What makes K&R tick

[Anselm Paulinus]

Hi Khalid; I used your 1.2 and 1.4 books, but now I am having a copy of K&B for the 1.6 exam(sounds like changing a wining team); while I agree to the fact that your books are good, they are not really for beginers; what in your opinion would make one to pick a copy of your book as against a copy of K&B?

[armando fonseca]

The authors takes time to explain any details necessary to have a good understanding for the scjp. Also , there is a alot examples, and a mock test as well!

[Anselm Paulinus]

armando fonseca wrote:The authors takes time to explain any details necessary to have a good understanding for the scjp. Also , there is a alot examples, and a mock test as well!

I believe K&B offers those also;

[Rashmi Jaik]

It would be really hard to compare two books, because the knowledge covered is different.

One of the replies I found useful while choosing which books to read is covered here:
http://faq.javaranch.com/java/ScjpFaq#books

excerpts from the section under: Contributed by Mike Van...
1. Go through one book at a time, don't skip around between books because it will confuse you.

7. Knowing why something works, makes it easier for us to remember the concepts, and an SCJP book written for beginners would cover this.

I was just reading the sample chapter on Threads from A Programmer's Guide to Java Certification, Third Edition - it is written in a clear manner and is easy to follow - I know a little bit about threads, but the fact that they book explains certain things like what causes IllegalThreadStateException , what exactly are daemon threads and what is the difference between user threads and daemon threads is explained well in a non-confusing manner.

Sample chapters : https://coderanch.com/t/432566/Programmer-Certification-SCJP/certification/FYI-Website-Programmer-s-Guide

While reading the above book a beginner to Threads has to read along, a few more pages to learn how to create Threads , and how a thread changes its state and then try out what is mentioned in the first few pages.

I'm also reading the K&B book, which covers so many things even an experienced programmer wouldn't know
- just based on programming experience. Like overriding hashCode and equals ( how they are related ) , and many tricky things that an experienced programmer wouldn't know.

I have a few older versions of a few SCJP books ( got to go and find them ).

[armando fonseca]

Anselm Paulinus wrote:

armando fonseca wrote:The authors takes time to explain any details necessary to have a good understanding for the scjp. Also , there is a alot examples, and a mock test as well!

I believe K&B offers those also;

I have both books, so the big questions are
1. What are the main different between the k&R and K&B?
k&B is more focused on the SCJP. On the other hand, K&R takes more time to explain topics that are covered in short manner in k&B.
2. Which is one is better? I think it will be opt to the reader to decide. Is very hard for me to say which one is better.
If I have to read in sequence, I would read k&R and then k&B.
k&R --- It will give me a broad understanding while studying for the scjp.
k&B --- It will give me what I need to know before taking the scjp!

good luck!

[Anselm Paulinus]

Rashmi Jaik wrote:It would be really hard to compare two books, because the knowledge covered is different.

One of the replies I found useful while choosing which books to read is covered here:
http://faq.javaranch.com/java/ScjpFaq#books

excerpts from the section under: Contributed by Mike Van...
1. Go through one book at a time, don't skip around between books because it will confuse you.

7. Knowing why something works, makes it easier for us to remember the concepts, and an SCJP book written for beginners would cover this.

I was just reading the sample chapter on Threads from A Programmer's Guide to Java Certification, Third Edition - it is written in a clear manner and is easy to follow - I know a little bit about threads, but the fact that they book explains certain things like what causes IllegalThreadStateException , what exactly are daemon threads and what is the difference between user threads and daemon threads is explained well in a non-confusing manner.

Sample chapters : https://coderanch.com/t/432566/Programmer-Certification-SCJP/certification/FYI-Website-Programmer-s-Guide

While reading the above book a beginner to Threads has to read along, a few more pages to learn how to create Threads , and how a thread changes its state and then try out what is mentioned in the first few pages.

I'm also reading the K&B book, which covers so many things even an experienced programmer wouldn't know
- just based on programming experience. Like overriding hashCode and equals ( how they are related ) , and many tricky things that an experienced programmer wouldn't know.

I have a few older versions of a few SCJP books ( got to go and find them ).

Will find time to check out the sample chapter and compare with the previous editions to see if their is any difference.

Overriding hashcode is a common interview question. I Just want to know why I would invest on this book, having invested on K&B; not like I muct invest on it, but having his previous editions(knowing what those books are like), and not knowing thier is a 3rd edition I invested on K&B. I wish their is a free electronic copy.

[Khalid A. Mughal]

[This is an edited version of what I posted back in December 2004, but I believe it is still valid. -- khalid]

Mughal & Rasmussen (M&R) vs. Sierra & Bates (S&B)

To quote what Kathy Sierra said about comparing the two books -- although the comparison was with the first edition of M&R [posted December 24, 2002 07:28 PM on javaranch]:
"That our book [S&B] is more festive. I believe their book [M&R] is best studied in a quiet, serious room, maybe a library. Ours is suitable-- appropriate even-- for taking to the local pub. "
We think this is a fair assessment of the writing style of the two books. I would compare the two books in terms of medical treatments: M&R has a surgical approach to the exam whereas S&B has a morphine-induced euphoria approach to the exam. Nothing negative about either approach -- whatever works for you!

Both books cover the Programmer Certification exam (SCJP 6).

S&B is exam specific, whereas M&R covers some additional, essential topics as well. The scope of the exam changed significantly over the years, and the third edition of the book has obviously followed suit, and in the process, the book has also become more exam-specific.

M&R is more detailed/exhaustive/technical on many topics than S&B (to mention a few topics: operator precedence and associativity, assertions, reference types, reference casting, inner classes, regular expressions, generics, collections). This is another prominent difference between the two books.

If one believes that proficiency in programming requires both theory and practice, then S&B does not offer the reader very much in way of complete source code examples that the reader can test and experiment with.

Many readers have pointed out that the questions in S&B are closer to the exam and maybe easier than those on the exam. Questions in M&R have been characterized by many readers as being harder than the ones on the exam, but also making the exam a breeze if you work through them.

In summary M&R poses a greater challenge to the reader, but the rewards are greater as well -- not just short-term and exam-specific, but the reader is well on the way to achieving Java-nirvana.

Cheers,
khalid

[Anselm Paulinus]

Thanks Kalid for the detail explanation, you gave to my question. I look forward to having the same wonderful reading I had with the previous editions of your book.

[Amelia Ma]

Khalid A. Mughal wrote:[This is an edited version of what I posted back in December 2004, but I believe it is still valid. -- khalid]

Mughal & Rasmussen (M&R) vs. Sierra & Bates (S&B)

To quote what Kathy Sierra said about comparing the two books -- although the comparison was with the first edition of M&R [posted December 24, 2002 07:28 PM on javaranch]:
"That our book [S&B] is more festive. I believe their book [M&R] is best studied in a quiet, serious room, maybe a library. Ours is suitable-- appropriate even-- for taking to the local pub. "
We think this is a fair assessment of the writing style of the two books. I would compare the two books in terms of medical treatments: M&R has a surgical approach to the exam whereas S&B has a morphine-induced euphoria approach to the exam. Nothing negative about either approach -- whatever works for you!

Both books cover the Programmer Certification exam (SCJP 6).

S&B is exam specific, whereas M&R covers some additional, essential topics as well. The scope of the exam changed significantly over the years, and the third edition of the book has obviously followed suit, and in the process, the book has also become more exam-specific.

M&R is more detailed/exhaustive/technical on many topics than S&B (to mention a few topics: operator precedence and associativity, assertions, reference types, reference casting, inner classes, regular expressions, generics, collections). This is another prominent difference between the two books.

If one believes that proficiency in programming requires both theory and practice, then S&B does not offer the reader very much in way of complete source code examples that the reader can test and experiment with.

Many readers have pointed out that the questions in S&B are closer to the exam and maybe easier than those on the exam. Questions in M&R have been characterized by many readers as being harder than the ones on the exam, but also making the exam a breeze if you work through them.

In summary M&R poses a greater challenge to the reader, but the rewards are greater as well -- not just short-term and exam-specific, but the reader is well on the way to achieving Java-nirvana.

Cheers,
khalid

very well said. now i'm exhausted. hopefully the runner's high won't be far.