Editorial Review

Whether you are brand new to programming in general or coming to Java from another language, John Smiley's Read more

Reviews (51)

Great book for a beginning programmer
This book is the best for a beginning programmer with no experience.It guides you through the basics and does not bore you or assume that you know C or C++ like most other Java books.I have wanted to pick up some programming for a while and John Smiley's book was the only one I have been able to read from cover to cover and get something out of.I got the electronic version at his website.

Excellent Book, Easy to Understand
I took an intro to programming course with Java at my university a few years ago. The professor was really bad (barely spoke English) and needless to say, I hardly got anything out of the class. I was feeling a little anxious about future programming classes so I picked up this book at the recommendation of a friend. I was truly impressed with it. I really liked the classlike setting in the book which made you feel like you were actually participating in a course, not just reading another programming book. The explanations are worded in everyday terms so you don't have to be a software engineer to figure out what is going on. In fact, Smiley actually goes way more in depth than most first semester Java courses, yet presents the information so well that you don't even notice how much you are learning. This is probably the best book I have seen to teach yourself Java and would recommend it to anyone.

For someone with no programming experience
If you have no programming experience and want to learn the mindset of writing computer programs using java, then buy this book. Otherwise, pass this by for another Java intro. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Networks    3. Computer Programming Languages    4. Computers    5. Computers - Languages / Programming    6. Java (Computer program languag    7. Java (Computer program language)    8. Programming - General    9. Programming Languages - Java    10. Java & variants   

Subjects:  1. AutoCAD    2. CAD-CAM - AutoCad    3. CAD-CAM - General    4. Computer Books: General    5. Computer Graphics - General    6. Computer graphics    7. Computers    8. Computers - General Information    9. Computer aided design (CAD)    10. Computers / CAD-CAM / General   

Reviews (2)

Very helpful book
This isn't your regular review here, because I'm guessing we all "have" to buy this book when we take the course.
Well Done
Package arrived in orderly fashion. Everything that was suppose to be included was shipped. ie. the Book and the solution manual. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. General    2. Mathematics    3. Operations research    4. Probability & Statistics - General    5. Programming (Mathematics)    6. Science/Mathematics    7. Statistics    8. Textbooks    9. Applied mathematics    10. Mathematics / Statistics    11. Operational research   

Reviews (6)

Excruciatingly verbose
This will absolutely be the last Wrox book I bought.The annoying, condescending author's photo on the cover aside, this book is extremely verbose, to the point of distracting the reader from really learning anything.For example, it seems on every other page the author feels compelled to tell you that XHTML is just the successor of HTML (he must of thought of the typical reader as totally dumb) and he has a God-given talent of saying so in far more words than necessary each time.Another example: when he gives you some sample code, he would do it step-by-step, and each step would repeat teh same code that was already printed before!What's more, in teh "how it works" recap section, he would then re-print the entire code segment!This book weighs in at over 600 pages, but the contents could easily have fit on half that.Talking about killing trees.
Very thorough page turner
For being a technical book, this was a very nice read.Similar to other Wrox books that I have read in that their basic format is a thorough explanation of a subject, then a "try it out" where you are able to implement the subject, and finally a "how it work" where the "try it out" is explained.
Excellent text for web programmer
This is a good intermediate level book for learning to design and write web pages. It might be a bit much for a beginner, but would still belong on their shelf as a reference.
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Subjects:  1. Application software    2. Cascading style sheets    3. Computer Books: Languages    4. Computers    5. Computers - Languages / Programming    6. HTML (Document markup language    7. HTML (Document markup language)    8. Internet programming    9. Programming - General    10. Programming Languages - HTML    11. XHTML (Document markup languag    12. XHTML (Document markup language)    13. Computer Programming    14. Computers / Programming Languages / HTML, SGML, VRML, XML    15. HTML    16. XML   

Reviews (8)

Good explanations, many errors.
I would agree with what most people have said. I would like to caution people however that there are many errors. If you are a complete noob to programming you may not catch these. This will slow down your learning and may frustrate you enough to quite. I would recommend 'Beginning C++ Game Programming' over this book. However, I do think that this book is great because the explanations are quick and concise. Used with another resource this book is great.

Fundamentally flawed as a package

Great but outdated
This book was the most useful, informative, easiest, greatest reference for learning C++ in the world until it got into the chapters on directX programming.The book used directX7 while the world has moved on to DirectX 9 (and in the very near future DirectX 10).
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Subjects:  1. C++ (Computer language)    2. C++ (Computer program language    3. C++ (Computer program language)    4. Computer Books And Software    5. Computers    6. Computers - Languages / Programming    7. Programming - General    8. Programming Languages - C++    9. C & Visual C    10. Computers / Programming / General   

Reviews (1)

Great introduction to .net
I must say... THIS IS A GREAT BOOK! i am a vb6/asp developer and had some contact with vb.net before but couldnt quite understand some parts of it until i read this book. It set me on the right track to begin working with both asp.net and vb.net a must have for anyone who wishes to learn vb.net the right and quick way. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. BASIC (Computer language)    2. BASIC (Computer program langua    3. BASIC (Computer program language)    4. Computer Books: General    5. Computers    6. Computers - Languages / Programming    7. Microsoft .NET    8. Microsoft Visual BASIC    9. Programming Languages - Visual BASIC    10. Basic, Visual Basic & QBasic    11. Computers / Programming / General   

Reviews (8)

Very good book for beginners
I had no idea what Perl was when I bought this book.After a week of reading, I was able to write basic scripts and perform a variety of tasks.I am not a developer, and do not plan to become one.But I am always curious about how to do difference things.This book will not make you a super Perl programmer, but it will teach you all the basics and then some.

Good Tekkie Stuff
I've yet to really dig into this book, but it looks very promising. So far I am not disappointed with my purchase.

Excellent book for beginners.Don't look any further
I have several years experience in programming, but I didn't know anything about Perl.I bought this book because of the good reference I read in Amazon, and they weren't wrong.The authors do a great job describing with a very simple and direct language all topics.The book is full of examples, and practically after each paragraph there is some code you can try in your computer.All the code in the book works fine, there are no errors and if you don't want to type it, you can download it from the Apress web site. The explanation of every piece of code is clear, simple and enjoyable, you can't get lost.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. Perl (Computer language)    5. Perl (Computer program language)    6. Programming Languages - CGI, Javascript, Perl, VBScript    7. Programming Languages - Perl    8. Computers / Programming Languages / General   

Reviews (26)

"AN APPLESCRIPT A DAY, KEEPS THE MUNDANE MAC TASKS AWAY"
Have you ever wondered how to get your Mac to do more work for you? If you have, then this book is for you! Author Matt Neuburg, has done an outstanding job of writing the second edition of a guide that teaches AppleScript like its never been taught before to allow you to create scripts for whatever you need your Mac to do.
This book really is definitive and realistic
I have programmed in Applescript for many years, but this book really helped to clarify a number of issues.This is no starry-eyed, AppleScript-can-do-anything fluff job, but a down-to-earth comprehensive description of a powerful, sometimes quirky, tool that will make your Mac even more useful, if you are willing to invest some time to learn.
Second Edition
Please note that any reviews prior to 2006 are for the first edition of this book. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Apple And Macintosh Programming    2. AppleScript (Computer program language)    3. Computer Books: Languages    4. Computers    5. Computers - Languages / Programming    6. Macintosh (Computer)    7. Operating Systems - Macintosh    8. Programming    9. Programming Languages - General    10. AppleScript, Apple, Mac OS X, Mac OS, MacOS, OS X, OSX, Apple Event, Apple Events, AE, AppleScript Studio, Automator, Action, Dictionary, Finder, Safari, Matt Neuburg, statements, properties, AppleScriptable, UI Scripting, Script Editor, Script Debugger, FaceSpan    11. Computers / Languages / Programming    12. Computers / Operating Systems / Macintosh    13. Computers / Programming Languages / General    14. Macintosh OS   

Reviews (1)

Excellent intro to Java 5
The book is an excellent introduction to Java 5. This book does a very good job at teaching Object-Oriented Programming in an easy to understand progressive manner. All examples in this book are very instructional, and yes, the examples do compile. Kudos to the authors, Herve and Julie.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Science    3. Computers    4. Computers - Languages / Programming    5. Java (Computer program languag    6. Java (Computer program language)    7. Programming Languages - General    8. Computing and Information Technology    9. General Theory of Computing    10. Programming languages   

Reviews (3)

Good introduction
Python has become very popular recently, as a perusal of the list servers on the various programming languages attests to. The author of this book points to its widespread use in game programming, and a perusal of the contents of the book will reveal the influence of Python in this area. This reviewer has used Python in the context of Web application modeling, where it's conciseness and ease of use made it very helpful. This book was helpful in the actual learning of Python in order to carry out this effort, but this reviewer cannot speak to its power in game programming since he has never used it in that context. The book therefore was not read in its entirety, but only parts deemed useful for learning Python in order to carry out useful tasks. The book is advertised as one that is directed to readers who are `absolute beginners', so some of the contents will seem very elementary to those readers with programming experience. Readers who might be thinking of learning Python but want evidence of its success can go to the Python.org site to find examples of its application. This reviewer does not know of any cases where Python has been used for heavy-duty number crunching, but it looks as though this is in the realm of possibility.
Great for Teaching Kids
I have been using this to teach my nephew Python. It is a great place to start as it gets very quickly to something visual to keep kids interested, while at the same time covering lots of useful ideas and concepts. If you want to show a beginner how quickly they can actually produce a real game with their own flavor on it, this is the book.

Worth the price however not as good as others.
This book is definatley worth the price (18 bucks) however, if you want to get a solid foundation in Python, I would suggest skipping over this book entirely and reading; "Learning Python" by Mark Lutz and David Ascher published by: Oreilly.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. Programming - General    5. Programming Languages - Python    6. Python (Computer program language)    7. Computers / Programming / General    8. Programming languages   

Reviews (22)

OOP++
This book made me understand Object Oriented Programing and it's power. Finally.

Pretty good introduction to Visual C++
For those who have had exposure to C++ but are not experts, and who need to learn Visual C++, this book would be a good choice. The book emphasizes the Microsoft Foundation Classes, since it is a Microsoft Press book, and the author includes more background material in C++ for those who need it. But lest the reader get bogged down in the intricacies of C++ , the author includes an introduction to Visual C++ in the first chapter of the book. It is assumed, naturally, that the reader will be in front of a computer with Visual Studio open while reading the book, and inputing code or navigating in it as the author requests in the book. Readers who intend to program business applications in C++will find the book very useful. At the present time, scientific programming in C++ is on the rise, and even though Visual C++ and its GUI environment may be overkill for these applications, this situation is changing, especially in areas such as computational biology and financial engineering. Readers in these fields are frequently faced with creating GUI environments for their applications, and so Visual C++ can be of help in this regard. Best Starter VC++ Book
I have really liked the way the author Chuck Sphar actually goes about creating the MyDraw Application right from scratch. The first 200 pages of the book teach C++, and the other 500 teach VC++, concentrating on MFC. A real good book to buy. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. C++ (Computer program language)    2. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming    3. Computer Books: General    4. Computers    5. Microsoft Visual C++    6. Programming Languages - C++    7. Programming Languages - General    8. Programming Languages - Visual C++    9. C & Visual C   

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computers    3. Reference - General   

Reviews (6)

Cool Book!
This book will give you a new perspective on the topic and will outline how to use some interesting tools and technologies.I enjoyed reading and learning from it.

Giving some insights, but is not practical at all
The book begins with a clear overview of software architecture, leading the reader to the vision of building enterprise web apps with ease.
Fantastic Book
This is a great book.The author provides a simple and fantastic pattern for developing lightweight Java applications, based on software engineering best practices.This provides a nice foundation for delving deeper into the subject matter covered throughout the text.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming    2. Computer Books: Languages    3. Computers    4. Computers - Languages / Programming    5. Programming Languages - Java    6. Java & variants   

Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming    2. Computer Books: Languages    3. Computers    4. Computers - Languages / Programming    5. Java (Computer program language)    6. Programming Languages - Java    7. Computers / Programming Languages / Java    8. Java & variants   

Reviews (11)

Just what I was looking for
I think that this book is a great place to start with Java.I have been reviewing books to replace Head First Java as a text at a local community college.To me the vast majority of texts out there do not deal with objects soon enough and spend too much time with GUI's and Applets without giving a good foundation in the language first.This book gives a broad perspective of the language without cluttering it up with a bunch of eye candy.It is the first that I have seen that deals with generics, threading, and enums and does so in a manner that will not cause the new user to choke.In addition to providing clear examples and explanations, the author also gives real world usages of the material taught.There are examples of when to use and not to use certain features, and what the pitfalls and potential traps are that a new coder might not be aware of.All in all this is going to make a great text.

amazing anyone can understand this
im only 13 years old but i understude this book perfectly it covers all the basics of the two subjects and some of the advanced studys. anyone new or oldto these subjects need to ave this but becouse nothing is perfect i give it a four

Not so great
It was OK, but I wasn't overly impressed with it.I would not buy it again and the only reason I bought it in the first place was because it was a required text book. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming    2. Computer Books: Languages    3. Computers    4. Computers - Languages / Programming    5. Programming - General    6. Programming Languages - Java    7. Computers / Programming Languages / Java    8. Java & variants    9. Programming languages   

Reviews (3)

Excellent. A must have.
As a mathematical hobbyist, I love Mathematica(TM). Also, I love the Lisp programming language. This book, at last, opened my eyes. Now, after some years, I finally can say what "programming Mathematica" is. If you really need to learn to programming in Mathematica, this book is for you. A big thanks to the Authors.

Omissions
Please note that the book does NOT cover Object Oriented programming as stated on this page in the description - in fact OO is not even in the index.

The 3rd Ed.is based on Mathematica 5.1
This book is an excellent introduction to Mathematica. It is based on Mathematica 5.1 and hence bring the 2nd Ed. based on Mathematica 2.2 up to date to the most recent version of this software package. The book covers all aspects of programming functionalities available in Mathematica: procedural, functional, recursive, rule-based, and object-oriented. There are ample examples in science and mathematics as well as devising one's own software packages. The emphasis of the book is on the fundamental programming concepts. While there are examples of complete packages that solve specific problems more emphasis in this direction would even further strengthen the book.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computers    4. Computers - Languages / Programming    5. Discrete Mathematics    6. General    7. Mathematica (Computer program    8. Mathematica (Computer program language)    9. Programming Languages - General    10. Computer Programming    11. Computers / General   

Editorial Review

This slender volume provides a great first taste of object- oriented concepts such as encapsulation and inheritance. Read more

Reviews (15)

Great Introduction to OOP
I've read a number of introductions to object-oriented design and programming. This one is the best all-around introduction that I have seen. It starts in the real world, with a discussion of how one plans and organizes a task (sending flowers to a significant other) that requires more than a single person to get done. That's a pleasant change from texts that begin with Dauntingly Dry Definitions ("encapsulation", "inheritance", and my favorite, "polymorphism"). Sets the proper foundation
I've been using classes more as a means of organizing and improving the maintainability, understanding of various applications I've built over the past 3 years (VB). As I am about to develop solutions using the .NET platform (C#, VB.NET), I thought it would do me good to formalize my understanding of OOP/OOD. After reading this text (3rd Edition), I not only formalized my understanding, but was able to see OOP as clearly as I could structured programming (Code Complete). In my opinion, all should use this as the first book before trying to participate/apply J2EE or Microsoft.NET as it will allow you "properly" communicate, design and code systems from abstraction to detail.

Great as a first book on object-oriented programming
I really enjoyed this book. The author covers all the important oo concepts in several languages. This allows you to get an excellent perspective on each concept without being distracted by each language's implemention of that concept. I also appreciated the writing skills of the author. He was always clear and precise. A lot of information is packed into a relatively slim volume. Of several introductory oo books I've recently read, this one easily tops my list. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. Object-Oriented Programming    5. Object-oriented programming (C    6. Object-oriented programming (Computer science)    7. Programming - Object Oriented Programming    8. Programming - Systems Analysis & Design    9. Computers / Programming / Systems Analysis & Design    10. Object-oriented programming (OOP)   

Reviews (5)

Why do amazon allow authors reviews to be included against books
Surely Authors should not be allowed to give inevitable five star reviews to their own books.

From the Author
If you want a quick and simple database application that uses data bound controls then you should read the help documentation that ships with Visual Studio 2005.
Beginner yes, complete no
While this book will teach you how to get data into you application it will not teach you what to to with it once you get it there.The "tracker" application that is written as you progress through the book doesn't really seem to be much like what you would want to do in the real world.For example in my application I would like to find a record in a dataset.Not covered.How about moving within the dataset.No. There is a mention of the Binding navigator but even that is not used in the program.Its a nice looking program it just has no use in the real world and most of the programming example is used setting up the user interface and not doing real database work.If you are looking for a way to set up a database that allows quick user entry, edit, add, delete, navigation and find you'll be very disappointed in this book.Of course thats what you want, what else is there to do with a database program?Buy the way the advanced database title from Wrox is no better at the above items. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Client/server computing    2. Computer Books: Languages    3. Computers    4. Computers - Languages / Programming    5. Programming Languages - Visual BASIC    6. Web databases    7. Basic, Visual Basic & QBasic    8. Computers / Programming Languages / Visual BASIC   

Reviews (8)

read dummies first
if you have no Java experience, this book throws you into the deep end of the pool right away. I purchased 3 books on leaning java for a beginner. This was the most valuable in the long run albeit the most difficult. There is no hand holding and lots of good examples with few mistakes and lots of multiple examples within a single example (confused, read the book and you'll see what I mean). I suggest you get this book but if you need hand holding, also bur Burd's java for dummes to start with.

Great beginning--but won't get you "home"
This is a really good very basic intro--but it won't get you to a level of Sun exam competency because it shyes away from some of the crucial distinctions you need to know--like multidimensional arrays.

Excellent for programmers with general knowledge
I bought this book and thought the programming projects in the book were awesome.All of the exercises are taught for use in game programming.While the author probably doesn't explain the language and fundamentals in depth (rather terse), he explains the fundamentals of how the games work.I've read Deitel's Java How To Program, and I recommend that to any Java beginners.If you want to learn how to program games in Java such as minesweeper, tetris, and others, get this book!It's awesome! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books And Software    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. Java (Computer language)    5. Java (Computer program languag    6. Java (Computer program language)    7. Programming - General    8. Programming Languages - Java    9. Computers / Programming / General    10. Java & variants   

Reviews (6)

Excellent beginner's Java tutorial
As the title says: "Beginning...", so the experts that wrote a review shouldnt be angry. The author explains every term he uses [excellent teaching practice!], does not assume that you should "of course" "know" this... Naturally, if you are an experieneced progammer this book may be too long, but alas: read faster in this case.
HORRIBLE Editing - Great Book!, Highly Recommended
This is a great book, and the longest that I have ever read. Ivor's teaching approach, although frustrating and daunting, effectively teaches the language concepts you need to begin programming.You will find yourself adding code to an example and redoing it later and redoing it later... each time learning a tiny bit about design and some about the Java language.The big example (a drawing program called Sketcher) is developed over several chapters and is used to demonstrate all sorts of language features including a good intro into Swing.Even though I feel that this is a fairly solid book that I would recommend, I am only giving it 1 star to bias my vote and communicate a message to Wrox:Hire at least one book editor that has some quality standards.The book is fraught with mistakes (most don't appear in the Errata as of 2/16/06).

... a very poor programming book
The book is rife of unsound programming practices.On the cover, 'Ivan' tells you how good his style is and how he'll teach you a marketable skill - what he teaches you is how to write second rate scratch.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. Java (Computer program languag    5. Java (Computer program language)    6. Programming Languages - Java    7. Computer Programming    8. Computers / Programming Languages / Java