I have a background in C but found the java coding in the book quite straightforward. Best to use an IDE an avoid my mistake of trying to extend the pom.xml. Also be aware that you will need to track down some dependencies for the repository that's cited in the book - jar's for classifier4j are not included, so don't expect to clone in and have everything build straight away. I'm pretty sure the author stuffed up the first example in the book around Users Purchase History. Confusingly he sort of disregards "Did purchase" in his entropy calculation example and uses "has account credit" to split an entropy calculation for "read reviews".

Machine Learning: Hands-On for Developers and Technical Professionals provides hands-on instruction and fully-coded working examples for the most common machine learning techniques used by developers and technical professionals. The book contains a breakdown of each ML variant, explaining how it works and how it is used within certain industries, allowing readers to incorporate the presented techniques into their own work as they follow along. A core tenant of machine learning is a strong focus on data preparation, and a full exploration of the various types of learning algorithms illustrates how the proper tools can help any developer extract information and insights from existing data. The book includes a full complement of Instructor's Materials to facilitate use in the classroom, making this resource useful for students and as a professional reference. At its core, machine learning is a mathematical, algorithm-based technology that forms the basis of historical data mining and modern big data science.