Well here's an update now that I have the book (Practical Java Game Programming).
In a nutshell -
Its crap.
In a bigger nutshell -
It sucks and its crap.
A little more detail -
- Fraught with errors both in the language and code samples.
- The CDROM doesn't contain all the source code (Chapter 4 is missing)
- The code doesn't contain
ANT scripts / Eclipse files / or any other easy to use compiling. You can't just pop in the CD, type a line or two and have things ready to run. Some things are precompiled for you, but they don't always run.
- The sample code doesn't follow the Java coding convention or any other one that I can see. Within the same class file you see this type of thing -
At least be consistent with spacing and braces within the same class file!
- The audio chapter was worthless IMO.
- The Chapter on Game Databases and
JDBC was more than basic, though more well written than the others, given someone from Sun did it.
- You never really get a good sense of structure when going through the book. It feels like snippets pasted in all over the place.
- The networking chapter (ch 7) was annoying because at the top of every source file is the huge Sun disclaimer. The chapter is well written compared to others, but it was extrememly distracting to wade through a 1/2 page disclaimer every few pages. The other disappointment was that in the first few paragraphs of the chapter, the author says NIO is really complex and won't be convered. ARGGGHHH! Then they just cover lan and state that WAN is more difficult because of latency. So far neither this one or Brackeen's scores any points for a good networking chapter.
I haven't finished the book yet. Two things will improove my current review.
1. An author actually writes me back so I can discuss some of this. I've got several emails out to the various authors and haven't heard anything.
2. The chapters on jogl need to be very good.
More to come . .