Review:Just Java and Beyond

CowboyNeal has, after a long and careful review, sent us a review of Peter van der Linden's Just Java and Beyond. This is a great book for people learning Java-so click below if you are just learning, or are curious.

Just Java and Beyond
author	Peter van der Linden
pages
publisher	Sun Microsystems
rating	9
reviewer	CowboyNeal
ISBN	0-13-784174-4
summary	ow! I wish I had this book when I first learned Java. Well-organized and easy-to-read for beginners, this book is perfect for anyone who wants get his/her feet wet in Java.

What's Good?

Everything. Seriously, the examples are in-depth and well explained, while each chapter has a brief section at the end entitled "Light Relief" which shows how that chapter is relevant to the big picture and/or gives a small anecdote from the author's past. The sections on the Java event-handling model (one of more difficult parts of Java) are well done and even take the time to compare and contrast the Java 1.0 event model and the Java 1.1 event model. I also found the section of Java threads to be particularly outstanding. Not having much background in parallelism myself, I was able to understand the entire concept better, as well as how Java implements it.

What's Bad?

Almost nothing. When I first read this book, I had a difficult time doing so because many of my friends and coworkers would hoarde it for their own use. The one downside I found is that there are no place where I can find a list of classes, function calls, etc. Although this is not a reference/nutshell book, that is a feature I always like to see. Those looking for a quick reference may be disappointed by Just Java and Beyond.

Who should buy this book?

If you have no previous experience with Java and want to start learning it, this book is one of the best. I've read countless Java books and this one is both enjoyable and informative. If you are looking for a Java reference, this book may fit the bill, but it's still geared for first-time learners.

Buy this book here.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Using the Just Java CD-ROM

Acknowledgements

1. What Is Java?
2. The Story of O: Object-Oriented Programming
3. The Java Programming Language
4. Java Building Blocks
5. More Sophisticated Techniques
6. Practical Examples Explained
7. All About Applets
8. Utilities And Libraries
9. The Abstract Window Toolkit
10. Graphics Programming
11. Java Foundation Classes (JFC) Preview (Swingset)
12. File I/O
13. Networking in Java
14. Future Developments

Appendix A: The Obsolete JDK 1.0 Event Model

Appendix B: Powers of 2 and ISO 8859

Index

What about Eckel's book?

[joss]

Eckel's book was very good, and you can download it for free ;-) Comprehensive and well informed. I can't compare it to "Just java" since I haven't read that. My only complaint were his somewhat misleading and out of date comparisons of C++ to java (I'm a C++ bigot, but when I complain about Java, I complain about 1.2, not 1.0).

best book for Java I/O

[bulbul]

Just Java and Beyond is the only book i've found that does a good job at explaining Java I/O and the maze of Reader and Writer classes. Although i have many other Java books, the $45 i spent on this one was worth it for that section alone.

JDK1.2 / 2

[duemoko]

Does the book cover any stuff about JDK1.2?

Rob

not all that intereresting for newbies...

[Bassie]

I'm very surprised there's a new edition of this java book. I bought the 1st edition a few months ago when i was wanted to try some java programming. It was on sale for 10 guilders (4,50 euro), so... what a bargain!

Unfortunately, i found it a little too hard for newbies. Frankly, you're supposed to have already a quite lot of knowledge on c or c++ (which i didn't...). So for people starting on java and programming, probably not the best available (although i don't know which one is the best).

Too bad, cause the author writes very nice (jokes, anecdotes, etc...).


(In the 1st edition is a great 10-page explanation on how to make a waterbomb with only a newspaper. Now that's something different!)

No Subject Given

[Randy_C]

I agree.
The Deitel & Deitel books (inlcuding the C/C++) books are somewhat hard to read - and don't even try using the index in the back to try to locate a topic in the book, you'll just be waisting your time.

What about Eckel's book?

[Lysol]

I actually didn't care too much for thnking in java. he's got some good examples, but i find myself always returning to 'Teaching Yourself Java in 21 days Professional Reference Edition' - by Sams.net-Premier. I know it's still only 1.1, but that book has stayed at my side the longest. It's a really great reference. Altho, I thought it sucked to try to learn Java with it. I get tired of people using 'apples and oranges extend the class fruit' examples. I couldn't understand Java that well until 'I' figured out how to model real world data structures - only then did it click in. There's a lot of books do that lame abstract thinking when they should be using real examples instead.

I'm a ...mac user.

[blk&tan]

Is java as cross-platform as it says it is? I want to learn java, but most of the books I've looked at are based in wintel. I'd rather learn on my native platform, I'm an absolute beginner as it is and I don't want to have to change machines if possible.

good stuff

[jrh]

Actually, out of the van der Linden programming trilogy, the best has got to be _ Great Lakes Ships We Remember II_ [amazon.com]. Read Amazon's PvdL interview [amazon.com].