Core Java 1.2 : Volume 1 Fundamentals - Softcover

Cay-s-horstmann-gary-cornell

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0130819336 ISBN 13: 9780130819338

Publisher: Prentice Hall Ptr, 1999

Synopsis

The bestselling guide for serious programmers updated to Java 1.2!Ask any experienced Java programmer: Core Java delivers the real-world guidance you need to master Java. That's why it's been an international best-seller for three straight years! Completely revised and updated, Core Java 1.2, Volume I-Fundamentals gives experienced programmers the firm foundation they need to build their Java careers. It thoroughly covers the fundamentals of the JDK 1.2, including the new Swing user interface components. The new edition is filled with even more of the robust, non-toy programs that previous versions were famous for and now they are updated to take advantage of the Swing classes where appropriate. Volume 1 includes a thorough explanation of object-oriented programming, Java inner classes and exception handling, as well as debugging, the current Java event model, and a thorough coverage of both Input/Output and File Management. For experienced programmers, Core Java 1.2, Volume I-Fundamentals sets the standard-again! State-of-the-art information for Java developers, including: ? Building GUI applications with the new Swing classes ? Making the most of inner classes ? Mastering the current Java event model ? Understanding streams and file management with Java CD-ROM contains complete source code examples, the JDK 1.2(beta), and useful tools, including TextPad, HexWorkshop, SourceAgain, and Together<178>/Java.

About this title

About the Author

CAY S. HORSTMANN is VP of Technology at Preview Systems and professor for computer science at San Jose State University. He has written six books on C++, Java, and object-oriented development.

GARY CORNELL has a Ph.D. from Brown University and has been a visiting scientist at IBM Watson Labs. He has written or co-written 20 popular computer books and articles for many developer magazines. He currently directs the program for Modern Visual Programming at the University of Connecticut.

From the Back Cover

The bestselling guide for serious programmers updated to the Java 2 Platform (formerly code named JDK 1.2)!

Ask any experienced Java…œ programmer: Core Java delivers the real-world guidance you need to master Java. That's why it's been an international best-seller for three straight years!

Completely revised and updated, Core Java 2, Volume 1: Fundamentals gives experienced programmers the firm foundation they need to build their Java careers. It thoroughly covers the fundamentals of the JDK 1.2, including the new Swing user interface components. The new edition is filled with even more of the robust, non-toy programs that previous versions were famous for and now they are updated to take advantage of the Swing classes where appropriate. Volume 1 includes a thorough explanation of object-oriented programming, Java inner classes and exception handling, as well as debugging, the current Java event model, and a thorough coverage of both Input/Output and File Management.

For experienced programmers, Core Java 2, Volume 1: Fundamentals sets the standard-again!

State-of-the-art information for Java developers, including: Building GUI applications with the new Swing classes Making the most of inner classes Mastering the current Java event model Understanding streams and file management with Java

CD-ROM contains complete source code examples, the JDK 1.2, and useful tools, including TextPad, HexWorkshop, SourceAgain, and Together…Ø/Java.

From the Inside Flap

PREFACE: To the Reader In late 1995, the Java programming language burst onto the Internet scene and gained instant celebrity status. The promise of Java is that it will become the universal glue that connects users with information, whether that information comes from Web servers, databases, information providers, and any other imaginable source. Indeed Java is in a unique position to fulfill this promise. It is an extremely solidly engineered language that has gained acceptance by all major vendors. Its built-in security and safety features are reassuring both to programmers and to the users of Java programs. Java even has built-in support that makes advanced programming tasks, such as network programming, database connectivity, and multithreading, straightforward. Since then, Sun Microsystems has released three major revisions of the language. Version 1.02, released in 1996, supported database connectivity and distributed objects. Version 1.1, released in 1997, added a robust event model, internationalization, and the Java Beans component model. Version 1.2, released at the end of 1998, has numerous enhancements, but one major improvement stands out: the "Swing" user interface toolkit that finally allows programmers to write truly portable GUI applications. The book you have in your hand is the fourth edition of our Core Java book. Each time, the book followed the release of the Java development kit as quickly as possible, and each time, we rewrote the book to take advantage of the newest Java features. This time is no exception. In particular, all examples are updated to use the Swing toolkit and other 1.2 features. As with the previous editions of this book, we still target serious programmers who want to put Java to work on real projects. We still guarantee no nervous text or dancing tooth-shaped characters. We think of you, our reader, as a programmer with a solid background in a programming language. But you do not need to know C++ or object-oriented programming. Based on the responses we have received to the earlier editions of this book, we remain confident that experienced Visual Basic, C, COBOL, Delphi, or PowerBuilder programmers will have no trouble with this book. (You don't even need any experience in building graphical user interfaces in Windows, Unix, or the Macintosh.) What we do is assume you want to: Write real code to solve real problems and Don't like books filled with toy examples (such as kitchen appliances or fruit trees).

You will find lots of sample code on the accompanying CD that demonstrates almost every language and library feature that we discuss. We kept the sample programs purposefully simple to focus on the major points, but, for the most part, they aren't fake and they don't cut corners. They should make good starting points for your own code. We assume you are willing, even eager, to learn about all the advanced features that Java puts at your disposal. For example, we give you a detailed treatment of: Object-oriented programming The Java reflection mechanism Inner classes Java event listener model Graphical user interface design with the Swing UI toolkit Exception handling (Java's error handling mechanism) Stream input/output and object serialization We still don't spend much time on the fun but less serious kind of Java programs whose sole purpose is to liven up your Web page. There are quite a few sources for this kind of material already-we recommend John Pew's book Instant Java, also published by Sun Microsystems Press/Prentice Hall. Finally, with the explosive growth of the Java class library, a one-volume treatment of all the features of Java that serious programmers need to know is no longer possible. Hence, we decided to break the book up into two volumes. The first volume, which you hold in your hands, concentrates on the fundamental concepts of the Java language, along with the basics of user-interface programming. The second volume goes further into the enterprise features and advanced user-interface programming. It includes detailed discussions of: Multithreading Network programming Distributed objects Container classes Databases Advanced graphics Advanced GUI components Internationalization Native methods JavaBeans When writing a book, errors and inaccuracies are inevitable. We'd very much like to know about them. But, of course, we'd prefer to learn about each of them only once. We have put up a list of frequently asked questions, bugs fixes, and workarounds in a Web page at horstmann. Strategically placed at the end of the FAQ (to encourage you to read through it first) is a form you can use to report bugs and problems. We hope that you find this book enjoyable and helpful in your Java programming. About This Book Chapter 1 gives an overview of the capabilities of Java that set it apart from other programming languages. We explain what the designers of the language set out to do and to what extent they succeeded. Then, we give a short history of how Java came into being and how it has evolved. In Chapter 2, we tell you how to install Java and the companion software for this book from the CD-ROM onto your computer. Then we guide you through compiling and running three typical Java programs, a console application, a graphical application, and an applet. Chapter 3 starts the discussion of the Java language. In this chapter, we cover the basics: variables, loops, and simple functions. If you are a C or C++ programmer, this is smooth sailing because the syntax for these language features is essentially the same as in C. If you come from a non-C background such as Visual Basic or Pascal/Delphi, you will want to read this chapter carefully. Object-oriented programming (OOP) is now in the mainstream of programming practice, and Java is completely object oriented. Chapter 4 introduces encapsulation, the first of two fundamental building blocks of object orientation, and the Java language mechanism to implement it, that is, classes and methods. In addition to the rules of the Java language, we also give advice on sound OOP design. If you are familiar with C++, then you can browse through this chapter quickly. Programmers coming from a non-object-oriented background should expect to spend some time mastering OOP concepts before going further with Java. Classes and encapsulation are only one part of the OOP story, and Chapter 5 introduces the other, namely, inheritance. Inheritance lets you take an existing class and modify it according to your needs. This is a fundamental technique for programming in Java. The inheritance mechanism in Java is quite similar to that in C++. Once again, C++ programmers can focus on the differences between the languages. Chapter 6 shows you how to use Java's notion of an interface. Interfaces let you go beyond the simple inheritance model of Chapter 5. Mastering interfaces allows you full access to the power of Java's completely object-oriented approach to programming. We also cover a useful technical feature of Java here. These are called inner classes. Inner classes help make your code cleaner and more concise. In Chapter 7, we begin application programming in earnest. We show how you can make windows, how to paint on them, how to draw with geometric shapes, how to format text in multiple fonts, and how to display images. Chapter 8 is a detailed discussion of the event model of the AWT, the abstract windows toolkit. (We discuss the event model that was added to Java 1.1, not the obsolete and simplistic 1.0 event model.) You'll see how to write the code that responds to events like mouse clicks or key presses. Along the way you'll see how to handle basic GUI elements like buttons and panels. Chapter 9 discusses the Swing GUI toolkit in great detail. The Swing toolkit is how you can use Java to build a cross-platform graphical user interface. You'll learn all about the various kinds of buttons, text components, borders, scroll bars, list boxes, menus, and dialog boxes. However, some of the more advanced components are discussed in Volume 2. After you finish Chapter 9, you finally have all mechanisms in place to write applets, those mini-programs that can live inside a Web page, and so applets are the topic of Chapter 10. We show you a number of useful and fun applets, but more importantly, we show you what goes on behind the scenes. And we show you how to use the Java Plug-in that enables you to roll out applets that take advantage of all the newest Java features, even if your users use old browsers or browsers made by hostile vendors. Chapter 11 discusses exception handling, Java's robust mechanism to deal with the fact that bad things can happen to good programs. For example, a network connection can become unavailable in the middle of a file download, a disk can fill up, and so on. Exceptions give you an efficient way of separating the normal processing code from the error handling. Of course, even after hardening your program by handling all exceptional conditions, it still might fail to work as expected. In the second half of this chapter, we give you some debugging tips. Finally, we guide you through a sample debugging session w

Edition details

• Publisher: Prentice Hall Ptr
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0130819336
• ISBN 13: 9780130819338
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 737