Re: Java Text Book
Steve wrote:
Lew wrote:
Steve wrote:
_Thinking in Java_ is a deeply flawed textbook for learning Java.
I haven't read that book in over a decade. What do you remember about
it that made your decide that it is a deeply flawed book ( aside from
being out of date in 2013 ) ?
I was wrong about "deeply". I remembered it worse, perhaps. I liked it a
lot when I first read it. I came to think later that it wasn't really a "think
in Java" book, but more of an overly-detailed exploration of the corners
of the Java spec. I think I got spoiled by _Effective Java_ by Joshua Bloch and
became disaffected with Eckel.
The variable names are terse, his Swing examples don't run on the EDT (that
just might be a function of how out of date the book is, though), he eschews
checked exceptions, and he doesn't really discuss how to use the API. It seems
more like he just wants to illustrate the JLS.
I glanced through it again to answer this question. It isn't really horrid. I did run
into some questionable attitudes attributed to Eckel, though. He hates checked
exceptions and he completely excoriates generics erasure. Okay, maybe those
are controversial areas of Java, but to claim "thinking in" Java one should adopt
the mindset.
--
Lew