Customer Rating: 
Summary: At last! A Java book that reaches this "Perl-programmer in transition"
Comment: I am a self-taught Perl programmer. I've been using Perl 5 for about eight years, and in the last couple of years I've been wanting to move to Java. I've tried so many books - Herb Schildt's "Beginning Java" (too easy and boring examples), Deitels' gigantic volume (worthless crap - as are all of Deitel's stuff; I mean, do you really need to waste a chapter teaching would-be Java coders UML?), Cadenhead's "Teach Yourself Java 6 in 21 days" (left too many holes; not enough depth in critical areas, and lots of mistakes), etc. I finally found this book and ordered it. This is the one I should have been using all along.
When you work through this book, you get the sense that you are being taught by a real Java guru, an author who isn't going to leave you hanging. This is a serious text, and as others have noted -- it isn't for a new programmer. Having said that, it is perfect for anyone coming to Java from another language. About the only critical remark I would have is that I think the chapters on error-handling and on collections might have been better placed ahead of the chapters on Swing; as it is, the Swing stuff seems a little bit of a diversion in the middle of the book. But fortunately, this book is so well done that you can easily jump forward a couple of chapters, then back one, etc. Indeed, there are some places where the author simply says stuff like "the rest of this chapter may be more relevant to the tool-builder than to the application programmer; application programmers may want to skip ahead to the next chapter." To me, that represents an honest writer who has years of experience teaching people Java.
A word of advice: if you are the kind of person that learns best from little exercises, strict tutorials, etc., you may not want this book (except as a reference). If, on the other hand, you like trying out the stuff by applying it "in your own world" so to speak, this book is ideal; you should be sufficiently inspired to adapt the examples, etc., to your own liking.
I have worked through just about all of the book in about a month, and I am now confidently "converting" some of my Perl stuff over to Java. This book has given me a real love of Java, and I look forward to working my way through Volume II when I finish this one.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Great Reference Guide
Comment: This is a great reference guide for many java techniques. That being said, you should have some knowledge of either java or another programming language before picking this book up. DO NOT buy this book if you are looking to learn java from scratch with no prior programming experience. This book covers a large range of topics and would be too much for someone trying to learn the basics. All in all it is a great reference book and I'm glad to have it on my shelf and I think it was well worth the money.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Review of Core Java Volume 1
Comment:
The Core Java Volume 1 is very informative for anyone studying Computer Science or working as a Developer. The book thoroughly explains the concepts of Java Programming for SDK 6.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The title says it all
Comment: If you're looking for a solid book on Java 6 (this is a two volume series though) that is part reference material and part insight from a veteran educator and programer then this book is for you. It's not a Java / Comp Sci 101 book but one that is geared towards folks with some programing experience, particularly in Java. I highly recommend this to the Java programmer that needs a good reference and wants t know how Java works in te real world.
Customer Rating:
Summary: So so
Comment: The book does well is saying what's new in JDK 5.0 and later. It doesn't do well in actually covering it. The book shows results of certain arguments, commands, etc..., without actually showing you the command that would be executed to achieve the result. It leave you to the trial and error of figuring out the syntax by yourself.
It also lacks explanation at the beginning chapters, making this a book I wouldn't want to start out learning JAVA with. I don't have other JAVA books covering the new specs, so I don't have anything to compare this to. However, I learned JAVA initially with FAR superior books to this. One was Introduction to JAVA Programming by Liang. It explaned everything a beginner needs to know, and included plenty of example code, and explained the code. I don't know if there is a new version though, and the one I have would be outdated now.
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