I think I did see a link on the Apress website for submitting errata, I'll check that out. If they'd like me to submit a tentative list, I have quite a few (though not an unusual number for a first edition). Most are clearly just typos, but given that I'm new to
Java there are definitely some places where I'm honestly not clear what is meant.
Some background on me: I am a C/C++ programmer with 7+ years' experience in real-time embedded system R&D, but no background whatsoever in Java. (Didn't even realize that Java and JavaScript were two different Animals.
) While waiting several weeks to hear back from a promising job interview, I decided to distract myself from the suspense and keep my mind active by learning Java.
I chose Sanghera's book based on some good reviews at Amazon.com . The K&B book was also highly reviewed, but I felt I only had the budget for one book so I mentally flipped a coin and bought Sanghera's.
I felt his first few chapters were very clear and thorough, but admittedly most of the concepts were familiar to me and I simply had to learn how to translate them into Javanese. Once I reached the book's section on "Advanced Java Programming" however, I found that the exposition became more dense (and the typos more frequent). Suddenly a lot of new concepts, and lists of classes and methods to memorize, were being presented with much less explanation than in the introductory chapters. I almost got the feeling that he wrote the first few chapters over a longer period of time, and then suddenly a deadline loomed and he had to get the rest of the book finished in a hurry. If the latter chapters were expanded to allow the depth of explanation that he included at first, the book would really be excellent.
I think I would have been a lot less frustrated if I had been aware of online resources such as JavaRanch, where I could have gotten my various newbie questions answered before plowing on to the next chapter. (And/or if I had spent the money on the K&B book as well, to have had two sources and two styles of presenting the material to draw from.)
Overall I would recommend Sanghera's book, but not as a place to learn Java in a vacuum. (Perhaps no book would fit that description.) You'll need additional resources, whether other books, online communities, or (gasp) real, live human beings who know Java well.
