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Mr. Bunny is a rodent wise in the ways of programming. Farmer Jake is an agricultural rube who joins Mr. Bunny on a quest through the bowels of their computer, hoping to learn about Java. He fails. So will you, if you are foolish enough to buy this book as a learning device.
However, if you buy the book as a satirical take on other programming instruction books, then you may very well be delighted. In layout and tone, Mr. Bunny's Big Cup of Java resembles nothing so much as the cheesy "Learn BASIC" books of the 1970s. You know the ones -- little anthropomorphic VT100 terminals running around and making sour faces when fed syntax errors. Mr. Bunny has the same feel of these books, with a 1970s-like quest motif, cheesy 1970s-like drawings, and ASCII art to boot.
Of course, object oriented programming was not an issue for most people in the 1970s, and many jokes are rooted solidly in the current day. For example, in chapter 5, our heros are attacked by an evil force opposed to platform independence.
Mr. Bunny examined the unexploded shell. "It's a court order," he said. "They've subpoenaed your email."
That line probably would not have appeared in any "Learn BASIC" textbook.
The plot of the book, such as it is, adds little. The humor comes from Egremont's imitation of the conventions of a normal Java textbook, with absurd sample code, end of chapter practice problems, and the like. The adventures of Farmer Jake and Mr.Bunny add little, and their efforts often involve twisted systems metaphors which detract from the rest of the book.
The best jokes are those which touch on the shared experiences of programmers, like the following definition:
A Java compiler compiles Java code in to errors and warning messages, and in the process produces class files containing bytecode.
In other words, the book is best where is it most similar to real Java textbooks. Enjoy the following passage, which starts off sounding like standard "Learn Java in 47 Minutes" material, until it veers sharply away.
The JDK is available online and on the CD that was stolen from the back cover of this book before you purchased it. To acquire the latest version of the JDK, use your web browser to begin the download process, then hitchhike to Sun Microsystems and ask them for a CD. When you return home you'll be ready to cancel the download and install the JDK.
Ditto for the following, which probably makes a bit more sense in context, but which is plenty funny even if you don't see any of the surrounding material:
"Implementation details are beyond the scope of the Java virtual machine specification. One should not assume that every virtual machine implementation contains a giant squid."
There are probably two pieces of working code in the book. Also, I liked the bit with the motorcycle gang of deprecated methods.
It's a lark, and any reasonably competent programmer will be able to follow it, even if he or she doesn't use Java. You can visit Mr. Bunny's web site at http://www.mrbunny.com/ for more of a feel of the graphics and tone of the book.