Head First Java, 2nd Edition by Bert
Bates
Great Experience
It has taken four years, but with Head First Java the introductory Java book
category has finally come of age. This is an excellent book, far more
capable than any of the scores of Java-for-novices books that have come
before it. Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates deserve rich kudos--and big sales--
for developing this books new way of teaching the Java programming
language, because any reader with even a little bit of discipline will come
away with true understanding of how the language works. Perhaps best of
all, this is no protracted Hello, World introductory guide. Readers get
substantial exposure to object-oriented design and implementation,
serialization, neatwork programming, threads, and Remote Method
Invocation (RMI). Key to the authors teaching style are carefully
designed graphics. Rather than explain class inheritance (to cite one
example) primarily with text, the authors use a series of tree diagrams that
clarify the mechanism far more succinctly. The diagrams are carefully
annotated with arrows and notes. Also characteristic of the unique
teaching strategy is heavy reliance on exercises, in which the reader is
asked to complete partial classes, write whole new code segments and do
design work. Though theres little discussion of why the exercises correct
answers are what they are, its clear that the practice work was carefully
designed to reinforce the lesson at hand. If youve waited this long to give
Java a try, this book is a great choice. --David Wall Topics covered: The
Java programming language for people with no Java experience, and even
people with no programming experience at all. Key concepts read like a list
of Java features: Object oriented design, variable type and scope, object
properties and methods, inheritance and polymorphism, exceptions,
graphical user interfaces (GUIs), network connectivity, Java archives (JAR
files), and Remote Method Invocation (RMI).
So I have been diving thru all the java books and online videos I can find.
The one thing I seem to find it that alot of books focus on getting you to
start writing code and alot of the code you just dont understand fully (Well
at least I didnt). They really dont explain what and how things are working.
I started looking more at Java text books and that really spent too much
time on theory and high level coding ideas. I watched some great Videos
on line, but they started with test driven development, but I really needed
the basics in simple to understand english.
What I needed is a ground up java class in a book. What I stumbled upon
was Head First Java, After just a few days I am about half way thru this
book. It is the first programming book that you can actually read. You
dont have to read it next to a computer.
The book teaches you the basics and the meaning behind them, it
challenges you with different learning styles. The code that is in the book
is easy to read and are fun relevant things you might want to try. No
boring hello world, how about creating a battleship game?
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