by including you in the analysis and design phases, not just implementation. One suggestion, get a reference to have at hand like Grant Palmer's "Java 2 Programmer's Reference". It'll satify your desire to explore some topics further.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book, but more for experienced programmers.
Review: This is a great book for what it is. It is definitely not a beginner-level, just getting into java book, but more for experienced OO programmers who want to learn how to develop applications in Java. I have been looking for an intermediate book like this for a while. This book walks you through the process of how to develop a real application (a stock market tracker/analyzer), and ties it all together nicely from analysis and design, through implementation. The author gives good insight on his thought processes each step of the way. I like the fact that he uses the internet from which to pull off the stock quotes. Hopefully, more authors will follow this lead and give us some example applications that we can use in the real world, instead of a bunch of toy code snippets. The only drawback that I can see to this book is that it stops short as far as using JDBC in a Swing application. I wish the author would have added an extra chapter or two that covered binding Swing components to the database. Can somebody please write a book on this?

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book for starting out in Java
Review: This is an excellent book for getting started in Java programming, and I highly recommend it.

For those new to the language and not familiar with Object Orientated programming, this book is the best I have seen on introducing the use of OOP and Java to programming real world examples.

It is especially useful for programmers of other languages that want to migrate to Java. The technique of showing you how to use the language to develop a real world example is very suited to showing programmers of other languages how to use Java - you can leverage what you know about programming in your existing languages as you go and say to yourself, "So that is how Java does it!".

The step from your existing language to Java is thus accomplished easily, and I can say that you will never look back!

I have programmed extensively in various large corporations for the last five years, mainly in languages suited to business applications (like SAP ABAP). When I first looked at Java I just did not have the time to learn all the techniques and investigate the language and classes in it to use Java to develop a business application that is usable and functional in a large environment. I must admit that I was sceptical about the development time a project would take in Java in an industry where deadlines are tight and critical.

The other books on Java provided a lot of information but I needed an explanation of how the pieces fit together, and I needed it quick.

This book provided the explanation I needed to use Java in the real world, not in the "Hello world". It provided a quick and rapid walk through of all the steps in developing an application and how to use Java implement it.

Within a week of reading the book I was developing real-world applications using Java and happily navigating through the classes to find what I needed to fulfill the requirements. I am now well on my way to RMI client-server distributed solutions and database programming with Java.

I can now see how beautiful, practicle and simply easy the Java language really is. I now know how it fits into the "software technique" that we are all used to using in the business world - first designing the application and then applying the necessary Java classes to implementing it.

The book not only teaches you Java, but excellent design and programming techniques that are the true basis of a good software implementation.

The From Scratch concept is just what I needed to move from other languages to Java quickly and easily. I can highly recommend this book for people starting out in Java and programmers of other languages moving to the Java platform.

Having now fallen in love with this language, I can say that this book does the language a good service!

Congratulations to the From Scratch team - I will certainly be looking out for other books in this series.

And congratulations to Sun and the Java development team on an excellent and beautiful product.

Rating:
Summary: Not so great
Review: This is not your 'usual' instruction / tutorial on how to use Java. If you are a beginner...don't even look at it, if you are at the intermediate level, you are probably going to use java for something more along the lines of server side programming...not a swing application. I feel I wasted my hard earned money on this book. I did give it 2 stars however as the author goes through the logical design process of software engineering quite nicely in the beginning! Beginners...stick with either Sun books or something like Ivor Hortons book or Dietal and Dietal...

Rating:
Summary: Starting from scratch
Review: This is one of the best books I have seen which covers the basics of Object Oriented development, program design and actual Java coding in such an easy to read style. I read the first five chapters from a hospital bed but did not feel lost by not having my PC to try out the examples as they were so well documented. Using a single example program throughout the book provides excellent continuity of purpose as the chapters unfurl but may put some people off buying the book if the end product (a stock market tracker) is of no interest to them - I would say that the techniques are more important than the program - I don't really want a tracker but I couldn't put the book down once I had started to read it. Many of the techniques shout out for further examples but these are freely available from numerous sites on the web - the book is large enough as it is. I would recommend this book to anyone "starting from scratch" as a good all-round primer.

Rating:
Summary: Able to see it through...
Review: This is the first Java book that I've been able to see through. It seems like too many books just throw snippets of code at me, along with the technical jargon, which I soon find boring, (think college textbooks(snore). But this one is lively, the author makes jokes, and he actually shows you how to program an entire application in Java. Try getting that experience anywhere.

Thank you Steven Haines.

Rating:
Summary: Very useful, with bugs in the examples
Review: This was a very useful, practical book, with an unexpected bonus. The examples in the book were a little buggy, so I got some extra training debugging the application. The examples on the CD-ROM were correct, however.

Rating:
Summary: The best use of a large project for training
Review: When I first saw the proposal for this book, I was skeptical about the premise. Using the development of a stock market tracker to teach readers how to design and construct large projects involving a GUI interface appeared to me to be a bit too grandiose. This seemed particularly true when the assumptions were that the reader had minimal experience in either the Java GUI classes or constructing GUI interfaces. In fact, the proposal included the statement, "No previous experience required." However, as I received the chapters for examination, I slowly became sold on the authors vision of the learning project. Finally, as the last chapters arrived, I was moved to include a note in my comments that he should consider including a standard disclaimer about assuming no liability for the use of the software. All examples and the final product are included on the companion CD.
The author assumes no previous reader background in using the classes of both the Abstract Window Toolkit (AWT) or the Swing library. Both are covered in detail using small stand-alone examples. Event handling is also covered in depth. While these are good, the real strength of the book is in the description of the overall project. Use cases are used to construct the design model, which shows quite clearly how to begin with an idea and move it through all the stages until the end product of working code is complete.
Furthermore, the stock market data is downloaded live from the Internet, so the coverage also includes how to web-enable a program so that it will automatically download and display data from web sites. Certainly a skill not to be underestimated in the modern world. Combined with the other features that are developed, this project is the most realistic example of a major software development project that I have ever seen used in a book. The fact that the author pulls it off as an educational experience is even more remarkable.
Books that include large programs for development often fall short in that the projects seem contrived and not truly meant for the real world. That is not the case with this book and there is something here for everyone, from developers to experienced Java coders.

Disclaimer: The author of this review served as the technical editor for the book.

Rating:
Summary: A Unique Approach to Learning Java
Review: When I was originally approached by Jesse Liberty to write this book, his concept of developing a complete application from start to finish really intrigued me. From that point I attempted to visualize an application that not only showed off the many new asthetically pleasing features of the Java JFC/Swing libraries, but was also useful and practical. Thus the idea of a Stock Market Tracker / Analyzer was born.

This book is composed of the design an application using the latest design methodologies - iterative development that is Use Case driven complete with UML diagrams developed with Rational Rose, and then I apply those methodologies into the design of the Stock Tracker application.

2. Once you know what you want to do in the application and have defined all of its features I spend a couple chapters talking about user interface design in Java - this includes discussions on the latest Swing components (Tables, Tabs, List controls, layout managers, nesting layout managers, etc.) Then I dive right in and show you how to build the user interface for the Stock Tracker application.

3. Next I talk about handling user events and describe in detail the event handling model that Swing uses. I even take you through implementing custom Event Listeners and Event Objects.

4. Then I start (downloading live stock data from the Internet)

b. File I/O (persisting your portfolios and historical stock data)

c. Downloading historical data from the Internet

d. Graphing historical data using the Graphics2D libraries

e. Importing and Exporting data to and from Comma Separated Variable files (for easy integration with databases)

5. Then I conclude the book with a short discussion on JavaBeans and JDBC and help you see where you might want to implement these technologies in this or any future application you write.

I attempt to give you easy to understand explanations of the Java programming language while ensuring that I give you detailed explanations of its inner workings; I made all attempts to answer all of your questions while reading (never leaving an implementation detail as assumed to be understood)

I hope as you peruse the bookstores searching for a book on Java you give Java 2 From Scratch a try - it not only teaches you how to program in Java, it teaches you how to develop professional software and gives you a real useful application when you are finished (I have it on my desktop right now!)

This book is aimed program but are new to Java. If you have ever had any interest in programming or the Java programming language then this book is for you!

Thanks for reading!