<pre>
Author/s : Grant Palmer
Publisher : Prentice Hall
Category : Advanced Java
Review by : David O'Meara
Rating : 6 horseshoes</pre>
While reading this book I kept wavering between enjoying the information presented and wondering what it was trying to accomplish. It begins with sections dedicated to people moving from C, C++ and Fortran, but there isn't enough coverage and it doesn't say much more than "Java is not so different".
The sections on differential equations, integration and Fourier transformations are useful, but some of the examples get caught up explaining more about the problem than the solution. At times you may be learning more about fluid dynamics than technical programming.
There are also short sections on IO, GUIs and web based applications that may be useful as an introduction to the topics in
Java, but you would get better coverage of the IO and GUI features in a beginners book.
There are plenty of examples of technical problems presented in the book, but I can't see it persuading C or C++ developers to make the move to Java.
The book does get the message across that Java is a great choice for building technical programs, but you might be better off with the combination of a beginner Java book for the syntax and a language neutral book for the algorithms.
If Java is going to be accepted for building scientific and engineering programs, more technical books need to be written using Java as the reference language. I'm not sure this book counts, but it might be a place to start.
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