Java Gui Development

Rating:
Summary: Excellent plan, flawed execution
Review: First and foremost, this is a well-meaning volume covering both AWT and Swing development in a fair amount of depth. In its favor, the book covers the Model-View-Controller concept in detail and provides plenty of concrete examples of how to implement GUIs in both AWT and Swing. The description of layout managers, especially the Gridbag layout which I once found impenetrable, is one of the clearest and most direct I have ever seen.

Neither positive or negative: this is NOT a first Java book. It assumes a passing familiarity with the language and OOP in general.

Negatives: the book could have used another editor (or three). Some of the code examples are partially repeated either immediately before or after the main listing, giving a sense of deja vu (or vuja de). Also, the lack of attention to detail shows through in some of the copy as well, with statements like "Event handling is one of the primary uses of event handling in Java programming" (p. 397) squeaking by the final edit.

Honestly, people: I will edit these books for free if you give me a free copy. It's just that simple. I'm sure other programmers would do the same.

With a bit more attention to detail (and a little bit more coverage of the "Model" end of things), this book could have been great instead of very good.

Rating:
Summary: Good content, very very bad editing, repetition of facts
Review: Good book for beginers. Don't go for it if you want to code some real good Swing project. Definetly NOT for people who already know swing and looking for some nice new ideas.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book for beginners
Review: I am new to Java from C++. I have done some GUI development using TrollTech QT library. This book covers basic concepts of GUI development in JAVA. It literally takes the reader by hand, one step at a time with real sample code. I like the whole presentation of the book; it is quite readable and well organized. I can't believe that I have just covered the basics of AWT and Swing in one week! Of course development with QT has helped me a lot. Anyhow, this is a good book and I recommend it to others who are just embarking on drinking Java cups and making some Java cups :-) Good thing also that the author did not distract the reader with exercises at the end of chapters! This is not a college X101 course indeed. Good.

Merci bien

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book for beginners
Review: I liked this book. I am new to Java from C++. I have done GUI development using TrollTech QT 2.X. The author has done a very good job taking the reader by the hand, enphasizing on key concepts, and providing working sample code for nuts and bolts. I like the fact that the author did not distract the reader with exercises at the end of chapters. Always makes me feel like in some X101 class I took twenty years ago! Good book, well organized. The explanation about the 'lightweigthness" of Swing compared to AWT is a bit unclear, should have done better.
Overall, I recommend this book to anyone who would like to learn Java fast, and Java GUI development definitely. I just can't believe that I have covered the basics (enough to be dangerous!) of AWT and Swing in just one week! Thank you Mr. Vartan

Rating:
Summary: Good content, poor editing
Review: On the plus side, this book fairly covers topics on AWT and Swing. A few chapters are devoted for describing AWT & Swing concepts and architecture. However poor editing, repeatative facts are the flip side of this book. It is not worth the price.

Rating:
Summary: Covers JFC Architecture & Essential elements with clarity
Review: The book is an easy read and places emphasis an the common architectural themes that pervade the jfc. It describes many of the important elements of swing in detail, with clear perspective.

It is lacking in ommiting some important swing components, but the book's clarity more than makes up for this.

It is a gui roadmap rather than a gui bible

Rating:
Summary: Pretty much useless book
Review: This book covers a some part of GUI development, but nothing special. Many things that should be mentioned in here are complitely forgotten buy author, things like JTables for example. I dont recommend this book to anyone who is been programming for a while, you'll not find anything new.

Rating:
Summary: Waste of time and money
Review: This book is a superficial (at best) review of the Java classes needed to build Java GUI's. It does cover some AWT concepts in the first 100 pages, and very briefly covers a few key Swing concepts.

Most of the book is one (sometimes 2 or so) pages briefly describing each GUI control with a simplistic code example (with errors). You could get just as much information from reading the Javadocs!

I'm an experienced Java programmer and originally purchased this book some time ago in hopes that it would cover GUI topics in depth. I was very disappointed in the depth of material. I would not even recommend this book for beginners because you can get just as much information readin the docs or from other sources.

Rating:
Summary: Good Content, shame about the editing
Review: This book is worthwhile if you are willing to work at it. It is possible to gain a good understanding of the "big picture" behind AWT and Swing which prepares you to create basic to intermediate GUIs. The downside is bad editing - code samples that obviously shouldn't be there, repetition of the same facts and occasional overuse of academic language that serves to confuse rather than enlighten. If you don't have some background in "formal" computer science or programming then you may want to look elsewhere.

Rating:
Summary: GREAT JAVA GUI BOOK FOR DEVELOPERS.
Review: We are evaluating the architectural approach to take for a major software project at the Pacific Northwest Aerospace company that I work for and this book goes a long way toward answering questions that we have on our approach should Java be chosen for the implementation.

Perfect for engineers, without a lot of time, who want to learn GUI programming from the ground up once they have picked up Java. Also very useful for engineers that work closely with software developers to define GUI frameworks that clearly delineate the division of labor, via MVC idiom, between those two groups of people.

The building block approach of this book is one of its principal strengths. No programs are presented until the third chapter, after User Interface (UI) concepts and JFC overview, thus giving us an opportunity to absorb good design principles and how stuff fits together before grinding out any code.

Reminds us continually to program for the user, A Good Thing. After discussing laying out the structure of a program, there is good coverage of Swing and AWT. Examples are focused around the current concept or component presented with minimal extra fluff.

Eases into precise layout for organizing GUI components via layout managers. The events handling section is comprehensive (Swing and AWT) and details developing responses to external actions, usually user inputs.

Nice MVC discussion. Clearly separates the engineering component (model) from the graphical interface component (view / controller). Emphasizes the recurrence of MVC throughout the Swing model architecture.

The book concludes with coverage of graphics, fonts, and colors.

The most concise Java book on GUI design and development that I have seen to date. Very professional.