Effective Java by Bloch
Effective Java
by Joshua Bloch
ISBN 0201310058
Date Read 4/2005My Rating 
Let me ask you a simple question? Have you programmed in Java for more than a year or two? If no, than this book might not be for you. On the other hand, if you've been programming in Java, why haven't you read this book? Seriously. Why haven't you? How about you, Stas. I know. I know. I've been programming in Java for 5+ years and I read this book last month. I should have read it sooner. Much sooner. Anyway, I read it, so I'll tell you why you should read it as well.
The Foreword of the book sums up the book very nicely:
If you have ever studied a second language yourself and then tried to use it outside the classroom, you know that there are three things you must master: how the language is structured (grammar), how to name things you want to talk about (vocabulary), and the customary and effective ways to say everyday things (usage). ... This book addresses the third need: customary and effective usage. Joshua Bloch offers good advice, systematically organized, on how to structure your code so that it works well, so that other people can understand it, so that future modifications and improvements are less likely to cause headaches -- so that your programs will be pleasant, elegant, and graceful.
Nice job, Mr. Bloch. Very nice work. I rate it 5 stars.
Like I said, I've had decent exposure to Java over the years, but when I was reading this book, I was constantly telling myself: Wow. This is cool. This is a neat way of doing things. How come I did not come across this earlier.
Mr. Bloch shows you how you can effectively use Java. He does not cover everything, but the areas he covers are really helpful. Plus, he writes good English: easy to read and down to earth (I wish more authors were writing like that).
- The following topics are covered in the book:
- Creating and Destroying Objects
- Methods Common to All Objects
- Classes and Interfaces
- Methods
- General Programming
- Exceptions
- Threads
- Serialization
Read it and you will be a better Java programmer.
Comments
· February 17, 2006 ·
Haha, nice comment.
I totally disagree. :-)
This is the best book on Java, period. A required reading for all Java programmers.
· February 17, 2006 ·
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Improve, Not Degrade
This book teaches you how to become an overly paranoid Java programmer, creating interfaces and implementations that are hard to maintain and hard to re-use. If you are weenie, you will like
this book.