I pre-ordered this book as i was interested in learning from the beginning, but with an emphasis of the new features Java 8 brings along. I have been through countless other java books, but have never found them interesting enough to keep reading, therefore limiting my own knowledge. I checked on StackOverflow and various other programming forums to see what my fellow developers recommended for learning java. One of them mentioned Core Java Volume 1 - 9th edition, so i decided to take a chance on the 10th edition considering it was coming out soon. Now, onto the contents of this book. I am currently on the 5th chapter, and safe to say, i am hooked. It provides detailed explanation of things like encapsulation, inheritance, method overloading/overriding as well as the reason behind why they are so important and how to use them properly. It is a 1000 pages or so, but if you are like me who has no interest in Swing Development as i am completely immersed in Java FX, it simmers it down to 600 or so pages. I have already pre-ordered the Volume 2 version as well as it covers lambda expressions, parallel streams, etc etc.

I am C++ programmer and this book rapidly provided me with the background to program in Java. Of particular value are the numerous notes which call out the similarities and differences between C++ and Java. This kind of information is invaluable in assimilating a new language. This is marked as 4 stars versus 5 stars since there is essentially no information on reading and writing text files or other files to and from the disk. The tiny amount which is there in couched in terms of Applets. This book is the Fundamentals book so I would expect it to have this information. Volume II which is advanced topics (which is not yet released) may have this information, but I don't consider reading and writing text files to the disk an advanced topic. Other than this peculiar oversight (IMHO) this is a great book.

I have spoken to some students who had this as a textbook and said it did not work well for them. I can see this is probably true, without an objective oriented language under your belt I can see that this would be a difficult book from which to learn.

There's no "perfect for everyone" solution, but this book explains a lot of the java quirks for me. It is basic enough that I can understand almost everything (I don't have a collage education), but detailed enough that it's actually usable. The most important aspect for me is that it explains, in some detail, java's root operations, how and why it does this and that rather then just a "here's how you do it". For example, it clearly explains how Object Variables work (they're actually pointers, or reference links), and how they're passed as parameters from one method to another, something I haven't read anywhere else. I haven't gotten to volume 2 yet, there's a lot of stuff to digest in here. This 2-volume set is the most comprehensive java tutorial I've found yet.

Instead of just saying "to do this, do that", he explains the whys and wherefores which allows one to truly understand concepts rather than just memorize them. Sometimes he refers to something not yet introduced; however, either it will be introduced within a few pages or you're left to investigate on the internet. This book is not for first time programmers in my opinion and that worked for me...no rehash of basic programming constructs, etc. Java FX is not covered at all but Swing is. All sample programs can be downloaded from the author's website. I'm looking forward to Volume 2 which covers juicier topics.

I have read volumes 1 and 2 of Core Java and I think it's one of the best tech books I have ever read. I have been programming in Java for more than 15 years, but like many professional software developers, we learn in the "trenches" and sometimes just do something without knowing why. I think I sometimes have specific needs for books, so I like to get the whole story on why things are done in certain ways. These books explain that. They are pedantic, yes, but thorough and if you appreciate that kind of book, then these are for you.

Can a programming language book serve as both an excellent reference text AND a great cover-to-cover read? Until I read Odersky et al.'s "Programming in Scala" last year, I simply did not believe this was possible. I am happy to report now that I was wrong, and that it can in fact be done. However, I think "Core Java" only excels in the "reference" category and falls significantly short on the readability factor. Consequently, I find Volume I to be pretty mediocre overall.

Absolutely essential to creating an ideal language introduction is limiting the number of forward-references in the text. Any reader unfamiliar with the language will be frustrated if statements of the form "feature X will be covered in chapter Y" become routine. This practice is commonplace in "Core Java," and it will drive language newbies mad. On the other hand, Java veterans will likely find the voluminous code examples and detailed explanations of basic Java features cumbersome. I wonder, who is this book actually for?

I think Java newbies would need to read through most of this book at least twice to get a good handle on the language features. (Considering the size of this book, we are talking about a considerable commitment here.) On the first pass, those new to the language could survey the text for basic semantic details and syntactic structure. Then, in a second pass, they could mine the book for more detail in areas of interest. For more experienced Java programmers, Horstmann provides an excellent index at the back of the book and organizes the chapters well for looking up features and syntax details on a more ad-hoc basis.

I would submit that, in trying to cater to both veterans and newbies, "Core Java" compromises in a way that favors neither audience. Although the content in the book is accurate and the code examples are thorough and complete, I would suggest looking elsewhere for a text that caters more specifically to your programming needs. That said, if you are already a Java programmer simply looking for a nice reference text, I suppose "Core Java" would fit the bill.

I rent this book after I found that two of my CS courses had suggested this book as a Java development reference. Now I graduated, so I decided to spend as long as it has to take to simply take a glance of this book because it has a high rating.

Every chapter/topic covered in this book is attractive and makes me want to learn. I read it not because I want to be a Java developer, but to pad my knowledge about Java and it's use. One thing that this book may not have is practical examples. It's a reference book, but not really like a tutorial. So I think this book is an excellent Java reference.

This book is interesting, easy to read, and to understand what the author is explaining.

I have learned Java through this book, and I feel the author has done a great job teaching me Java.

Thorough and comprehensive. I am working my way through this book. After I have completed it, I'll go on to Vol. II. I'm working hard and having fun. I previously bought the 9th edition of this book. I'm glad the author has created the 10th edition for Java SE 8.

Sicuramente uno dei migliori testi sul linguaggio di programmazione java.

L'autore è una garanzia in questo campo.

E' richiesto un minimo di esperienza di programmazione per imparare java seguendo questo testo.

This is really good book to improve your programming level in Java. I recommend this item!!!! I have to buy the next volume

Quality content

Java has moved on since the last book I bought, this book covers everything in an excellent way. Thoroughly recommended.