Java Networking and Communications (Prentice Hall PTR Java)

Rating:
Summary: DLL for serial communications is missing from the CD
Review: I purchased this book because it specifically offered serial communications using Java, including the required DLL for Windows use. Unfortunately, the DLL is not on the CD. I have sent mail to the author. He states that "In the coming weeks if I have time I will rebuild the DLL and place the binary up on the website". That was in late November. Still, there is no DLL.
I should note that, while the CD is VERY poorly organised (no install, backup files everywhere, multiple directories to copy for the .class files to be usefull, etc.) the book reads well.

Rating:
Summary: Well written but relies on a poorly made CDROM.
Review: The explanations are well written and easy enough to understand, but the downfall of this book is its reliance on an EXTREMELY poor CDROM. The java class heirarchy isn't present on the CDROM, making it a very tedious job to copy all of the example files on to your hard disk so that they will work correctly with java's packaging characteristics. In fact, there are even errors present in the code on the CDROM, creating another cumbersome task of finding the updated source code on the web site, if it's there, and then copying that code onto your....... You get the point.

The actual book covers helpful topics in an interesting and fairly easy to understand way as long as you're familiar with Java programming and the Java API. On the Other hand, many of the code examples rely on the reader to examine and execute the code on the CDROM, which is sub-par at best.

This is not a bad book, but don't let the fact that it comes with a CDROM including examples and the jdk1.1.3 on it throw you. Besides, you could be downloading a higher version of the jdk right now for free...