Effective Java™ Programming Language Guide: Amazon.ca: Joshua Bloch: Books

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You may think you're a hot Java programmer, but you aren't perfect--yet. Josh Bloch is one of the Java core architects and in Effective Java Programming Language Guide provides a Java master class.

Bloch provides 57 items (did he reject "varieties"?) grouped by subject. Each item highlights a "gotcha", expands on best practice or argues for deprecating a common practice. For example, among the gotchas, he points out problems with relying on finalisers, whose implementation varies from one JVM to another and may not run at all under some circumstances.

Best practice also gets a lot of airing. A neat example is not relying on Java's default object serialisation API, which--among other problems--can cause the object to break if you make any changes. This can result in a code maintenance nightmare. In the last category he discusses the string concatenation, "+". Using this can be a hundred times slower than appending to a StringBuffer. No problem for a one-off string but using it repeatedly can cripple performance.

Many of the items discussed are fairly trivial, such as returning zero rather than null for zero length arrays or avoiding the use of floats when you need precise answers--perhaps they were thrown in to make the magic "57"--but despite these Effective Java Programming Language Guide offers a fascinating insight into Java's architecture and solid, easily assimilated guidance on its effective usage.

Unlike most books for programmers, this is one you really will find difficult to put down. Every serious Java programmer should read it. --Steve Patient

Book Description

A new edition of this title is available, ISBN-10: 0321356683 ISBN-13: 9780321356680

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91 Reviews

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4.8 out of 5 stars (91 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Simply Amazing, July 3 2004

By

Ian Davis (Spokane, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Effective Java™ Programming Language Guide (Paperback)

I read the reviews on this book, but I did not think that it would be as good as everyone says. I was wrong. I develop java applications commercially and I thought that I could read up a bit to make sure that I was still using good habits and making the best code. I could not believe the insight that the author has. The books does not just tell you what to do, it explains when some things should be used and when to choose another route. In many cases he gives many possible ways to solve a problem and gives the pros and cons of each. His writing style is fun to read (for someone who loves programming) and very professional. When reading you can feel his experience and authority on java along with his in depth knowledge of this internal JDK structure and paradigms. I will never sell this book, it is too valuable. Take his advice and save the world from the code you may have written without his guidance.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Refreshing, Jun 27 2004

By

Alberto Gemin (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Effective Java™ Programming Language Guide (Paperback)

It has been an absolute pleasure to read this no-nonsense collection of observations and suggestions.

The author is extremely knowledgeable and articulates his points in a clear, concise and logical presentation, which is a rare characteristic in today's overflowed and low-quality offer of "how-to-become-a-guru" manuals.

The Collections framework is clearly the author's backyard and you will learn about implementation details and rationales that you will not easily find anywhere else.

What I found most useful in the analysis of the various Java aspects was the author's perspective, which is based on the pros and cons of implementation choices, and strongly focused on API construction. Unless you work alone and deliver complete applications, you will define, design and implement an API sooner or later, maybe even without realizing it. With the help from this book you will most certainly design a robust, maintainable and useful API.

I also liked the practical approach that sometimes goes against OO principles: for example, just because Java embraced the OO philosophy does not mean that inheritance is the only way to go. Composition, static factories, singletons, immutable classes and some good old procedural programming are discussed in depth.

Another brilliant characteristic of this guide (and I would like to especially thank the author for this) is that although there are plenty of snippets to illustrate concepts, these are just skeletons, never longer than few lines and therefore they do not force you to waste your time and divert your attention from the core issue by analyzing pages over pages of code when maybe only one line could have served the purpose.

I would say that this book finds its best audience in the experienced developer/architect who does not have a specific Java expertise but is very comfortable with some other programming language. However, everyone can benefit from in-depth explanations of often misunderstood subtleties like the "equals()", "hashCode()", "clone()" or "compareTo()" contracts. Or serialization: are you sure you master it?

You don't need a profound Java working experience to immediately grasp some concepts; I found that this guide was an excellent companion in my learning of Java, you can start reading it from day 0, and you will get back to it every time you want to know more about a new concept.

The best praise I can say about "Effective Java" is that in my opinion only a handful of experts in the whole Java community could rightfully say "This book shall not teach me no thing", and then I would like to work with these people.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Must red for Java Programmers, Jun 23 2004

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Nick Chalko (CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Effective Java™ Programming Language Guide (Paperback)

Every Java Programmer should read this book. If you have written more than 20 Java classes but not read this book. STOP. Buy the book and read it immediatly. Insist all you co-workers read it.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book!
I just want to state what other already told about this book: It is a great book!

I think it is a classic for Java programmers that try to write the best code! Read more

Published on Jun 22 2004 by Ing. Antonio A. Gallardo R., MSc.

5.0 out of 5 stars The best Java book, and valuable for C# developers
I started in computing in '78, and have been using Java since early '95 (before Java was available on Windows). Read more