Just Java(TM) 2 (6th Edition)

Rating:
Summary: Excellent guide to learning Java...
Review: When I was first learning Java, one of the most useful books I used was Just Java 2. The 6th edition of Just Java 2 by Peter van der Linden (Prentice-Hall) continues to be a quality resource.

Chapter List: What Can Java Do For Me?; Introducing Objects; Primitive Types, Wrappers, and Boxing; Statements and Comments; OOP Part 2 - Constructors and Visibility; Static, Final, and Enumerated Types; Names, Operators, and Accuracy; More OOP - Extending Classes; Arrays; Exceptions; Interfaces; Nested Classes; Doing Several Things at Once: Threads; Advanced Thread Topics; Explanation <Generics>; Collections; Simple Input Output; Advanced Input Output; Regular Expressions; GUI Basics and Event Handling; JFC and the Swing Package; Containers, Layouts, and SWT Loose Ends; Relational Databases and SQL; JDBC; Networking in Java; Servlets and JSP; XML and Java; Web Services at Google and Amazon; Downloading Java; Powers of Two Table; Codesets; Index

This 6th edition covers all the recent additions in Java from J2SE 5.0, so you can get this book knowing you'll have the most up-to-date information. The thing I appreciate most about this book is the tone and readability of what is one of the most complete tutorial style books on Java on the market. The tone is conversational, so you're not struggling through dry text. With dashes of humor and sidebars that cover interesting history and stories of IT significance, the book comes close to being one of the few learning guides that could almost be read cover to cover as an interesting read regardless of whether you work the examples or not. The servlet and JSP chapter at the end, along with the XML chapter, is more high-level than the rest of the book. You could buy entire volumes that deal specifically with those concepts. So if that's the main reason you're buying the book, you could do better. Of course, if you bought the book for the last two chapters only, I'd question why you did so in the first place... :-)

This is an excellent book that spans the gap between hard-core tutorial and pure entertainment. I can't imagine too many people who wouldn't enjoy and benefit from this text if they want to learn Java.