The Java Class Libraries, Volume 1: java.io, java.lang, java.math, java.net, java.text, java.util (2nd Edition) - Hardcover

Chan, Patrick; Kramer, Doug; Lee, Rosanna

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0201310023 ISBN 13: 9780201310023

Publisher: Addison-Wesley, 1998

Synopsis

Volume 1 is the definitive reference to the Java 1.1 class libraries from the creators of the Java technology at Sun Microsystems. Information is presented in an easy-to-use, dictionary-like format. DLC: Java (Computer program language)

About this title

Review

As noted by coauthor Patrick Chan in his interview with Amazon.com, programmers spend much of their time writing little programs that do nothing but explain to them the behavior of certain aspects of a language. Java programmers, working as they do with a relatively new, evolving language, spend more time than most writing experimental programs that help them figure out particular classes.

With this book, Chan, Rosanna Lee, and Douglas Kramer attempt to save you the trouble of all that futzing around. Each class in the java.io.*, java.lang.*, java.lang.reflect.*, java.math.*, java.net.*, java.text.*, java.util.*, and java.util.zip.* packages gets explored thoroughly in these pages. In each entry you'll find not only the pedestrian inheritance chart and statement of syntax but a lengthy, lucid discussion of the class (or member), too. Best of all, each entry comes with a working example of how the class or member is used in real life.

The authors, all affiliated with Sun Microsystems in Java's earliest days, know their stuff. They have created an omnibus tool that should prove immensely valuable to any Java programmer who wants to get the most out of the language. --David Wall

From the Inside Flap

How to Use This Book

This book is intended as a reference rather than a tutorial. Its format is similar to a dictionary's in that it is designed to optimize the time it takes for you to look up information on a class or class member. For a tutorial-style presentation of the class libraries, see The JavaTM Tutorial, by Mary Campione and Kathy Walrath. The JavaTM Class Libraries does not explain any part of the Java language. There are several books you can use to learn the language. These include The JavaTM Programming Language, by Ken Arnold and James Gosling, and The JavaTM Language Specification, by James Gosling, Bill Joy, and Guy Steele.

Following is an overview of this book. Package Overviews

This part briefly describes each package and all of the classes in it. Also included are diagrams that show the inheritance hierarchy of the classes that appear in a package. Alphabetical Reference of Classes

This part covers the alphabetical listing of the classes from the following packages: java.io
java.lang
java.lang.reflect
java.math
java
java.text
java.util
java.util.zip

Probably the most notable aspect about the structure of this book is the order in which the classes appear. Most Java books that contain an API alphabetically order the classes within a package and then alphabetically order the packages. The problem with this format is that it always takes two or more steps to locate a class. If you do not know which package contains the class you're looking for, you basically need to review each package looking for the class. If you do know which package, you first need to find the package and then find the class.

The classes in this book are ordered alphabetically without regard to package name. This makes looking up a class as straightforward as looking up a word in a dictionary.

Each class is described in its own chapter. Each chapter contains a picture of the class hierarchy, a class description, a class example, a member summary, and descriptions for every member in the class. Class Hierarchy Diagrams

We include a class diagram for each class in the Java API. The class diagram shows all of the ancestors of the class, its siblings, its immediate descendents, and any interfaces that the class implements. In these diagrams, if a package name precedes a class or interface name, the class or interface is not in the same package as the current class.

In the diagrams, we visually distinguish the different kinds of Java entities, as follows: The interface: A rounded rectangle The class: A rectangle The abstract class: A rectangle with an empty dot The final class: A rectangle with a black dot Classes with subclasses: A rectangle with a small black triangle on the lower right corner

Most of these elements are shown in Figure i. The class or interface being described in the current chapter is shaded grey. A solid line represents extends, while a dotted line represents implements.

Class Descriptions

In the class descriptions, we describe all of the properties of the class. For example, the properties of the Graphics class include the current color, font, paint mode, origin, and clipping area. Describing in one place all of a class's available properties and how the properties behave makes learning all of the capabilities of a class much easier than if the property descriptions were scattered throughout the member descriptions.

Any terminology used in the member descriptions is introduced and described in the class descriptions. If you find that the member description lacks detail, go to the class description for more information. Class Examples

Ideally, we would have included a unique example for every single member in the Java API. We simply did not have enough time. So we tried to make sure that every member appeared in at least one example.

We worked to make the examples as useful as possible so that they demonstrate the member as it would typically be used. For example, in the example for a button we not only show how a button is created; we also show how button events are handled. In some cases, we also try to demonstrate some other class in the Java API. For example, in the Graphics.draw-Oval() example, we demonstrate not only how to draw an oval; we also show how to use the BufferedReader class to read integers from standard input that are used to locate the oval. We feel that gently introducing other classes in the Java API is a good way to help you become aware of all available classes in the Java API, as long as the introduction does not confuse the example. Member Summaries

The Member Summary section for each class is intended to help the reader quickly grasp the key points of the class. It groups the members of the class into categories that are specific to that class. For example, in the List class the Selection Methods category lists all methods having to do with selections. It is meant to be a quick summary of the class's members, so it does not contain any syntax information other than the name of the member. Member Descriptions

The member descriptions appear in alphabetical order within a class chapter regardless of what kind of method or field they are. This was done to make locating a member proceed as fast as possible.

Overloaded methods are placed together in one member description because they share very similar functionality. The different overloaded forms are typically provided as a convenience for the programmer when specifying parameters. For instance, some overloads eliminate parameters by providing common defaults. To describe overloads with missing parameters, we use a phrase of the form "if the parameter p is not specified, it defaults to the value 3.14." Other overloads take different representations of a value. For example, one overload could take a particular parameter as an integer, while another could take the same parameter as a string containing an integer.

Each member description contains some or all of the following fields:

PURPOSE A brief description of the purpose of this member SYNTAX The syntactic declaration of this member DESCRIPTION A full description of this member PARAMETERS The parameters accepted by this member, if any, listed in alphabetical order RETURNS The value and its range returned by this member, if any EXCEPTIONS The exceptions and errors thrown by this member, if any, listed in alphabetical order SEE ALSO Other related classes or members, if any, listed in alphabetical order OVERRIDES The method that this member overrides, if any EXAMPLE A code example that illustrates how this member is used. This is sometimes a reference to an example that illustrates the use of this method in another member example or class example. Deprecation

A method or class is deprecated if its use is no longer recommended. A deprecated method appears in the Member Summary under the Deprecated Methods section. In the chapter body, the deprecated method is annotated by a "deprecated" tag in its method heading. For example, Component.size() is a deprecated method. It has the following method heading:

size()DEPRECATED

If not all of the overloaded forms of the method are deprecated, a "deprecated" tag appears beside the syntax of the deprecated forms. For example, one of the two forms of BorderLayout.addLayoutComponent() is deprecated. The second form shown below--the one with the "deprecated" tag--is deprecated. SYNTAX public void addLayoutComponent(Component comp, Object location)     DEPRECATED public void addLayoutComponent(String location, Component comp)

The method description contains a deprecation section with instructions on how to replace the usage of the deprecated method, like this:

DEPRECATION     A description of how to replace the usage of this deprecated method How to Access the Examples

All of the code examples in this book have been compiled and run on the FCS version of Java 1.1.4, either on Solaris or Windows NT or both. Most of the complete examples are available on-line.Italic is used when defining a new term and for emphasis. Acknowledgments

We want to thank the many people who made this book possible.

Mike Hendrickson, the Executive Editor for this book, helped coordinate the many tasks and people needed to complete this book.

Lisa Friendly, the series editor, was relentless in garnering reviewers for this book and providing all kinds of cheerful assistance.

The accuracy and quality of this book were improved immensely as the result of the astonishingly thorough reviews by the following individuals: Steve Byrne, John Rose, Joshua Bloch, Joseph Fialli, and Roger Riggs. Other reviewers who gave us helpful feedback include Calvin Austin, David Connelly, Li Gong, Brian Preston, Mark Reinhold, Nakul Saraiya, Roland Schemers, and Kathy Walrath.

Laura Michaels persevered through over 1,900 pages of manuscript under tremendous time pressure to improve the readability of this book. Sarah Weaver, Rosemary Simp

Edition details

• Publisher: Addison-Wesley
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0201310023
• ISBN 13: 9780201310023
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 2050