Eclipse: Step-by-Step by Joe Pluta

[Book Review Team]

<pre>Author/s : Joe Pluta
Publisher : MC Press
Category : Miscellaneous Java
Review by : Thomas Paul
Rating : 9 horseshoes</pre>
So you download Eclipse and start it up and stare at the screen in confusion. Or maybe you haven't even figured out how to start it up. Don't worry. Just get a copy of this book and you will be using Eclipse like an old ranch hand in no time. Many books for the novice claim that they will teach you something but they hit "magic happens here" moments that leave you lost. You won't find any of that in this book. The title of this book is "Step By Step" and that is exactly how this book teaches Eclipse.
The book assumes that you know nothing about Eclipse. After showing how to download, install, and start up Eclipse, the book takes a tour of the basic features that every programmer will need to know in order to code, test, and debug their programs. It starts by explaining what a "perspective" is in Eclipse terms and examining the most commonly used ones. The book then takes a look at a few simple Java programs, showing how to code and debug them.
This book is geared for novice users and is not meant as a reference. If you are familiar with IDEs and don't feel lost when using them then this book is probably going to be too basic for you. But if you are new to IDEs and like a lot of hand holding then this book will help you to work comfortably with the product.


More info at Amazon.com
More info at Amazon.co.uk

[Cindy Glass]

Well, I am only about 1/2 done with this book, but even I could follow these very explicit step by step instructions. No guessing what to do. No leaps of logic. Simple and easy.
I'll give you an update when I finish the book. Hopefully by then I should have an opinion about the Eclipse IDE also .

[Cindy Glass]

I thought that I would share the review that I put out on Amazon:

I have a problem. I can not keep the rest of the folks in the office from swiping my copy of this book! It is so easy to follow that even a Manager could follow this book. From installing the tool, to starting your first project, each step is detailed COMPLETELY.
We have been evaluating alternatives for IDEs and it was such a relief to have something understandable and straight forward to follow, rather that wading through technical mumbo-jumbo, or just messing around until we figure it out.
So far it seems that the book covers every scenario that we have run into and the times that I have looked something up in the index, the references were right there.

The results of our efforts seem to be that we are going to work mostly with Eclipse although a few groups have upgraded to the WSAD product which is just Eclipse that has some bells and whistles added by IBM.
Great Job Joe!

[Jeroen Wenting]

Originally posted by Cindy Glass:
I thought that I would share the review that I put out on Amazon:

The results of our efforts seem to be that we are going to work mostly with Eclipse although a few groups have upgraded to the WSAD product which is just Eclipse that has some bells and whistles added by IBM.
Great Job Joe!

How did you do that Cindy?
I'm fighting to prevent changing from Visual J++ to Netbeans in our company, wanting Eclipse instead (but the main architect likes Netbeans...).
For the moment I'm using Eclipse outside official channels so to speak of course

[Cindy Glass]

Well, we didn't get to effect the "technical direction" for the entire company - it takes God to do that - or the "main architect", and we used VisualAge for Java for quite a while - which is fairly cumbersome, so we were looking for something more trimmed down for apps that aren't quite as dynamic.
Of course the application project that we intended to start using Eclipse on just got "canceled" < sigh >, so it remains to be seen where we will start using this tool.

[Book Review Team]

Review by : Margarita Isayeva
Rating : 9 horseshoes
When I started to learn my first computer language, I was provided with a tome of technical documentation, where all the operators were listed in the alphabetic order with all the intricacies of their working explained. I wouldn't probably be as much lost if I were brought on another planet -- there I would at least know where is the left and where the right. Then some kind soul lent me a book written in more human style, so I could begin to orient myself along the four sides of the world...
I wish my early days I had a book like this! If you are confident in your learning abilities, and prefer to find your own path, there are books about Eclipse that you will enjoy more. But if you feel lost and looking for help, you will find it in this book. You will get your personal guide, who will never let you get lost, but will walk you through the foreign planet explaining what is this or that thing you are passing.
The book covers all the basic tasks: starting a project, editing/importing programs, compiling, debugging and troubleshooting. Each example is provided with a program on CD, so you do not have to type your own if you do not want to, and you can learn how to use Eclipse even if you know no Java at all. Each step you need to make is listed, explained, and for each step there are screenshots that illustrate what your screen should look like. If you installed Eclipse from CD, you will never have to wonder why your screen doesn't look like it is supposed to.
In "Agile Software Development" Alistair Cockburn defines three stages of learning. In the following stage learners need one procedure that work, "they copy it, they learn it", and they need a very detailed description of this procedure. In the next, detaching stage, people learn several ways to do the job along with advantages and shortcomings of each. In the third, fluent stage, they forget about procedures, as they do not need them.
This book is determinately and rigorously written for the first group of learners, and it should be appreciated as such.


More info at Amazon.com
More info at Amazon.co.uk
[ January 07, 2004: Message edited by: Book Review Team ]