Amazon.co.uk Review
At 1200 pages,
Beginning Java 2 could prove intimidating to someone new to Java, but within the first few pages you know you're in safe hands. Ivor Horton takes readers straight into a simple text-based Java program, though in a break with tradition it isn't "Hello world". As each new language feature or concept is introduced, Horton creates a small program to illustrate it, shows what the output of the program should be, and then explains how and why it works.
This is an old-fashioned teaching technique that has a major advantage over the common glitzier approach of starting with graphical Java programs: you understand everything you're doing from the first keystroke. For those unfamiliar with object-oriented programming models, understanding helps a lot. Classes, packages, inheritance, polymorphism, threads, exception handling, instances and methods are not part of everyday thought. It takes examples, explanations and practice to make them familiar.
However, Beginning Java 2 isn't just for those new to Java. It goes right to the edge of the language. When you reach GUI Java programming you get to write a simple mouse-driven sketch utility complete with curves, primitives, fonts and printing all available from menus. You then get to add neat effects including rotation. This is followed up with bitmap display and animations, adding sound to programs and database access using SQL statements via the JDBC. The last section of the book covers Java documentation creation using the JavaDoc tool. This is one of the best books around for those aiming to become competent, professional Java programmers. --Steve Patient
Synopsis
A second edition Beginning Java title is now required because: In quarter one, 2000, Sun will release version 1.3 of their Java Developers Kit (JDK 1.3). This is significant because: The fastest Java platform performance ever is now available for download, and is coming to your mailbox from America Online (AOL), thanks to an agreement between Sun and AOL to deliver the Java Runtime Environment on the AOL 5.0 CD-ROM. The newest version of J2SE technology, v 1.3, will deliver momentous performance gains and improved Web deployment for enterprise-grade, client-side applications. And just about everything else developers have been asking for: Client-side users now enjoy the speed advantage of the new Java HotSpot compiler which has been tuned for client performance. The result is much faster thread handling, improved scalability and rapid memory allocation for objects, smaller RAM footprint, and the platform has gained a much more efficient garbage collector. All of these enhancements spell speed for the desktop user. For Graphical User Interface (GUI) performance, the Java Foundation Classes and Swing libraries have been super-tuned to enhance scrolling speed. The GUI components that developers use to create tables and frames for their applications have also been improved. Online discussion of the topics in this book available at Wrox's P2P site. This book is a fast paced and comprehensive tutorial introduction to application development using Java. It is ideal for novice Java programmers who have some previous programming exposure and are able to run with the fast pace. Almost all new entrants to Java are coming from previous programming experience.
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