I only read the Java part (appr. 200 pages) of the book - so I only judge the book's discussing Java. All the chapters have been written by the author of Que's Using Java 1.2, Mike Morgan, which has a positive impact on the overall quality of the discussion - far superior to that of, say, Wiley's Java 1.2 and Javascript for C and C++ Programmers. Doesn't beat Core Java / Thinking in Java / Just Java though.
Chapter 36 (again, I only review the Java part!): What's new in Java?: general buzzwords; lists what Java2 has: security (2 pp.), JFC (2 pp.), Collections (1 pp.), audio enhancements (some rows), performance enhancements (2 pp.), Java IDL (2 pp.)
Chapter 37: Basic language constructs and JDK install: it's very terse. Lists all the basic types and the control flow keywords (has labeled break but lacks labeled continue). After these two pages, the ubiquitous Hello World applet comes. p. 997: "when [the applet window] becomes visible, ... Applet calls ... repaint()" - again, paint() will be called, and definitely not repaint(). p. 998: when introducing applets, also mentions constructors (remember: an applet constructor gets called before setting up the applet context, so calls depending on it - like getImage() - will fail) - fortunately, tells the user in the caution following this subsection that init() should be used instead in an applet. Unluckily, the explanation why this is necessary is flawed: "not all browsers load and unload applets in the same way.". There're three quite big, sample applets in the book after introducing the key applet methods - one of them being the Great Thread Race (from Que's Using Java 1.2 - Special Edition). The chapter ends with a 1-page-long discussion of how the Hello World applet should be converted to an application - doesn't try to explain it in general, unlike e.g. Core Java.
Chapter 38: User Input and Interactivity with Java: AWT: only lists the component classes, doesn't explain anything (half a page); 1.1 events (1.5 pp.) - no examples either. Presents a big example (HelloPlus) with a lot of event handling & GUI widgets and thoroughly explains it (the explanation is far superior to those of, say, Wiley's Java 1.2 and Javascript for C and C++ Programmers's or The Waite Group's Java 1.2 How-To's most examples).
Layout managers are presented next (9 pages, everything, no Box) and then, AWT dialogs in a separate subsection (p. 1050: the same error as in Using Java 1.2: "because dialogs cannot belong to applets, your use of dialogs can be somewhat limited".). Swing follows (24 pp.): packages, widgets (only a list), look-and-feel, icons, JLabel, JButton, JCheckBox, JToggleButton, managing text (1 pp.: JTextField, JTextArea, JTextPane, JPasswordField), JProgressBar, toolbars, tooltips, tabbed pane (0.5 pp.). 1.5 pages are devoted to Swing events and 4 pages for drag-and-drop.
Chapter 39: Graphics and Animation: wastes 11 pages on Graphics's methods; Color (3 pp.); displaying text (6 pp., inclusing the explanation of the String and the Font classes). Displaying images follows (3 pp.), adding animation (8 pp. With double buffering), Java2D (8 pp., tolerable).
Chapter 40: Networking (20 pp.): URL (showDocument() etc), Socket. The c/s application using Socket is a quite simple one - it just passes a Date. It was the only server program I've ever seen that used a thread to wrap the waiting for the incoming client requests in a thread. Of course, under Windows, it has no advantage over the normal type of single-threaded servers (this example isn't multithreaded). UDP is also discussed and some security considerations while accessing the Net from an applet.
Chapter 41: Security: 34 pp.
For the size (200 pp.), this introduction wasn't that bad - actually, I liked it. You wont understand OOP or the language from it at all - the author refers the reader to his previous work, Using Java 1.2, where it's necessary. In a word - don't throw the book away if you get it as a present.
As only few aspects of the language is explained (no streams, no multithreading, no language basics, no OOP), the book shouldn't be compared to full-fledged Java books.
