Java : Head First

Very good book, but it won't be for everyone. Not for people who want something in depth, and not for people who want something for dummies, but it is relatively basic.It is a fairly basic book imo, but the visualisations do help for areas that are hard to grasp. Some of the content seems a bit excessive, I didn't bother with the crosswords etc, but some of the tasks are worth it if you want to test your own understanding.It seems pitched to people who have basic programming skills, maybe scripting etc, but haven't really been exposed to Javas way of thinking. Anything covered does give you a sense of proper understanding at the end of it, as such it doesn't cover everything, but what it does cover, you should have grasped it well by the end of the book.

I really like this book. Its style is unique, using handwritten annotations, cartoons, games, FAQs etc to explain concepts and help you remember them.It does a REALLY good job at explaining things, and doesn't shy away from topics that other books might gloss over for simplicity's sake. For example, within the first few chapters it goes into the difference between the heap and the stack, data type bit lengths, array behaviour, inheritance... and it is hilarious at the same time. It keeps you reading and interested in a way that would be difficult for a conventional text book.One topic it doesn't seem to cover at all is applets, which is a marked difference from a book I bought about 10 years ago (my first stab at learning Java)... but I suppose this is because that niche is now filled by Flash and no-one uses applets any more.

I have spent a fair few hours with this book now. I come from a programming background including Java from many years ago. I was challenged to teach java to high school students. My purpose for buying this book was to refresh my knowledge of java so that I could teach it. This book had good reviews and even though it is a little out of date I thought it would suit me. It does suit me. It has excellent examples which you can work through and contains lengthy explanations, some too lengthy in my opinion, on all concepts. The humorous style was hit and miss for me. It got in the way of the explanation on a few occasions. However, I am cranking out code and understanding what I am doing. I am even having fun playing with code. Does that make me a geek? I would not recommend this book for complete newcomers to programming. It is not suitable for my students. Anyone with a basic knowledge of OO concepts and a little time could use this book to get up to speed. I used Netbeans to compile and run my code and I felt it was a very useful companion while familiarising myself with syntax. This book is good at what it does, it is just not for beginners.The book makes a misleading claim on the cover. It claims to cover Java 5.0. This is not fully true. The book covers enums but not the "Scanner" class, for example.

Only downsides were in the final two chapters.Firstly the information is out of date, which was unavoidable but a reader should know that the example might not all work as described or be very relevant anymore.Secondly there was a lot of http and general web knowledge assumed all of a sudden, which was avoidable. I had to abandon those sections of the book.Apart from those complaints this is a great book; I’d recommend it to anyone!

What more needs to be said other than it got me a job. I had studied Java a year previous but needed a refresher. One week later I was prepped for interview and later landed the job.The book is obviously not a reference, but if you need to refresh or learn the basics of Java, this should be on your shopping list. Also note that it is not an introduction to programming, use the other head first book for that.Don't be put off that this book covers Java 5/6. The core concepts of OOP and Java will always be relevant.

Although this book is good for the basics of Java, it is an old book and only goes up to Java 5.0. Chapter 18 can be disregarded entirely with RMI as it's basically obsolete nowadays when working on a new project. I found some of the small projects within the book to be boring too, and most were worked on for a period of time before dumping the entire code required at the end of the chapter

This book is absolutely brilliant for anyone new to the Java programming language. As a student myself it is invaluable to me, is extremely well-layed out, the grammar and language used is very easy to understand. It is full of diagrams and useful pictures to help explain difficult concepts. My only issue is that this book only goes up to Java version 5, whereas the current version of java is at version 7. I don't know if this makes any difference but if it does, I haven't found it. Overall very pleased!!!

I started using the book recently as I have had to learn Java for my upcoming work. Although Java is quite a different language from what I am used to, Head First Java used good explanations and comparisons mixed with plenty of exorcises which has helped me to pick this language up quickly. I would recommend this book to anyone starting out with Java. This is probably no good as a reference book if you are already up to speed on Java.