Java in a Nutshell

It's a Reference, how much can you say?

I bought the book; I'll use it when I need to reference specific classes of functionality. It's not like I'm using it everyday.

Not for the Faint of Heart

The subject of this book is presented in a direct, technical, no-nonsense manner. The information is very useful to those with a technical background - especially in programming. Those just starting out would probably be better served by approaching this subject at a lower level. For those with experience, everything is there (although, at times it does get a little dry).

good sign of Java's vitality

Recently, Sun gave us a significant upgrade to Java - the release of Java 5. A slew of the inevitable bug fixes. But also key new features, as explained here by Flanagan in the 5th edition of his long running reference. Some new abilities lead to notational simplification, like autoboxing. So if k is an Integer, you can now say 'k=5' instead of the clumsier 'k=new Integer(5)'. With a similar inverse process if q is an int, of being able to write 'q=k' rather than 'q=k.intValue()'. Though of course the older forms are still valid, for backward compatibility. Hey, varargs are now allowed! Much to the pleasure of some of you who came from C programming and used this nice feature. Ever since Java came out, there has been a continual, albeit quiet, push for varargs. Finally! By now, experienced Java programmers may be familiar with earlier versions of the book. There may be mild astonishment at the sheer heft of this edition. Thanks to its popularity, Java has bulked up in the number and scope of its classes. The book is a reassuring sign of Java's vitality.

Good, concise reference

This is an excellent reference if you are an experienced programmer and want a single reference that you can rely on. The author succeds in covering all the really important features with just enough detail so that you can get a working understanding of them.

Not too happy...

I like the way its layed out. But the only thing that troubles me that the explantions were too technical. I'm experianced in C++ and BASIC and a little bit of COBOL. But I when I learned those languages I had references that explained things as if you were new to the language like I am new to JAVA.

A reference, not a learning tool

This is not a tutorial, but a language reference. I like the breakdown of the information, and the way the side 'tabs' of the book make the sections easy distinguish. Once you catch on to the layout of the book, you can find things very very fast. I also like the fact that the authors have taken the time to point out deprecated classes/methods and point the reader to those when applicable. This saved me a LOT of aggravation when working with existing code.

Good, but lacking content from earlier editions

Java in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition, is the sequel to the highly successful series of books by author David Flanagan. His books have been both a handy reference when programming, and a quick-start guide to learning the Java language. Unlike other authors, when David releases a new edition, it is very much a complete rewrite, rather than just adding a chapter here and there. 

This is, however, a double-edged sword. It means that you can pick up the latest edition, and still find it useful if you've read previous ones. However, to conserve space, the book becomes more and more compact, so some of the great sections like a comparison between C++ and Java from the first edition is reduced to a two page summary of bullet points.

Java in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition is, nonetheless, the best Java reference available on the market. It covers all the core Java technologies, save the Abstract Windowing Toolkit and Swing graphical libraries, which have been relegated to the new book Java Foundation Classes in a Nutshell. This will be a disappointment to some, but if you're looking for a language reference, and not a guide to GUI programming, this title is an excellent buy. Particularly if you're new to the Nutshell series, David Flanagan's fast paced guide to Java is a perfect desktop reference -- David Reilly

Useless

Outdated, shallow and useless.

Great Reference Book

As in the previous edition, the tutorial part of the book remains a terse introduction to the language. The older editions assumed you knew C or C++. This edition just assumes that you have some programming experience. If a person who does not have programming experience picks up this book, the explanation is too terse to learn programming as well as Java. Even I who learned Java back in the 1.0beta days, use the tutorial section of this book. I can never seem to remember all the different types of inner classes and their syntax. When I needed to know, I've pulled out the previous edition of this book. I was happy to see that the inner class description used in the previous edition was carried forward to this one. The second half of the remains as before. It is a compact reference of the Java API. This part of the book is not really useful for learning the APIs, but it is useful for remembering the syntax of the various method calls and being able to look them up quickly. If you have to limit yourself to one Java book, 'Java in a Nutshell' would be an excellent choice. This is doubly true if you are a consultant, travel around quite a bit, and need something light, but extremely useful.

Great Reference

This book is a great reference. I can't wait until B&N gets the latest edition in.

More Than Just a Reference

I am just learning Java and this is the best book I have seen yet. The book is more than just a reference. The beginning chapters explain the Java language in detail and give source code examples for several Java programs. In addition, this book covers Java Applets for use on web pages along with parameter passing and interaction with the web browser. Using this book I was able to create mouse-driven Java Applets for web pages literally overnight. I can't say enough good things about this book. It is very well organized, and it answered all my questions.

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