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The last 2 Intro to Programming through Java textbooks have been horrible, and this is one of them. The typos alone have caused many headaches during study and while trying to finish the work book exercises. This is a good "flip through" book at a bookstore, but not really worth buying to keep on your bookshelf.

The authors follow the outline they used to write their C++ book, and it just doesn't seem to work for Java. They usually provide one programming example in each chapter. Many times it is the same ole program enhanced. There really NEEDS to be more programming examples to reinforce and to show how to apply the programming techniques presented in the chapter. They use the same programming problem exercises they published in their C++ book. Java is more of a GUI language. It is not like the "black screen" algorithm, mathematical equation programming language that their C++ book teaches. Maybe these people are not Java programmers, but textbook writers, and this was the easiest way to produce a Java textbook. I guess you could say these authors have perfected the "turnkey" method for writing a programming language textbook. Many, and I mean many of the programs printed in the text have errors or typos. Swing is not covered. The authors do not provide a CD. This is a very expensive ... misstake. Don't buy this book if you want to learn Java. Buy the Sun Java books or go to the Sun website and go through the tutorials and documentation. The "Java Black Book" is a good reference if you have a specific question or need further explanation on using a technique or function. There are other Java websites that will teach you Java better than this book does.

The authors did good job in C and C++ books but not in this Java book, you can not learn Java out of this book, I recommend Introduction to Java Programming by Liang