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This is the fifth edition of this book. I have not seen the previous editions. I found the introduction to the core Java language good and appreciated the references to good programming and design techniques and the pointing out of weak points in the Java API. I found the second half of the book weaker. Better sources for an introduction to Swing and Applets can be found. It surprised me that the authors did not cover exceptions earlier than chapter 11 (of the 12), because you would need to understand them as soon as you start programming in Java. I was also disappointed with chapter 12 on Streams and Files, where explanations could be a bit more to the point. The chapter does not contain much more than the stream, reader and writer hierarchies together with example programs and API references. There is no clear explanation how you would choose which classes to use when writing your own code.

This book is so big because of the many examples, all listed completely and the many API references, all in a spacious layout. They might be useful to get an idea what classes and interfaces offer, but you would still need to refer to the API documentation once you start programming. On the whole, this is not a bad book to start Java programming and the first six chapters could serve as a refresher for others.

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