Customer Reviews

jph996 said
I believe it says a lot about the state of Java as a language that 1,252 pages are required to describe the language "in a nutshell." Since the second edition, this book has tripled in size. Surely this book now goes beyond the scope of what is required to teach the basics of the language.

jagorski said
I have very little experience with Java and I was required in an Object-oreiented Java course to come up to speed on object oriented concepts. Not only did I need to learn these concepts, I also needed to come up to speed on the basic elements of the language. This book was just what I needed. Like other O'Reilly "in a nutshell books", this one is great for a motivated learner. I would certainly like to see more graphic presentations; however, that would make the book very thick -- and heavy. Still, those of us who sit and stare at a screen all day, could benefit from the workout! Overall, a terrific book.

calvinnme said
The "Java in a Nutshell" series probably peaked in usefulness around the second edition. The only reason it has eroded somewhat in value is:
1. The size of the language has grown to the point that key parts of the language - enterprise and foundation classes - were omitted and spun off into their own nutshell series.
2. Even the core portion of the language has grown so much that the resulting book has become quite unwieldy.
However, that being said, I would want a copy of this reference on my desk as long as up-to-date editions are in existence. You probably cannot learn Java from this book alone, but many key points on syntax and language features are concisely presented in the first part of this book along with good examples. Chapter four alone, on changes specific to Java 5, along with pertinent examples, is worth the price of admittance. The second part of the book is mainly just a listing of the javadoc, with some good notes and crossreferencing that make the information worthwhile. A good companion to this book is the latest edition of "Java Examples in a Nutshell" which contains many good illustrations of the Java programming language in action.

jhennessy4 said
Java 1.5 (or 5.0, depending on whether you listen to the technical tpes or the marketing people), redefines Java - the biggest change since 1.2 (or was that 2.0?) and this book covers it all.

The author decided to make this a book that you could actually carry around with you, so he dropped most of the deprecated options, plus some of the lesser used packages (java.beans, .security.acl).

This book is important because Java, with version 5, has signiificant additions (generic types, a for/in statement, varargs, to list some of the lesser stuff). As in the previous editions, the author does a great job of providing a readable text that can benefit every level of experience. Not only does he cover every important feature, but he follows the text up with a comprehensive API Quick Reference. Either half would be worth the price of admission. Whether you're a Java pro or just interested in playing with the language, this book is an absolute must. And unless you work at home, I'd buy two.

hillking said
This kind of classic book has its merit, but this version has quite a few problems
We don't want a 'man page' like reference book, the list of member functions with NO samples or descriptions are closed to useless.
For example: I looked at section 5.4 about Calendar,here is the code:
// Display the current time using a short time format for the current locale
DateFormat shortTime = DateFormat.getTimeInstance(DateFormat.SHORT);
DateFormat myformat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy.MM.dd");
Date leapday = myformat.parse("2000.02.29");

I don't remember the SHORT and yyyy.MM.dd, so I decided to check the reference. In DateFormat page, the book says "The getdateInstance( ) methods return a DateFormat object suitable for formatting dates in either the default locale or a specified locale. A formatting style may also optionally be specified; the constants FULL, LONG, MEDIUM, SHORT, and DEFAULT specify this style."

Does that make any sense? no, I don't know how to deal with Locale and the difference between those MEDIUM,SHORT stuff.

So I check my SUN javaDoc in a lovely windows chm format, it says so clearly about all the information I am looking for and even with a few examples! It also even put explainations in lists
"SHORT is completely numeric, such as 12.13.52 or 3:30pm
MEDIUM is longer, such as Jan 12, 1952
LONG is longer, such as January 12, 1952 or 3:30:32pm
FULL is pretty completely specified, such as
Tuesday, April 12, 1952 AD or 3:30:42pm PST.
"

Then I check SimpleDateFormat in the book, it DOES NOT say anything about "parse"! The only thing it gives is:
public java.util.Date parse(String text, ParsePosition pos);

Come on, what is pos? I have to look for it in JavaDoc again.
It says "
Parses text from a string to produce a Date.
The method attempts to parse text starting at the index given by pos. If parsing succeeds, then the index of pos is updated to the index after the last character used (parsing does not necessarily use all characters up to the end of the string), and the parsed date is returned. The updated pos can be used to indicate the starting point for the next call to this method. If an error occurs, then the index of pos is not changed, the error index of pos is set to the index of the character where the error occurred, and null is returned.
"

What a shame to O'Reilly. I really hope in the next version they can:
1. Add some description to the most useful member functions in each class.
2. Add a simple example for each Class or add cross reference.
3. Add an idiom code sample for each class
4. Remove 'not that useful' member functions, so many classes have "clone, equals, tostring, hashcode" in it, do you really want to list them??