Basically, if you program in Java you need this book!


Distilled pearls of Java idiom. Highly recommended.   December 17, 2004
The book collects 108 conventions Java developers should conform to, although many recommendations are valid for any imperative language.
Rules vary from cosmetic advices (Formatting, Naming and Documentation Conventions) to substantial programming aspects (General, Programming and Packaging Conventions). Suggestion are explained along with the principles they stem from, providing a comprehensive etiquette based on solid motivations. Practical Note/Tip/Caution indicators improve reading and the ability to spot most common pitfalls.

All in all, this short manual is about an efficient usage of the language. It is not intended to explain its grammar (syntax), nor vocabulary (API), but focuses on the correct everyday practice to gain fluency in Java idiom.
I'm fond of rule-based books like the Effective series (Effective C++, STL, Java), as they provide an almanac of insightful answers to recurrent questions otherwise difficult to collect. They are inestimable companions whenever a team grows and an authoritative voice is needed. Even the size - a pocketbook of roughly a hundred pages - is ideal to introduce coding discipline and vital principles (Common Reuse, Abstraction, Stability) without being threatening.


Excellent advice   April 23, 2003
 1 out of 2 found this review helpful

This book is filled with little tidbids of good advice on Java programming.

I use the book as a guideline on how to style sourcecode, comments and documentation in every project I'm hired to help on.


Thinking Java in a Nutshell   August 10, 2001
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

This little book is very useful as both a reference and an essential guide to java developer thinking.

In today's world, full of rich and wordy books, a distillation of fact in such compact form is essential to my day to day work, and to that of my development teams.

Apart from that, writing such a compact treatise is in keeping with the common minimalistic approach that makes java based development so successful.


Deserves to be next to every Java coders keyboard   October 11, 2000
 6 out of 6 found this review helpful

Of the 108 points made in this book, there was only one I could take issue with (no. 6); and even then not strongly.

If this little tome is flawed at all it's by ommission. Hardened old coders like me will appreciate its brevity, while beginners might miss the point of some of the advice until experience bites 'em. An extra sentence or two of explanation and a few more code fragments would not go amiss. The first section "General Principles" is a few points short too. Although you can derive such maxims as "write the test before the code" and "don't use more APIs than you need to" from the general thrust of the text, I would have preferred these made explicit.

Gripes aside, this is an excellent book that does exactly what it says on the cover, and has gained a permanent place next to my keyboard.