Reviews (221)

Excellent Book
This book covers all the objectives of SCJP 5.0 and moreover in an excellent manner. What I liked most is that this book makes you well aware of what exactly is in the exam and what is not. For instance, the exam objectives include classes like String, DateFormat, File and so on. These classes contain a lot of methods. This book will tell you which you need to know for the exam. This saves a lot of time and effort. To conclude - don't think just buy it and success will follow!!! I passed my SCJP 5.0 with 93%.

Pretty good for those with experience
I used this book to help me pass the exam the first time. The book gives you a lot of helpful tips to write the test. The practice exams are really good. Each topic was covered fairly thoroughly in both tests. The book is definitely worth the money. Even though the book does go over the fundamentals, I don't think the book covers the fundamentals (OO design, Java Basics) well enough for a novice developer.

Excellent reference material.
This book was all I referred to to get my certification.
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Subjects:  1. Certification    2. Certification Guides - General    3. Computer Books: Operating Systems    4. Computers    5. Computers - Certification    6. Electronic data processing personnel    7. Examinations    8. Java (Computer program language)    9. Operating Systems - UNIX    10. Programming    11. Programming Languages - Java    12. Study guides    13. Sun computers    14. Computers / Technical Skills    15. Java & variants   

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Reviews (150)

Fast and painless way to learn Design Patterns
This is the first book of the Head First series that I've read, and I have to say that I love it! I think their teaching approach is very very efficient. Each concept is presented to you in many different ways and at the end your brain finds its way to metabolize it. Sometimes it's a picture that catch your attention, sometimes it's just a joke but at the end the concept sticks in your head and is gonna be there forever (at least I hope so :-))) ). Moreover this book is so easy to read. I recommend it to anybody that wants to learn Design Patterns (in Java) in a painless and fast way.

A fun way to learn Patterns
Patterns are boring. This book makes them fun. How they did it, I'll never know.

Number one!!!
So far i bought about 30 computer books from amazon. This is the BEST!!!!!! First book that explains something real good but doesn't assume that you (the reader) actualy understood it so they re-explain it and attack the problem from a deferent point of view. I bought steven mezger's design patterns with c# book and read it cover to cover. It doesn't even come close to this piece of art although this is wrriten for java programers. I read "decorator" pattern in mezger's book more than 5 times and didn't actualy understand it. First time i read it in this book and i feel like a design patterns master! I'm thinking a lot about their teaching style. Its briliant!If you realy want to understand design patterns even if you are a c# or c++ programmer, By this book!
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computer software    3. Computers    4. Computers - General Information    5. Design    6. Development    7. General    8. Internet - Web Site Design    9. Java (Computer program language)    10. Computer Programming    11. Computers / General    12. Computers / General Information    13. Computers / Programming / Software Development    14. Head First, Design Patterns, Object oriented programming, OOP, Java, Kathy Sierra, Bert Bates, Eric Freeman, Elisabeth Freeman, programming, software engineering,   

Reviews (30)

An OK Java Book -- Not as Good as Their Other Books
This book follows the Deitels' standard format and content used in the other two of their books I've read ("C++ How to Program (4th Edition)," and "C How to Program (Fourth Edition)").As before, the teaching method, programming style, most of the examples used, and most of the problems presented are largely the same but have been rewritten to a Java perspective.If you've read and liked any of the Deitels' other books, this book will be fine for you and you'll know pretty much what to expect from it.
I hate this book
I am a programming newb with a geek streak a lifetime wide. I took a Java class this summer hoping to begin groking the one final frontier of computing that has always eluded me. We used this as the text. As somebody who teaches postsecondary courses in an entirely separate field, I feel this book is not a good first choice for an instructor in comp sci, especially for courses for nonmajors or beginners. The prose is exceedingly dry and longwinded *without real purpose*, and tests even my attention span... which is ordinarily sufficient for a continuous performance of the Ring Cycle. What really hacked me off is the way that the book handles terminology and syntax-- from the very beginning, the code examples often use parallel terms within the code in a way that makes it utterly unclear to the newbie whether they're staring down the barrel of a method name, a parameter/argument, what-have-you, which makes it very difficult to trace the logic of the code and get a good handle on the syntax. I have had far better luck grasping the concepts of Java and programming generally with Beginning Java for Dummies, believe it or not. I am a mature and educated adult actually INTERESTED in this topic and this book was absolutely dreadful to me-- instructors, please do not think you're going to choose this text for the present generation of undergrads and have it be anything but an utter waste of a hundred bucks for them.

Not for everyone
While I found this book informative and detailed, I think that may be the main problem with it.It is written in a confused manner that gives the reader too much information on each page.I was constantly feeling bombarded.The information is presented in several different ways on each page and it can get disorienting while reading.That said, the book is very thorough and well researched.I am not sure that it is anywhere worth the price, however.For a third of the money you might consider Java: A Beginner's Guide by Schildt, or one of the O'Reilly books. ... Read more

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

Editorial Review

Provides a rapid and thorough exposition of the JavaScript programming language, as well as an in-depth reference section covering each JavaScript function, object, method, and even handler. Experienced programmers will quickly find the information they need to start writing JavaScript programs. ... Read more

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Reviews (226)

The one JavaScript book to rule them all...
I'm a technical trainer, and we've decided to distribute this book as part of our Ajax courseware.We've reviewed many other JavaScript books, but we keep coming back to this one.
Best JavaScript Reference!
This is the 5th edition of this almost thousand page book (992), and has been pretty much the gold standard for JavaScript reference books.I have the 4th edition that came out a few years ago and it was worth upgrading to this new 5th edition.
The Bible
It's called "The Definitive Guide" for a reason. Covers everything from simple variables to complex AJAX coding. Beginners may be a bit overwhelmed by it, but I would still recommend any O'Reilly guide as it's the one you'll actually use as your skills increase.. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. JavaScript (Computer program language)    5. Object-oriented programming (Computer science)    6. Programming Languages - CGI, Javascript, Perl, VBScript    7. Web servers    8. Computers / Languages / Programming    9. Computers / Programming Languages / CGI, JavaScript, Perl, VBScript    10. Java & variants    11. JavaScript, Ajax, DHTML, HTML, scripting, css, dom, httprequest,    12. Object-oriented programming (Computer science   

Editorial Review

It has taken four years, but with Read more

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Reviews (139)

Awesome Quick Read
This is a great book.How many technical books have you read in 1 week?That's what I did with this book.I love the Head First series. They don't make great reference books if you are an expert, but the expert on the title topic is not the audience.

quick review
After I borrowed and read this book I decided to purchase it for the following reasons:
Great book to get you started
After reading a great book titled "Thinking in Java (JAVA 1.4)" by Bruce Ekcel.That book is so far the best book I have read on JAVA so far.It has TONS of information and for the most part the author does a very good job in explaining the information.However my main complaint with the TIJ book was that it was very hard to read at times due to the author's writting style.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. Java (Computer program language)    5. Programming Languages - Java    6. Computers / Languages / Programming    7. Computers / Programming Languages / Java    8. Java & variants    9. java, head first, head first java,Java 5.0, J2SE, servlets, JavaServer Pages   

Reviews (4)

Great book; unethical publisher
This book is excellent. The author writes about programming in a clear and concise way that makes Java make sense. While Java may not be the simplest language to start with, it is widely used throughout the industry and provides a solid stepping stone to other languages. Savitch provides many examples of code and explains how it works, step by step. Too many programming books assume the reader will fill in missing pieces. Finally, an author who fills them in for us!
Best Written Java Book
The author, Savitch, writes some of the best-written, easy-to-read computer language books.The fourth edition is a concisely-written, enjoyable book with excellent examples and coverage of Java 5.0, which is the newest, latest revision as of January '06.
1st edition review
I have just completed (i need only two more chapters) the first of edition of this book.While not as exhaustive as the the edition for sale here I can tell you the author is good at what he does.I haven't decided if I am going to purchase this edition but let me say that the author's prose style reminds me of the best computer programming books I read while I was an undergraduate at the University of Florida in the early 90's.This book is suitable for teaching a first or second year class of computer science students at a university.Unlike those silly "Teach yourself Java programming in 24 hours" this is the kind of programming book that really teaches you something. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming    2. Computer Books: Languages    3. Computers    4. Computers - Languages / Programming    5. Java (Computer program languag    6. Java (Computer program language)    7. Programming - General    8. Programming Languages - Java    9. Computer Programming    10. Computers / Programming Languages / Java    11. Java & variants   

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Reviews (43)

Comprehensive Book with Relevant Articles
This is a great book.The writing style is very friendly and encourages the reader to keep turning pages.It is well organized and addresses areas (such as perfomance and profile) that very few Javascript books delve into.Also of value are the discussion of various third party libraries and the very relevant and detailed example chapters (e.g. implementing a type-ahead text component).Server side code is include for several common server side technologies (Java, PHP and .Net).All in all, this is an excellent book for those wishing to come up to speed on Ajax quickly.

Lacks focus
If you are an experienced programmer and already familiar with design patterns, refactoring, and application architecture, then you will probably find this book to be very frustrating.
Best AJAX Book Available Today
Ajax in Action by Dave Crane is the best Ajax book on the market today.With over 600 pages of content, this incredibly well-written text explains why Ajax is so powerful and how this simple programming feature (it really isn't difficult to learn at all) has changed web development forever.No longer are users and developers limited to a page reload world, as the power of this technology now has the ability to make the web work like regular applications.It's a trend that has been desired for a loooong time and boy does it ever deliver!!!
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Subjects:  1. Asynchronous transfer mode    2. Computer Books: Languages    3. Computers    4. Computers - Languages / Programming    5. JavaScript (Computer program language)    6. Programming Languages - General    7. Programming Languages - HTML    8. Programming Languages - Java    9. World Wide Web    10. Computers / General    11. Computers / Languages / Programming    12. Computers / Programming Languages / Java    13. Internet   

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Reviews (75)

If I coul give it 6 stars I would give it 7!
Not only the content is way to complete for the exam and the real life, the learning metodology is a work of art, it is very light to read (unlike other technical books that dry your brain in one hour).
Authors have clarity
Authors know the stuff. They didn't just reformat the contents from other places to make this book
Not Enough End-to-End Examples
This book has its strong points and weakness. It explains certain concepts really well. However it did not have much end-to-end exercise for people to practice. Only 1 end-to-end example in the entire book as I recall. Therefore, it is hard to sink in what you have read. Especially, jsp and servlets need to have multiple pieces put together in order to make the application run. The example does not need to be complehansive, but will help the readers to put all the pieces together. If you are looking for examples to guide you through, then this book is not for you. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Certification    2. Certification Guides - General    3. Computer Books: Languages    4. Computers    5. Computers - Languages / Programming    6. Electronic data processing personnel    7. Java (Computer program language)    8. Programming Languages - Java    9. Servlets    10. Study guides    11. Computers / Languages / Programming    12. Computers / Programming Languages / Java    13. Computers/Certification Guides - General    14. J2EE 1.4, JSP, JSPs, scwcd, scwcd exam, sun certified web component developer, servlets, jsp expression language, head first    15. Java & variants    16. Java (programmeertaal)    17. Java Servlets   

Reviews (11)

Must-read if you're working with threaded Java applications...
It's common knowledge that you can easily get burned with Java programs that are multi-threaded.I would strongly recommend that if you are going down the multi-threaded path, you *need* to get this book...Java Concurrency In Practice by Brian Goetz.This bridges the gap between what the reference manuals say and how things work in the real world.
At last! A readable, expert book on Java concurrency
Concurrency is hard and boring. Unfortunately, my favoured technique of ignoring it and hoping it will go away doesn't look like it's going to bear fruit. Fortunately, Java 5.0 introduced a new bunch of concurrency utilities, that work at a higher level of abstraction than marking blocks as synchronized and fields as volatile. Unfortunately, there haven't been that many books on the subject - even the good Java 5.0 books (e.g. Head First Java or Agile Java) make little mention of them - Thinking in Java being an honourable exception. Fortunately, JCIP is here, and it is authoritative stuff. And it's (mostly) very easy to understand. Plus, at 350 pages, it's not an enormous chore to slog through. It even covers changes to the upcoming Java 6.
Who's afraid of concurrency now :-)
This gem of a book is a comprehensive and authoritative coverage of one of the most mentally intimidating programming concepts - concurrency.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. Java (Computer program language)    5. Parallel programming (Computer science)    6. Programming Languages - Java    7. Threads (Computer programs)    8. Computers / Programming Languages / Java    9. Java & variants   

Editorial Review

Larry Wall wrote Perl and he wrote Read more

Reviews (231)

The Essential Perl Book
This book is _the_ book to get when you want to get serious about Perl.
Not my style of learning
The book is well edited and has obviously evloved since its first edition to meet the needs of its readers, based on their feedback.
Absolutely the best reference for programmers new to Perl
I am not new to programming, but was new to Perl when I took a job that required a ton of pattern matching based scripting. I immediately convinced my boss to buy a bunch of Perl books, including this one. Usually, I am the type to use Google more than any book when learning a new language, but this book has been indispensible. I go to it first anytime I want to know how to do something in Perl, and 9 times out of 10 it is the only resource I need. I agree with other reviewers that this is not the book for beginning programmers, but I could have saved my boss a lot of money had I just had her buy me this one. It's all I've needed. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computer Programming Languages    3. Computers    4. Computers - Languages / Programming    5. Perl (Computer language)    6. Perl (Computer program languag    7. Perl (Computer program language)    8. Programming - General    9. Programming Languages - CGI, Javascript, Perl, VBScript    10. Programming Languages - Java    11. Programming Languages - Perl    12. Unix (Operating System)    13. Computers / Languages / Programming    14. Computers / Programming Languages / CGI, JavaScript, Perl, VBScript    15. Computers / Programming Languages / Perl    16. High level programming languages    17. Internet languages    18. Perl Programming,Perl syntax, Perl functions, Perl debugging, Perl efficiency, Perl library, camel, camel book, Third Edition, 3rd, Larry Wall, Jon Orwant, Tom Christiansen   

Reviews (4)

Great for beginners
I'm a beginning programmer and found this book immensely helpful.Other titles I sampled included Java Head-on, Big Java, and Ivor Horton's Java, and they just weren't as clear and straightforward as this book.The order of topics is the best I've seen, and the chapter on classes covers everything you need to know to get started.

Simply the best Introduction into a programing language book there is
I have been programming for several years, but not professionally. Modula-2, C, C++, Fortran, APL and Jave and have read intro books into all of these progamming languages, but there was either too little or the clarity was not there. This book explains things very well and has a very good set of examples. It also goes into things a little deeper so even if you are not a beginner, you can still get what you want out of it.

excellent for a beginner
The book excels at teaching a reader new to either Java or any programming language. Savitch goes comprehensively through the core classes that come with the standard Java distribution. Also, he uses Java 5, which is the latest major release of Java. If you are going to start learning Java, you might as well start here, instead of using a text that deals with earlier versions.
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Reviews (35)

The Guru of patterns Revolution
It is a mandatory book for any J2EE developer. Dont even write a single line of J2EE code without reading this book.

Can't put it down
This book is a good read. I simply cannot put it down, with clear explanations and with code to realize, its really good and it excites the developer's imagination.
Useful and practical techniques for designing web solution
Concepts of Presentation, Business and Integration Tiers are nowadays so popular among all technical designs in framework and web architecture levels, upon the promotion of diversity of responsibilities, low coupling and high cohesion between each layers. This book would be the 'bible' of mastering such technology before ongoing development. Nevertheless, it's useful for implementing projects using any skillsets, even not related to Java. (e.g. C++, PHP). ... Read more

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

Editorial Review

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Reviews (288)

Not perfect but a definite must read.
I had heard a lot of positive talk about this book, so I picked it up based on that...only to find I could read it online later. The book contains exceptional in-depth information about the Java language. The writing is conversational which makes it fairly easy to read. It is less a reference book as it is written to help you understand how Java was intended to be used. It is a definite read for anyone working with Java for the long haul. If you are coming from the C++ world, there are good comparisons and contracts between C++ and Java as well. The only down side, some of the examples do get a bit long winded. A clean up in this area would have helped the book tremendously.

A Good Tutorial on Java
The 4th edition is updated to reflect changes to Java for J2SE 5/6.The content is easy to follow and contains insights on the use of the language's features and library.You will even find some critique of the language features which may be helpful when doing large software projects.
The best.
I'll make this short. I depend a LOT on buyer reviews on Amazon to help me decide what to get. This book is the best book on Java, taking the reader from the basics right up to the sexy stuff in J2SE5 like queues and generics.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. Java (Computer program language)    5. Programming Languages - Java    6. Computer Programming    7. Computers / Programming Languages / Java   

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Reviews (55)

Very clear and easy to follow guide
I have struggled with Object Relational issues for years and have tried a few different techniques until I stumbled across Hibernate a few months ago. Since then I have started a new medium sized enterprise application and decided to use Hibernate. Needless to say, I was impressed with increased productivity from removing my attention from the relational model and placing my focus on the Object Model.
Good book
We enjoyed it, had some great hibernate tips, all the guys in the company took it for their vacations to read...

Great concepts, Worthless index, Questionable technology
The authors do a fine job explaining the concepts behind object relational mapping in general and Hibernate in particular.Too bad the book is absolutely crippled by its index.For instance, there is no entry for "discriminator" (or anything close to that), so to go back to that section where I positively recall reading about this term, I have to browse the whole book.Ridiculous.Furthermore, the following statement by the authors themselves throws this entire technology into question: "Retrieving persistent objects from the database is one of the most interesting (and complex) parts of working with Hibernate."If this is so complex, than the Java community has been sold a bill of goods, and its no wonder the exodus to Ruby is gaining momentum. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. Java (Computer program language)    5. Microcomputer Application Software    6. Middleware    7. Object-Oriented Programming    8. Object-oriented programming (Computer science)    9. Programming Languages - Java    10. Computers / General    11. Computers / Languages / Programming    12. Computers / Programming Languages / Java    13. Programming languages   

Reviews (20)

Splicing Introductory CS and Java together just causes confusion
This book just confuses matters by trying to mix the teaching of introductory computer science principles with learning the Java programming language all the wayfrom simple "System.out.println" statements, through object orientation, to XML and server side programming. All of this is attempted in roughly 1250 pages, and the attempt is unsuccessful.
I am Encouraged, but not the way that you think
This book sucks ... it starts out with the author trying to describe some concepts of java then he annoyingly refers other concepts to other chapters because the reader is not yet able to understand it (chapter 1)... which is ok so it starts out slow, then it seems like he lost patience or something and then he throws all these concepts and words at you(chapter 2), and he describes useless things which has little value to the main idea of programming ... it seems to me Java books have two approaches to teaching, one is to begin describing all the concepts of and vocab of java and one is like a fast track to programming, this book does neither.I had to buy this book for a computer programming class, like the other reader i had to constantly find other materials to try to understand Java, on the plus side i find it extremely encouraging such a poor book can be recommended by colleges and universities around the USA, after i learn Java maybe i can write a Java textbook too!

Great book.
This book is excellent for anyone wanting to learn Java. It has great examples that actually work, and it teaches in an easy to learn manner. It covers a wide range of topics which would take you from beginner to about the high edge of intermediate. I have read many Java books before this, this book is very well rounded compred to most, and in my opinion has offered the most knowledge thus far. ... Read more

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. Computers / Programming Languages / Java    8. Java & variants   

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Reviews (8)

1 of 2 essential Ruby books
The other essential being Programming Ruby, which I have gone through cover to cover.That gave me a great grasp of the language, but did not give me the tools to create excellent Ruby programs.I read most of the sections of this book- I am not doing Rails and Web development, so I skipped or skimmed those topics.I implemented some ideas from the recipes and just learned from example on others.I now write much better code, and have a new air of confidence when solving problems with ruby.If you plan on programming more than a few scripts with Ruby, buy this book!
This Book is a Gem!
Sometimes, the difference between getting a project off the ground and watching it linger on the launchpad is finding an example of how to do something in code.
A definite keeper
Some O'Reilly books are horrible, and some are great--this happens to be one of the better ones. It's full of concise examples of how to use Ruby's standard libraries and most popular extensions that more than make up for their frequently terrible and always unnavigable RubyDoc generated documentation. An excellent next step for those who've read through "Programming Ruby" and are wondering how to put the language's better features to good use without becoming completely dependent on any of the currently popular application frameworks I'd guess about 90% of people are learning Ruby for. It even covers RubyCocoa basics. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. Object-oriented programming (Computer science)    5. Programming Languages - CGI, Javascript, Perl, VBScript    6. Programming Languages - General    7. Programming Languages - Java    8. Ruby (Computer program language)    9. Computers / Languages / Programming    10. Computers / Programming Languages / CGI, JavaScript, Perl, VBScript    11. Computers / Programming Languages / General    12. Object-oriented programming (Computer science    13. Programming languages    14. ruby, rails, web development, database, programming, xml, dynamic languages   

Reviews (23)

Great Book
It's a great book, easy to understand, a lot of examples, could be used by people initiating on JSF, or like a reference book. It is not necessary any knowledge of servlets or JSP. Just install tomcat, jsdk a jsf lib and start to write yours first webapp!!

Excellent thick book on web application development with JSF
Reading the Amazon reviews I suspected this to be a good book.But how excellent it actually was, caught me by surprise.
It's OK, but there are better books on JSF available
Despite the fact that I really like David Geary's other books, I was pretty disappointed with this one.