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Head First Java
The Good
Of course, you can't learn Java without a good understanding of object-oriented languages. I made fairly heavy going with 'Learning Java' until I decided to dive in head first. Head First Java, that is -- a new book from O'Reilly that has a totally different attitude to teaching than I've seen before in computer books. It also looks like this might be the start of a series from O'Reilly, the website an introduction seem to assume that there will be more 'Head First' titles and I hope so. The style is humorous, full of graphics, cartoons, puzzles, quizzes and crosswords. It reminds me of the textbooks that used to try and teach me geometry and algebra in high school or my daughter's elementary books on Roman and Greek history I purchased for her at the British Museum. The style didn't work to teach me much algebra and geometry, but I wasn't anywhere near as motivated. This time, it worked. In a couple of weeks I worked through the book and finally have Java skills where I can branch off and start coding the projects I had in mind (though something more advanced will be required soon.)
In the introduction the authors examine learning and explain why they designed the book as they did. To quote from one section: "Some of the Head First learning principles. Make it visual. Put the words within or near the graphics. Use a conversational and personalized style. Get the learner to think more deeply. Get -- and keep -- the reader's attention. Touch their emotions." They argue that our brain is tuned to novelty, and that their style provides the novelty to keep your brain turned on. They also provide ten tips for good learning. That's one thing that seems to set this book apart from most other computer books, they say they think of their reader as a learner and indeed that's the way you are treated by the book. You can start to get a feel for their ideas by visiting headfirst.oreilly.com, a site devoted to the series. You can also grab a couple of example chapters from the books web page, which also has the usual marketing info, table of contents and errata.
The BadWhen compared to Learning Java the coverage is not as good. Head First really only covers the basics, up to and including creating a GUI with SWING and then touches a number of others; Learning Java goes on to explore, with a fair depth, network programming, web programming, servlets, applets, Java Beans, XML and other topics that are only touched on briefly in Head First. If the style of learning does not suit you then this will be an incredibly irritating and useless book, I'd give it a try first, though. If it isn't for you then the style of Learning Java might be better.
ConclusionWhen you get down to it, though, the only way to really decide on the worth of a tutorial is to decide how well it teaches. Head First Java excels at teaching. OK, I thought it was silly, I had a hard time making myself do the exercises, fill out the crosswords and solve the puzzles. Then I realized that I was thoroughly learning the topics as I went through the book. Learning Java was doing the same job, but the dry traditional method wasn't doing as well. Both books are well written, designed and constructed -- the style of Headfirst Java just made learning, well, easier.
It would seem to me that the 'Head First' approach is going to work wonderfully for the more 'beginner' topics, books for introducing you to a new style of programming, a new language or a radically different operating system or application. So if you're looking for a book to introduce you to Java then I can recommend Head First Java. Now if I could only find a book as good to introduce me to Common Lisp.
You can purchase Head First Java from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
The current W3C approved release of it is, I believe, currently referred to as ECMAScript, in an attempt to separate the two. (The ECMA is a European governing body on standards, and I do not recall what it stands for at this time).
I wouldn't mind seeing them separated like that - it would make more sense and minimize confusion, as well as the interleaving of books in bookstores. "Java... Javascript... hell, they must be the same thing!"
Brazil has decided you're cute.
best book on java imo, and its free to try out
http://mindview.net/Books/DownloadSites
I'm a rabbit startled by the headlights of life
I found "The Object-Oriented Thought Process" to be a great jumping-off point in helping me familiarize myself with how to think in-terms of OOP.
The intro to OOP chapters that are in most introductory books are OK, but they just didn't do enough for me.
if you want to learn a particular Java aspect look at Sun Java Tutorials. (they are excellent a free).
If you want to leatn OO programming and Java I would suggest Think In Java (it's the best and it's free).
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well considering you opted for the coward route, how is anyone going to take you up on that one!
plus, i entirely disagree with you, i have php applications that pull data from mysql faster than an equivalent java application.
the JAVA advantages, for me, are:
- OO through and through
- scalability in the form of J2EE
- well writen java is a pleasure to read and understand
- cross-platform
- fantastic package library and 3rd party packages
- sun screwed up and gave it away!
This is far, far, too far away from being the best book on Java.
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I'll even argue that this is not a good book at all. As always Mr. Eckel is going on and on with a 2-3 pages of reflections and a small piece of programming practices(everyone who've tried to read the C++ thinking, know for what I'me talking about), so my point is
1) The book will be confusing for a beginner programmer.
2) It'll be useless for the most part to a person with some general programming culture.
Anyway, the best book to start with java is "On to Java", I don't even remember the authors but it's everything: Short, explicit and well structured. A problem may be that it should be a bit outdated.......
Of course, all one really need to start programming in Java is here
1. No sig. 2. ???? 3. Profit!!!
The majority of developers do NOT fully understand OO principles. There is a difference between learning the syntax and the basic features and understanding how to leverage them. Most OO developers can write and use simple classes, use inheritance and basic polymorphism. This is generally all that is taught in courses and language books. This is also sufficient to get most things done. :)
However, most people this level of knowledge do not understand just how much more can be done. A good example of more powerful OO programming is in the Gang of Four book. The conceptual leap from procedural to basic OO programming is but the first step.
I guess what I'm getting at is that once you're at this point where you're using basic OO techniques, then there's still a lot more you can learn (even if you know each and every language feature and its syntax). Just be aware of that and look into it someday.
Madness takes its toll. Exact change please.
"The habit of using pictorial aids, like any habit, is very difficult to get rid of. If, however, we take any responsibility for the effectiveness of our thinking habits, we should try to get rid of the habit as quickly as possibile, for it is a bad habit, confusing and misleading up to the point of being paralysing."
Anyone who would say that obviously has no knowledge of how people learn and how different people learn with different styles.
As someone who spent 10 years with learning disabled and emotionally disturbed students, I can say one of the most effective teaching aids for ANYONE is finding out how they learn and presenting material in the style in which they absorb it the best. Since I worked with those who had the most difficulty learning, I had to learn as much as possible about how we ALL -- disabled, "normal", or gifted learn.
In a nutshell, anyone who can make a statement like the one above is ignorant. It has the sound of someone who is so busy showing off how intelligent he or she is that he has yet to realize how little he knows about people.
Perhaps it was written by someone who does well with the style of learning he describes because he spends all his time in books and on the web and has not yet learned how to deal with the real world yet.