Murach's Beginning Java With NetBeans

I haven't found a Murach's book that I didn't like. Great explanations and much cheaper than other textbooks

I love how well this guide is written and in plain English. The only misgiving I have is that I would prefer if there were a lot more exercises and a solution manual or online guide to the solutions.

No problems.

The publisher gives professors an extra set of secret exercises that aren't in this text book. Most professors will use these for class work and home work.If you read the book, you should be able to complete the exercises but this is not the case as they aren't made for beginners. Really tough and really challenging. This book shows you something and then you see the solution and its an entirely different from what you just learned. They jump form point A to to point z. Really disappointed that this is a popular book for beginners learning java.

It's Hard to Learn What You Already Knowby Phil NorcrossEvery time I open this book I learn something new and useful.And it's not always what I was looking for, which is a good thing.- Servlets automatically create a separate thread for each user.- Java 7 gave us a java.nio.file package that simplifies tasks formerly the work of the java.io File class.-A "try-with-resources" statement means you write less code for error-handling and final close() statements.I mean, the hardest questions to answer are the ones you don't know enough to ask, and the hardest things to learn are the things you think you already know.Reading a new introduction to Java, after years of writing Java, reminds me of playing Monopoly with my sisters when I was I kid. We'd been at that game for years when we stopped one day to re-read the rules. Then suddenly the game was less confusing, and we could play with the neighbor kids without arguing over our unique house rules.Murach's beginning Java with NetBeans is clearly meant as a schoolroom textbook. It starts with installaion of an open-source IDE--NetBeans--and programming for the system console. Early chapters explain how to work with numbers and strings. How to write for... and while... loops. I hesitate to read those parts, for fear they'll tell me I've spent half a career doing something very basically dumb.One the other hand I look forward to seeing what Murach and Urban have to say about inheritance and interfaces and the like--abstractions that I've never quite gotten my mind around because I managed to make them work without learning why they worked.Closing chapters advance to how MySQL works, and how to make Java work with it. And how to create GUI applications with Swing. The book does not deal much with networking.This book follows the same clear design pattern of all Murach's text books: Short, simple code examples that fit on a single page and obey a rigid discipline for focusing on the method at hand, instead of burying the lesson in a hundred lines of surrounding infrastructure and error-catching.If you're a self-taught programmer (my impression has always been that most of us are) reading introductory texts can also provide a pat on the back and renewed confidence. I've always secretly worried that dumb luck was the only thing that kept my servlets from choking on too many concurrent users. But what do you know? It wasn't luck, it was built-in threading.

"Murach's Beginning Java with NetBeans" teaches Java and your first IDE (integrated development environment) at the same time. Like all Murach books, the book is heavy (600+ pages) and contains good review/labs at the end of each chapter. Including those that have you modify existing code. When I feature was introduced in a certain version of Java, the book points out which one.I really liked the intro including types of applications and keywords. I like the covering NetBeans as needed for specific concepts including code completion and the debugger. Including the “main project” concept which is something that makes me crazy in NetBeans! Similarly, good programming idioms are covered so readers can see patterns. I particularly liked how the code listings highlighted the relevant parts. I also liked the UML class diagram introduction.The only thing I noticed missing was the introduction of equals(), but not hashCode(). Since they should both be used together, I feel like they should have been covered together. Also, I disagreed with the comment about lambdas not being reusable. They can be assigned to a variable and reused that way.There's an Eclipse version of this book that came out this year. I reviewed it and both are of good quality. Eclipse is more marketable than NetBeans so I lean towards suggesting that version.---Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for writing this review on behalf of CodeRanch.

Great book if your taking java classes but it needs better examples.

Murach’s “Beginning Java with NetBeans” is a very comprehensive book that covers Java programming concepts for the full spectrum of skill levels, from the novice to the experienced developer. For example, basic programming concepts such as loops and conditionals are covered in this book.Three-and-a-half years ago, I had the pleasure to review Murach’s Java Programming, 4th Edition, by Joel Murach (http://www.amazon.com/review/RKWAREXFT4HHV). There is some overlap between this book (how to use NetBeans, etc.) and Java Programming. However, the content has evolved to discuss the latest in Java programming such as lambdas that were introduced in Java 8. The 4th Edition of Java Programming (published November 4, 2011) was the last edition. Therefore, it would appear that Beginning Java with NetBeans (published June 30, 2015) and it’s sister book, Beginning Java with Eclipse (published August 24, 2015) are the books to get if you’re looking to get started with the Java programming language. I, personally, would like to see a Beginning Java with IntelliJ IDEA edition, since that is my IDE of choice (hint, hint).This book was indeed a wonderful update from Murach’s Java Programming 4th Edition and I highly recommend this book for any web developer regardless of experience or skill level.