[.ca] The Java(TM) Developers Almanac 1.4, Volume 1: Examples ... (ISBN 0201752808)

From Amazon.co.uk:
While Java started out simply enough with relatively few objects and APIs, today's Java 2, Standard Edition (J2SE) bundles over 2,100 classes. The Java Developer's Almanac provides a truly valuable reference to nearly all the classes and APIs in standard Java. This "white pages" for Java puts all classes and APIs at your fingertips, along with short samples illustrating essential programming tasks. It's a compliment to say that this title resembles a telephone book. With over 1,000 pages (and printed on similar grade of paper), like a phonebook, The Java Developers Almanac is organised alphabetically. Early sections look at Java 2 classes by package, such as graphics (including Java 2D), file I/O, network programming, AWT and Swing. Early sections include several hundred short code excerpts, which provide key programming solutions. The heart of this text is an A-to-Z compendium of over 2,100 Java classes and a whopping 24,000 methods and properties. Readers get a listing of what's in each class, along with prototype and arguments. As an "almanac" there is no room for explaining what each method does, but by using a clever set of symbols, each listing provides the details of each method (such as which ones are "final," "static" and the like), plus the version of Java in which each method first appeared (JDK 1.0, 1.1, 1.2 or 1.3). These reference sections set a new standard of clarity for documenting classes. (Method and property names are aligned in the middle of the page regardless of return type, a typographic convention that makes it easy to find what you need quickly.) Later sections provide useful references that list the changes from Java 1.0 through 1.3, as well as PersonalJava, the Java Native Interface (JNI), plus some of the details of the Java Virtual Machine (with a listing of byte codes). An innovative index cross-references all methods and classes (including where objects are used as parameters and return values). Truly encyclopaedic and remarkably well organised, this book is a virtual must-have resource for any serious Java developer. --Richard Dragan, Amazon.com Topics covered: Comprehensive reference to Java 2, Standard Edition (J2SE) packages, classes and APIs (including 2,100 classes and 24,000 methods), sample code for common programming tasks, working with graphics and images (including Java 2D), playing audio and MIDI files, Abstract Window Toolkit (AWT) and Swing components, JDBC database basics, directory programming with JNDI/LDAP, file system and file I/O, using the Java reflection APIs, basic socket, URL and networking in Java. RMI working with Strings, arrays and collections. Unicode, locale and internationalisation support documented changes in JDK 1.0 through JDK 1.3, the Java Native Interface (JNI), classes included in PersonalJava, and Java Virtual Machine (JVM) byte codes.

Not useful to me:
I'm a hardcore Java developer. I develop non-trivial client/server applications 10+ hours a day for a living. The concept behind the book sounded useful. I was wrong. A big listing of classes and method signatures is not useful. How is... Socket: public void setOOBInline(boolean on) throws SocketException ... helpful information? It doesn't aid me in finding the method I need to do something, it doesn't aid me in figuring out what a method does... it doesn't help me to understand how to use a class or method, it is just raw information. Browsing through the on-line javadocs are far easier and more productive for me. If you want a good Java reference book, the "Java Class Libraries" books are FAR more useful (and I highly recommend them).

Good for, if you don't have IDE tool.:
Volume 1 covers java.beans to org.xml packages useful for server side development. Volume 2 covers java.applet to javax.swing packages useful for developing GUI application. This is is a review for Vol. 1. This book is not for begineers or not for learning A Java.This book is a good reference book for all the java Packages, Classes and Interface. Packages is useful when you need an overview of a package or what other related classes are available in a package. Classes gives complete detail of the ancestry of the class and a list of every member in the class.This part is useful when you're already working with a particular class and want quick reference to all of the members in the class. It has lots of hands on examples, which are very useful for finishing a particular task like, reading a file, sending a socket etc. like programmers need some basic routines,while coding. I recommend this book for those, who does professional coding and need to in touch with API.

half of it useful:
nice and soft, printed on light thin paper, the book is divided in two halves. The first half has snippets of code showing how to do this and that, organized in package order (javax.swing are in the yet to be published 2nd volume). Very useful. The second half is a very detailed class documentation in alphabetical order. My take is that if you have an IDE like VisualAge, which allows you to browse through classes and methods, and their references, senders, implementors, then this section of the book is not necessary. On the other hand, if you leaf through the latest Java in a Nutshell... The first half of the book also reminds of Java Cookbook. Couple of things I am perplexed by all these example books is that when exposing an example with dates, they all use the Date class. Unfortunately, this class cannot represent a date prior to 1970, thus many birtdays of living adults today cannot be represented (CalendarDate should be used). The other difficulty in finding example is custom events, property change events, non-bean events.

Essential Java Reference:
I picked this book up a couple months ago and can't imagine how I got along without it before. The first section includes simple examples of common uses of the java packages. I find this extremely useful. There are realms in Java where the intricacies often slip my mind, particularly in java.io, and the small examples of these packages shown in section 1 serve as a perfect reminder of how exactly to accomplish my task. Section 2 is the meat of the book and includes a reference to the classes and their members. This is similar to the online API, but lacking the descriptions for the methods / classes. This is strictly a quick reference of the methods, their arguments, return types and modifiers, and the variables belonging to a class. For a description of every method, use the online API. Personally though, I find this reference quicker to use than the online API when searching for a particular class. It probably comes down to personal preference, though. Sections 3 and 4 I honestly haven't found a need for. The first two sections alone are worth the (relatively) \oinexpensive\c price of the book. For reference, my qualifications include Sun Java Programmer Certification 1.4 (Passed with an 86%), Graduated Magna Cum Laude from UMass Dartmouth with a Computer Science degree.

An essential reference:
For some time, the Java Developers Almanac version 1.3 has been my constant companion when I taught my courses in Java. With it at my side, I was always able to answer questions of the form, "What class(method) do you use for . . . ?" It is one of that small of number of indispensable references that occupy my special shelf of books that stay within reach of my main workstation. However, now it has been superceded by this version, the first volume of which covers 91 packages used in server-side development. It is a quick, yet thorough reference to the classes. Each description of a class in part 2 has the name and package it is found in, the inheritance tree describing how it is derived and the prototypes of all data and methods. Part 1 has small segments of code that illustrate the basics of how a class is used. The code examples are organized according to packages, where the packages are listed alphabetically. This makes it very easy to find the basic information about any class and method of the class. There is also a list of newly deprecated members, a complete list of all possible exceptions, a list of the modifications from 1.3 and the default values of the swing UI elements. This book is rarely more than two feet from my body when I am writing Java and when it gets too far away, I correct the problem very quickly. I included it in my best books of the year column for the online Journal of Object Technology. ...