Ivor Horton's Beginning Java 2, JDK

I am not the best programmer in the commonwealth but this book has taught some much about java that Deitel could not. The OOP part is quite well explained. Arrays,inheritance,Reading and Writing files are some of the many topics touched on;in this book. Much as i do like it i think it could have said something about webservices and anything in developing wed applications. Hardly anything is said.Will be looking out for it in the next book. The other thing are the exercises. These are quite few though im not complaining. If you go through the worked examples. You will be able to bring your own ideas to life as far as developing applications is involved. Its well explained ,not rushed. If you want to understand the basic fundamentals of Java then this is the book.You dont even need tutor to learn. I know i didn't.

"Beginning Java 2" is a well written book, over 1400 pages, that takes you by the hand and teaches you Java in a structured manner. In 25 chapters, it handles topic after topic in the most natural way starting at the very bottom and then building upwards. The chapters nearly all follow the same structure: a quick intro on what the chapter is about, a fair chunk of text explaining the topic at hand, interleaved with concise examples demonstrating the mechanism in source code in combination with clear walk troughs, and of course a summary and exercises. "Beginning Java 2" is thorough. It really takes 750 pages before there is sufficient foundation to start topics on windows and GUIs. But, as windows and GUIs are heavily dependent on library code written by professionals, understanding the base concepts of Java 2 is really worthwhile. Ivor Horton's "Beginning Java 2" is pleasant to read. The style is light, it addresses the reader as a fine class room teacher would do. I've read major parts on the couch, just like bed time stories after a hard day's work. I was very happily surprised with Ivor Horton's book "Beginning Java 2". I'd tried to learn Java before, and made some attempts using Java-in-24-hours style books and thin tutorials from the Internet. That didn't work for me. Such material brings you really up to the level "monkey-see, monkey-do", without providing any oversight or the relation between concepts. "Beginning Java 2" allows me to make a real start with Java. In summary: this is a great book to learn Java.

Ivor Horton's book is very good at explaining some of the certain features of Java and providing examples of how to implement something you might want to do, such as writing to a file. Even though he starts out with variables, loops, and conditions and such, he moves very quickly and doesn't give a whole lot of explanation, so you had better be either intelligent enough to understand as you read or already have had a strong foundation in important Java concepts. Learn the OO basics like Polymorphism, inheritance, extension, objects, etc...and then pick up this book to learn the Java features. Things will make a lot more sense.

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. Four stars because of (some) mistakes. Otherwise 5*.

Unless you are one of those types that long for brevity, conciseness and the "nutshell" style this is the perfect book for you, newbie or beginner in the Java field. It gives a really extensive, friendly, smooth intro to the spirit and technique of Object Oriented Programming, the syntax and the principal areas of the language. You will also get get a sound, easy tutorial on programming with threads, graphical interfaces, parsing XML, and even java database connectivity. And it is updated to the latest release of Java, 1.5!