Art of Java, The

There is something for every programmer in this book, which presents a number of practical, high-powered applications of Java. Included are pure code subsystems such as the expression parser, which readers will adapt for use in their own programs, financial calculations and statistics programs that feature ready-for-use applets/servlets, interpreter or the AI-based search engine, and much more.

User review
Excellent book on the artful use of the Java language in its entirety
I've never quite been able to figure out why this excellent little book never caught on. Over the years, Herbert Schildt has been one of the most excellent writers on computer science and programming that I have found, and this book is no exception. Both the narrative and the code are excellent.

The only thing that I can figure is that because this book does not target a particular audience - say those interested in enterprise applications for example - that it never really sold well. It is true, Mr. Schildt is all over the map in his applications - with such varied subjects as a recursive descent parser and also a language interpreter from programming language theory, from the world of web applications a download manager and also a web crawler, and from the world of artificial intelligence a problem solver. To me, though, that is part of this book's appeal. However, if you did not have an academic computer science background I can see how you might not be interested in the programming language and AI parts of the book.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to become a better Java programmer and does not mind spending some time looking at applications that might not be of immediate need to them. Especially if you have an academic computer science background and already know something about programming language theory and artificial intelligence, this book should be very interesting and very helpful.

User review
Good writing, excellent examples, worth reading
What I liked about this book was the fact that the author not only implemented the back end code, but showed how easy it is to put a quick Swing UI on it. The ability to write a complete, good looking application is often missing in most books. I think this should encourage more people to write quick UIs for the various utilities they code in Java. It encouraged me to go back to some old command line programs I use and throw a quick UI on them. Of course, that's not the point of the book. His intention was to show how Java can solve traditional computer science and IT problems. He succeeds at that.

My only complaints are:

1. the book hasn't been updated to Java SE 5 yet.
2. the use of Swing by the author is incorrect in my opinion. I think there's a few times the author doesn't handle the event dispatch thread correctly. This could send people off in the wrong direction with Swing.
3. the coding style doesn't exactly match the Java Style Guide published by Sun. Some people might like this, but I think it's a problem with many books.
4. The code in the book is not syntax highlighted. Most editors do this quite effectively and I think more books should start doing it.

User review
Outstanding!
I have nothing to say except thanks.With the help of this book,my skill of java problem had been improved to a higher level.I will recommend it to my friends who are studying java and also are meeting the problems that I met.

User review
Excelent Book
I've buyed the book today ( in spanish ), and, even not being a skilled Java programmer, I've enjoyed the first chapters. It resembles me the excelent work that Herbert Schildt does in Dr. Dobbs Magazine, a lot of years ago ( sorry, Herb ), and when I saw the getToken() method into the code, this inmediatelly remembers me the `Build your own C interpreter` article, which I've loved it. After five years of `boring` network's administration, I've make the decission of to get more involved into Java developement, and take the Herbert and James's book was the right choice to me. By the way, this is not a beginner's book, but with a little effort, and a middle knowledge of Java and OOP, you are on the way. The best money I've spended.

User review
easy read, fun examples
I enjoyed tinkering around with the code examples in the book. Lots of neat ideas and the book filled in the gaps where I was curious about how some things work.