Review:Just Java and Beyond

CowboyNeal has, after a long and careful review, sent us a review of Peter van der Linden's Just Java and Beyond. This is a great book for people learning Java-so click below if you are just learning, or are curious. Just Java and Beyond author Peter van der Linden pages publisher Sun Microsystems rating 9 reviewer CowboyNeal ISBN 0-13-784174-4 summary ow! I wish I had this book when I first learned Java. Well-organized and easy-to-read for beginners, this book is perfect for anyone who wants get his/her feet wet in Java. What's Good? Everything. Seriously, the examples are in-depth and well explained, while each chapter has a brief section at the end entitled "Light Relief" which shows how that chapter is relevant to the big picture and/or gives a small anecdote from the author's past. The sections on the Java event-handling model (one of more difficult parts of Java) are well done and even take the time to compare and contrast the Java 1.0 event model and the Java 1.1 event model. I also found the section of Java threads to be particularly outstanding. Not having much background in parallelism myself, I was able to understand the entire concept better, as well as how Java implements it. What's Bad? Almost nothing. When I first read this book, I had a difficult time doing so because many of my friends and coworkers would hoarde it for their own use. The one downside I found is that there are no place where I can find a list of classes, function calls, etc. Although this is not a reference/nutshell book, that is a feature I always like to see. Those looking for a quick reference may be disappointed by Just Java and Beyond. Who should buy this book? If you have no previous experience with Java and want to start learning it, this book is one of the best. I've read countless Java books and this one is both enjoyable and informative. If you are looking for a Java reference, this book may fit the bill, but it's still geared for first-time learners.

Buy this book here.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Using the Just Java CD-ROM

Acknowledgements

1. What Is Java?
2. The Story of O: Object-Oriented Programming
3. The Java Programming Language
4. Java Building Blocks
5. More Sophisticated Techniques
6. Practical Examples Explained
7. All About Applets
8. Utilities And Libraries
9. The Abstract Window Toolkit
10. Graphics Programming
11. Java Foundation Classes (JFC) Preview (Swingset)
12. File I/O
13. Networking in Java
14. Future Developments

Appendix A: The Obsolete JDK 1.0 Event Model

Appendix B: Powers of 2 and ISO 8859

Index