Java Developer's Resource: A Tutorial and On-Line Supplement (Resource Series) - Softcover

Harold, Elliotte Rusty

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0135707897 ISBN 13: 9780135707890

Publisher: Prentice Hall Ptr, 1996

Synopsis

Java Developer's Resource shows you how to write full-featured, dynamic, graphical, interactive Java applets and applications, even if you don't have experience with other object-oriented languages. Starting with the simplest "hello world" applications, you'll learn about Java variables, arrays, loops, flow control, and graphics, as well as advanced language features such as file I/O and streams.

About this title

From the Publisher

This book shows you how to write full-featured, dynamic, graphical, interactive Java applets and applications, even if you don't have experience with other object-oriented languages.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Hello world. Welcome to the Java Developer's Resource. I hope you like it.

Java has caused more excitement than any development on the Internet since Mosaic. Internet newsgroups and mailing lists dedicated to Java generate hundreds of messages a day. Thousand-seat Java classes fill up within hours of announcement. Everyone, it seems, is talking about Java. Unfortunately, very few people seem to know anything about it. This book is designed to change that.

Who You Are

This is a book for serious programmers. If Jolt Cola flows in your veins and you think John Von Neumann, Alan Turing, and Grace Hopper are some of the most important figures of this century, then this book is for you. I've never been fond of books that talked down to me, so I hope I've managed to avoid that flaw here.

Nonetheless, it's impossible for authors to know exactly where every one of their readers will be coming from. Some of you, I'm sure, write super-efficient hash table algorithms in C++ on napkins at breakfast while others may be spending their days writing button handlers in HyperTalk. Some of you are spectacular Macintosh programmers while others think graphical user interfaces are a waste of CPU cycles. Therefore, I try not to assume any particular knowledge in this book. Most especially, I do not assume that you have programmed in C or C++, that you have written software for GUI environments, or that you are familiar with object-oriented programming.

On the other hand, I do hope you have some prior experience with programming. There's no question that the more experience you have with programming, the easier it will be for you to learn Java. While I don't assume that you know what the syntax of a for loop is in C, I do assume that you know what a loop is. Similarly, I assume you know what an algorithm is and how you might go about constructing one to solve a given problem. These are concepts that should be common to all programmers, regardless of the languages or systems they're accustomed to working with. There is a certain way of thinking, of planning an attack on a problem, that comes with being a programmer, just as there is a way of thinking that comes with being an artist or a journalist or a scientist; and it is this style of thinking that I assume.

If this isn't true, if you have no prior programming experience at all, I can still promise you that Java is an easier language to teach and learn than most, and you could certainly do worse than trying to learn the skill of programming with Java and this book. Intelligent people have certainly mastered programming beginning with far worse books and infinitely more complex languages. Nonetheless, programming is a skill that's difficult to teach without direct, personal interaction between human beings. I certainly would never have learned to program without teachers to help me over the initial rough spots. If you have no prior programming experience at all, I recommend taking a short course in Java programming to get up and running on the basics of writing and debugging programs, and, more importantly, to learn how programmers think.

Beyond programming skills, this book assumes that you are familiar with the Internet and the World Wide Web and have at least a rudimentary knowledge of HTML. You don't need to be an HTML expert, but you should be able to create a basic web page including links, style tags, and images. If your HTML needs some brushing up, I recommend Larry Aronson's The HTML 3 Manual of Style (Ziff-Davis, 1995).

This book also assumes familiarity with high-school-level math. Do you remember asking your teacher what algebra was good for? Computer programming (in any language, not just Java) is one of the things it's good for. It's impossible to teach programming without some familiarity with basic math. However, the math used here is fairly elementary and should not be a large burden for most people.

Using This Book

This book is designed to be read pretty much from start to finish. While it is occasionally possible to read chapters out of order (for example, Chapter 18 on Exceptions can be read any time after Chapter 9), I think you'll get the most out of this book if you read it in the intended order.

Some readers, especially those with a great deal of experience in C++, may find a few of the sections overly obvious, particularly Chapters 6 and 7, which introduce object-oriented concepts for the first time. While I've tried to spice things up for everyone with a few well-placed anecdotes, you should feel free to skip ahead once you understand the syntax and purpose of a particular Java feature.

Chapter Enders

You will find five sections at the end of each chapter. First is a Q&A section with some more detailed questions that may have arisen in the minds of more experienced readers or those of you with particular backgrounds. Then there's a quiz. Everyone should consider the quiz questions. Most of which are a little on the devious side. I hope you'll find them enjoyable and not a little challenging. Third is a series of exercises. For the most part, these range from very simple to quite complex. You may pick those that seem most interesting to you, but it is important that you at least attempt some of them. You can only learn programming by writing programs, not just by reading a book. Then I give you a brief summary of what you should have gleaned from the chapter, a preview of whatÕs coming up, and finally some suggestions for further reading.

Style

A few notes about the style. I've used a source code coloring editor to delineate different parts of Java programs. Java keywords are in bold. Comments are in italic. When entering programs, you do not need to use this formatting. The compiler cares only about the text. It does not concern itself with the formatting.

The appropriate grammar for a book about programming is always a little questionable, especially in a case-sensitive language like Java. When the rules of English have conflicted with the rules of Java, I have regrettably let English be the loser. You will note that on occasion sentences do not always begin with capital letters. It has sometimes been necessary to begin a sentence with a Java word or phrase that simply does not mean the same thing when capitalized. Most of the time this should be obvious from the context and the formatting.

Conversely, Java tends to capitalize names of classes; and many words that you may not normally think of as proper nouns, like Component and String, are in fact proper nouns in the context of Java. Therefore, they have been capitalized when they are used to refer to their specific use in Java rather than their more generic meaning.

Similarly, it may appear that spaces are missing in a word like LayoutManager. Again, this is because that word needs to fit into Java's rules for naming classes before it fits into the Queen's English. Most of this should be obvious from the context.

Cross-Platform Issues

I am quite pleased to report that almost all the programs in this book have been tested on Solaris, Windows 95, and the Macintosh. At least for simple programs of the sort used for teaching, Java's claims of cross- platform compatibility seem to be accurate. You will note that screen shots alternate between all three platforms.

In fact the largest problem I encountered in trying to make this book platform-neutral was accounting for different terminologies on different platforms, a problem endemic to any cross-platform book. For the record, Mac users should read the folder wherever they see the word directory, and Windows and UNIX mavens should reverse this.

Additional Resources

When I started work on this book many months ago, I posted some of my notes on a web site called Caf¿ Au Lait, which currently resides at http://sunsite.unc.edu/javafaq/. As preliminary and incomplete as those notes were, they attracted the attention of Mary Franz at Prentice Hall and led to the book you have in front of you. I hope I know a little more about Java now, and I hope I'm able to impart some of that knowledge to you.

The original Caf¿ Au Lait web site is still active and has continued to grow, and I encourage you to visit (http://sunsite.unc.edu/javafaq). Among other things, it now includes the source code from this book and answers to the various exercises and quizzes. It also includes a preliminary version of this book, a Java FAQ list, breaking news about Java, a list of Java user groups, and the usual collection of links to other sites.

As well as the web site, I also run a low-volume mailing list called Caf¿ Au Lait which includes various of my musings about Java and other matters. To subscribe, send email to listproc@educom.unc.edu with the following text in the body of the message:

subscribe cafeaulait Your_Full_Name_Here

To unsubscribe repeat these instructions but replace "subscribe" with "unsubscribe." This is a low-volume, one-way mailing list that should not clog anyone's mailbox. Back issues are available on the Caf¿ Au Lait web site.

I am interested in hearing from readers. You can correspond with me directly via email to elharo@sunsite.unc.edu. I am especially interested in hearing about mistakes in this book, and parts you may find less than clear. The more interesting queries may be answered in my newsletter, or in future editions of this or other books. However, please realize that I get several hundred email messages a day; and I cannot and will not respond to personal requests for help. If you have a question about Java, I recommend posting to the appropriate comp.lang.java newsgroup, where it will be seen by thousands of people able to help you.

Acknowledgements

Many people were involved in the production of this book. Donald Ball of sunsite.unc.edu gave the original Web version of this book a home where it could be spotted by my publisher. My acquisitions editor, Mary Franz, got this book rolling; and my agent, David Rogelberg convinced me it was possible to make a living writing computer books. My development editor, Thomas Powell, provided many helpful comments that substantially improved the book. My production editor, Craig Little, put up with my insane attempt to write a book in ClarisWorks. All these people deserve much thanks and credit. Finally, I'd like to save my largest thanks for my wife, Beth, without whose support and assistance this book would never have happened.

Elliotte Rusty Harold
elharo@sunsite.unc.edu
June 24, 1996

Edition details

• Publisher: Prentice Hall Ptr
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0135707897
• ISBN 13: 9780135707890
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 608