Java 2 In Plain English

Rating:
Summary: Good little java book for someone who is new to Java
Review: *for experienced programmers, NOT for beginners* This book by far beats out any other as a handy Java reference. For those times when you need more explanation than what Sun provides with the API but you don't want to wade through beginner basics, _Java in Plain English_ is perfect.

Rating:
Summary: Makes JAVA plain for beginners
Review: Any JAVA programmer from novice to experienced needs a copy of this book on their desk. Gives a good overview for the new JAVA programmer and provides a needed desk reference to all.

Rating:
Summary: good reference for C++ programmers
Review: I happen to know C++ and this book is quite useful for learning Java, or at least understanding any given Java program. For each Java construct, the book tells what the equivalent C++ construct is or whether it exists at all. In some cases, it also goes the other way -- for each C++ construct, the Java equivalent.

It also covers some Java libraries and briefly outlays applets. There does not seem to be any coverage of servlets or server-side programming.

As good a reference as it is, it seems to be missing some things, most notably initializations. There are pieces of Java code I've seen something like:

subr1(new Foobar {blah(){foo;} blah1(){bar;}});

i.e., a class (Foobar) is being initialized dynamically before calling a function subr1(). The exact circumstances of initialization of variables and dynamic classes are not covered at all in this book.

Other than that, this book is great.

Rating:
Summary: good reference for C++ programmers
Review: I happen to know C++ and this book is quite useful for learning Java, or at least understanding any given Java program. For each Java construct, the book tells what the equivalent C++ construct is or whether it exists at all. In some cases, it also goes the other way -- for each C++ construct, the Java equivalent.

It also covers some Java libraries and briefly outlays applets. There does not seem to be any coverage of servlets or server-side programming.

As good a reference as it is, it seems to be missing some things, most notably initializations. There are pieces of Java code I've seen something like:

subr1(new Foobar {blah(){foo;} blah1(){bar;}});

i.e., a class (Foobar) is being initialized dynamically before calling a function subr1(). The exact circumstances of initialization of variables and dynamic classes are not covered at all in this book.

Other than that, this book is great.

Rating:
Summary: Swiss Army Knife of Java manuals
Review: I picked up this book on a whim, thinking it wouldn't be as good as Java in a Nutshell or Core Java, both of which are excellent books in and of themselves. Surprisingly, this contains a condensed version of most of the information of the above mentioned books. It lacks the extended examples of Core Java, but to a good student and intelligent reader, missing out on a few examples won't break your education.

And like JIAN, there is a good amount of reference material in this book, not with the extended detail of JIAN, but enough to get by most of the stumbling stones one encounters while programming.

As a student, I can only carry so many books in my backpack; when I'm programming in the university labs, I want concise and useful as my qualities. At home, I have my Java reference library (CJ, JIAN, etc.), which I consult when I'm at a quandary; for portability and my lab work, this book is the Swiss Army knife of references, one that I carry regularly, and one that can solve about 75-80% of Java problems I encounter.

Rating:
Summary: Makes JAVA plain for beginners
Review: This is an awesome book for learning JAVA classes and methods. I have O'Reilly Nutshell series (Java Enterprise, Java, Javea examples, JAVA JFC) WROX's JAVA 2 reference and others references but they provided a definitive context. The fundamental and commonly used classes are the first things to learn and "JAVA 2 in Plan English" is the ticket. Don't be fooled by its un-volumonous text and lack of numerous examples. The right information is there in an easy to find format. Numerous cross-references included are invaluable while learning class inheritance relationships. This is defintely a keeper for my library and a reference text while I learn JAVA :)