In case you're doubting how much of a beginner's book this is, consider that the first chapter of this book is all about telling you what a computer is. If you have any experience writing any sort of script or program you will not want this book. If, like for me, it's required for a course, keep an eye on the bookstore's textbook buyback schedule.

Even once you have learned what's taught in this book, you will probably find it frustrating if you try to use it as a reference for Java syntax. Information about the language is dribbled out in bits and pieces with no clear way to find what you're looking for. Well, yes, there's a table of contents and an index, but you'll do better selling this book back and picking up Java In A Nutshell, 5th Edition once you have some familiarity with Java.

In case you're doubting how much of a beginner's book this is, consider that the first chapter of this book is all about telling you what a computer is. If you have any experience writing any sort of script or program you will not want this book. If, like for me, it's required for a course, keep an eye on the bookstore's textbook buyback schedule.

Even once you have learned what's taught in this book, you will probably find it frustrating if you try to use it as a reference for Java syntax. Information about the language is dribbled out in bits and pieces with no clear way to find what you're looking for. Well, yes, there's a table of contents and an index, but you'll do better selling this book back and picking up Java In A Nutshell, 5th Edition once you have some familiarity with Java.

For the price I wouldn't buy this book unless it was a textbook for a class or if you can find one used. That said, it is a great book for someone with a few Java basics under their belt. You could use it as your first Java book if you are a quick computer learner and can remain focused as the chapters are rather long and meaty. Each ends with a GUI section which could almost be a chapter on its own. The code runs well and is available for download. There are very few mistakes and/or jumping assumptions in Java learning although the complexity makes having an instructor to ask questions helpful. Basically it is a textbook for just after intro object programming college class and it does that very well.

Another great hit by Codemate. Best programming book for new programmers/students. Really goes step by step and gives adaquete information for newbies.

Another great hit by Codemate. Best programming book for new programmers/students. Really goes step by step and gives adaquete information for newbies.

Lewis & Loftus give the reader an excellent introduction to object oriented programming in Java. The very clear explanations as well as simple examples do an excellent job demonstrating many concepts to the reader. I recommend this book to anyone wishing to learn Java for the first time.

Lewis & Loftus give the reader an excellent introduction to object oriented programming in Java. The very clear explanations as well as simple examples do an excellent job demonstrating many concepts to the reader. I recommend this book to anyone wishing to learn Java for the first time.

There is an updated printing of this book that uses ISBN 0-321-32202-7. The updated printing (which corrects small but important changes from the final version of Java 5) also is called the 4th edition. The publisher added words "Java 5.0 Version" to the title listed in online stores, and added a leaf with the words "Covers Java 5.0" to the bottom right of the cover. Be sure to verify that you get this ISBN, and do not to buy an old printing that you can't return.

This URL to purchase the most up-to-date printing from Amazon is: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0321322037/qid=1126549578/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i2_xgl14/102-3991796-1688157?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

There is an updated printing of this book that uses ISBN 0-321-32202-7. The updated printing (which corrects small but important changes from the final version of Java 5) also is called the 4th edition. The publisher added words "Java 5.0 Version" to the title listed in online stores, and added a leaf with the words "Covers Java 5.0" to the bottom right of the cover. Be sure to verify that you get this ISBN, and do not to buy an old printing that you can't return.

This URL to purchase the most up-to-date printing from Amazon is: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0321322037/qid=1126549578/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i2_xgl14/102-3991796-1688157?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

I feel so sorry for all of the students out there who are struggling with this book, you arent alone! This book is poorly written, there is so much detail that I cannot follow the concepts. The chapters dont build on the previous ones. Worst of all, no answers are provided for the HUGE amount of exercises and programming projects. I am now in search of a better book to help me salvage my GPA. Thanks alot Lewis and Loftus.

I feel so sorry for all of the students out there who are struggling with this book, you arent alone! This book is poorly written, there is so much detail that I cannot follow the concepts. The chapters dont build on the previous ones. Worst of all, no answers are provided for the HUGE amount of exercises and programming projects. I am now in search of a better book to help me salvage my GPA. Thanks alot Lewis and Loftus.

This used to be a good book for a first and second semister course in Java. It has now been turned into a garish waste of time and money.

This is a really great Java textbook. I used it to teach myself Java over the summer. It's really clear and explains everything pretty well, and I found the examples to be really helpful. Now I'm taking Java for credit at college, and it's a total breeze after going through this book over the summer.

In order to get the most out of the book, though, you have to do a lot of programming to practice the stuff you learn. I used Netbeans 3.6 (www.Netbeans.org or check out download.com) to do all my programming in. It sets up the font of all the different java programming commands the exact same way that this textbook does, which makes everything real nice.

The book is also designed in such a way that you can learn all the regular programming commands without learning graphics, if you want. It also has a good HTML tutorial at the end (which is missing from the 4th edition, sadly).

As for the CD included with the book, I didn't look at it, but Netbeans (the IDE I used) has everything that would've been on the CD. So you could buy the book used with no CD and still be fine.

If you find yourself raring to jump into the Java language, this...might not be the book for you. Although this is an introductory book to Java, proceed with caution. The learning curve could be hard to scale if you are teaching yourself Java independently or if you are unfamiliar with computer programming fundamentals. You could be jumping into the deep end of the pool.

This book goes best with teachers and lectures as a classroom text in my opinion. The topics covered are the basics of software programming, such as if-else statements, loops, recursion, applets and object-oriented programming. If you've never programmed before and you're learning on your own, there are clearer texts out there. O' Reilly offers several good books on the subject.

I guess an advanced language like Java will always be difficult to learn at first. I read this book twice - once on my own and once in a college-level class. The first time I found the explanations of the concepts clear enough but could not figure out how to apply them. Understanding the concepts are enough for subjects like philosophy and political science, but with computer science you have to be able to apply them with code. The examples here were far too few and general for me. What made this book alright for me were the lab work and classroom supplements. Those helpers unlocked the concepts of this book for me. Otherwise I could only tell you about computer programming and not do it for you.

Java is arguably the best computer language to use when teaching programming, especially for first year Computer Science students. This is mainly due to the fact that Java is easy to learn, widely available and most importantly free to use. For first year students who are just getting their feet wet, and trying to break into the complex and vast field of Computer Science, Java's wide acceptance in the real-world is certainly a big plus. But Java does have its flaws, and one of which is caused by the fact that it is free to use. Java is big, very big. A professional would have to spend his entire career trying to learn Java and its related technology in its fullness. For most professionals, however, one section is enough to build our careers on, whether it being Server Side Java, GUI and front-end, Wireless Java, Enterprise Java, Messaging, etc... The point is, if one is to understand and learn some of these advanced topics, one needs a good foundation and understanding of the core Java programming language.

Java Software Solutions by Lewis and Loftus IS that book. This book is self contained and had everything a first year Computer Science student would ever need. As I mentioned, Java is very big and there are lots of information available out there that a newbie would need to spend an unprecedented amount of hours making sense out of all the available information on this topic. The book contains the necessary Java API - the one's that were used in the book and some extra one's that are needed, so the student does not have to spend extra time searching for something rather trivial. The same goes for Regular Expressions, JavaDoc usage, GUI event handling procedures and many others. I agree that students need to be prepared and have to know how to find these types of information, but wouldn't you, as the instructor, like to have the option of not having to spend your lecture time telling your students where to download JavaDoc's usage guides? Wouldn't you, as the student, like to have all the necessary information you need at the tip of your fingers instead of having to search for something new all the time? This book is well packed with all the necessary and extra information required for the first time newbie students going thru a programming class. For someone new, having to learn to program and all the new concepts and terms is overwhelming, and it is rather nice to be able to go to the end of the book and get the information you need. The book also gives enough background and introduction to the topic that even a person new to computers can come up to speed with all the necessary information to get going with topic at hand.

How about the rest of the book? In one phrase, this book is well illustrated. That's right, illustrated. Code snippets, examples from simple to a large and rather complicated "PaintBox" project, using figures and graphs to demonstrate program flow and language syntax and inserting program outputs right after the program source code for easy access mark some of the illustrations of this book. The end of each chapter is used to wrap up the topic just covered with a "summary of key concepts" area, which is very thorough in fact, followed by "Self review questions", "Exercises" and "Programming projects." The answers to the "Self review questions" are given, and the exercises and the programming projects at the end of the chapter can be used by the instructors to further educate and teach the Java programming language to their students. Since this book is also CodeMate "enabled", which means students can view, compile, run, and edit select programming problems and all code listings from the text book.

If you want your students to succeed as Software Engineers or even good programmers, you need to start them of on a good foundation of Software Engineering best practices and sound engineering and programming guidelines and methodologies. Lewis and Loftus's Java Software Solutions promote best practices and object oriented techniques and methodologies throughout their book. Either it being simple UML class diagrams to further illustrate the design, talking about inheritance and why it's required or even coding guidelines and code documentation, this book it field with the necessary tools, techniques and methodologies to get your first year Computer Science students on the right track.

This book also comes with the required slides, tests, lab manual, solutions set and instruction's manual to aid the instructors in their teaching, and a CD packed with the source code, the latest Java (J2SE 1.5) and tools and goodies used throughout the book for the students.

This book was assigned as the text for my applications programming class. Even though I faithfully read and highlighted each section, I was still completley lost. While I normally appreciate succinct writing, this book is a little bit *too* right to the point. I don't find the explanations of key concepts to be thorough enough for a rank beginner like myself, and the code examples are not really all that helpful.

In hopes of salvaging my GPA, I went and bought Learn To Program with Java by John Smiley, and found it to be much more useful. The book is written as if you are sitting in a programming class, with fellow students who ask very lucid and insightful questions. I recommend it instead, if you are looking to be hand-held through your first Java programming experiences.

the reason why I gave one stars to this book is:it is so expensive! such great book with dear price is a shame !MicroSoft behind Sun coz unix and java is open-source software.
amazon should do the same/

This was the book I used for my first Java class, but whether or not one needs it for school, this comes highly recommended. It covers all the novice essentials, from keyboard input to separate classes to basic GUI designs. While the authors may write rather cryptically sometimes, they do offer A LOT of examples of working code. These examples alone make the book very valuable. I found that by following their programs, I quickly found out how to learn the ideas they were trying to convey.

I made the mistake of selling this book back when I was done with it. I wish I had kept a hold of it. This is a wonderful resource for those still working out the beginning difficulties that come with knowing Java.

This book was written with the beginner in mind. It's down to earth explinations of complex ideas made learning java a breeze. I used this in my college computer course and I was able to ace the course (an accomplishment considering I'm an economics major). If you're looking for a book that enables you to create a basic program with animation, buttons, etc. with no prior experience then this is the book for you.