Ever seen a Java book with graphical images and humorous text on every page? You may think that it’s not worth reading. If so, then you’re wrong! Head First Java 2nd Edition is one of the most fun and motivating Java books you’ll ever find. The book is loaded with images from some 50’s television show with speech bubbles containing humorous text. But, don’t overlook it’s content. The book delivers content that is technically accurate and easy to understand. So, if you’re the type of person who hates boring Java programming classes, but still wants to learn Java, then this book is for you.
Most programmers start their careers doing procedural programming. That is why most also have trouble understanding OOP concepts. Head first addresses that problem by giving readers clear distinctions between procedural and object-oriented programming. Another unique feature of the book is that it gives a lot of analogies about OOP concepts that makes OOP easy to understand.
Here are some of the book’s contents you might be interested in:
OOP (of course)
Creating graphical user interfaces (GUI)
Using the Java API
Exception handling
Sorting data structures
Serializing and deserializing objects (writing to a text file)
Creating network applications (create a chat client)
OOP is discussed in the earlier parts of the book since you’ll be needing most of its concepts for other chapters like creating graphical user interfaces. You’ll need inheritance (which is an OOP concept) to implement a listener before a single button can even work on your GUI.
In a classroom environment most students will have one or two questions about the lesson. That is why the book includes exercises and “There are no dumb questions” sections after every chapter. Basically, the exercises are activities for the readers. On the other hand, the “There are no dumb questions” section answers the frequently asked questions that readers will have on every chapter. With that said, head first is definitely a book for beginners. But, people with absolutely no background in programming (including those with only HTML background) should not directly learn from the book. Learn basic programming first before proceeding to tackle Head First Java.