WHEN a new computer language appears, there鈥檚 usually a book or two to go
with it. So when Sun launched Java, a language and a bit more, with much hype
(much of which may be justified), it prompted a trickle of books. Twelve months
on and that trickle has become a deluge. Whether big and thick or small and
compact, it鈥檚 hard to spot which ones cover all the territory.
Non-programmers have a small head start with the compact Making Sense Of
Java: A Guide for Managers and the Rest of Us by Bruce Simpson et al
(Prentice Hall, 拢18.95/$29.95, ISBN 0 13 263294 2), which starts
with the history of computing and proceeds to put all the fuss in context. It
then explains what Java is about, technically and commercially, without getting
overly carried away by the hype, but still showing the exciting
possibilities.
Once you鈥檝e cracked the concepts, you鈥檒l realise you don鈥檛 have to be a
programmer to use Java; Web page designers can just pick up Java
applets鈥攎ini-programs鈥攁nd use them in their pages. For them,
Instant Java by John A. Pew (Prentice Hall, 拢24.95/$29.95,
ISBN 0 13 565821 7) is a useful starting point. It contains descriptions of 60
applets for smart buttons, pretty text and animation, and explains how to use
them to freshen up that Web page. The applets come on a CD-ROM with the book,
ready to use. However, half the book is padding鈥攖he Java code of all the
applets with little explanation added.
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Peter van der Linden鈥檚 Just Java (Prentice Hall,
拢26.95/$34.95, ISBN 0 13 565839 X) tries to do for Java what his
previous excellent, light-hearted Deep C Secrets did with C. The Java
material here is given in the form of a reasonable if occasionally perverse
tutorial: perverse is where you work through one entire chapter鈥檚 example on
exposing the 鈥淚ntel Pentium Division鈥� flaw using Java only to show you can鈥檛 do
it in Java. This could have been a better, shorter book.
If you prefer concise books, Exploring Java by Pat Niemeyer and Josh
Peck (O鈥橰eilly, 拢18.50/$24.95, ISBN 1 56592 184 4) packs in a much
more comprehensive and serious coverage of how to program in Java. Rather than
covering the more esoteric points, the book provides enough to get started on
real-life programming. O鈥橰eilly鈥檚 first Java book, Java in a Nutshell
by David Flanagan (拢10.95/$14.95, ISBN 1 56592 183 6) has become
the de facto quick reference for Java programmers and Exploring
complements the high-speed introduction to Java at the start of
Nutshell.
Serious-minded C and C++ programmers may be tempted by Java for C/C++
Programmers by Michael C. Daconta (Wiley, 拢27.50, ISBN 0 47 115324
9), which tries to build on Java鈥檚 similarity to C and C++. It fails in part due
to a reliance on unexplained Java source code to provide insight. If you prefer
to learn by example, Java by Example by Jerry R. Jackson and Alan L.
McClellan (Prentice Hall, 拢27.95/$34.95, ISBN 0 13 565763 6)
provides a better start. The book works because every applet example is
thoroughly explained.
Most of the Java programming books mentioned so far clock in around or below
400 pages. Core Java by Gary Cornell and Cay S. Horstmann (Prentice
Hall, 拢32.95/$39.95, ISBN 0 13 565755 5) hits 600 pages for a more
leisurely look at Java. Apart from the usual C/C++ references, Core
Java has tips for Visual Basic programmers who may be looking at Java. It
also starts off assuming less programming experience, making it the better guide
for new Java programmers.
But Core Java is tiny compared to the behemoth Java
Unleashed by Michael Morrison and colleagues (Sams,
拢46.95/$49.99, ISBN 1 57521 049 5), which has 971 pages and 17
authors, but not an editor in sight. This is an eclectic compendium with some
excellent chapters, like the ones on security and the virtual machine, and some
very dodgy chapters, like the one on the AWT (the Java graphics library). It
also contains some wholly irrelevant chapters on VRML and JavaScript. There鈥檚 a
bit of repetition too鈥攐ne can only take so many times of being told how
Java is going to revolutionise the Internet.
The scary thing is that these books are just the tip of the iceberg. There鈥檚
a regularly (often daily) updated list of Java books on http://lightyear.
ncsa.uiuc.edu/~srp/java/javabooks.html.