Usually the O'Reilly books are hard to beat. And I'm a big fan of UNIX in a Nutshell. But I haven't found much use for this book so far. I'm glad I have it on my shelf because there has been a time or two that it had info that the others didn't. Most of the book is supposed to be reference - but my "The Java Class Libraries" books are far superior in this department.(trailboss Jan 2000)
Pounding at a thick stone wall won't move it, sometimes, you need to step back to see the way around.
Cindy Glass
"The Hood"
Sheriff
Joined: Sep 29, 2000
Posts: 8521
posted
0
So So. Kinda boring reading.
"JavaRanch, where the deer and the Certified play" - David O'Meara
Paul Ralph
Ranch Hand
Joined: Aug 10, 2000
Posts: 312
posted
0
I had fairly good luck using this book as a review guide right before I took the SCJP. I wouldn't recommend it as a way to learn Java though. Paul R
Pauline McNamara
Sheriff
Joined: Jan 19, 2001
Posts: 4011
posted
0
Just got this book last week as my first reference book for Java. Before that I only had how-to-learn-Java books, and found that I needed something to look up terminology easily. For this it has worked quite well. It seems to be well indexed and provides pretty succinct info. For more detailed explanations, though, I still depend mostly on Just Java 2. An additional plus for me, who much prefers leafing through a book to browsing html files, is the API reference. Each package has a chapter with page edge markings for easy leafing. This structure, along with the short, general descriptions of packages and classes, gives me a much better overview. For detailed info on classes, methods, etc., one still has to go to the API html file (a good idea anyway). So far (beginner!), I'm really glad to have this one. Cheers, Pauline
[This message has been edited by Pauline McNamara (edited June 13, 2001).]
0
