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Rating: 
Summary: Best Book I Have Read On Java
Review: I had the privledge to teach a course with this book a couple of years ago. This is the perfect book for people who have never programmed at all or who are apprehensive about learning to program. It explains everything in the simplest terms possible and has lots of great exercises and examples. If you were considering buying Java For Dummies, buy this book instead. This book will be just as simple, but much better written, contains exercises to help you practice, and the title won't insult your inteligence. :-)
Of course no book can be everything to everybody. This book is perfect for brand new beginners. If you have already programmed in other languages and you want a faster introduction to Java, then you might consider Thinking In Java by Bruce Eckel or Java: How To Program by Deitel & Deitel.
Good luck and welcome to the exciting world of Java!
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent For novice programmers
Review: I have read about 4 intro to java books before I got to this and nothig made more sense than this. Especially if you're completely new to programming and computers you'll not go wrong by choosing this book as your java beginner. The author does a great job demonstrating how to even configure your jdk and what kind of error you'll get if it isn't configured properly. That said, it does have very minor errors though not too many. The other good thing about the book which most programming books don't offer is, that it has alot of exercise questions and programs at the end of each section to work on to emphasize and implement what you've learned in that chapter or section. So in all it is a great beginner book but not for intermediate and advanced programmers. I completely disagree with most other reviewers.
Rating: 
Summary: This is a beginner's book?
Review: I was forced to buy this book as a college text book. I have been programming using structured programming languages and Visual Basic for a few years, and have recently learned C++ and have a good understanding of OO methodolgy, but this book STILL confuses me. I can do all my assignments for class and get A's on the exams, but when I sit down to read the text, I wonder what language Joyce Farrell is speaking. Beyond that, the book frequently uses terms that it doesn't define (such as "Friendly" access...) and rarely shows you the code that you are supposed to be working on. The pages are full of "Insert these lines into your program..." and the such, but you NEVER SEE THE PROGRAM! Bottom line, this book is useless as a reference. Don't buy it, please!
Rating: 
Summary: Very average
Review: I'm on chapter 8 (of 14) and here's my opinion. On a scale of A to F, I give it a C. The format is great as a course text (lots of examples, footnotes, summaries, questions, and exercises, nice learning gradient), but the author's writing style manages to make a simple concept sound mysterious and complex. It does cover the Java language, but in a far from outstanding way. Having read the first few chapters of "Java in a Nutshell" first I was fortunate to not get mislead and left in the dark on one issue after another. I am only continuing my reading because this is the textbook for my college class. My real complaint is that its just so painful to read. I read one muddy explanation after another, turn to the parallel chapter in another book, and "poof", the other author removes the ambiguity with a crystal clear explanation in 1/5th the words and 3 or 4 critical insights that make logical sense of it all. Just a few examples of the poor style: 1. Often Java Programming says "you may" or "you should" where the other books (or even Sun) say "always" or "you must". 2. She list "friendly" as an access modifier but I find no such option in the Sun documentation and trying it results in a compiler error. This is just one example of wrong information, there are several. Even if it were right, I would expect an comment saying it is obscure and not obvious in the public documentation. The "Learn Jave in 21 Days" lists all the possible modifiers in a nice table indicating which are appropriate where. "Java Programming" buries it in pages of text and even then fails to make clear when each can be used. 3. The instructions for creating the sample Demo programs are too vervose. EG: She places paragraphs throughout it saying things like "open this file in your text editor ... place your cursor at the end of ...". Does she get paid by the page or what? The final result gets lost and meanwhile my attention was dulled and I miss some critical point because I was just skimming. 4. Several of the examples have the compiled version on the CD, but not the source. 5. She misses countless opportunity to point out some insight. For example, on the applet method "setLocation()", I couldn't find where she says it won't work if you use "invalidate(), validate()" which she just got done telling you to use to refresh the screen. Maybe I skimmed by it but I wasted an hour figuring that one out. 6. The Chapter numbers are not printed on the page headings, a minor annoyance for a college text. 7. The multiple choice questions sometimes have more than one, or no correct answers causing doubt. The list could go on but I hope my point is taken. This author is not an overly talented technical writer. "Painful to write, painful to read" comes to mind. If you don't mind the endless ambiguities, and do as I'm doing and read the parallel chapter in some other book (like "Learning Java in 21 Days", a very well written text), I believe you will learn the basics of Java in the end of the course. While there are probably some poorer books on Java, why not use some truely well written books written by authors with a real talent for leaving the reader clear about the subject. I wish I could say who those are. I've purchased and read portions of Java 2 Weekend Crash Course, Sam's Teach yourself Java in 21 Days, Java in a Nutshell, Understanding Java, Effective Java, and Thinking in Java. I can say I've always found a clearer presentation in one of these books, but the questions and exercises in Java Programming have always been more complete and helpful.
Rating:
Summary: A very good BEGINNER'S intro but others might find it light
Review: Of all the intro to Java books I have read, this one is one of the best. I disagree with the other reviewers about the 1 and 2 stars so I wanted to be sure to give my 5 stars here. I don't want the author to be discouraged because the way she explains things is way better than a lot of other authors who seem to just can't wait to talk about polymorphism and servlets. If you feel you don't understand key Java concepts after reading another book (hopefully it was not Thinking in Java, because that is NOT a beginner's book; better off getting a Dietel book) then I highly recommend this from Joyce Farrell. After reading this, you have a better foundation to go read another intro Java book, with a better footing.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent for Beginners
Review: This book is terrific for those who have never done any programming. I'm really tired of reading reviews by people who think a book is bad because they don't understand the book's purpose. How many reviews are out there with complaints about what a terrible tutorial some reference work is? How many times do we read about some senior programmer's intelligence being insulted because he was dumb enough to purchase a baby book? Senior programmers stay away from this book. The book is great for beginners.
Rating:
Summary: Probably the best Java book I have ever read
Review: This has to be the best Java book I have ever read. I bought a couple of books on Java and they confused me. I am in college and I know C++ and Visual Basic. I am fluent with the idea of OOP progrmaming and Java is the best implementation of OOP programming. I recommend reading another book in turn with Teach Yourself Java 2 by Sams publishing (Laura Lemay & Roger Cadenhead). The books complement eachother and although this book is not Java 2, there are only small minute differences between the languages. I had a great time learning with this book and if you are new to programming you will enjoy reading this as well!
Rating:
Summary: Best Java Book for a Beginner
Review: This is the best beginning programming oop book, not just for java. I found it clear and concise. The book is approx 670 pages unlike some other books of up to 1000 or more pages. I like how the author explains everything thoroughly before going on to a new topic. There are complete questions and exercises at the end of each chapter and test what was covered in the chapter that I found very useful also. There are some minor errors that I found such as the access modifier friendly, and connecting (private and protected) which was available in java 1.1 and older versions but those are the only errors, other than that this is the best intro to java book, infact my favorite book. The codes are brief and self explanatory compare to books that I also have like (Thinking in Java, Java How to program by Deitel, Teach yourself Java, and a few other books I still use this book as a reference and the second edition of this book is now available as of 7/24/02 which I'm ordering right now be sure to use this book if your new to programming oop in general not just java. I started C++ right after completing this book and the fundamentals I developed from this book helped me learn C++ quicker. Don't fall for those reviewers that gave this book 1 star. Besides her new book is covering the swing packages verses the old awt. Buy it and have fun learning java.
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