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Master Java with these introductory books

Do these newly released books for Java beginners live up to their predecessors?

By John Zukowski, JavaWorld.com, 05/18/01

Page 2 of 6

Beginning Java Objects

Jacquie Barker's Beginning Java Objects takes an objects-first approach at teaching Java programming. You'll learn how to do object modeling and how to translate that model into well-designed Java code. With a student-registration-system design serving as the backbone, the text works well as the lesson plan for an object-oriented methodology class.

If you are new to Java programming, Beginning Java Objects offers a taste of Java in the first chapter, and provides more depth 12 chapters later. For most readers, the taste is sufficient to get them started with Java and get them through the code used in the early chapters, which deals with modeling the system. Combining these two chapters (one and thirteen) is all the programming language explanation found in most introductory Java texts. Beyond the language, the only libraries covered in any depth are I/O and Swing. One surprise with the Java code was the book's use of Hashtable and Vector instead of the newer Java Collections Framework classes.

This book shines mostly in its coverage of object-oriented programming, which typically takes up only one chapter in an introductory text. You'll learn all about object modeling (even though Barker can't decide between one l or two in modeling). From use cases and object diagrams to sequence diagrams and collaboration diagrams, you'll have a good grasp on the basics of Unified Modeling Language (UML) design by the time you are through reading Beginning Java Objects.

Essentials of the Java Programming Language

Essentials of the Java Programming Language by Monica Pawlan may already be familiar to you. It has been available online on Sun's Java Developer Connection for close to two years now. Consider the printed version a polished edition of the online offering. This tutorial takes you through the process of creating a general-purpose e-commerce system.

Its tutorial-based approach starts out with basic explanations of creating some simple Java programs. You get step-by-step instructions for creating an application, applet, and servlet. The explanations are interspersed with descriptions of such Java basics as classes, methods, and packages. Soon afterwards, topics jump into JDBC, RMI, socket communications, and internationalization, before concluding with an introduction to object-oriented programming (OOP) and an appendix on cryptography with Sun's Java Cryptography Extension (JCE).

While the last chapter on OOP seems a little out of place, with such varied lesson levels, the book's target audience seems unclear. Going from extreme hand-holding in the initial lessons, through the use of Oracle OCI 7.3.4 to setup the JDBC chapter, and onto creating a complex RMI system, I can't tell if Pawlan is targeting someone new to Java or an experienced veteran who needs help creating a working distributed system. As the cover states, the application "illustrates many of the Java 2 platform's most important elements," which seem to be the qualifying justification for including every concept in the book. Unfortunately, there isn't sufficient explanation on such topics as JDBC to create your own programs with the API after reading the book.

 

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