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Java 2, v5.0 (Tiger) New Features
by
Herbert Schildt
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McGraw-Hill
1 edition
July 2004
216 pages
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Reviewed by Lasse Koskela, August 2004
(8 of 10)
If you already know Java and want to utilize the impressive array of innovations contained in Java 2, v5.0, this book is for you." That's actually from the back cover of the book and I have to say I fully agree. Schildt has brought us many useful titles and "Java 2, v5.0 (Tiger) New Features" is no exception.
The delightfully small book (a hair below 200 pages) packs just enough information to upgrade your know-how to the level of the latest Java version. Each topic (generics, autoboxing, enums, for-each, static imports, varargs, annotations, formatter, scanner) is explained clearly and concisely with expressive code samples. Schildt even lets you in on how the compiler handles some of these syntax enhancements, which I especially enjoyed reading about. The major features of each new addition is discussed in more detail and the less common methods are given a one-sentence description, which suits me, personally, quite well as long as I agree with what's common and what's not.
Talking about agreeing on what's common, the only real gripes I have with "Java 2, v5.0 (Tiger) New Features" is that the author completely by-passes the addition of java.lang.instrument and java.lang.management packages, only mentioning that those have been added. I would've certainly expected to read at least a page worth of overview on the actual services those packages provide.
In summary, I'd say you can't go wrong with this book. It's not a "complete reference" nor is it intended to be. It's a quick path to knowing just enough to feel comfortable diving into Java code written "Tiger style".
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Java the Complete Reference
by
Herbert Schildt
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Oracle Press/McGraw Hill
8 edition
2011
1116 pages
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Reviewed by Campbell Ritchie, October 2011
(7 of 10)
Always open the Amazon links for these reviews: examine the contents and a few sample pages. We have a lot of pages; 1100 for $60.00 is good value for money. I suspect the binding may not last many years; maybe I'll need a new copy soon!
The "tutorial" in "Part I" moves (I think) too quickly for beginners, so I'll review it as "Advanced". I think it is intended for experienced programmers who already understand object-orientation. It covers all the basics, and is easy to read. It includes the first explanation of Object#wait() and Object#notify() which I really understood! The "tutorial" covers syntax before object-orientation, and encapsulation only appears after classes are described.
"Part II" goes through the packages, describing their classes and interfaces. Maybe a list of classes could have been replaced by a link to the appropriate page of the API, and the text might not have gone so "fast"? The collections framework section describes all the classes, including legacy code, but doesn't analyse the Set interface with those nice methods which implement set union and intersection. Most classes are demonstrated with short examples. In some cases the examples are obviously abbreviated to save space. The coverage is comprehensive and up-to-date for Java7.
"Part III" shows examples of use of Swing, Beans, and Servlets, and "Part IV" some larger example applications.
I found only two things I took exception to: the %n tag "inserts a newline character", and java.util.Scanner.nextLine() "returns the next line of input as a String."
I would have preferred full-blown object orientation, encapsulation, etc., from the start.
But this is a book I shall be pleased to have on the shelf, which I shall make sure to read lots from.
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Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for writing this review on behalf of CodeRanch.
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Oracle Press/McGraw Hill
8 edition
2011
1116 pages
|
Reviewed by Rob Spoor, November 2011
(6 of 10)
This book doesn't seem to know what it wants to be. It claims to be a reference but fails at that point. Its definition of reference seems to be listing a lot of methods with little explanation. If I want that I can use the Javadoc pages for free. Even worse, it chooses to describe obsolete classes like StringTokenizer, Stack or Dictionary, but only briefly mentions more interesting features like cookie handling and the concurrent collections. It does list the latter, but doesn't tell me which one I would need in which situation. The book also gives too much attention to applets (in combination with AWT, not Swing), while ignoring more interesting packages like java.util.logging and java.util.zip almost completely. It tries to describe servlets (in just over 20 pages, definitely not enough), but fails to even mention JDBC. It would have been better to either add a few hundred pages, or drop some topics altogether.
The book appears to try to be a book for beginners as well. While it does explain the basics, it rushes through them at times. I don't think beginners will like that. I think that Head First Java or even Oracle's own tutorials are better choices to learn the language. What's left is several chapters that experienced programmers already know.
Now this isn't a bad book. It does handle several of the new Java 7 features like the Fork/Join Framework, NIO2 and try-with-resources, and some topics like Formatter rightfully have longer sections. I also really liked the chapter on images. However, it doesn't add much that you can't find in Oracle's own tutorials and online Javadoc pages.
I'd like to add one thing that really surprised me. While the book is updated for JDK 7, the author doesn't appear to know that the wrapper classes (Integer, Long, etc) have valueOf methods to wrap primitives. I can't remember him using them even once, choosing to use a constructor each time instead.
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Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for writing this review on behalf of CodeRanch.
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