Cay S. Horstmann

Very good intro book. As I am writing some Scala code these days, reading this book I was wondering: "There's just too much stuff in this langugae". You almost have to find a set of common rules, like this thing: http://twitter.github.io/effectivescala/ to use through the team, because if you let everyone to do whatever they want it will end as a mess.

This book is similar to CSS in Depth, in that it assumes you have prior experience with a programming language, and that it claims to teach the bleeding-edge. It was published in 2020, so unlike CSS in Depth, it really does teach modern JavaScript.
I already knew a bit of JavaScript, but the first few chapters did teach me a few new things, like "var" vs "let" and "const"; and what classes really are, constructor functions and prototypes and such. The next few chapters documented array, show more dates, regex, string and other useful functions and classes, which was more expansive and capable than I previously thought.
The last chapters were on internationalization (a lot more to it than just translation); iterators and generator (which I learned were quite like those in Python); asynchronous programming (which I still don't think I fully understand); modules (didn't know these existed); metaprogramming (a look into JavaScript's innards: Symbol, Object functions, more prototypes, proxies and the Reflect object); and it concludes with a crash course on TypeScript (which I skipped two thirds through because generic programming just doesn't sound interesting).
In conclusion, you should absolutely read the book even if you have some experience with JavaScript, if not just for the Alice in Wonderland bunny illustration on the cover. show less

Incredibly detailed overview of the capabilities of the Java language. A bit overwhelming at times, but finds focus with several code examples. I'd recommend Head First Java as your first Java book, but if you're looking for a more contemporary look at the language, this is a great next book.

Pretty good introductory text. Approachable, down-to-earth writing. I'd never done any programming before I took this class, this text was gentle with me (since it was my first time).