The Complete Java 2 Training Course
by
Deitel and Deitel
Prentice Hall PTR
5th edition
May 2003
1500 pages
Reviewed by Salman Halim, June 2003
(8 of 10)
This package includes the full-color text "Java How to Program, Fifth Edition". The book has been reviewed elsewhere on this forum.
Running the multimedia portion (after installation) launches the default browser, although it requires IE. I simply copied/pasted the main URL into IE. Wouldn't work. Turns out a startup page downloads an ActiveX plugin that is required for the presentation links to work -- this then quickly goes on to the main page of the book's text so can be easily missed. So, not only must IE be installed on your machine, it must be the default browser! A beginner (on a system someone else configured with Netscape, for example) might have given up. This does only happen once.
The entire book's contents are available online -- there is also a very good search capability. I closed the actual book in the middle of the third chapter since the references in the text are all hyperlinked and the code examples are not only all voice-annotated but can actually be executed!
The post-assessment exams (proper HTML forms) for each chapter are a good touch and mesh in well with the end-of-chapter exercises. A total score for the test on a per-chapter basis would have been nice, though.
Final comments: the book and multimedia work well together. Read the sections of text in the book, but keep the multimedia version open -- the code examples really shine online.
(8 of 10)
