Beginning Java Objects: From Concepts to Code

Among Java's many attractive features as a programming language, its object-oriented nature is key to creating powerful, reusable code and applications that are easy to maintain and extend. To take advantage of these capabilities, you're going to need not only to master the syntax of the Java language, but also to gain a practical understanding of what objects are all about, and more importantly, how to structure a Java application from the ground up to make the most of objects.

Learning to design objects effectively with Java is the goal of Beginning Java Objects: From Concepts to Code, an intensive yet approachable guide to object design, using UML and today's hottest programming language. Plenty of titles dig into the Java language in massive detail, but this one steps back and looks at object design first. The details of Java, from basic language features to a simple tutorial for building user interfaces in Swing, emerge only after a thorough tour of thinking in objects.

The book takes readers through object design, from the very beginning, at a relaxed pace. While you get all of the necessary jargon for really learning the object paradigm (for example, there's full coverage of such concepts as data encapsulation, inheritance, and polymorphism), the tutorial is likely to reach more readers. Without being doctrinaire about the design process, the author walks you through the steps for "discovering" objects in a business problem (including classes, attributes, and operations) and then determining how these objects work together to model real-world problems. The sample class diagrams offer quite a rich level of detail, and a single case study for a student course registration database demonstrates the design principles, including extensive class diagrams.

By the end of the book, this set of classes is transformed into working Java code, with a simple Swing-based user interface. Although the book cuts a few corners--such as using tab-delimited data instead of JDBC (a must for business programmers)--there's little doubt that this lively approach to mastering Java will benefit a wide range of readers. If ever you've been unsure about what object-oriented design really means, Beginning Java Objects can demystify important concepts and put the power of objects within your reach. --Richard Dragan