Java Programming

I came to this book with almost no programming experience but good analytical abilities. I wanted to learn the equivalent of what is covered by a CS1 course, and this book fit my needs exactly. This book is an interesting read, clearly introduces topics, and avoids unnecessary wordiness. The exercises and programming projects are thorough. There are always one or two more lengthy projects included in each chapter for those who want the challenge. I used this book to learn Java on my own, and I found myself eager to open it each day. I agree that there is no coverage of Swing, but there are other books devoted to that topic which one could move on to. I highly recommend this for those who are new to object-oriented programming and want their first taste of what this field is about.

I chose this as a textbook for our introductory programming course here, and I've not been disappointed. Though I don't ask my students to read it, many of them have been - and that itself speaks volumes for how readable this book is.Most books tend to get overfull with needless details. King generally avoids this, parceling out the information without getting bogged down. Often, King splits what would normally be a chapter into two halves: The important half comes at the beginning, and the less important alternatives come later. It works well.My biggest complaint is that the book takes longer getting to worthwhile programs than I'd like. Don't expect to write programs to do vaguely interesting things until around page 150 (when the author finally gets around to incorporating repetition into programs).King has definitely been selective in choosing what to cover. This certainly isn't one of those encyclopedic textbooks. It's enough for a semester, and that's it. (Some examples of what King basically skips: recursion, throwing exceptions, bit operators, defining interfaces.) I consider this selectivity to be a feature; it certainly distinguishes this book from much of the competition.I've looked at a lot of Java textbooks for beginning programmers. Most seem to have been published in the hurry to capture some of the market. This is not among them. It's an excellent choice for those who want to learn how to program.

This is a very introductory text on java programming. KN King has written this book in the same style as his excellent text on C programming. This is as good an introduction to Java as one can get - but one needs to keep in mind that this does not cover any of the standard libraries like swing, awt, etc. or advanced topics like threads, databases. It is pitched to a person who is new to computer programming. With this caveat in mind King's coverage of classes, objects, control structures is very good. The organization of the material, explanation, examples, and the colloquial presentation are the highlights of this text.

As a someone new to programing I deeply appreciate the approach taken by Mr. King. By concentrating on the fundamentals of the language his book gives one the solid foundation needed before moving on to more advanced areas. Upon finishing this book I have no doubt that my learning curve has been greatly reduced. This book will be as good for a long time to come due to the fact that it dosen't get caught up with what's "hot" in the industry this month. Rather, it gives one the understanding and tools to do whatever one wants with Java. Thanks Mr. King.

Once again K.N. King produced a masterpiece. This book is the best book that I have ever read for students with no prior programming experience. In addition I believe that professional non-Java programmers can gain unique insight and a bottom up understanding of the Java language and of object oriented concepts by reading this book. The text is clear, thorough, and chock full of great examples and projects. If you want to learn Java this book will take you there. You will not learn applets, servlets, EJB, etc. However when you finish you will have a deep understanding of the language and will be more ready then most people to tackle the other technologies.