Comments about oreilly Learning Java, 2nd Edition:

I use to be able to look at the table of contents and a few pages, somewhat of a very brief review. Here on, I'll be sure to view other reader's reviews before I buy another book from O'Reilly Publishing.

Comments about oreilly Learning Java, 2nd Edition:

I think - Name should change because - for new biee this book gonna make no sense, because it start high level... will be bouncy so HighLevel Java start will be good name, insted of learning java..

Comments about oreilly Learning Java, 2nd Edition:

This is a good book, but not what I expected.

I've read quite a few 'learning' books but this may be one of the worst, at least for my need. I think it is written well and comprehensible, but it's like listening to a 10 hour lecture of the language. Just listening. Most learning books have many hands-on examples that you can try yourself, and thus doing, you learn to write the code. This book, on the other hand, just keeps on going and going whithout letting us do something. How am I supposed to remember what I've read 100 pages ago without writing a single line of code?

Despite that, I think I'll keep this book. I may have to get another book to 'learn' Java, but this book seems like a very good reference book. Good book, but wrong title.

Someone mentioned 'Learning Perl' below. I totally agree with that person. That was the best learning book I've ever read! I really hope the publishers realize that and demand the authors same level of quality.

Comments about oreilly Learning Java, 2nd Edition:

Ok now I've bleed off some of my excess cynicism, let me find something good to say about it.

Well ... actually it's chock-full of information ... overflowing ... so much so that it would've boosted my morale immensely if I could only have DONE something with it - like running the first example. A simple "hello world" would have bolstered my enthusiams through the next 100 pages

Not that I'm un-used to the complexity of web (or network) programming. Having tutored myself through at least 5 years of web design and development picking up the usual fare in the process. (javascript, CSS, perl, php, mysql and so on) I stepped back from Java in 97, for these more immediate considerations, and now have returned with serious intentions ... and so this book has tossed a little cold h2O on my head of steam, but I'll keep plugging away.

Sometimes I wonder if textbook authors believe that well-placed "errors" are essential if students are to learn to deal with the "real world." What a concept! Thanks but I've allready sorted out enough errata to last a lifetime. (Learning Java is far from unique in this regard btw, about average I'd say ... but still, the very first example!?!)

My thanks to all the others for posting thoughts that echo'd my sentiments so that I no longer feel quite so alone (or inept) a voice in the wilderness.

On a more positive note, the CD's NetBeans IDE, though dated, includes a comprehensive help section with TUTORIAL examples that may just save the day. At least so far the examples compile and run!

Comments about oreilly Learning Java, 2nd Edition:

I agree with most of the reviews that this book is mainly for experienced programmers. It also seems to cover much more than it needs in a "Learning" book. If the book was divided into two separate books (Learning Java, and Advanced Java) it could still go into the depth that it does, and still be able to explain fully the current topics.

Comments about oreilly Learning Java, 2nd Edition:

I've got to up my rating. This book is proving to be an excellent resource!

Comments about oreilly Learning Java, 2nd Edition:

Strong points:

1. Good swing explanation

2. Some fun classes included: e.g. java.awt.Robot, java.util.zip

3. servlet examples/war deployment/web.xml explanation were excellent

Weak points that really brought book down:

1. Examples needed improvement: more O'Reilly humour; more examples with greater depth (ie using many classes); fewer unfinished examples.

2. Where's the I/O? This is one of the first things that a programmer wants to learn. But it's buried, and poorly demonstrated, halfway through the book.

3. The writing is too tangled. Even as an experienced programmer, I read some lines and was left with "huh??". I agree with other readers that this book isn't for beginners.

4. Some sections are too wordy. E.g. the garbage collection section includes a whole paragraph of rhetoric on 'state-of-the-art techniques', then tells us not to worry ourselves about it (What's the algorithm?!).

So yeah, a decent book. Not its fault that Perl is just so much better... :)

Comments about oreilly Learning Java, 2nd Edition:

This book, as many have written below, is definitely not a "Learning" book, contrary to what the title implies. Having bought, read, and nearly worn out three of the O'Reilly Perl books (Learning Perl [Llama], Perl Programming [Camel], Perl Cookbook [Bighorn]), I was quite used to (dare I say "spoiled by") the very natural style and well-structured and well-paced writing of the authors of those books.

The first chapter in "Learning Java" is more like the Preface on steroids. Perhaps it was the preface, and someone lost control?. It basically gives a brief history of Java, and then tries to perform linguistic surgery by comparing various aspects of Java with those of other languages. Chapter two then dumps the reader into a seemingly simple program. Yes, it only displays "Hello Java" in a window, but it would help to explain the lines of the program from top to bottom, rather than skipping around. For example: import java.swing.*;, the first line of our simple program, isn't explained until much later (8 pages later!). The line "#!/usr/bin/perl", which is typically the first line of a Perl program, is explained very clearly almost immediately after it is introduced.

The writing style is also klunky: if you either don't already know Java, or don't know the authors' style, or both, it will be difficult to squeeze the right meaning out of what they write. i.e.- The reader should not have to even attempt to "read between the lines", especially not in a book that is meant to be introductory to the language..

My opinion overall: Not a Very Nice Book

Comments about oreilly Learning Java, 2nd Edition:

As a constant user of computers who has dabbled in shell scripting, batch scripting and some minor excursions into perl, I thought I would probably find this book to be a very helpful tool in approaching java (for the second time). I was right, this book is a clear and concise entrance into the java language. I found the pace and complexity of the examples to be helpful and informative.

I would recommend this as a good place to start for someone who has already dabbled in programming (not necessarily with formal training) and is interested in getting started with java.

Unfortunately, I dissagree with some of the other reviewers in their criticism of the authors decision to not include complete installation instructions for java and the SDK. While this is a book by O'Reilly in their "learning" series, it is not designed to be a hand-holder for those who are not willing to dive in and figure things out. [flame goes here]

Thank you O'Reilly for supporting this book through it's second edition!

Comments about oreilly Learning Java, 2nd Edition:

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