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Just Java 1.2 is the fourth edition of Peter van der Linden's introduction to object-oriented programming and to the art of Java. It's aimed at intermediate programmers for whom Java shall serve as their baptism in object programming. In its category, Just Java is noteworthy, and is marred for this reviewer only by the author's injection of himself into his book.
I'll explain my criticism later in this review. First, let's talk about what's right with van der Linden's book.
Just Java is more than an author's striving for publication; it's semiofficial Sun pedagogy. This is part of Sun's attempt to make learning Java easy and grab more geek mindshare and heartshare. The lessons reflect pretty accurately what a Sun engineer feels is that portion of the truth about the Java language, the Java VM, the AWT, and Swing that the entry programmer must know at a minimum to begin to actually deliver some code.
Sun wants that code delivered; you can bet your portfolio this book is meant to be helpful. It holds the hand of readers and leads them from the basement to the penthouse. It misses none of the intermediate floors in the basic architecture of Java GUI applications and applets. JDBC is even covered entirely adequately for the beginner. CORBA is breezed past in a chapter providing a necessarily shallow but pleasingly broad treatment of Java enterprise libraries.The accompanying CD-ROM is packed full. Of what? Well, lots of things, of varying value. The examples from the book are there, of course. There are various Java SDK's, 1.0.2 and 1.1.7 for Solaris Sparc, Solaris x86, and Win32, Japanese JDK 1.1.1 for Solaris Sparc and Win32, and the Macintosh JDK 1.0.2.
The CD-ROM also has bountiful "goodies" in the form of about 80 assembled corpi of Java code from free software types, including the Acme libraries by Wile E. Coyote fan Jeff Poskanzer (http://www.acme.com/). There's also a cut of the DJ Delorie Gnu C for Windows 95/NT. It was included, the author writes, "because I have room on the CD." (Delorie's finest is the Free Software Foundation's candidate for Win32 platforms; see also Cygnus Support's CYGWIN project at http://sourceware.cygnus.com/).
And there's also a folder of the author's self-promotion and Sun-promotion for the current book and others he has authored.
Which brings us to the literary side of the opus and the least successful aspect of Just Java. The author knows Java, but wishes to teach us quite a bit else. Worse, he's under the impression he is witty.
The book contains jejune japes at C++, represented in one image as the TitaniC++. Chuckle. Yes, C++ is an enormous, highly technical and exceedingly difficult-to-master language. So is English, and for analogous reasons. There are the potshots at Microsoft, trite potshots such as one focussing Yet Another Long Hold on the Phone with a Clueless Level One Support Tech.
The author regales the reader with mini-essays in multiple subsections entitled "Some Light Relief," presenting snippets which he hopes we find amusing. Now, when an author of a technical opus salts his work with irrelevant observation, he runs the risk of marring his convincing display of technical expertise with an equally convincing display of general ignorance.
As an example of "light relief," the author offers a trippingly told tale of the Miniscribe bankruptcy. Humorously enough, the tale ends with $568 million in restitution ordered for stockholders (ho-ho), CFO Taranto turning state's evidence (hee-hee), "appropriately named" turnaround specialist Wiles sentenced to "three years in the Big House" [sic]. This is tasteless even if one is not a Coloradoan who remembers that the Miniscribe debacle at the nadir of our regional economic bust was also accompanied by painful layoffs of hourly wage-earners. Sun has recently opened a much-welcomed 3000 person office in Broomfield, Colorado, just down the road from where Miniscribe stood. I wonder if it is really in Sun's interest that the author display his Silicon Valley parochialism under the imprimatur of Sun Microsystems Press?
As a Java tutorial, this book is highly recommended. Also highly recommended is that the author's next book be planned in conjunction with a competent and principled editor who will stand up for pertinence in a technical guidebook.
-- Jack Woehr
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Explanation of ERCB rating scale: No stars = unacceptable, 1 Star = marginal, 2 Stars = average, 3 Stars = above average, 4 Stars = exceptional.