ISBN0321479270

THIS BOOK IS NOT AVAILABLE AS DESCRIBED. The description clearly states the book is a hard cover but no hard cover is available. I tried resolving the issue with Amazon, but all they did was send ANOTHER soft cover.

For $100 you should get what you were told you were going to get. Other then being VERY VERY VERY disapointed with my Amazon experience, the book reads well and is ok for the very beginner.

Over all I was not impressed by the book, or by Amazon's attempt to resolve my problem.

This is an excellent text for students to learn Java, and Object-oriented programming. The introduction of control structures first allows the beginning programmer to master the ideas of loops / selection, before tackling the more abstract concept of objects, and classes. The examples and explanations are very gentle on the reader. The frustration level for beginners is quite low. I have taught Java programming for almost 10 years, and have used many different texts - this one works for students who have little (or no) programming experience.
Colin Archibald, PhD

If you read the reviews of this text and its earlier editions, you'll see that it's nearly always praised by intro CS profs and students alike. Only this 3rd edition has gotten a real 'ding' by a reviewer, and that came more from that one individual's problem with Amazon than any real fault found in Gaddis' text itself. The guy's anger is understandable, though, as the price of this thick *paperback* book is simply absurd - as is the case with so many college textbooks these days... especially those in subject areas considered the gateway to lucrative careers. How can the publishers possibly justify their pricing? They can't... it's mostly greed. They figure CS students will just borrow a ton of money for their education and then pay off their inflated loans with their huge salaries, later!

Anyway, end of rant. What I would suggest, though, is to consider using an earlier edition of Gaddis' text - used - if ninety plus bucks is too much for you. For the purpose of introductory programming in Java, very little is lost in using the first edition, "Starting Out with Java 5". As I write this in 2008, Java is 13 years old and has become a mature language; very few basic features or keywords are deprecated anymore, and all of the latest and greatest extensions are mostly beyond the introductory level of this textbook. What the first edition did well - build a firm foundation for understanding programming structures and object oriented features in basic Java - all editions still do extremely well. The second edition, and the third, however, are incremental improvements... not essential to getting one's students off on the right foot.

This book has pleased me a lot.I have 2 other books for Java which are waste and I never open then from the day I started reading this book.Tony Gaddis has explained every concept in detail.I am a beginner and this book is a very good choice for beginners.The examples in this book are explained so well with no errors which makes it even more good. I want to learn EJB also if his book is available.