Product Description

This title is now available in a new edition, available August 2008. ISBN 9780137005628

The book has a very clear identity.

It takes a truly objects first approach to teaching problem solving using Java. These are complicated concepts so the book uses the development environment BlueJ to help the student’s understanding. BlueJ has a strong emphasis on visualization and interaction techniques, and allows the students to manipulate objects and call methods as a first exercise. BlueJ is free and freely available, and has been developed specifically for teaching.

The book is loaded with projects so that the student can really get a grip on actually solving problems; and it takes a “spiral approach”, introducing a topic in a simple context early on, then revisiting it later in the book to deepen understanding. It also comes with a CD containing JDK, BlueJ, a BlueJ tutorial and code for all the projects. The website contains style guide for all examples, PowerPoints for lecturers and also a Solutions Manual. 

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #47451 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 520 pages

From the Back Cover

Objects First with Java:
A Practical Introduction Using BlueJ

Third Edition

David J. Barnes
Michael Kölling

The BlueJ revolution goes on! The third edition of Objects First with Java has been fully updated for Java 5.0, and features a new version of BlueJ providing even stronger support for learning Java syntax and semantics.

Hallmark features

• An ‘Objects First’ approach encourages students to exploit the power of OOP from the beginning
• A project-driven approach applies a problem-solving method to real applications.
• A CD-ROM containing the JDK and versions of BlueJ for a variety of operating systems
• A Companion Website at www.pearsoned.co.uk/barnes includes a style guide for all program examples, PowerPoint slides and other resources for both students and instructors.
• Additional resources can be found on the BlueJ website: www.bluej.org/objects-first/

New to the third edition

• Fully compliant with Java 5.0 features including generics
• A revised treatment of autobox and enumerators
• Expanded coverage of graphics and GUI programming
• A new version of the BlueJ environment, featuring:
  o Full support for Java 5.0
  o An all-new interface ‘look and feel’
  o A new ‘Code Pad’ feature, allowing immediate execution and evaluation of Java code.

About the Authors

David Barnes has 25 years experience in teaching programming. He and Michael Kölling both teach introductory Java courses at the Universityof Kent, Canterbury. Michael Kölling was a key member of the team that developed BlueJ at MonashUniversityin Australia.

 

[Copy to appear on inside front cover of 3rd edition]

From reviews of the original edition

“The book represents a valuable, new approach to introductory programming; it is still my best choice as textbook for the introductory programming course.”
—Michael Caspersen, University of Aarhus, Denmark

“This is the most innovative approach to teaching an Introduction to Programming course I have seen so far.”
—Clemens Martin, University of Ontario

“I would like to thank the authors for their good job on this book, and the wonderful BlueJ, the best programming environment for students learning Java.”
—Ying Zhou, Rhode Island College

 

The first true ‘objects first’ introductory text; the best introduction to objects and OO programming concepts I have ever seen.”

—Michael Goldweber, XavierUniversity

 

“The more I read Barnes and Kölling’s book, the more impressed I am with it. It is a pedagogical masterpiece.”

—Ian Bridgewood, CopenhagenUniversityCollegeof Engineering

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Customer Reviews

The best book on both java and on object oriented programming!
This is a great book, I would give it 6 stars if I was allowed to. It seems to have 2 things which all other books lack: it teaches from 'the beginning' and it is packed with useful exercises. The author expains the concepts of object oriented programming (in java but the concepts are useful for many other languages!) very well, he doesn't introduce inheritance until half way through the book and by the time he does, you are really ready for it due to the excellent teaching structure of the book. The author seems to have a great way of making you do exercises and getting you to ask yourself questions like 'wouldn't it be handy if there was something like subclassing?', and then surprise surprise!, the next section is on subclassing!

As I said, many other books seem to introduce loads of theory without giving yu any practice. This book gets you practicing and then thinking of the theory youself.

This book works for a range of people. It is great for beginners (although I highly recommend that you do every exercise), but I am sure that many experienced programmers would find it very useful too, at least for brushing up on certain concepts....

The Beginners Holy Grail to learning Java 5 Stars ++
Had my first taste of BlueJ as a college student at Bell College Hamilton, my Java skills have increased tremendously mainly due to the principles and concepts learned from BlueJ.

This book stands miles above all Beginner java book's on the market today. The book comes with its own IDE "BlueJ". The book focuses early on Classes, Objects and clearly explains the concepts with little regard to code. The book then invites the reader to open up example projects with the BlueJ IDE and gets the user to create objects from the classes then examine the methods, again paying little attention to coding (There is plenty of coding and exercises in this book, but kept to minimum at this stage as it’s vital to understand the concepts related with classes and objects and methods). This then enables the user to better visualize abstract concepts and object behavior.

The book uses an iterative approach and user finds that principles taught in the book are used throughout the book. The book teaches you to code practical programs such as a Database to contain CD and Video objects; most importantly it stimulates your mind and imagination. This enables the user to find other ways to apply the concepts to other problems. The book gets you to into the habit of thinking of items as objects. Plain and simple BlueJ gives you the right amount of Java knowledge without going into unnecessary details and allows the user to see the big picture and enable them to successfully start understanding more advanced Java material.

When I got to university the Students who used BlueJ at college were miles ahead in understanding Java language than those who had not. Most students who did not use BlueJ before university had a habit of writing procedural style programs with the Java
language.

Recommended !

A fascinating and clever approach to teaching Java
This book is intended to be a course text book for an introductory course in Java and Object Oriented Programming. The authors have made a conscious decision to cover the material in a different order to almost all other books on the subject. You won't find an initial chapter on classpaths, compilation and the main method, there's no pseudo-procedural "hello, world" example. The book leaps straight in to creating objects from classes, examining values and calling methods.

There is a trick to all this, of course. The book is based on a kind of Java development environment optimised for teaching called "BlueJ". BlueJ is a free download, and a copy is included on a CD with the book, along with all the source code examples. I've had a play with BlueJ, and it certainly makes important things like the distinction between a class and an object, and the inheritance structure of the code, much clearer than traditional IDEs.

If you are planning to teach a course on Java or OO, you should certainly take a look at this book. Even if you don't run the course exactly as presented, the approach is fascinating. If you are trying to pick up these tricky ideas on your own, this book might also be very useful. Even if none of those cases apply, the BlueJ software is still a really neat tool for prototyping.