Java Tutorial, The: Object-Oriented Programming for the Internet - Softcover

Mary Campione

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0201634546 ISBN 13: 9780201634549

Publisher: Addison-Wesley Pub (Sd), 1996

Synopsis

ting programs with Java, beginning with the basics of the language and progressing through more advanced topics such as thread programming, applet programming, and designing and implementing graphical user interfaces with AWT.

About this title

Review

Some of the best sources for learning Java are online. The Java Tutorial, Second Edition is an updated compilation of online resources from the JavaSoft Web site, edited for clarity. This guide gives you the advantage of having all you need to learn Java in one book (and includes a CD-ROM).

The authors organize the book's sections around lessons and "trails" (which correspond to online tutorials). Beginners will find the sections on running simple Java applications and applets and on the nuts and bolts of the Java programming language especially useful. However, there is plenty of expertise here for the Java expert. (Because this is all "official" JavaSoft material, it gives excellent perspective on the ideal use of Java--100 percent pure programming that runs on all hardware platforms.) For example, the sections on using the JavaStream classes present some hard-to-find material on memory streams and pipes.

Additional topics discuss how to get around the basics of creating user interfaces with AWT classes (though this is less useful because most programmers will use a Java compiler that handles the details of inner classes and adapters for them). Chapters on graphics programming benefit both beginners and experts and include a great explanation of image filters and animation techniques.

Some of the niftiest stuff in The Java Tutorial is presented in the sections on network programming in Java, with a clear explanation of reading and writing to URLs and working with sockets. (These capabilities are all built in to Java, and this tutorial shows you how to execute them.) The book finishes up with a discussion of new features in JDK 1.2--still under development--and with the printed source code for all the examples in the book. This book makes a good argument that print still has its advantages. You'd spend hours digging up the relevant tutorials online. --Richard V. Dragan

From the Inside Flap

Many excellent and varied histories of the Java language have been written. We will not attempt to record that history here, or even rewrite the history itself. Just let it be said "and unto James Gosling Java was born." From this birth came the need for the Java team to spread the word about this technology and teach people how to use it. And from that came the opportunity for us to write this tutorial.

From the beginning our intention has been to create an easy-to-read, fun, task-oriented tutorial with lots of practical examples that help people learn how to program in Java.This draft contained a few basic lessons on writing applets, the fundamentals of the language itself, and some key classes. Since then, the tutorial has grown to contain 7 trails containing 27 lessons covering topics ranging from applet communication to writing native methods.

We wanted to give customers early access to this material so that they could learn Java before any books were on the market. In the year after the tutorial first appeared on our Web site, we released several drafts of the tutorial to the Web site. Internet readers benefited from this early access, and so did we -- Internet readers helped us a great deal and improved the quality and usability of this tutorial by sending us feedback on our prose, examples, and style.

What Is Java?The Java language and companion class libraries provide a portable, interpreted, high-performance, simple, object-oriented, development environment. The Java environment is suitable for programming tasks ranging in scope from dressing up your Web page to writing full-fledged, production-quality applications. The Java Language Environment: A White Paper, written by James Gosling and Henry McGilton, provides a thorough overview of the Java language and the Java development environment.

Who Should Read This Book?This tutorial assumes that you have some programming experience, whether it be traditional procedural programming or object-oriented programming, and are familiar with programming tenets, terminology, and at least one high-level programming language.

Internet programmers, novice and experienced alike, will benefit from this book. The book begins by presenting you with two Java programs -- one application and one applet -- and shows you how to compile and run these programs. This first section also describes how these programs work.

From this hands-on beginning, you can follow your own course of learning. New programmers will want to read the book from beginning to end, including the beginning material on object-oriented concepts, the standard features of the Java language, and the object-oriented features of the Java language. Programmers experienced with procedural languages such as C may wish to skip the section that describes the standard features of Java and start with the material on object-oriented concepts and the object-oriented features of Java. Experienced object programmers may want to jump feet first into the trail on applets. No matter what type of programmer you are, you will find a path through this book that fits your learning requirements.

What You NeedAs of press time, to compile and run the examples in this book you will need one of the following systems:

Solaris 2.3, 2.4, or 2.5 running on SPARC

Microsoft Windows NT/95 running on Intel (or compatible) x86

Macintosh System 7.5 on PowerPC or Motorola 68030 (or better)

You also need Java development tools, such as those provided in the Java Developers Kit (JDK). You can download the JDK from our Web site, or you can use the 1.0.2 version of the JDK that's on the CD-ROM accompanying this book.

If you are developing applets, you will need a Java-compatible browser, such as HotJava or Netscape 2.0, or an applet viewer such as the one that's included with the JDK.On Solaris, this means you can use your favorite editor: vi, emacs, textedit, or some other editor. On Windows NT/95 use NotePad or a similar editor. On a Macintosh use an editor such as BBEdit or SimpleText.

AcknowledgmentsOf course, the Java team made everything possible by creating Java in the first place. But many individuals contributed to getting this book out the door.

A million thanks go to the Java team members who answered questions, reviewed material, and in some cases contributed examples -- all of this in the face of tight deadlines: Thomas Ball, Brenda Bowden, David Brown, Patrick Chan, Tom Chavez, David Connelly, Pavani Diwanji, Amy Fowler, Jim Graham, Herb Jellinek, Jonni Kanerva, Doug Kramer, Eugene Kuerner, Tim Lindholm, Ron Mandel, Henry McGilton, Marianne Mueller, Scott Rautmann, Benjamin Renaud, Hassan Schroeder, Richard Scorer, Sami Shaio, Arthur van Hoff, Frank Yellin, and Steve Zellers.

Painful though it may have been, our reviewers provided us with invaluable feedback on the manuscript: Mike Ballantyne, Richard Campione, Lee Collins, Greg Crisp, Matt Fahrner, Murali Ghanta, Bill Harts, Eileen Head, Murali Murugan, Roberto Quijalvo, Philip Resnik, Roger Riggs, Roman Rorat, Neil Sundaresan, Michael Weiss, the ones who preferred to remain anonymous, and all of the Internet readers who were kind enough to take the time to send us e-mail and let us know of problem areas.

Chris Warth spent several weeks writing scripts and filters to convert our complex web of HTML pages into MIF format and was most patient with us in spite of our demands and changes. Marsh Chamberlain designed and created our trail icons, and Jan Karrman provided us with the html2ps script, which we used to create PostScript files from HTML and print our first review copy of the manuscript. Nathan Walrath created the figure in the Trail Map section. When we both went on maternity leave after giving the book to Addison-Wesley, Randy Nelson served as our backup, taking care of the CD-ROM and the Web site for the tutorial.

The staff at Addison-Wesley -- Mike Hendrickson, Katie Duffy, Pamela Yee, and Marty Rabinowitz -- were professional, competent and courteous throughout the development of this book and provided us with guidance, encouragement, and instruction. They also managed the practical things like copyediting, page design, graphics, and reviewers so all we had to do was worry about content.

And finally, Lisa Friendly, The Java Series editor, our manager, and our friend, made this book possible by suggesting that we turn the online tutorial into a book. She kept us calm, reassured us often, and managed everything from our relationship with Addison-Wesley to consistency with other books in the series. Without her encouragement and hard work, this tutorial would not exist.

About the DedicationMary: This book is dedicated to Richard Campione for being my greatest friend and husband. He encourages, cajoles, counsels, prods, loves and believes in me, and makes me get out of bed in the morning.

Kathy: This book is dedicated to my husband, Nathan Walrath, who played Mr. Mom during the months when I couldn't help out much at home. He even helped with the content, drawing the trail map figure and providing insight into the animation section. This book is also dedicated to our daughter Laine and to the baby who's pushing up against my ribs as I write this. They both help me remember that there's more to life than work.

And now that we've delivered this book, we're taking some time off to deliver our other babies...

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Edition details

• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Pub (Sd)
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0201634546
• ISBN 13: 9780201634549
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 864