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In search of the best Java book for beginners

A comparative review of 7 intro-programming language books

By Laurence Vanhelsuwé, JavaWorld.com, 02/01/99

Until, say, 1996, I wouldn't have blamed any teacher still using Pascal as the main teaching prop in an introductory computer science curriculum (often code-named CS 101 or CS1). The obvious alternative (C++) was quite rightly considered by many teachers to be a pedagogical minefield. Today, however, there is no excuse: If you're not using Java to give your students their first taste of programming, then you are leaving the door wide open to be rightfully accused of not giving your students the best possible computer science education.

In the past year, a small minority of teachers found themselves unsatisfied by "just" pushing the teaching envelope in their respective classrooms (that is, by ditching Pascal and the legacy of its generation's procedural programming style, and adopting Java and its modern object-oriented programming style). These pioneering few went a step further by writing teaching texts for complete beginners, betting the whole shop on Java.

This month's book review takes a look at seven books that share the goal of teaching complete non-programmers how to program, and to do so with Java. (Notice that these books are quite distinct from those books designed to teach Java to programmers who've never used Java before. These books are for students who've never programmed with any computer language before.)

The titles reviewed are:

• Computing Concepts with Java Essentials by Cay Horstmann (John Wiley & Sons)
• Introduction to Programming Using Java -- An Object-Oriented Approach by Arnow & Weiss (Addison-Wesley)
• Java -- An Object First Approach by Fintan Culwin (Prentice Hall)
• Java For Students, Second Edition by Bell & Parr (Prentice Hall)
• Java Gently, Second Edition by Judy Bishop (Addison-Wesley)
• Java How To Program, Second Edition by Deitel & Deitel (Prentice Hall)
• Object-Oriented Programming in Java by Gilbert & McCarty (Waite Group Press)

Below is a comparison table to provide you with a bird's-eye view of each title's main characteristics.

	Java For Students	Java Gently	Java -- An Object First Approach	Introduction to Programming Using Java -- An Object- Oriented Approach	Object- Oriented Programming in Java	Java How To Program	Computing Concepts with Java Essentials
Price (U.S.$)	8.00	6.95	4.00	7.95	9.99	8.00	7.95
Pages, Chapters (Appendices)	586, 29 (8)	508, 15 (2)	394, 17 (3)	783, 14 (4)	953, 16 (2)	1063, 18 (6)	624, 14 (3)
Authors	2	1	1	2	2	2	1
Glossary	Poor	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Excellent
Index	Poor	Poor	V. Poor	Yes	Yes	V. Good	Yes
CD-ROM	No	No	No	No	Yes	No *	Yes **
Listings density (lines/page)	48	56	53	48	58	50	50
Object-oriented early?	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Applets(A) or applications(B)?	A	B	B	A	A&B	A&B	A&B
Graphics early?	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
Support classes?	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes
Keywords highlighted?	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
Suitable for hobbyist?	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No
Overall score	6/10	4/10	2/10	7/10	8/10	6/10	8/10

* The book doesn't come with a CD-ROM, but Prentice Hall sells a different product that combines the book with an interactive CD-ROM. See the book's review below for details. ** Strictly speaking yes, but the CD-ROM content is unrelated to the book's content!

In the absence of tools to calculate the true cost-per-bit equivalent of a book, the "Listings density" row gives you an idea of how dense or "aerated" the program listings are. Low lines and/or page values usually mean unreadable listings and a high page-fill factor, so the higher this value, the better.

 

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