Java: How to Program, 8th Edition at Dominant Systems Book Store

"The [arrays] exercises are quite sophisticated and interesting. Provides the best combination of conceptual discussion and implementation examples of dynamic binding that I have encountered in a text. Excellent overview of basic networking via Java. Provides the perfect breadth and depth for generics in an entry-level Java class. Provides a good segue into a data structures course – the exercises are excellent." – Ric Heishman, George Mason University

"Beautiful collections of exercises–a nice illustration of how to use Java libraries to generate impressive and stimulating graphics with minimal code and effort. I found the “Making a Difference” exercises to be very nice and tactfully presented." – Amr Sabry, Indiana University

"A comprehensive introduction to programming in Java that covers all major areas of the platform. To me, the best way to understand programming is by example, and this book contains copious, well-described sample code." – Simon Ritter, Sun Microsystems

"Great example of polymorphism and interfaces. Great comparison of recursion and iteration. I found the [Searching and Sorting] chapter to be just right. A very understandable, simplified explanation of Big O–the best I have ever read! A great synthesis of details to help someone create generic data structures. I appreciate the addition of the GUI-based threading issues. Great approach to Java web technologies." – Sue McFarland Metzger, Villanova University

"I’m sure this [ATM] case study will be of immense value to practitioners and students of the object-oriented approach. Demystifies inheritance and polymorphism, and illustrates their use in getting elegant, simple and maintainable code." – Vinod Varma, Astra Infotech Private Limited

Customer Reviews & Comments
Background: I am a PhD student in computer science, but I do theoretical research that rarely requires coding, so I haven't programmed in years. Recently I decided to pick up java, which I last used in 2000; rather than taking a class, I decided to spend some time this summer working through this book. I have programmed in several languages in the past (most notably C++) so I am familiar with the basics of programming (OOP, control structures, etc) but as I have not used java in close to a decade, much of the language is totally new to me. The book is easy to read and has been well-proofed. The topics are covered in depth without assuming that the reader is either an expert or stupid: everything that you need to know is covered, but not repeated over and over. A summary and quiz at the end of each chapter makes it simple to check that you understood all of the important points, and the optional GUI case studies allow the reader to immediately jump in to graphical programming, which is often much more interesting than just causing words to appear on the screen! Chapters are a reasonable length as well; time to complete will vary depending on whether you're typing out and compiling the listed programs (you should) and doing the sample problems at the back of each chapter, but I've been spending 1-3 hours on each. Having just finished Chapter 10, I've learned quite a bit, particularly about features of the language which hadn't yet been added the last time I used the language; the enhanced for loop, for example, is pretty cool! The book comes with a companion website that offers downloads of every program in the book, as well as an additional ten appendices that didn't fit into this approximately 1500-page book. This is actually a 4.5 star review, as there is one editing error that annoys me and makes the book a little harder to use. As each chapter involves writing a program and then modifying it, code is necessarily repeated; changes are highlighted in yellow to make it easier to find the places that need to be changed in your code. However, there are several places where the highlighting is incorrect (code that has changed is not highlighted, or code is highlighted without having been changed). It's a minor issue and only takes a few minutes to figure out, so I've gone ahead and rounded my rating up to a five. The book is definitely not perfect, but it's the best programming book I've read so far.

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