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Rating: 
Summary: Great Book...for the serious developer
Review: Here is a book from WROX Press (quality publishers for sure) in a new series called Early Adopter, for those of us on the "bleeding edge" of technology. In this book Java 2 Standard Edition (J2SE) version 1.4 is being looked at, while it's still in beta. The best time to get up on the technology is now, before your boss is likely to say "we need to switch to this tomorrow and ship it next week." This clearly written book goes to some pain to make our transition to the new "tool of choice" for Java as painless as possible. If you work with Java at all, then you need this book. Period. (I hope WROX's future EA series books are just as good.)
Rating: 
Summary: This book has problems
Review: I was disappointed reading this book. Two major flaws:Page 2: "... even applets are limited, unable to open multiple windows, ..". That's wrong. Even with Java 1.02, applets were able to create new windows (frames). Reading something like this on page two sets the tone for the rest of the book. Then the example in Chapter 2, pp 33: The example uses NIO, but still uses a new thread for every connection. Instead of blocking on a read, it now blocks on a select. What good does that do? One big advantage of using selectable IO is not to have threads for connections that are idle. It's about scalability, and although the example uses the new java.nio package, it doesn't have any advantages over using java.io. The other examples also have questionable usefulness. For example the example on Scattering and Gathering uses an example to show the functionality, but solves a simple problem in a very complex way. Leaving the reader wondering what's the good thing about scattering and gathering. Some items are useful, but for $... this book is way overpriced! Just read the JSRs.
Rating: 
Summary: Please ignore my previous review
Review: My previous review was on "Early Adopter J2SE 1.4", which has been superceded by "J2SE 1.4 Core Platform Update". My previous rating and comments only applied to "Early Adopter J2SE 1.4", which is not available anymore. The new book has fixed some errors and had extended information on the new 1.4 features. That's why I recommend the book.
Rating:
Summary: Please ignore my previous review
Review: My previous review was on "Early Adopter J2SE 1.4", which has been superceded by "J2SE 1.4 Core Platform Update". My previous rating and comments only applied to "Early Adopter J2SE 1.4", which is not available anymore. The new book has fixed some errors and had extended information on the new 1.4 features. That's why I recommend the book.
Rating:
Summary: Nice preview of the upcoming release
Review: This book, as part of the Wrox "Early Adopter" series, explains some of the new features of J2SE 1.4. This new version of Java has many improvements over prior versions and also contains quite a bit of added functionality. The book is very well done and gives excellent examples of some of this new functionality. However some new features have been left out including print service and some AWT and Swing enhancements. The information included, however, covers some of the more complex features of this release. The book starts with excellent coverage of the new I/O features and the Java Network Launch Protocol (JNLP). The chapter on XML, however, seems unnecessary. Although this version of Java is the first to include XML support, the JAXP, SAX, and DOM information is not new and is readily available from many published sources. The author's coverage of enhancements to the java.util package (especially regular expressions) is very good. The chapter on language enhancements is a bit confusing because the author starts the chapter with items that are not included in this release. This information would have been better placed in a separate appendix. The book ends with a section on possible enhancements for the next release of Java. The section on JAXB will be good news for many developers since it is available as an early access release. The book does not contain an index. Anyone interested in the new features of Java will find this book very useful.
Rating:
Summary: A timely book and covers material well.
Review: This is a great place to get abreast of the changes that J2SE has undergone and the new facilities it offers in the latest version, until recently known by the codename Merlin. Lets face it - we hardly get time in our professional lives to keep pace with the changes that occur in the programming environs. The project pressures, the design changes, the volatile development environment and the need to deliver projects with full functionality and on time force us to keep working on older technologies because they are stable and within our comfort zone. For the first time in these circles, this is an attempt to explain indepth all that can be done with the new release of Java 2 Standard Edition. It is a must have book for all the Java Programmers for two reasons. One, eventually we all need to move toward the new technology. And what better way to do this than getting guidance from people who have had their hands dirty in it. Second, when others are still dangling in the darkness of ignorance, this book gives you a headstart with J2SE 1.4. (Looks good on your resume, huh?) Not only that, I also recommend this book for newcomers to the language, because once you get the fundamentals right, you need to start working with the latest JDK right away. As far as the coverage of the book goes, it is exhaustive, informative and very useful. Topics like the new I/O framework, assertions and JNLP have been covered in detail. Extensive code snippets have been provided at appropriate places to make things crystal clear. To make things simple - this is a very good book. Its a must buy for any serious Java Developer. And my recommendation is: Go get your copy now, or you'll be left behind
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