One of the BEST beginning books on Java
This review might be a little a one-sided as I have had previous experience working with Java. What this review is not - is a review from a Java beginner. But ultimately, I found Head First Java, 2nd Edition, by Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates, to be an incredible learning tool. Since being hired by Sun in July of 2007, I have slowly but surely been trying to acquire more relevant knowledge as it relates to my position and the overall company, and recently I began to think intensely about sharpening my Java skills.
I acquired my A+ certification from CompTIA this past December, which was long awaited and mostly done for the fun of it considering how easy it was. I'm considering the same vendor's Network+, but with the Spring semester creeping up Java has been looking more interesting(SCJP), pushing off Network+. It's interesting to me, given the current views on the language, due to the fact that I have a course in Java coming up in the Spring, Computing IV which is going to be my first full course on the language since I began my career at UMass, having started with C and C++. I decided to sharpen my skills in Java and chose Head First to start off.
The book's style of writing is very visual, providing roughly 50% text matching up with 50% pictures on a page by page basis. The authors' belief is that true learning is assisted through visual aids, and I completely agree after reading their book. Some reviews state the book being a close resemblance to the Dummies series of books. However, I found this style incredibly better than the Dummies style - the latter often trying too hard to be funny, but with Head First it just came naturally and was more enlightening. It was such a delightful read that I was able to keep a chapter to two chapters a day reading schedule, given my very busy schedule. This might not be possible for an absolute beginner and to add, I would not advise it - read it more slowly and fully digest the material. I sped through concepts I was solid on and slowed down on concepts that I felt needed more attention.
Head First made concepts such as stack and heap organization more clear. I felt that after being a somewhat proficient C/C++ programmer for a few years, reading about the platform-provided garbage collection really brought home the mandatory garbage collection concepts previously learned in the earlier languages. Learning more about the Java SE 5/6 API and its history also made its navigation more understandable and clear. Concepts such as threading and networking were what I found most fascinating and Head First did a solid job covering these topics. If you're a newbie, this book will take you gently through the foundation of Java but likewise if you're not a beginner this book serves only to strengthen the fundamentals of Java. What I think the authors really made clear, most of all, is that programming can be and is supposed to be fun. This book reinforced the fun factor in programming and is an absolutely 100% recommended, must-have.
Head First made concepts such as stack and heap organization more clear. I felt that after being a somewhat proficient C/C++ programmer for a few years, reading about the platform-provided garbage collection really brought home the mandatory garbage collection concepts previously learned in the earlier languages. Learning more about the Java SE 5/6 API and its history also made its navigation more understandable and clear. Concepts such as threading and networking were what I found most fascinating and Head First did a solid job covering these topics. If you're a newbie, this book will take you gently through the foundation of Java but likewise if you're not a beginner this book serves only to strengthen the fundamentals of Java. What I think the authors really made clear, most of all, is that programming can be and is supposed to be fun. This book reinforced the fun factor in programming and is an absolutely 100% recommended, must-have.
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Education
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Programming
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