Product: 013143697X

When first embarking on a new journey into a programming language, the average traveler might want a map and a compass to show them where they are, where they’re going and how to get there. If where you are is Java newbie and where you want to be is programming Java apps on the Linux platform, then Java Application Development on Linux is a map and compass you can use to get from here to there.

This book is another in a long line of great technical reference books from Prentice Hall’s Bruce Perens’ Open Source Series. While some of the previous books I have revied from the series tended to be more in depth, this one has the benefit of starting out slow and covering all of the bases. You can know little to nothing about Java as a programming language and come out with a solid understanding of the fundamentals after the first few chapters. Anyone who has an object-oriented programming background will zip right through the opening pages, but for those that don’t, spending a little more time will bring them into the ranks of the initiated.

All of the programming basics are covered, from constants to strings, from arrays to variables, and all of the fundamentals and not-so-fundamentals of object-oriented programming, like classes, methods, objects, properties and polymorphism. Then the reader is steadily moved along into more involved topics, like putting your Java classes into JAR files, how to use the Java debugger, the software development kit and so on. At the end of each chapter, there is a small section on what the reader still doesn’t know. The purpose of this is to keep the reader clued in on their progress, explain what is to come and keep things moving along. All of which makes for a fast-flowing read. Generally this is hard to find in a technical book, many of which tend to be dry and boring for the most part with the index being the most read section.

By the end, the now initiated reader will explore programming applications for various interfaces and APIs, including Swing, SWT and JSP, and will even find out what JavaBeans are and how to use them and what JNDI is and how it can work for you.

With all that said, this is a fundamental resource book for anyone who would want to learn how to program Java applications under Linux. Much of the information can be borrowed to develop applications on other platforms as well. The introduction and first few chapters of this book are extremely informative and give the reader an excellent comprehension of Java as an object-oriented programming language and all of the fundamentals he will need to go further as an application developer. The later chapters tend toward information overload, and while the information is good, some things are skipped over to save time and space. It may have been better to separate this book into two different volumes, giving the second half twice as many pages and more room to breathe. But overall, this is still an excellent technical book and adequately achieves its main goal of making a beginner application developer out of a Java layman.
Rating: 4
013143697X
Count: 6