Rating: 

This has to be one of the thickest "Quick Reference" books I've ever seen. The 5th Edition to Java in a Nutshell was updated to cover Java 5.0. The cover of this book under Java in a Nutshell reads "A Desktop Quick Reference". I understand how this book is more of a reference guide to Java rather than a run through of what Java is about, but the thickness of this book doesn't agree too well with being quick reference. There is a lot of this book to dig through and almost would benefit from a CD-rom version for the search functions.

If you need a complete reference book to Java including Java 5.0, this book is for you. This book starts with an intro to Java and goes right into the syntax of Java from the ground up and Java programs from the Top Down. Chapter 4 covering Java 5.0 Language features is a nice addition to this 5th edition book. Chapter 5 covers the Java platform and then Chapter 6 goes into the security of Java including security risks. The different Java Development Tools are covered in Chapter 8 which is where a lot of beginners will probably want to glance over.

The second part of this book is entirely a API Quick Reference, and here is where the book grows in thickness. I'm glad they added the first part of this part, "How to use this quick reference". Without this section, navigating between pages 385 through 1076 would be a bit more difficult when it comes to understanding how information is organized.

This massive book contains 2700 lines of cleanly commented code that demonstrates how common tasks can be accomplished. Demonstration code is always an added bonus in a reference book as it'll give you the chance to see how certain things are put together rather than just reading about them individually. It'd be nice if this book was a bit lighter but atleast it covers everything it needs to cover and then some, along with being fairly easy to navigate. This book combined with a few Step-by-step Java books would make a completely Java CD Bookshelf and would make navigation of the information a lot easier.

I'd recommend this book to anyone looking for Java information but this is definitely not the book for beginners to learn Java from.

Mitch Randall
Pensacola Linux User's Group