If you want to learn Workshop, buy this book! By the end of the book you will be flying thru the tool.

The early chapters go easy and introduce the development environment. This is extremely well written.

And the examples in the early chapters work! You can easily create the web services yourself.

The later chapters loose focus on examples and more just explain how to do the task using workshop. And then the final chapter, "An Online Ordering System", seems to be written by an alein; the one web services does not work and will not work the way it is declared, one of the jave files is missing completely from the text but is provided on the CD. This is the reason for only four stars.

And then when you go to SAMSPUBLISHING web site, they have lost the book completely.

This is a excellent book and does a terrific job taking you through the WorkShop and using it to create Web Services.

I could have probably stumbled through the stuff without going through this book but it would have taken me much longer and I wouldn't have learned as much.

If you want to get up and running quick with this WorkShop tool buy this book and you will be rocking in a short time.

The Workshop Kick Start book makes it easy to begin using WebLogic Workshop to build and run web services quickly. It has lots of valuable code samples, describes the underlying concepts like asynchronous communications and conversations well, and stays concise in its descriptions.

This is for developers of all skill ranges.

A stellar action novel! Hard-line Russians team up with Iranian-backed terrorists to bring chaos to the U.S., culminating with an assassination attempt on the President. The action scenes are masterfully done. Great drama leading up to the first airliner crash. The massive air/sea battle in the Persian Gulf was incredible. Very fast-paced and exciting. What happens at the Atlanta airport when everything goes to crud with Air Force One coming in is crush the armrest dramatic. Cord Macklin is the kind of President this country needs! Take charge fighter pilot-type that will push back when pushed too far. And what a push he delivers. Rest of the character development is OK. In some areas the dialogue didn't seem natural. But overall, Grade-A awesome book.

I had never read a Joe Weber book before. After reading this book I will be looking for more of his works. This book has the two forces of evil joining forces,the Soviet Union and Iran. This makes for an exciting read. Terrorist acts break loose all over the Unites States. The President bombs every terrorist cell that can be named.There is also an ultimate villain with the terrorist who is still alvie when the book ends. Hopefully this means that there will be a sequel. A very well writtem amd exciting book. You will be the loser if you miss this one.

I have enjoyed every one of Tom Clancy's books and had a hard time filling in my reading time between them. Now that I found Joe Weber, I have filled the gap. Primary Target was an excellent book. Fast moving, intricate plots, great flow and knowledge of weapons. Can't wait to get my hands on the next one.

Joe Weber's debut is a good military techno-thriller that is just a little too rough to be a real winner. Basically it's a World War III novel, with the Soviet Union against the United States. This plot has been attempted by many authors, including Tom Clancy, Harold Coyle, Eric L. Harry, and a few others. While the idea is not original, the storyline progresses smoothly and without the tremendous technical details that a lot of readers dislike in Clancy's novels. Weber's characters need some work, however. The leaders of the Soviet Union and the United States are the same stock politicians you find in all the other techno-thrillers. Of course the Soviet General Secretary is an insane dictator, and the American President is unsure about how to fight World War III. The only character who even resembled being dynamic was Steve, the Special Forces guy. Weber's sequel Shadow Flight, which is a little better than DefCon One, also features Steve as a main character. Both books are hard to find, so the library is your best bet if you want to get hold of copies to read. Weber gets better with every book, and his most recent release, Primary Target, was excellent. Your really can't go wrong with his books.

Joe Weber's first novel is a techno-thriller classic. The story, involving war between the Soviet Union and the United States has been done numerous times but Weber manages to carry it out with orginality. The Russians decide to launch a preemptive strike against the West and the only one who can tell the Americans what's going on is a CIA operative inside the Kremlin. Throughout the book the story shifts from the American and Russian presidents, to scenes of military action, and to a CIA officer trying to get the operative out of Russia. After this book Weber has written some of the finest military thrillers and anyone who likes Clancy will immediately enjoy Weber.

Defcon One is written by Joe Weber, the author of the book Shadow Flight. On a scale of 1-10 I give this book a 9.5, not a 10, due to the fact that the book skips between all the events happening at any given time. For instance the point of view goes from an American submarine to the Russian ship that is pinging it on the sonar to a US aircraft carrier and finally to American bombers that are going to assist the submarine, so it is somewhat easy to get lost if you dont pay close attention. The author, being a former Marine Corps pilot, uses vivid imagery and real pilot lingo to make you feel like this is real happening events. The detail and description of the events makes you feel like it's you in the seat of the roaring F-18 or manning the submarine not the author.

"Rules of Engagement" tells the story of an heroic fighter-driver flying Phantom jets during the Vuetnam air war. Brad Austin, an Annapolis grad and the latest in a long line of loyal US servicemen broke with tradition when he joined the Marines instead of following his fathers into the Navy. Over Vietnam, he chafes at the politically-initiated, and overly restrictive rules of engagement ("ROE"), watching enemy pilots pick off US fliers while shielding themselves behind the ROE. One of the best aviators in the Marines, he flies his way and barely stays within the ROE as he targets an enemy ace responsible for the deaths of many US fliers. Soon fed up, he plots one illegal flight which will clearly go over the line.

WHY THIS IS THE WORST BOOK ON THE VN AIR WAR: I gave this novel the benefit of the doubt, even though it quickly proved itself to be no better than an over-glorified and under-inspired rip-off of the far superior "Flight of the Intruder". The more enjoyable characters and irony of that other book made it the best novel of its genre. "Rules" goes wrong where "Intruder" got it right, taking a heavy-handed stand on the ROE (they deserve their bad rap, but Steve Coonts wasn't afraid to see the issue from both sides), while not going into great depth about the mechanics of his hero's machine of choice - the F-4. Next to Jake Grafton, Brad Austin is as lively as an action figure - Weber unwilling to give him any of the flaws or introspection that made Jake Grafton so believable, while Austin's back-seater remains a captive passenger and nowhere near the equal of "Tiger" Cole. Even the promising idea of having Austin romance the daughter of an anti-war fixture goes nowhere. (I kept waiting for the unhappy dad to tell Austin how he disapproves of his daughter's dating a guy who may get shot down, leaving the poor girl to wonder for years whether he was dead or rotting in a tiger-cage.) Instead, Weber loads us down with details that don't do anything to substantiate the plot. Austin is a maverick of his family because he chose to fly for the Marines instead of the Navy, a plot twist that's supposed to establish him as a rebel, even though it has him flying the same planes from Navy ships like a Naval Aviator, and facing much of the same challenges. Even the climactic flight, the one that will break the rules, is a cheat. While books like these don't mind chiding wartime planners for choosing a strategy that has nothing to do with winning the war, "Rules" easily settles on an epic dogfight against the shadowy Communist ace, one whose result won't have the least effect down on the ground where the war was grinding its way through an entire generation of 19 year olders. Coonts at least chose a target his characters felt was attached to the war's larger purpose (the Communist party HQ) and didn't mind using a plane a whole lot less sexy than the F-4's in "Rules". If you must read a Weber novel, read the sequel: "Target of Opportunity", also an uninspired novel, but one with amore original plot.

While the obvious knowledge and attention to detail given to the writing of "Rules of Engagement" is admirable, there were several patterns that lessened the enjoyment for the reader.

It's clear the author has ample experience with flying, Navy jargon, and the military life. His careful descriptions allow the reader an interesting glimpse at the day to day life on an aircraft carrier. At the same time, this precision and careful wordcraft enters into the dialog, with not nearly so positive a result. With declaratives like "The colonel is a nice guy, and we had a cordial chat.", the reader finds great difficulty empathizing with and believing in the characters in the book.

Similarly, the expected intimate discussions between the protagonist and his love interest come across as stilted, formal, and difficult to comprehend. While seeing things from a female perspective is technically beyond this reviewer's experience, it seems that the attitude and reactions of said amorous companion occasionally depart farther from reality than could be easily accepted. For example, it seems she (and perhaps the author) is more concerned about our hero's perception of her father than his attitude and intentions toward her.

The least disturbing of these oddities is the slight tendency the author has to telegraph impending disaster. While not tragic, and probably not universally noticable, this reviewer occasionally felt mild disappointment that the surprise had been blunted by some sort of narrative drift that foreshadowed the events.

All that being said, "Rules of Engagement" has many things that can captivate the reader. The combat descriptions are excellent and exciting, and the plot developments keep the story flowing. Also, while the writing tends to be politically heavy-handed, it is not hard to sympathize with the pilots who put their lives at risk for trivial or non-existent strategic gain.

If you find enjoyment in cleverly written dialog and deep character development, you might steer clear of this one. On the other hand, if you like detailed aerial combat descriptions and realistic narrative of Vietnam era tactical operations, you'll find much to enjoy in "Rules of Engagement".

I have now read all the Joe Weber novels but one (Honorable Enemies) which I start next. Rules of Engagement was just was well written as all his other books. Growing up in that era, for me, it was interesting to understand what was happening "behind the scenes" of the VietNam war. Great characters, great plots, and some interesting twists are all typical Joe Weber. Keep up the good work.

I started the book because I really liked Defcon One. I only read about 50 pages and quit because the plot didn't make any sense. How could anyone hijack a B2 at gunpoint, threatening to kill the pilots and blow up the aircraft if they don't fly it to Cuba. I'm sure that the pilots (if they were any kind of Americans) would have rather died and lost the aircraft then to turn it over to the Russians. Especially since they mention that they were all going to die anyway when trying to talk the defector out of it.

A true patriot would have gone down with the ship!

In Shadow Flight, a stealth bomber is hijacked by a defecting pilot and sent to Cuba and the action and suspense never slows down, coming to involve a CIA operative sent to Cuba to locate the bomber and lots of air and sea combat. The author's experience in the military allows him to vividly describe the technology and hardware without slowing down the story and turning it into a text book. Guided by Weber's smooth narrative, this was an absolutely great piece of military fiction and, I thought, superior to anything by even Clancy. This was my first book by Joe Weber and I look forward to his others.

After reading Defcon One (Joe Weber's first book), I was hoping that his excellent keep-the-pages-turning writing style would continue with Shadow Flight. I was not disappointed. This book grabs you from page one and immediately you are thrown into the non-stop action. I took the book with me on vacation and caught a little flak (no pun intended) from the kids who wanted me to put the book down to join them in the pool. The action just keeps coming and the ending is great. Can't wait to read the next one.

"Targets of Opportunity is either a sequel to "Rules of Engagement" or the next installment in a series that began with that book and charts the adventures of fictional marine Corps aviator Brad Austin in the hostile skies of Vietnam. In "Rules", Austin disobeyed official policy to shoot down a Vietnamese ace responsible for claiming numerous American airmen. In "Targets", having escaped punishment for his actions in the previous book, Austin is now assigned a plum - if completely secret - assignment: fly a captured Russian jet into Vietnamese airspace, and shoot down every North Vietnamese aircraft he can find. While some higher-ups would like to keep the purloined plane (a MiG-17) stateside for testing, a maverick flier insists on using the plane to sidle up to communist pilots and waste them. Taught some Russian, given false papers, and some training in flying the none-too cooperative little jet, Austin sets out from a hidden jungle airbase near the DMZ, and proceeds to dig into the North's air force. Expertise and the element of surprise do little against the superior numbers of the enemy, and, though free of his country's restrictive rules of engagement, he can't rely on help from them either. Overwhelmed in the air, Austin finds his hidden airport under siege.

Because "Targets" is a more original story than "Rules" it's sadder that it's written just about as well. Characters are pretty much cardboard, undeveloped and static. Dialog is similarly one sided and flat. The plot doesn't go far from the basic premise - just flying a highly secret mission and shooting down as many enemy jets as the hero can find. There is no sense that author Joe Weber is working towards a bigger payoff, like a duel between Austin and an imported Soviet pilot who's no fool, or with an American pilot who simply doesn't realize who he's flying against. The author also misses some golden moments of irony - like whether the danger of the mission is more preferable to the support he'd get flying as a regular pilot, with restrictive ROE and all, or simply the possibility that the mission may be some hidden form of punishment for Austin's misconduct in "Rules". Weber misses the most obvious twist of all - that a mission which assigns a pilot, at extreme risk, merely to go and kill as many of the enemy as possible - mirrors the futility of war. (Novels like "Rules" routinely criticize our leaders for their short-sighted decision-making in Vietnam, yet take a remarkably similar approach to the war in which most of the authors fought).

The biggest dissappointment is the ersatz MiG itself, which would have been obsolete by the time it appeared in the era in which "Targets" is set. The MiG-17 was no more than a highly modified version of the Korean-war era MiG-15, and it provides little excitement in terms of flight performance and sophistication. It was probably the most advanced piece of Russian hardware the yankees could ahve gotten at the time, but, since the author has already suspended my belief with his poor writing, I would have been ready to accept a US-owned MiG-21 in a minute.

Unless you've read other novels about the Vietnam air war, you can start with this one. Otherwise, you'll be severely underwhelmed.

I just finished Targets of Opportunity, my fourth Joe Weber novel. This author never ceases to amaze me. His writing style is terrific. The plot of this book was great, the action scenes are very descriptive and I really enjoy the characters. They are very real and the emotions and reactions they show are never "the usual". As with his other books - you are quickly placed right into the thick of things and never get a chance to leave. I never liked books where the first few chapters are written to introduce and develop the characters and settings - and neither does Joe Weber, obviously. Get the reader sucked into the action and the characters will develop as we go along. Another wonderful reading experience.

What an excellent idea for a Vietnam fiction novel. I finished this book in less than two days. Incredible plot, yet for the hard core Vietnam fiction reader, I would have more about the Country than the characters. All in all, a great read. Keep up the incredible ideas! Scott Heine

Part 1 (6 chapters) - Absolutely a waste of time, not worth a read. And the code examples are not related to JWSDP.

Part 2 (6 chapters) - Discusses on SOAP, UDDI and WSDL. The code discusses using a Older version of Apache SOAP and Apache Axis. The code needs a complete rewrite.

Part 3 - Discusses on JAXP, JAXB, JAXR, JAXM and JAXRPC. Good introductions but the JAXB chapter is based on DTD (which is obsoleted in the latest specs). JAXM and JAXRPC chapters just reproduces the Sun JWSDP tutorial...not much value addition.

Part 4 - Security, WSFL, WSIF (based on IBM Specs) currently these specs are obsolete no further releases.

It might've been a good book during 2002. The code and content needs an update to the latest specs and SOAP implementations.

Just as I stated in the title, it's a great book to start you with. It's written in a clear and precise manner where you could learn the basics of Java Web Services and not be intimidated by it.

It is a good introductory book to web services standards like SOAP, WSDL and UDDI but also goes further and talks about topics like WSFL, WSIF which are not covered by all books on web services but are essential to any real business processes exposed as web services where flow control and service unit(s) choreagraphy is as important as the single unit service request/response. Java specifications relating to web services are also covered like JAXM and JAX-RPC. I wish more examples and code was given, perhaps even a chapter or two, for ebXML which may not be a part of web services standards but still uses SOAP and defines industry standards for business to business collaborations especially dealing with supply chain commerce issues.
I agree with a previous reviewer (John Sfikas) that this book alone isn't exactly an eye opener for experianced professionals who have been dabbling with all the tools mentioned in this book like Apache SOAP, Axis, WSTK, Tomcat, Jetty etc. and know the challenges facing B2B collaborations on the internet quite intimately, but this book combined with "Building Web Services with Java: Making Sense of XML, SOAP, WSDL and UDDI" will give a much needed practical grounding to start making sophisticated web services in the real world. I highly recommend getting both these books but be prepared to use your brain and further what is presented in these books to deploy web services satisfying your needs. They will certainly not amount to spoon feeding you a near solution to your collaboration problems.

This book has more errors than should ever be allowed in a professional product. There are typo's in both text and examples. The CD does not contain the source code from the book and I vote this the worst source ever of any computer based information I have found to date. It has left me very unsure of the publishers (QUE) standards and I may never purchase another QUE book again. I simply do not trust them. Spend your hard earned money on a different choice

"Special Edition Using Java, Second Edition" is an excellent reference to JDK 1.0.2. However, today (April 15), only a month and a half after being billed as "Computer Programming Expert Editor's Recommended Book, 03/01/97", it is a dated reference and the cover claims of JDK 1.1 coverage fall short--they are preliminary and peripheral to primary Java programming topics. For example, there is no coverage of the major changes in the Java event model of JDK 1.1, which permeate almost every application. I recommend waiting for better JDK 1.1 coverage, hopefully in Joseph Weber's new version, "Special Edition Using Java 1.1" which has not yet been released, but for which Amazon is taking orders today

This book is nothing if not large. This was QUEs attempt to capture the entire spectrum of JAVA and make it easy to understand (a task that they accomplished) but then the standards changed again. This is still a great book for learning Java; but, you will have to move on to other resources for news on the updates

The buildup of this story is tortuous and improbable. American warplanes are shot out of the sky by what appears to be an alien spacecraft -- which we later discover is a Chinese laser with a holographic projector. (Right!) The president of China assumes dictatorial powers, and China occupies the Panama Canal. Finally, the Mainland Chinese take the final step of attacking Taiwan (to force reunification) and America responds.

Throughout the book, the heroes, Scott Dalton and Jackie Sullivan, take on almost superhuman powers as they fly all softs of high-tech aircraft from Harriers, Lear jets and helicopters; as they brave suicidal James-bond like parachute infiltrations while saving each other's lives; and then dining (in their off hours) in luxurious tropical resorts -- while never once getting romantic.

It takes a lot of twisting (in these solo-superpower times) to create a plausible scenario for world conflict. In Dancing with the Dragon, Joe Webber leads us down every turn. The book is enthralling -- so long as one doesn't take the heroics or the political rhetoric too seriously. Fans of military aviation will surely enjoy the ride.

In what amounts to a decent mix of cloak & dagger, high-tech weaponry, and modern day warfare, Dancing With The Dragon presents an appealing adventure story with slight undertones to events that could actually happen.

Upon losing several military aircraft to puzzling explosions, the U.S. president assigns a deep cover troubleshooting team to investigate the losses. As evidence mounts and answers are revealed, the U.S. government learns of a new weapon system possessed by China that has frightening potential. Compounding problems already at hand, China demonstrates its power in a military play for Taiwan while simultaneously wresting control of the strategic Panama Canal. Forcing America to divide its military assets to control both conflicts, escalating tensions push inexorably toward a nuclear showdown.

Dancing With The Dragon is an entertaining read from start to finish and delivers the goods for those looking for an action packed and well written novel.

Well Mr. Weber has done it again. A 300+ page novel of heart stopping action slowing down occasionally so you can catch your breath.
Although this book came out last month, last week the actual headlines in various news outlets read, "China beginning preps to reunify Taiwan". Mr. Weber's crystal ball was right on target again.

What I like the most about the book was the ability to use my imagination to determine outcomes within the book, IE Scott and Jackie's personal life and the significance of there secret mission. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out these things, but each reader may have a different spin on it.

The technical details were accurate and did not bog the story line down (After all who cares what the lat/long is of a microphone on the ocean floor, or how far a photon torpedo will travel in the vacuum of space (If this is information you need get a tech pub).

While the writer writes well, he obviously doesn't believe in proofreading as there are numerous mistakes. Looking up specific topics is very easy and the broad coverage of the Java language is impressive. The organization, however, is very poor because more advanced topics tend to appear in chapters about the basics without so much as a "see ch. XX for more information about YY." This is a great reference book for those already familiar with the Java language, but for the learner/beginner, it will be confusing at best.

I highly anticipated this book as the reader reviews at Amazon praised the 'standard' version of the book (Using Java 1.2 by Mike Morgan, Michael Morgan) - some reviewers even compared that book to Thinking in Java. Apparently, this book is very different from that one (except for the same title) - actually, this title received quite bad reviews from amazon readers as well. The Special Edition has nothing to do with Eckel's book - this one is much inferior to Eckel's classic - not as bad as Steyer's book or the IS Perspective, though, as some chapters are quite well written, but the book is riddled with severe errors and generally suffering from the bad order of introducing the different subjects.

The book is particularly weak at using the Java naming conventions (sometimes entire pages have variable names that start with uppercase letters; a lot of variables have underscores in them etc). It does not explain them at all - or, what it says is plain wrong (p. 176, for example). It's only constant naming conventions that are explained well.

Chapter 1, What Java Can Do For You, presents quite cool examples of Java's usability. Only few pages have been 'wasted' on this subject, and the examples presented here are sure to make most ppl be eagerly waiting for the next chapters.

Chapter 2, Java Design, tells the reader the most important aspects of the language: being interpreted, platform-independent etc. and what it means in practice. It also goes in telling not-that-widely known facts about the JVM (address range, max. size of methods). Also summarizes the security model very thoroughly - it even shows tables of the possible attacks on memory, OS, CPU, confidential data etc. that a malicious program could do. It lists the Java API libs - showing the 1.1 and (1.)2 libs separately. Also has a section on the new 1.2 Enterprise libs.

Chapter 3, Installing the JDK and Getting Started, shows how JDK (and ADK) should be installed. I don't really know whether the first JDK 1.2 betas required the users to include rt.jar in the CLASSPATH. The entire book tells the user to do so.

Chapter 4, JDK Tools, introduces the command-line options of the most important JDK tools (except for javad, which is explained later). Also discusses their Mac equialents.

Part 2, Chapter 5, OOP, is a not very overwhelming treatment of basic OOP subjects. That is, the authors don't throw in many subjects that would be only explained later (this is why this chapter is much superior to chapter 2 of Lemay's book - I found the treatment of basic OOP concepts even better than that of Eckel's Thinking in Java) - polymorphism is the only exception, which is only explained later.

Chapter 6, HelloWorld! Your First Java Program, shows the reader the basic Hello World program as both an application and an applet. It doesn't even try to explain main() - fortunately, at a later stage, it explains why it's static. On the other hand, all applet methods are explained (paint, start, stop etc)

p. 91: "it's necessary that the filename be the same as he class file..." - the authors correct this inaccurate information only later (on p. 164: "although only required for public access...").

p. 94: "after the init() method, the browser first calls the paint() method, next, the start() method is started" - not really true - start() is being called before paint() (I've tested it under 1.2.1/Win and AV; commercial browsers may behave differently though).

p. 95: shows the API documentation, but doesn't actually tell the user how it should be used. As at the time of writing the new style API docs were also available, the authors should have presented the new API structure and the differences between the old and the new api docs... (speaking of the old API docs presented here, the authors should have at least mentioned to look up the inherited methods from superclasses).

Chapter 7, Data Types and Other Tokens:

p. 98: the keyword boolean is almost exclusively referred to as Boolean in the entire book. Some example programs also have this mistake.

p. 108: the section (1.5 pages) on arrays could have been written much better. It doesn't show the new 1.1 shorthand for initialization arrays separated from declaration. Multidimensional arrays are only mentioned as examples, but are not discussed at all.

It was a wise move to make a distinction between the two fundamental types of variables: basic data types and references.

Chapter 8, Methods, discusses almost everything: visibility, parameter lists, return value etc.

p. 127: an example of the book's often confusing classes for objects: "when a class is passed"

p. 127: "in Pascal, [variables] are always passed by reference..." - actually, the opposite is true - you have to explicitly tell the compiler to pass them by reference (with the keyword var).

p. 128: another page full of variables beginning with uppercase letters.

p. 129: labeled statements: Thinking in Java explains them much more thoroughly.

p. 130: separators: " {: used both to open a parameter list or used to begin a block of statements or an initialization list". The two words may have been copied from the previous row, which described the separator (. The same problem persists in the next explanation: " [: used both to open a parameter list for a Precedes an expression used as an array index " - everything underlined should be removed from here.

Chapter 9, Using Expressions, operators, associaty, precedence; cool C-comparisons (e.g. ++/-- can be used with any numeric type in Java, unlike in C)

p. 140: casting - I miss a figure of the implicit casts between basic types from this book, too. Doesn't spend much text on object reference casting - this book also lacks at explaining why you can't implicitly cast a superclass reference to a subclass.

Chapter 10, Control Flow: chapter 9 already discussed bitwise operators - now logical operators are also explained. Also introduces short-circuit operators (without actually calling them so). The authors should have emphasized short-circuit evaluation only takes place when using these operators.

Chapter 11, Classes:

p. 160: the following statement also lacks any explanation: "you can not perform an operation reserved for the Bike [sub]class on an instance of rthe Vehicle [superclass]".

p. 163: mentions the default class visibility is protected - it's not really true as you can't subclass a class that has default visibility in any other package. The authors must have confused class visibility with method/field visibility - accessing the fields/methods of a superclass in another package. Another error can be found here - from now on, the authors refer to these 'protected' classes as 'friendly'. They don't mention anywhere in the book what the difference is between Java's protected and C++'s protected; neither do they explain what happened to the C++'s friend.

p. 163: another severe editing error: "may not be not be evident at first"

p. 166: a good remark: "by making your code private, you may enable other classes to use static methods of your class without enabling them to create an instance of it."

p. 167: override / overload: it presents the caveat referring from using different signatures when trying to override. I still missed the comparison to C++ (even if it was only done by Thinking in Java - it's still worth knowing if you come from C++).

p. 168: a clear and clever explanation of how JVM loads both applets and applications, paying special attention to emphaizing in which case does the class have an implicit instance.

p. 170: another example of the class<> object confusion: "this is used whenever it's necessary to explicitly refer to the class itself" and "being able to refer to itself is a capability that is very important for a class when a class needs to pass itself as an argument to a method ". What is more, the this() constructor call isn't introduced.

p. 172: doesn't explain when super() must be explicitly used

p. 181: inner classes: four pages only. Doesn't introduce static (top-level) and anon inner classes. The latter are used a bit later, but without any explanation.

p. 186: explaining / using the naming conventions are painfully missing from here too: the authors use package names like Transportation.

p. 189: only the standard 1.0 Java packages (applet/awt/io/lang/net/util) are listed here, no 1.1 packages at all. Doesn't mention the need for separate subpackage import either.

Chapter 12, Interfaces:

p. 198: "all methods in interfaces are public by default this is in contract to class methods which default to friendly" - again, I miss the comparison between C++ friendly and Java default visibility.

p. 201: also mentions one of the best capabilities of interfaces: being able to cast up to their type. I still miss examples like those of Core Java that actually show where it can be used (the Timer/Timed example with a callback function, for example).

Chapter 13, Threads: the example is far too large (and is an applet - another reason

This book is very good. I have many Java books on my desk but this one is definitely getting a bit more worn than the others. This volume is large and has examples on just about everything I need to know. The author seems to have taken two different approaches to this book. The first dozen or so chapters read as if you will start at the begining and go to the end. After that all the complex topics appear as entities unto themselves. This makes it quite easy to jump to specific topic and get your questions answered.

There are errors in this book, like all the other books in this category, but I've found that the errors here are easy to spot, and haven't hurt me at all. Plus I wrote to the author and received a very helpful response on a topic I needed more detail on.