Core Java 2, Volume I--Fundamentals: 1

This book has proven to be one the best books I have ever bought. I have 4 years of experience with Java yet I still use this book frequently as a reference. It is an excellent book for those who have just got around the very basics of Java such as assignments and loops etc, and want start writing useful object oriented code. The second volume also covers essential material for doing more complicated applications involving networks, gui's etc. Once I bought these two books, all the other Java books I have were given an early retirement. I can't emphasize enough the the quality of this book! It is very easy to follow (for any level of experience) and uses appropriate examples and code samples.

I bought the combination of Core Java Fundimentals and Core Java Advanced Features. Both these books are excellent for gaining a deeper understanding of Java. Both books are extreemly interesting to read, I read the Fundimentals one cover to cover in two days. I would say this book is more for the intermediate programmer because it does not cover the basics of programming in great detail. I have bought a lot of java books but none as good as Core Java. A must buy for anyone looking to know more about the Java language.

Generally seems to be a good & thorough book, though my main issue with it is its occasional use of concepts without adequate explanation. E.g. though the book professes to be suited to people new to object oriented programming, it uses concepts like 'method' without (or at least well before) explaining them, and keywords sometimes crop up in program examples chapters before they are explained. This is confusing. I also have a sense the book sometimes makes a big deal of subtle & advanced aspects of the language that people don't need to worry about too much (or at least which could be covered later). Additionally, the indexing is patchy. If you have read about something in the book and then try to find it again later via the index, as often as not you will fail, either because obvious index terms are omitted or because the index doesn't mention the most relevant pages. As it's a long book this can make for time-consuming hunting through chapters. To take a few examples, a fair part of the book deals with graphics, yet the index doesn't include the word 'draw' (if nothing else, the draw() method). Similarly if you want to know how to detect mouse clicks it is surprising not to find an index entry for 'click', even if it were just to cross-refer you to say 'mouse'. Similarly the book describes both the scroll wheel and scroll panes, but there is no index entry for 'scroll'. There is a section on file versioning, but no index entry for 'version' or 'versioning', nor even is it referenced under 'file'. Etc. etc. All told a pretty good book, but these weaknesses are not insubstantial.

This is a fantastic book, and the perfect introduction to Java for someone with at least a basic but also very strong foundation in computer programming. Cornell and Horstmann make a fantastic duo and write as thoroughly, directly and honestly about the subject as anyone could wish for. Not only do they talk up Java's numerous strengths and provide thoughtful descriptions and supporting code examples, but they also don't hesitate for a moment to point out the language's weakness and shortcomings, which are also numerous. This is pretty incredible given that this was an official Sun Microsystems textbook. I'm not sure if the same is true for newer versions of the book (after Oracle acquired Sun and its numerous assets, including Java), but it's really incredible that the authors were able to be so critical of Java at important points throughout the book--this works to lend credibility to the authors, the language and the company that created it. Something else that is wonderful about this text is that Cornell and Horstmann include numerous references to other books, most of which were published by other companies. In fact, my personal Computer Science library grew considerably after reading this book and its followup (Core Java 2, Vol. II: Advanced Features). After only four or five chapters into this book, I came to implicitly accept every suggestion and recommendation that the authors made, whether it be coding "best practices" for a particular language feature or the many supplementary references that are sprinkled throughout. Also, this edition of the book (7th) has the benefit of covering version 5 of Java, which is when the language incorporated generics and a number of other lesser but not unimportant features. Java 5 was a big deal and this book appropriately recognized and adapted to these very significant changes. I had a very strong foundation in C prior to reading this book. Without it, I certainly would have struggled and probably would have abandoned it for something more elementary. Also, I had read through Java in a Nutshell beforehand which probably helped a bit. Core Java 2 is very comprehensive and highly recommended.

Wir verwenden dieses Buch fürs Studium, und es einfach perfekt. Cay Horstmann ist ursprünglich Deutscher und ist dann nach Amerika gegangen. Er verwendet ein sehr sehr gutes Englisch. Selbst mit nicht perfekten Englischkenntnissen kann es sehr bequem durchgelesen werden. Ich stimme meinem Vorgänger zu, diese beiden Werke sind einfach brilliant und ich habe keine vergleichbaren deutschen Bücher gesehen. Horstmann hat einen sehr guten Programmierstiel, den man sich aneignen sollte, es fällt vieles leichter. Von TestKlassen über Konstanten und weitere Tricks einen übersichtlichen Code zu schreiben gibt es hier ohne Ende. Wirklich ein sehr gelungenes Buch! Besser zur vorherigen Ausgabe ist, das es dünner ist ( Umfang ist aber gleich geblieben, nur dünneres Papier und kleinere Schrift ) und dadurch um ein vielfaches leichter zu "handlen" ist. Wer diese beiden Bücher hat, findet dann vielleicht noch in Big Java den Rest :-)

very good book

This is a book written by someone who not only knows Java but is an actual computer scientist with experience in the corporate world (read his brief bio on the back cover.) He is also a college professor at San Jose State University and thus, unlike too many authors of programming books at certain publishers, his qualifications aren't summed up by statements like " . . . has been programming since he was 13 years old, " or, " . . . is a programmer at a Fortune 100 company on Wall Street." This book teaches you all of the fine details that "The Java Programming Language Guide" sometimes leaves out. That book, one of whose authors is James Gosling, is the only book that exceeds Horstmann's effort here, however it is not a tutorial and thus you need Horstmann's text alongside it. His treatment of "Objects and Classes" (chapter 4) and "Inheritance" (chapter 5) are alone worth the price of the book. This is a rigorous and challenging book and it should not be your first book in Java programming. After you've finished with Walter Savitch's Java textbook then purchase "The Java Programming Language Guide" and "Core Java" (both volumes) and see what computer programming is really all about (hint: it's not about setting up database driven websites to sell trinkets or to facilitate your blogging.)

There is a lot of good information in this book for the experienced programmer who is new to Java. I just moved to a new team that is doing Java development although I come from a C++ background. This book is especially helpful to people coming from a C++ background because it calls out places where the languages differ. In the early chapters, you could skim the topics and read just these to get up to speed. However, it also has the details for people with other backgrounds such as Visual Basic or COBOL. The first six chapters deal with the fundamentals of the language. However, chapters 7-10 deal with Swing and Applets. I do not consider either of these to be truly fundamentals, and the examples in chapters 11-13 are cluttered by Swing. I would prefer that these topics have separate treatment in Volume II. It is also odd that JAR files and Properties are buried at the end of chapter 10 (Applets). However, these are minor complaints on an overall solid introduction to the Java programming language. If you find yourself at the point of making the switch to Java, I think this is the best book available.