Book details of 'Java¿ Programming Language, The'

Title	Java¿ Programming Language, The
Author(s)	Ken Arnold, James Gosling
ISBN	0201634554
Language	English
Publisher	Addison-Wesley Pub Co

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Reviewer amazon.com wrote:
Written by several of Java's inventors, The Java Programming Language, Third Edition provides a nearly indispensable guide to basic and advanced features in today's hottest programming language. Perfect for the intermediate or advanced developer, this book delivers a wealth of information on how to do more with Java. The first sections provide a nicely compact tour of Java basics. If you're a beginner, you'll get a glimpse of the fundamentals of Java quickly. (Most of this new edition has the more experienced reader in mind.) Subsequent chapters delve into basic and advanced language features of what can be done with classes, interfaces, and other design features in Java. The authors' explanations are notably clear and never pedantic. Many examples are illustrated by using simple mathematical problems, and the class-design samples for inheritance and interfaces all use comprehensible class names and concepts. This title is outstanding when it comes to class design. It will definitely let any reader do more with classes, whether you want to make use of such features as "anonymous inner classes" and reflection (for loading classes dynamically), or do more with interfaces (including extending interfaces and tricks on changing data members in interfaces). Prominent sections here include a complete guide to Java language statements, including keywords, literals, and support for Unicode. Later sections feature a nice, clear explanation of Java's complicated I/O classes, a fine tutorial on threading, and a solid introduction to using Java's collection classes. The book closes with a tour of some additional "core" Java packages that are available in the language. In all, this up-to-the-minute guide to some of the more complex features in today's Java fills a valuable niche for any Java developer. Besides providing a glimpse into what the Java team at Sun is up to, this authoritative resource can help you master the finer points of class design, as well as make the most out of newly added features in the new JDK 1.3 standard. --Richard Dragan Topics covered: QuickStart overview of Java, class and object design in Java, access control, construction and initialization, static methods, method overloading, class inheritance, redefining members, the protected keyword, the strictfp keyword and floating-point processing, cloning objects, interfaces (constants, methods, and modifiers), extending interfaces, marker interfaces, nested classes and interfaces (including static nested types, inner classes, and anonymous inner classes), tokens, operators, and expressions in Java, literals, keywords, operator precedence, control flow, Java exception handling, exception classes, the String and StringBuffer classes, threads, synchronization APIs and techniques (scheduling, thread groups, and thread local storage), the wrapper classes for Number types, Java reflection, loading classes, garbage collection (GC algorithms, finalization and reachability states), packages, JavaDoc documentation tags, tour of Java I/O stream classes, serialization techniques, new and legacy Java collections, miscellaneous utility classes, system programming with properties, processes and JVM shutdown; internationalization and localization techniques, and tour of additional Java "core" packages. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Reviewer Rob Slade wrote:
The preface says that the book is intended for those "familiar with basic programming concepts". I suspect the definition of "basic" needs to be stretched to cover this material, but I can generally accept that. It also "is not an introduction to object-oriented programming". Fair enough. There is also an attempt to dissociate the work from the mere designing of applets. Again, fair enough: there are going to be a great many books about using Java for quick and dirty applet creation. What that does, though, is to remove the book from the purview of the majority of readers interested in it, who have been told that Java is a wonderful (and easy) new language for programming fancy stuff on Web pages. The target audience is therefore experienced object- oriented programmers who want to use Java for more sophisticated projects. These people will be delighted with the book, but they are a fairly select group. With the creator of Java as a co-author you might expect an "insider" book, and, from the joke on the dedication page on through, this is so. This work concentrates on the design and intentions of Java, rather than on specific programming or tutorials. There are examples enough throughout the book, but the emphasis is on how the concepts work rather than simply what particular keywords do. A running Java programming environment will also be very helpful to the reader. There are exercises, particularly in the early chapters, but they work better as practice and exploration than as teaching assignments. The first paragraph of this review might be taken as a negative comment about the book itself. That is not my intention. Java is probably one of the most significant developments in language design in many years. That it is currently being perceived as a tool for creating Web animation is a problem of public relations, not the system. Arnold and Gosling's book is an important and useful text for those who are serious about Java. It is not, however, for those who have yet to master the ALT tag in HTML. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1996
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