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Book Review: Thinking in Java, 4th Edition
At 9:52 AM on Feb 15, 2006, Matthew Schmidt wrote:
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Read on for Meera's full review.
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Thinking in Java, 4th Edition is a great, great book, but...
In today's Java world, things have progressed so much - it has come to a point where for some established names in this Java field (names such as Bruce Eckel), everybody says nice, nice, and nice *only*.
Oh, I would have great respect for Bruce Eckel. There is no doubts about that. I have never met the guy. But, he is a successful author, successful trainer, successful consultant.
Still, in this post, I am going to say a little against Bruce's book "Thinking in Java". My comments are below:
Is this book for beginners or people with some experience or experts or for everyone? "For everyone" cannot be true. I checked the contents at http://www.bruceeckel.com. These are 1043 pages that we are talking about. Well, every chapter is detailed with explanations, examples, summary, exercises. Yeah, I agree, that's tremendous amount of hard work, Bruce.
But, for some reason, the index (a.k.a. arrangement of the chapters), the elements and the sub-elements, are not in appropriate order. I am sorry, Bruce. (Please note that I am still saying the book has tremendous amount of value - and also, this one opinion in millions is not going to count a whole lot! :)) I am also forward thinking and I agree that the book may have decided to get away from the conventional approaches of introducing language's basic elements first (and rather introduce Objects first). It's all fine with me. But, my major point is that Bruce's C++ background shows in the 4th edition as well. The contents read a little cryptic (obscure is the better word).
Marty Hall is a good author.
If we (the audience) can have the style of Marty Hall along with the depth of the contents of this book, then we shall benefit tremendously.
Thinking in Java, 4th Edition is a great, great book. But, my comments are equally valid. Also, where are the diagrams in the book? Very less number of diagrams. What do we expect? Someone to keep reading, reading, and reading 1043 pages until they die? What I am glad about is that every book has its own flavor - and this book is no exception to that rule.
It's so easy to say - hey Abhay, if you ain't happy with the book, don't be spending your money buying the book. What is hard to say is something like "the book is good, let's say, very good - but some more aspects are also desired." Let Bruce add those aspects in his book in the future editions of Java 3, Java 4... like that...
Re: Thinking in Java, 4th Edition is a great, great book, but...
The review states:"I recommend this book to every student as well as beginner and intermediate Java programmer"
No way is this book for beginners as this edition,like the previous editions, goes into too much depth. As a beginner in any language you want to gain knowledge in the easiest way and then remember it for future use. The lack of diagrams in the book makes knowlege hard to remember and I would actually refer a beginner to some of the books written by Kathy Sierra for that reason.
Students would be able to use the book, and infact I first used the book as a student simply because they have many other sources including tutors, other students to ask.
I am not particularly bothered about the contents arrangment of the book as I have never read a programming book in order anyway. I read the first one or two chapters and then hunt for the information I'm interested in right away.
Re: Book Review: Thinking in Java, 4th Edition
I don't understand why is this book soo "popular" fruthermore why does there have to be a link to the review to this book at the front page of Javalobby?"Thinking in Java
Meera Subbarao was fortunate enough to be able to take the pre-release copy of Thinking in Java, 4th edition for a spin."
Fortunate enough???
I tried reading Thinking in Java but I don't like books filled with toy examples (such as toasters, fruits, or zoo animals).
I personally think that Core Java I & II 7th Edition from Horstmann and Cornell are the best books on Java, they should be Java programmers 1st choice.
Re: Book Review: Thinking in Java, 4th Edition
I'm also think that Core Java I & II 7th Edition is the best one, but from other hand I've them both, cause sometimes you need to read about something that written in simple way, in that cases Thinking in Java, 4th Edition is great..:)Re: Book Review: Thinking in Java, 4th Edition
No one becomes proficient in any language from day one. It takes time for a beginner to learn any language and this book with very simple language and examples makes it easy.Re: Book Review: Thinking in Java, 4th Edition
Looks like everyone liked the book. I am going to buy itRe: Book Review: Thinking in Java, 4th Edition
Thinking in Java is a good choice for a student but for a serious Java developer I would argue that Core Java I & II 7th edition is a better choice.Re: Book Review: Thinking in Java, 4th Edition
Thinking in Java was the second book that I read on java. It helped me a lot when it came to OOP but actual java concepts were hard to find. The only real problem that i had with that book is that it seemed to assume that i have C++ background (which i do not). To me this is not a beginner's to programming Java, rather it is a beginner's to OOP book.Marin
Short, Self Contained, Correct (Compilable), Example