[.ca] Java Programming, 4th Edition (ISBN 1423901282)

Joyce Farrell's Java; Bad to the Last Drop:
It's told that Abraham Lincoln once quipped "If this is coffee, then please bring me tea; if this tea, then please bring me coffee". Whether or not it was he, I know not, but if it was Java & Joyce Farrell brewed it, I can certainly appreciate his sentiment. In the entire world, Java Programming 2nd ed. is likely the worst Java textbook serve up to newbies. Jargon laden, poor examples, vague exercises, tonnes of mistakes, no colour, & lack of specifics mark this text as a waste of perfectly good trees. I don't expect a textbook to speak down to me, cover every possible scenario, offer up easy exercises, be error free, provide USA Today graphics, all the while being so in-depth as to hurt. I do expect to gain enough knowledge to complete 90% of the chapter exercises, & it's shouldn't be too much to ask that a spark is ignited so I can try my newfound knowledge on something outside the book. From the start, Farrell pours a demitasse of thick Object Oriented Programming jargon--not an issue otherwise how does one learn what's what--yet, the jargon is explained w/still more jargon; & poorly I might add. The author continues to heap jargon on top of piping hot terminology to explain fundamental concept & seems to think she's done her job. Then, once the brief, albeit confusing, idea is imparted she skips around & presents short baffling descriptions & then it's follow the bouncing ball example time. Her examples aren't worth bothering over, though they frothed my latte w/their feeble flavour. Sure, they expose the reader to what a Java programme looks like, but that's all. Explanations of what the new concept is doing w/i the programme are rarely decipherable w/o an iota of integration of meaningful real world needs. For instance, when working with Swing Applets, there's not a single good model of how to manipulate graphics w/i an Applet--say like clicking a Jbutton to change a smile to a frown on a smiley face. Thus, the entire chapter boils down to useless sludge--I guess no one gave Farrell a whiff of coffee so she'd realise the real world revolves around the ideas users pressing a button & seeing a graphic change. Yet, the author excels & spends the majority of the chapter explaining text manipulation w/i Applets. However, not only is this inane considering the chapter is entitled Graphics, it's downright insulting! 80% of the chapter's ending exercises are all graphic manipulation. Great, here's mud in your eye; weak explanations on graphics, yet, 18 of the 25 exercises all deal w/graphics. Speaking of the exercises, they're so ambiguous one wonders if an actual editor made certain nothing was left out after printing--b/c it doesn't seem like a proofer checked over the text *before* it went to press. The only thing I can imagine is Farrell deciding to give students a taste of the real world where tasks aren't clearly defined. However, in the real world, a programmer can ask questions of an analyst or project manager for clarification, not so w/the textbook. Our instructor felt the end of chapter exercises were so decaffeinated, unnecessarily obtuse, & unrealistic he redefined w/some structure that made sense. Less one think the exercises were designed w/the above in mind, think again; the preface clearly states--one of the few things that is clear in this cup of mud--"(...) meaningful programming exercises that provide additional practice of the skills and concepts you learned in the chapter"(p xiii). Of course, that one moment of clarity too might be one of the many mistakes found in this unworthy tome. During the course, my class assembled a document listing all the mistakes *we* caught & corrected & then published said errata on a website so we could reference accurate material. Sadly, this is beyond what was *already* published from Thompson Learning's errata page for the text. We'll send off the corrections to Thompson in hopes they'll actually publish a 3rd "Updated" version of this oh-so richly colourful textbook. Yes, I did say colourful; your choices are black, white, & grey for this brackish brew. C'mon Farrell, we're dealing with Java, the ideal language for creating rich web applications--you know, that thing your browser displays has colour, animation, & interaction. Oy vey. I'm not in need of gaudy pages from USA Today, but let's face it, when looking images & illustrations--though there is a paucity of such displays in Farrell's text--there's a better retention of information due to handy for visualisation. Furthermore, some of us employ a SUN IDE or the shareware TextPad for writing, debugging, & running our assignments, ergo, we can testify to the effectiveness of colour. I really found this textbook distasteful. The only way I was able to get through the 1st half of class was a lot of help from the SUN Java forums & the JavaRanch forums. By midterms, I was so ill from the bitter brew I picked up ISBN 007251244X, Deitel & Deitel's Java How To Program 5th ed. Not only was I only familiar w/their style, incredibly impressed w/their instruction methods, but comfortable w/the publisher's standard for textbooks. Unlike Thompson, Prentice isn't about skimping on print costs, editors, proofreaders, or talented authors--authors who know cogent and germane writing that reaches their student audience. All told, a better use for the paper of Farrell's book is to make disposable coffee filters--I certainly felt like putting her book in the same place I where I dispose of my cold grounds. What really cracks my carafe; Thompson used the cheap beans on this one & considering the price tag, is making pots of money by selling cups of weak instant coffee as gourmet mugs of Java. "Java" Joe Vaughn

Good for beginners, but not for serious study of Java:
This book is good for people who are beginners to programming with its simple style, but it should not be used for serious study of Java programming. This book does not cover Java in detail enough for you to use it for serious study. Beginners should use this text as a precursor to Java - How to Program and professionals should use this as a reference book. This book is more like a summary of the key features of Java. The price should be reduced to more like $19.99US.

Don't buy this book at all costs:
I just recently dropped my Java II Programming and got my money back for the course, solely because it used and relied on this book. Attempting to do the tasks identified in the first lesson was painstaking and tedious, because the format and instruction design of this book is horribly thought out. I have looked over dozens and dozens of programming books, and all follow a standard outline. All of them, that is, except for this book. Source code is nowhere on the included disk, and the guided examples attempt to be so "motherly" that you feel like your face is being smothered under a pillow. Click here. Type this. Now you're going to initiate variable x, y, z. Type this to initiate those variables. Good. Now type this. Nowhere in the book do I find a solid chunk of code, followed by a sample of what it created. Even the worst books on the various programming topics have atleast given us this courtesy. Instead, her source code is broken up into chunks and spread out over pages, muddled in paragraphs of wordy garbage. This book could be cut in half if you bothered to bring the source code into one concise block. Don't buy this book. Don't take courses that use this book. Don't open the CD at the end of the book. In fact, if your course uses this book--drop it. Chances are, it's not a very good course or it won't transfer over to a university. Because, frankly, no respectable computer science department would let this book be used.

Awesome Primer:
Overall good. End chapters were a little weak but great to get up to speed for other books. I have been programming for 9 years with Microsoft. I found this book a piece of cake and was required to use it during a college course. The instructor recomended to do this with each chapter 1. Read the review at the end of the chapter 2. Read and try and answer all the questions 3. Read the chapter 4. Do the excercises It was very methodical but it worked to get up to speed fast. I was done with all the chapters in about 4 weeks.

Avoid this book!:
I am required to use this book for an introductory Java Programming course. This is the worst text book I have ever used. It is poorly written and filled with errors. The examples, exercises, quizzes and tests are filled with ambiguities. We are in the process of trying to get this book out of the curriculum so that those taking this course in the future will not have to use this garbage.