Rating: 
Summary: This book is a best-buy for the serious Java programmer
Review: There is a publisher of programming books (not Prentice Hall, the publisher of this book) that puts the solgan "100% comprehensive, authoritative, what you need" on its books. That pretty much sums up how I feel about this book.The book is very well written at every level from sentence to chapter. There are very few errors in the text and all the example code I have run has worked as advertised, which is not, sadly, something one can always expect from programming books. Further, although the book is more than 1000 pages, it is not padded out with extracts from Sun's documentation or other fluff. You will really want to read it all the way through. Although I was already using Java and the JFC before I started reading the book, by the end of Chapter 2 I had already learned enough which was new to me and which I could apply to my current work to justify my purchase. By the end of Chapter 4, I felt the book had paid for itself at least three times. And it gets better from there! One thing the book is not is a tutorial on the Java language. You should have some experience with Java before you tackle this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Lots of great info but flawed by the 'rush to market'
Review: This book has a lot of info and has been very helpful. I would recommend it as one of the best JFC books out there right now. It is amazing how much information Mr. Topley has gotten into this book so quickly. All is not perfect with this book however. There are a great number of typographical errors that make me think that not too many eyes read this book before it was published.There are some gaps (I haven't found any information on how to make sortable columns in a JTable for example). The biggest flaw, IMHO is the failure to address multi-threading issues until Appendix B. Mr Topley opens this appendix by saying that some of the examples given previously in the book had bugs. I get the feeling that Mr. Topley didn't really know about the Swing threading issues until the book was completed, and had to quickly add this appendix to patch things up. Despite this, this book is worth the read. I am sure Version 1.1 of this volume will be better.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but requires a complete reading.
Review: This is the best book out there right now, so I can't complain too much. If they made it perfect it would still be on the drawing board and not in our hands. I just wish the component explainations were a little more condensed like the Java Class Libraries. Maybe future attempts on this topic can segregate the basics from the esoterics so it would provide a faster jump-start? I end up flipping through the Java Almanac to get my "jump-start". I still give it a strong 4-stars for its in-depth coverage of Swing.
Rating:
Summary: Not just playing with Swing? This book will help.
Review: During design of a comprehensive framework often I had problems with the complexity of Swing. What amount of time this book would have saved me. The last two tasks( textfield and multithreading) I solved with this book at hands. By reading the corresponding topic you know where to implement the features that are needed and how to do it.
Rating: 
Summary: On the whole very good, but...
Review: This book is well written, includes a good level of detail and good examples. One thing I HATE about this book is the misleading title: The book covers a well defined subset of the JFC (i.e. swing), missing "accessability" and "2D" out completely. It even neglects some aspects of swing too (e.g. "undo"). In short, it should have been called "Core Swing Minus a Couple of Bits"
Rating:
Summary: Best coverage for JFC so far
Review: Compared to other JFC books in market, this is the best one. In particular the "core notes" in each chapter tell you what really works. For me, the book was worth just for the amount of time, it saved me in trying to figure out how "focus" and "tabs" work in Swing.
Rating:
Summary: Definately not a waste of money
Review: There aren't many JFC books available. I think this one will be up there among the best. It doesn't waste time covering basic Java topics and covers JFC well. Using this book together with the online documentation you should be OK.
Rating:
Summary: Above average
Review: This book covers lots of material in some depth--it's not just a rehash of the Swing APIs. It is, however, rather disorganized with endless references to topics that "will be explained later."
Rating:
Summary: An excellent tutorial for Swing programming.
Review: This is by far the best book on Swing I have seen. It covers all of the subjects I would expect to see and more. The sections on JTree and JTable were particularly helpful. Clear examples are given throughout which is essential in a book of this type. The only thing missing is Swing for JDK 1.1 on the CD, although it is included for 1.2.
Rating:
Summary: Par for the course
Review: This book is not as in depth as the original Core Java. It covers the awt graphics class, which is ok, but it is not the focus of the JFC. Discussion on Graphics 2D could have been more useful. More in depth coverage of event models and custom components for advanced user interfaces is needed. Instead The "advanced topics" cover particular components (ie, text, trees, tables, internal frames) and a short discussion on the PLAF.
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