Bert Bates

When I read this book the summer before my senior year of high school, I was curious about programming. But, I didn't really know where to start. Everything online confused me and I lacked fundamental knowledge. Head First Java was the most accessible technical book I've ever read. They use lots of images and stories to convey concepts that are notoriously hard to wrap your head around as a beginner programmer. And they work. Some of those images still come up in my head when I think about show more object oriented programming 4 years later. This book made my high school computer science classes and many of my freshman year computer science introductory courses redundant because a lot of time is spent in those trying to teach the same concepts that this book taught me in a few chapters. If you are just starting out, like I was, give this book a try. Really do all the exercises. Maybe it will give you the clarity and head start that it did for me. show less

I bounced off Head First Java and decided the informal, jokey, playful HF approach didn't work for me; however, I gave it a second chance and purchased this book -- and wow, am I glad!

I have a work-based need to learn how to program in an object-oriented fashion (I've been pretty strictly a procedural Perl programmer for some years), and while I don't know that tackling design patterns is the typical first step for this, it's working well for me. I had two introductory programming courses show more in 2009-10 and the language of instruction was Java ... I've found it fairly easy to re-charge my Java background with this book, and move forward. Kudos! show less

I think the best way to understand design patterns is to be familiar with them in the code. Sounds weird, isn't it? But that's has been the only thing which has worked for me. There are multiple patterns and many of them subtly different and when design patterns are taught using Java, the "tricks of sub-classing", "addition of layers" , "organizing code" and various permutations of it depending upon the need is what gives rise to so many different patterns. This book does a good job of show more helping you identify those. I personally think, it will be difficult for anyone to go use a pattern, just by reading this book. That skill may only come with experience and writing lot of software programs. This book will help in identifying the pattern, understanding why such a pattern was used and reason about them. Design Patterns are a subtle topic in software engineering, they should just be known and understood and I think, by looking at the code. This book servers as good guide giving points where to look and what to expect. show less

I was skeptical of the Head First series before I read this book due to its busy look and feel, but I was pleasantly surprised. It has made me feel comfortable with the most used design patterns in record time where other books failed. I highly recommend this book for helping you design better object-based systems. Be sure to implement the examples as you read for better understanding.