Java: How to Program (Pie) [ペーパーバック]

Okay, so you want more detail. Well, first some background. I have taught out of Deitel books for a long time and have always considered them B+ books on the whole. So when the University jumped to Java and said they where using Deitel, I was not worried. After all, I had browsed their recent C# book just a while ago, and was impressed with it over the C/C++ book I had taught out of before. Ouch.

As a book for a fairly experienced programmer wanting to learn Java, you will find it a broad survey of Java with lots of examples. Not too much detail in any one area of course, but a fair spring board for further inquiry. There are some meaty examples for an `intro' book in here as well as some good problems for the students to work. All in all a 3.5 - 4 star book - if this is you. What it needs in this role? Focus more on the experienced programmer. Lose the UML and some intro stuff and give more in depth on some of the subjects covered. Also, ship the book CD with a newer IDE. Ours still come with the old Sun One Studio. I don't mind an old IDE, but one that practically locks up when you sneeze is not a good thing. How about Eclipse, or even JCreator failing that...

And for intro students? Not so good at all. Deitel frequently just skips around introducing things faster than an over caffeinated weasel, way ahead of really explaining them. This is okay for the somewhat experienced OOP coder who can see similarities to what he or she already knows and easily make allowances, but not for freshman intro students. I really hate waving my hands and saying, `ignore the code behind the curtain folks. And lets just all move on.' But too often this is what I had to do to a class of confused looking students.
None of the other intro profs and instructors at our University like this book for the first time intro student at all. One (not myself) went so far as to petition to have it changed. Well we shall see. In the mean time I have written about two hundred pages of notes that I teach out of. I treat the book as optional. For this audience, I rate it 2 stars.

The weakness of this text is that the information is delivered in such small pieces that students have a difficult time assembling the big picture. For example, a complete list of variable types (including arrays) is not developed until completing Chpt 7. Also, some methods are not covered in the text except in the exercises. This confuses students and leaves the instructor in a catch-up situation.

If you have experience in other Object Oriented programming languages, the weakness of this book will go unnoticed. However, novices will need supplemental information throughout the text such as an early list of datatypes and the associated parsing commands, a more detailed explanation of creating variables as copies of objects (i.e. greater focus on inheritance) and even inter-related items such as using the parameter name command to make web applets work correctly.

A supplemental lab manual is available. It is a great addition to classroom lectures or in a guided lab environment. The lab manual includes reading exercises as well as programming exercises. The programming exercises are directly from the text HOWEVER the lab manual includes detailed programming templates to give beginners that initial help developing good logic.

The structure of this book is no different from other Deitel books. So if you looking to tread unfamiliar terrain in familiar clothes, this is the book for you. If you want to get better value go look some place else. (I am looking too). Since this is the recommded text for the course, I am stuck with it for now. But personally, this is not gonna be my desk reference copy. Having said that.... the book does provide lots and lots of worked out examples (with logic and typo errors). color scheme printing eases the understanding process, and if you are a beginner in the java arena, stick with this book for now, until you are ready to fly away. and then you dont ever need to look back upon it.