Java: An Eventful Approach

by Kim Bruce

For courses in computer science and programming in Java. Teaching a truly object-oriented language like Java is far different than teaching a language like C or C++. As a result, this text demonstrates a major rethinking in pedagogy that has been tested thoroughly at a number of major universities and other four-year and two-year institutions. Good examples of objects and a comprehensive library that supports object-oriented graphics foster student understanding and instructor effectiveness. The library provides “training wheels” to help students get started with using these features, but they are taught the standard Java features as they are ready.

Genres: Computer Science

675 pages, Paperback

First published August 8, 2005

Reviews

[Seth · Rating 5 out of 5]

So, truth in advertising: this text was written by not one, not two, but _three_ of my former professors. But, while I certainly like the book well enough, it was my students who really endorsed it. As I noted in my review of Objects First with Java, finding a text that presents both the language and the conceptual design material well to the satisfaction of both teachers and students is really hard. But Eventful Java seems to fit the bill (in my classroom, at least).

We used this as a text for our first semester of a "post-AP" course, covering the AP material in a fairly self-paced manner while also building a toolkit for more ambitious work in the second semester. And this worked great: solid text with suitably engaging and challenging problem sets.

This is the first time in ten years that I've used a Java text for a second year.