Reviews for Java All-in-one for Dummies

1. Very usefull book

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, November 12th, 2009

   Hi < I;m doing my HNC at university- 1st year, just come across java and found this book here at amaozon, good price, good value, good book overall, recomended.

2. It truely is 'for dummies'

   Rated 3 out of 5 stars, September 12nd, 2008

   I bought this book to assist with some training for work. In the first day of my training course I had already covered far more than was available in the book.
   
   If you really are a complete novice to Java or any type of programming, or you just can't learn things quickly then this book is for you. Otherwise I wouldn't bother.
   
   A much better book is 'Head first Java', it explains things simply but once you build up the basics you can go into greater detail.

3. Wonderful for Beginners and you will always refer back to it

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, September 12th, 2008

   A wonderful beginner's book for those who wish to start learning Java. It goes through everything from the simple "Hello World" program on to arrays and even, towards the end of the book, you start on networking and making Graphical user Interfaces with Swing (Learn Java and you will soon understand)
   I have read quite a few Java "Beginners" books and they were 'really really easy' but they taught you very bad habits and shortcuts which when you move onto programming in the real world you soon find yourself lost when all your 'make life easy' shortcuts cannot be used.
   You will never regret buying this book and once you have finished it you might want to consider Swing: A Beginner's Guide (Beginner's Guide (Osborne Mcgraw Hill)) which will teach you how to create more advanced GUI's.

4. A good place to begin understanding Java

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, June 12nd, 2008

   Having only a background in excel, and nothing else, I was recommended the dummies series, by a friend learning Excel VBA For Dummies and his commenting how successfully his progress was coming along, solely due to the excellent dummies format.
   
   I also found this to be partially true: This book is an excellent introduction that actually took me down the same learning path that I had hard-won by trial and error! It begins by beginning at the beginning: Introduction to Java as a programming language amongst other languages you could have possibly chosen. Next, instructions on how to download the software to be used on your computer from the Sun website and also a tour of general resources that will help you find your way around this huge, new world of Java, on the web.
   
   Next, the options of WHERE you are going to be writing the language: Either in Textpad or diving straight into a bells-and-whistle (IDE) integrated development environment such as the excellent and heavy-weight Eclipse. I found eclipse too much hard work on top of learning the language so the recommendation to start in Textpad was a big help and then later do another start, learning more about this useful IDE at the Eclipse website's tutorials page.
   
   Next, WHAT you will be writing: With the traditional "HELLO WORLD!" program as the exemplar of examples, making a timely entrance. It also provided an excellent anatomy of this program, the first you will see and attempt to dissect how it all comes together to create your first program.
   
   HOW you program must be the most important part of any of these books and I actually found the other Dummies Book "Beginning Java programming" to be the place for this. Really this section would have been better served with more basic examples of DOING the writing with explanatory subnotes, (such as you might have done to learn basic algebra in maths class, before tackling more complicated equations after doing enough drills of the easier and smaller equations), instead it goes through a treatment of the major topics and concepts in Java, adding to the original idea of a program discussed in "Hello World!" and enriching it from there. This will all come in use later and is worth having, but I would say it slows down the essential "learning to write a program phase".
   
   The rest of the book again acts as an easy reference for embellishing your grasp of Java into websites, databases and away from the "console" arena into (GUI) graphical user interfaces in "Swing".
   
   I would definitely recommend the first 100 pages for beginning, but then dip into the other Java Beginner's book (Check: Java Version 6) before coming back to books 3 upwards in this reference guide.
   
   CONCLUSION: Excellent first 100 pages. Rest of the book will come in use later after learning the programming phase in the other Dummies Java for beginners book. All in all, if you are new to Java like me, then the Dummies series have proven to be an excellent place to start and much better than the Head First Java book that was also suggested.