PDF Beginning Programming with Java For Dummies Barry A Burd 9781118407813 Books

Product details Series For Dummies Paperback 480 pages Publisher For Dummies; 4 edition (June 23, 2014) Language English ISBN-10 1118407814

Beginning Programming with Java For Dummies Barry A Burd 9781118407813 Books Reviews

• First, I'm a beginner.
  
  Actually, I am a former CEO of a software/finance firm - but I was CEO for the finance stuff.
  
  While I had some exposure to our code development, I was focused on the finance side of our business model (night and day) and had little time for the coding fundamentals of our business, which were very Java focused.
  
  Truly, at the time, I thought code and the folks doing it were "fungible" in a financial sense. I wish I'd had more time to spend understanding the fundamentals of code. Rather, I learned the buzz words needed for investors or clients. In short, like many finance people, I was not the value-add I thought I was, but that wasn't what investors were buying. They wanted to buy business models - they never asked more than skin deep questions about the code.
  
  Over time, I've done some in-class training and participated in online course, but I have to say that nothing has made Java so clear as this book. For many like me, who have been faking it and writing code in MS Notepad, this author's use of the Eclipse platform is a dream for the many with "so so" typing and error checking skills. To be fair - I've only completed the first 100 pages of the book, but it has filled in many of the gaps that more advance classes left out.
  
  If you are in management to executive management of a firm that uses the web for business - I recommend this book as a shortcut to the true fundamentals of what those teams of engineers are doing for you. Again, if you've had other exposure, your time invested will be very short, but your capacity to understand bids (for costly improvements) from the engineering team(s) will increase in a "hockey stick" fashion.
• Excellent book for complete beginners, and also for those who have minimal experience with Java. Proceeds very gradually, and never do you have the feeling of suddenly being pushed off a cliff. Topics that have not appeared in a chapter or two are, when mentioned, provided with a reference to a previous explanation, so you can refresh your memory before proceeding, if necessary.
  The book is written in a somewhat breezy style typical of the series, but in this case one can sense that the author has many years' classroom experience, and knows what works.
  The code for the book's examples is available online, and the author is available to assist by email or even via chat if there are persistent problems. Dr. Burd has also written other books on Java, among them one that covers more advanced general programming topics, and another specifically geared towards Java for Android devices.
• I hadn't done any real programming since Fortran classes in college in the '90's, but had done a fair amount of work in VBA for Excel over the years, and wanted to get some idea of what a modern language could do. Java seemed like a good place to start, and this book seemed like a good guide to get me started. Like most For Dummies books, it presents a very practical approach, introducing you to one concept at a time without unexplained jumps, and with figures and examples galore. Whenever something wasn't working, after some careful scrutiny, I discovered that I'd skipped a line or committed a typo. I finished the book and was starting to work on some experiments of my own when my hard drive crashed. When I got a new machine and tried to recreate my Eclipse environment for Java, I was stumped by errors. Unable to find answers online, I emailed the author. Why not? He'd included his email in the book, after all. To my absolute shock, less than 30 minutes later I had a reply, and a productive back-and-forth followed. So good book, backed up by excellent support.
• Although I was looking for a book that would get into more depth, I have learned a lot of good stuff form this book. I was really impressed when I was having a problem with one of the example programs and I surfed Dr. Burd's web page on a Saturday night and Dr. Burd was on chat and I was actually able to talk to Dr. Burd directly very impressive. For a beginner to an intermediate this is a very good book.
• Awesome book! I recommend for those who are absolutely new to java. I have to admit, if I didnt have prior programming experience or at least taken a programming class, some of the concepts are pretty confusing, but Barry does an awesome job at explaining everything in great detail. This book will literally take you from zero to novice if you finish reading this book cover to cover and dont skip on the examples. I recommended writing out everything and using the example projects as a reference in case something doesnt work. I don't think you'll become a java professional by reading just this book, I think this is a great book to start with and then move on to a text book or another Java book that lets you test out the knowledge you have learned. After all my research and online reviews, this book is the best for those who want to start learning java but dont want to pay $80 + dollars to start out. Most of those books are 600+ pages and some of the material might be dry and boring and thus leads to no motivation. All in all get this book if you want to learn java and if you want a book that is in "Laymans" terms but also has a technical side.
• Like another reviewer, I purchased this before I took an actual Computer Science 1 with Java class. This book is actually better at teaching Java than my teacher is. The structure and format is great and it's very entry level oriented. I would definitely recommend this for someone who is serious about getting into computer programming.