Customer Rating: 
Summary: Poorly laid out, so information suffers
Comment: I had to use this book in a class on J++. I was not impressed.The book has very wide margins, which it uses almost exclusively for comments on the text. Almost half of the page is unused for this reason. When code is printed, the lines must wrap onto two or three lines because of this layout. The comments are included after the code, making it very difficult for new users to figure out what is code and what is not.
Each individual section of code is numbered, even though several sections may wind up being in the same program. Many of the students in my class end up replacing one line of code which had been labeled 1 in a previous example with the code labeled 1 in a subsequent example.
The book uses terms without defining them or defining them 100 pages later. While it is acceptable to describe something briefly and refer to the place where it is described in depth, the book's method leaves the user constantly turning to the index to try to understand what is going on.
There is never any explanation of how a program works. The user is never shown how variables pass or call information between subroutines, classes, etc.
The book refers to HTML as Hypertext Marked Language. While this is common in the UK, the W3C, which wrote the standard, defines it as Hypertext Markup Language.
Almost all of the examples used to demonstrate different constructs like switches and while statements use sports metaphors. For those people who are not interested in sports, this leaves you trying to decode both the language of the example and the code in the example.
I would not recommend this book unless you have VERY limited options.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good book for a useless language
Comment: I bought this book to learn Visual J++ 6.0 and this book did exactly that.The problem is, Microsoft is no longer going to develop Visual J++ anymore, thereby making the entire language, this book, and the time I spent on it, WORTHLESS.
Since SUN has the standard for Java and Microsoft didn't like that, they are doing the unthinkable and deciding that there is no future in Java, so they are abandoning J++. IBM made an eerily similar mistake back in the 80's.
If you are working on a project using J++ and have any control over it, change to Java or anything except J++. If you have no control over this, reconsider your career path.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Text for entry level Visual J++ Programmer!
Comment: I am a network engineer and webmaster with 25 years experience in the field. I was looking for a book that would bring me up to speed using Visual J++ in a minmal amount of time. Scott Mulloy's straight forward approach to Visual J++ did so in an outstanding manner. He did not waste space by including superfluous comparisons, or other topics that are better suited for coverage in more advance texts. I found his book to be useful for it's examples and concise in it's instructions. This book accomplished what it was designed to do, teach novice programmers how to use Visual J++. Highly recommended!
Customer Rating:
Summary: One of the first books on J++ 6.0, needs improvement
Comment: The book was obviously written very quickly to get to the market. I found it useful when this was the only book in the store.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book used by my corporation for all VJ++ Training
Comment: This book does EXACTLY what it says it will on the back cover and in the "Who this book is for Section". I've read two reviews complaining the book doesn't cover Java Beans, but the book states clearly that is intended to teach readers how to write Java programs in Visual J++ 6.0, whic is obviously not centered around Bean development in case you haven't reviewed Microsoft's position on this. The book gives an excellent introduction to Java programming and an extremely thorough overview of Visual Studio. The J/Direct chapter is a bit limited, but the fact is, you don't really need this feature with the WFC. I teach Java and Visual J++ classes across the United States on a weekly basis and this is the book I now distribute in class. It is far superior to any of the other Visual J++ 6.0 books currently on the market.
