Re: Thinking In Java 6th Edition Pdf Free Download

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Toni Jarels

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Jul 14, 2024, 12:18:38 AM7/14/24

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The book covers most topics that I would expect in a CS1 level course. One topic that is strangely missing is working with text files, which is something that can lead to more interesting beginning programs. The chapters themselves are fairly short and do not always cover all of the information that might be expected. This also means that there are a limited number of examples available for the students to look at. Some information is also not covered where it might be expected either. For example, the increment and decrement operators are not covered until chapter six, which is about loops.

thinking in java 6th edition pdf free download

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The book is very accurate. I do not remember encountering any specific errors in the text or code provided. There might be some bias, which is because most programmers are biased about the way that they do things (e.g., Java programmers tend to go about coding differently than C++ programmers, etc.). I know that I disagreed with a few things in the book, and it was also very minor in the grand scheme of everything.

I think that this book will stay relevant for a while. The problems are with updating and modularity (see below). Adding in new features, such as Java Records, could take extensive work. (I do not think Records are really needed and some of my colleagues disagree.)

The book is very easy to read and follow. I would say that additional examples might be helpful in some areas, since only providing a single context is not always effective for reaching a large amount of students.

This book, like most computer programming books, has modularity issues. Some chapters heavily rely on other chapters, so reordering the readings is challenging. Reordering or omitting chapters can also be problematic, because that content might be referenced later.

The score for the interface varies a little depending on which version of the textbook is being used. The HTML version viewable from Green Tea Press has an alert that not all mathematical symbols might display correctly. The HTML Trinket version does not have this alert, however it does not have as good of a table of contents with direct links right to the sections like the Green Tea Press version. The actual mathematical operator symbols are not listed in the index, which might be confusing to some students if they wanted to refer to them.

I do not recall there being anything insensitive or offensive in the book. It is possible that the example contexts could be expanded to be more inclusive of more backgrounds. This could be as simple as changing from using playing cards as an example and switching to using dice instead.

The book mentions using Dr. Java in the appendix, which is something that I thought about bringing up in the relevance area. I used to use Dr. Java for my CS1 courses and I liked it greatly. Eventually, I could no longer get it to work on Mac OS X, so I stopped using it. The last update to Dr. Java was also in 2019, which means that development on it might no longer be active.

The book is appropriate for a first semester Computer Science course, although it does not present every detail that a Computer Science professor may wish to cover in a first semester programming course. The instructor should plan to fill in small details in lecture or with supplementary reading, if those details are needed for whatever programming projects they wish to assign to the students.

The book begins by walking the reader through the mechanics of writing a very simple Java program. Throughout the book, the focus is on key concepts that a beginning Computer Science student needs to understand. The text also refers the reader to online reference materials, such as the Java Tutorial ( ), where the student can find more detailed information.

Java is an evolving language, so it would be impossible for any introductory textbook to cover every topic that a Java programmer is likely to encounter. However, this book provides a reader-friendly starting point, with helpful of links to more comprehensive resources.

I have used "Think Java" previously as a supplement to my notes in my sections of an introductory programming and problem solving CS1 level course in Java, and intend to do so again, but to emphasize use of the textbook more. The textbook covers all of the material required in CS1 except for File I/O. The text takes a "late objects" approach, mentioning just the minimum required about classes to explain how to write the first program. Search, sort, and recursion are covered. The table of contents and index provide a good road map to find topics of interest. Each chapter includes both a vocabulary list and a sample problem section.

Errors I had noticed in prior versions of the text have been corrected. Vocabulary is used in industry-standard fashion. All mentions of specific Java IDEs and tools are informational and relatively free of judgement.

While the field of computer science is constantly evolving, the approach taken by this text to teach the fundamentals is likely to survive. The newer features of the language in Java 9 and above are topics I would expect to see in the next course (CS2) beyond this textbook. That said, the inclusion of the Java2D features in the appendix may become dated if JavaFx truly takes off.

My primary reason for choosing this textbook is the conciseness and the clarity. The language used is straight-forward and direct, and the examples are very helpful. The vocabulary is defined both in context and in a separate vocabulary section. I can't say enough about the benefits of a concise textbook when a student is searching for one critical piece of information to cement his or her understanding of a concept. The only section where I have any issue with clarity is the discussion of higher-order, machine language, and byte code in section 1.3.

The textbook is about as modular as can be given the need for fundamental programming topics to build upon each other. The chapters are sufficiently small and further subdivided into bite-sized chunks. However, some of the authors' choices in topic order are locked in. For example, the authors choose to cover loops before arrays, and as a result use loops all through the material in the chapter on arrays, even though there may be other options to teach arrays that do not require the use of loops. Some of the more advanced material near the end and especially the appendices can be skipped without disruption.

I've used both the PDF and web versions of the text with no problems. The addition of even just a fancier cover would help with providing a more professional textbook appearance that the quality of the textbook deserves.

Concepts are presented individually, in a fundamentals-first approach, with examples that are simple for students who are learning to program for the first time. It does not assume any previous knowledge of programming or college-level math. It presents the concepts well, without overwhelming the reader with long and complicated examples. It covers the topics for a fundamentals of programming course and even a good introduction to Object-Oriented Programming.

All the code is available on GitHub and instructions to use GitHub are provided in the book. It is a good way to give students some experience using code repositories. The exercises are at the right difficulty level to give students some practice.

The explanations and examples are clear and easy to follow. The exercise objectives and instructions are easy to understand, not confusing or intimidating. The terms are well-defined and the examples are familiar. The vocabulary section in each chapter is a valuable resource for students who need to review the terminology.

It is great that the author updated the textbook in response to the previous reviews. The book is very consistent now, with introductions in every chapter, as well as exercises and vocabulary. The introduction to OOP was moved to chapter 10 and the section on Java documentation was also moved to an earlier chapter. The terminology used is consistent throughout the book too.

The book is now divided in 14 chapters and 3 appendices. The size and section breakdown is good for a semester-long CS1 course. Some advanced topics can be skipped without disruption. The book is not overly verbose which gives students more time to work on their programs. Every chapter has well-defined exercises and students are encouraged to work on all of them.

The book is well organized and the topics flow in a logical fashion. Some of the issues from previous editions have been fixed. Introductions to every chapter are now available. My suggestion is to add a clear list of student outcomes for each chapter. That would be useful for students and instructors alike.

I reviewed the PDF version and it looks good. The links in the table of contents are working. There are clickable links within the text to different sections, such as appendices, and external websites. Having the code printed in color is very helpful. I also like that when a Java keyword is mentioned in the explanations, the font (face and color) of the keyword matches the font in the code samples.