I purchased this book for a beginning computer science class. I had/have no background in computer science or Java, and I found this book to be incredibly helpful. It obviously cannot cover all the idiosyncrasies of the Java language and libraries, but it covers enough of the fundamentals to make learning/using more advanced concepts a bit smoother down the road.
I haven't tried the CD, but it apparently contains some examples of small applications outlined in the book.
2 side notes:
1) There are a few typos in some of the exercises, but 99.99% of the book is fine.
2) I used the Eclipse platform (Eclipse.org) for the exercises in this book. I haven't tried BlueJ or JavaBeans, so I don't know how relevant this book would be with those platforms.
This book was a required text for my java class. In conversing with my classmates, we all agree that this book wasn't of any help. I would recommend any other book, this one is just too abstract for a beginner. It's difficult to apply the concepts, and the flow is jagged. With the addition of a teacher, and reading this book from front to back, my java class sucked hard because i didn't have that solid foundation I needed.
i had to get this book for a course i was taking at the college i go to. i cringe every time i read it because the title is a bit misleading. I thought i was going to be learning JAVA insted i'm learning how to take someone elses class files to apply them to completely meaningless projects that really dont teach anyone anything about how to program, let alone about the inner workings of the programs your working with. the teaching style is more of a top down approach rather than explaining whats going on at the lower level and you learn to program with classes to make programs at an upper level. This may work for some, it definately doesnt fly with me.
I have read many books on C, and C++, and have paged through some promising java books (like Sun's own books on the subject).. if it werent for the requirement for this book in the class i would have passed it up INDEFINATELY!!! Peice of Krap!!!
do{
if(The object of JAVA==pickup){
The object of JAVA = Leave it the hell alone!!!;
else if(The object of JAVA == buy)
{
do{
Beat head with stick && knock sence into head;
burn book || return to store;
}while(book==posession)
}while(@bookshelf)
The Object of Java by David D. Riley
This book is less than impressive. It exhumes the need for elucidated text in the field of computer science.
I am compelled to correlate this book with the awkward ramblings of Vizzini to Westley in the movie, "The Princess Bride".
Reading this book was more than a slight burden. Only one who is versed in reading the writings of such authors as Joseph Cambell or Henry David Thoreau can comprehend the confusion of word and sputter heavily peppering this book.
Allow me to illuminate:
1) This author finds it fit to include typos and syntax errors in the example code as to completely change the meaning of the code. Only one already experienced in programming will catch such errors. Others will wallow in confusion as to why the program is not working properly, after all, they copied it from the book word for word, it should be working, right?
2) In several instances, the author uses programming syntax and variable naming methods in his text that has nothing to do with the code explaination at hand. He actively titles the beginning of each sub-section as if it were a class or variable. IE: DivisionOfRadians()
NO THAT'S NOT A CLASS! :D
This is a common practice of David D. Rileys throughout the book, and not only for chapter sub-sections. He uses such writing methods all too liberally.
3) This genius author also uses an arbitrary library called aLibrary. Good for him, he designed his own library! Since this whole book is based on the aLibrary, any real world application have just been made void. I mean seriously, try convincing your co-workers that this aLibrary is the next big thing. What happened to the commonly used AWT and Swing libraries? Hmmm, oh, it's shoved in the back index. Right where you would expect commonly used every day libraries.
4) His code snippets and actual text are seperated by font style. Only problem is, you can't tell at all. His method of referring to code, methods, arguments, classes etc in his text is extremely easy to miss without paying impossibly close attention. His text is filled with inconsistencies and problems. I DO NOT recommend this book. If at all possible, avoid it entirely. For those of you who are using this book as a college text, well, all I can say is, I'm very sorry.
On the bright side, his explaination of objects and classes is ... decent.
Let me say first: I love the BlueJ environment. It is by far and away the best environment I have ever seen for learning or teaching Java. I was facinated after reading the tutorial that comes with it (from www.bluej.org), and I got this book.
This book is okay, and has some good points to it, but the 'BlueJ' tag on the front cover is a bit misleading. I got the impression that it was added as an afterthought, and does not make really good use of the BlueJ environment.
BlueJ opens many fascinating possibilities (calling methods directly on an object!) and not much of this is used in the book. A bit disappointing. Otherwise the book is okay.
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