Wait for the second edition.

This book promises a lot, and often delivers. However, there are enough deficiencies that the prospective buyer should consider waiting for the second edition. The biggest problem with the book is that, like so many other Java titles, it was rushed out the door. This is most apparent in the book's figures, which range from perplexing to downright misleading, due to widespread errors and omissions. For example, the diagram of the byte layout for a little-endian machine is simply wrong. Various other diagrams which show the stack before and after various bytecode operations are half-finished -- literally. They have one or two parameters filled in, and the rest are blank. It's mind-boggling that the editors thought it wasn't important enough to get these simple things right and delay the book's release slightly. But that seems to be the current thinking behind many current Java books. Fortunately, Harold's text is generally correct, even when the figures aren't. So if you're willing to pointedly ignore the figures, you can get some good information from the book. My only other complaint is a more subjective one: While promising to reveal Java secrets, much of the book focuses on the Sun classes, which are not guaranteed to be portable at all -- Harold addresses all this well, but the bottom line is that well over 50% of the book is devoted to these non-portable classes. If this is what you're looking for, it's a great resource, but if you are not interested in the inner workings of the Sun packages, you may be somewhat disappointed.

Other Reviews

• Interesting book on the Java Language - lots of mistakes
• Great for reference.
• Wait for the second edition.