Java For Dummies, 7th Edition

The Dummies books never disappoint, I am a dabbler in all things related to IT, networks, building, repair, software and of course programming. I have dabbled in most over the years and got interested, then bored then found something else. Sorry for the rambling, but just wanted to provide a background, as you can imagine I have had a fair few Dummies and Idiots books over the years this is as good as all the others, starts out with the usual info that you don't really need and progresses into the basics of programming and then into Java. This is a great book for getting started and to lead into more advanced tasks.

Thumbs up from the most cynical and computer literate of teenage geeks - my son. The 'Dummies' book seems to have been revised in its layout, but it delivers all the essential tutorials for someone with some knowledge of programming. A useful book to have on standby for anyone using Java.

I would describe this first and foremost as an introduction to computer programming and how to write good software. It happens to cover the Java language, but most of what it teaches would apply to any modern programming language. Like all the best modern programming languages, Java is "object oriented" (don't worry, all explained in the book) which means you will learn sound lessons from this book even if you never program Java again. Java is a great choice for the beginner (as BASIC was back in my ancient day), because it is widely-used, available on any platform, and simple to get started with. It is also completely safe, and you are not going to do any damage to your computer no matter how you foul up! This books takes you gently through the basics of programming, before making these theories live in the form of some simple Java programming. As with all Dummies books, nothing is assumed and every level of help is here. Someone with a little existing knowledge can easily skip over the introductory parts to the "meat" of the book. This book is based on the latest Java 9 (issued in 2017) so is bang up to date for now. But that does not really matter. What you are learning here are the fundamentals that will help you program anything in future, and also help you to be a better designer in future. I'm sure there is nothing here that you could not also find in any number of online "how to program" courses, so it's really down to whether you like having a paper reference rather than flipping screens all the time.

I got this as a basic introduction to Java for my son - who is doing a Computer Science GCSE. Whilst they mainly use Python they also do a lttle bit of Java and he has found this to be useful in his studies. From my point of view it's somewhat different - I'm an experienced IT Systems Engineer/Architect with 20+ years in IT and whilst I'm an most certainly NOT a developer (I'm an infrastructure guy) I found this to be a bit waffaly and slow. Good for the target market - people with very limited exposure to IT/development.

Very well written and informative, plus incredibly helpful and effective. With no prior experience whatsoever of java, I was up and running in a few hours to a basic level, and soon got to grips with the rest of the book. I found it encouraging because it was so easy to follow, which kept me motivated and engaged.

"Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding." - Proverbs 17:28 Mr Burd spends a long time claiming that object orientated thinking is something relatively new and superior. The truth is it is not either. He also gives the false impression that it is required for non-linear programming when it isn't. I say this as someone that created a successful new expert systems language 35 years ago. For the vast majority of tasks OOP is too complicated and inefficient and it never achieves its stated goals. Burd makes the ludicrust claim that various computer languages are equally powerful. In no sense is this true. More efficient languages allow you to do more with less. I would call that more powerful. Also significant is the amount of access that languages give you to operating systems and hardware. Existing software libraries make languages more powerful to use. Portability obviously matters. Java is a long way from being an ideal programming language, but it has to be accepted that it is vogue with academia and for web applications. Java's popularity comercially is party I found Burd to be very poor at explaining pretty much everything. His first example involves developing condominiums, which is a warning to how pervasive American culture is in his writing. he way he presents information is longwinded, disorganised and often back to front. He often refernences other parts of his book, giving you just the chapter number, rather than the page number or subsection. The bitty way that he teaches I find infuriating. You are presented with tiny bits of code and partial explanations all of the time, so you never get an overall feel for how Java is used. I was struck when he introduced "whole number" variable types, that he never uses the seemingly appropriate word "integer". You need to wait another 250 pages to find out why. The reason being that Java has a class type "integer". Java changes the understood English meaning of the word integer and has two incompatible definitions of type. To try and make Java code more readable, there is something called "autoboxing", where a literal number in the code is treated as a class value rather than a primitive variable. Another point of note is the poor paper quality that is now being used for the Dummies series. The paper used for this book is so thin that the print on the reverse of each page shows through. Overall ====== A sloppy, slow introduction to Java. As a primer prior to an academic course this may have some value, but I would not recommend it as a stand alone tutorial. Very poor as a reference. If you are a complete programming novice you might considering Learning "C" first, which has a similar syntax to Java, without Java's ugly complications.

There is plenty of information in this book, but it's certainly not a hands-on tutorial. There are plenty of code listings to look at, but if you're like me and prefer to learn these sorts of things by actually doing them, then this book will be frustrating, as it was for me. There's also far too much "professional programmers don't usually do things like this, but I'm going to for this book" for my liking.

Dr Barry Burd provides just the right amount of humour to keep things interesting in what could otherwise be a particularly dry topic. But don't get the wrong idea, the book is serious where it needs to be - with an increasing level of depth where it matters. I am still only part of the way through the book, but so far have found the examples and explanations do a good job of teaching the topics.

Don't you love it when you search for weeks to find a way to make a complex subject approachable, finding dozens of examples of smart people relating things to the unknowing in ways that only the knowing might understand? Ugh! So frustrating. Well...I have purchased out of the "for dummies" series in the past, and they have been mostly great, so I decided to give them a shot again, though I was apprehensive that the subject matter would be treated too lightly. Well, if you're learning style is one where you get the ideas when told in story format by a trusted and humble friend, then this book is EXACTLY what you have been hunting for. The author encourages and writes for you to be able to skip around the book, which I have a tendency to do...I can't wait to open the gifts on Christmas, same thing applies here. I have to say though, the the writer has such a gift of expression and for making things interesting, I'm reading the entire book in the order it was written. And for my reward, I'm being shown the history of Java, and why things are the way they are...which is giving me a huge advantage when trying to understand all the oddities of this enormous object oriented programming language. Maybe I spent just enough time banging around in the free tutorial web sites thinking that Java was so huge and complicated as to be worthless...and now having an adult conversation with a professional is putting it all into perspective, which is just a huge relief. So that's what this book is, and adult conversation, where the author might as well be sitting next to you revealing the secrets that make the language suddenly accessible. Bottom line, get the book, even if you feel like you can learn Java on your own, do it with this author who is your friend on the inside. Thank you Barry Burd, you are awesome!

Brilliant

This book is the best of all I've ever gone through. I highly recommend this book if anyone wants to learn Java from the very basic. Even if you have worked with or are habitual to any other language (like I'm with C++) still, this book is going to be the best choice. 👌

good