Wicked Cool Java

reviewed by Jonathan Hoyle

Author: Brian D. Eubanks No Starch Press http://www.nostarch.com/wcj.htm Published: November 15, 2005 $30 USD, $41 CND, £ 21  GBP,  €26 Euro Pages:248 ISBN: 1593270615 Audience: Basic and intermediate Java programmers. Strengths: Up to date with Java 5, easy to read, nice diagrams. Weakness: Too brief.

In the introduction of Wicked Cool Java, the author states:

What I didn't want to do was write another "how-to-program-in-Java" book - there are plenty of good books for getting people started in writing Java code.  Instead, what I wanted was a book just for the joy of discovering interesting things to do in Java without reinventing the wheel.

In this, the author delightfully succeeds.  Covering an eclectic selection of topics, this book skips over the everyday issues that Java programmers know, and concentrates on some of the more interesting issues.  The book's eight chapters over a range of issues from Java 5's new language syntax additions to XML to scientific applications.  The use of code snippets is also well done, not overbearingly long source files, but rather you find short and sweet examples of usage.

Chapter 1 leads off with some Java language syntax tips, mostly with regard to the new changes added with Java 5.  This section is particularly interesting to those coming from the C/C++ worlds, as it includes those language features recently added to Java: enums, generic parameters (Java's equivalent to templates), variable argument lists and assertions.  Other additions to the language are discussed here, such as the new for statement, which is similar to the foreach statement found in C# and other languages, and the author recounts an amusing story surrounding it.  Anonymous classes, nanosecond thread timings and others also enrich this introductory chapter.

The remaining chapters are equally as interesting.  Chapter 2 gives one of the best overviews on string utilities, Chapter 3 covers HTML and XML uses, which nicely leads into Chapter 4's fascinating discussion on extracting and process data from the worldwide web.  High performance mathematical and scientific functionality is examined in Chapter 5, 2D graphics in Chapter 6, and then multimedia programming is spoken of in Chapter 7.  Chapter 8 rounds out the book with some interesting projects, fun topics and open source projects.

Finding a criticism for this book is not easy to do.  The best I can come up with is its brevity, as the reader is left wondering how the author may feel about other topics within the Java environment.  Java has become such a large arena that certainly No Starch Press could ask Brian Eubanks to consider a Wicked Cool Java 2.  In particular, more discussion on Java 2D (as touched upon in Chapter 6) and perhaps some interesting nuggets from the Swing API would be welcome.

Wicked Cool Java is written in a very readable style, keeping the interest of the reader throughout.  The author's knowledge of the latest changes in the Java language, particularly with Java 5, is quite welcome.  The overall topical approach is an enjoyable, which makes me wonder why it isn't more commonly found.  No, this book isn't the necessary tutorial that the beginner needs to have nearby.  Nor is it the complete reference book that the Java expert wants to keep on hand.  However, Wicked Cool Java may be the most fun book that the Java programmer will have on his shelf.