Java Programming: From the Beginning [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

The author is an experienced college teacher, and the book's effective presentation style is arguably its major strength. Early chapters rely on simple mathematical examples. Other examples look at parsing social security numbers or storing entries from a telephone book. Java Programming does a good job of presenting the basics of object-oriented design in terms of both designing custom classes and taking advantage of existing Java classes, such as String, StringBuffer and Vector objects. Of course, along the way, the basics of Java syntax are covered, including many of its keywords, operators and data types.

Though suitable for a college classroom, this textbook is never academic or dull. The colloquial and friendly writing style presents the essentials of Java without ever getting bogged down in theory. Besides command-line programs, you will also learn how to do basic graphics in Java, and even play simple games (like Blackjack). The custom classes presented in this book make it simpler to work with Java, even for beginners. Every chapter provides extensive review summaries of the important points demonstrated in each section, as well as a handful of exercises that will let you try out material on your own.

Now that Java is routinely used as a first programming language in many colleges, this book fills a useful niche. It is also an excellent home study choice for readers who appreciate a patient and thorough teaching style. --Richard Dragan

The author is an experienced college teacher, and the book's effective presentation style is arguably its major strength. Early chapters rely on simple mathematical examples (such as converting temperatures from Fahrenheit to Celsius, or averaging grades). Other examples look at parsing social security numbers or storing entries from a telephone book. Java Programming does a good job of presenting the basics of object-oriented design in terms of both designing custom classes and taking advantage of existing Java classes, such as String, StringBuffer, and Vector objects. Of course, along the way, the basics of Java syntax are covered, including many of its keywords, operators, and data types.

Although it's suitable for a college classroom, this textbook is never academic or dull. The colloquial and friendly writing style presents the essentials of Java without ever getting bogged down in theory. Besides command-line programs, you'll learn also how to do basic graphics in Java, and even play simple games (like blackjack). The custom classes that are presented in this book make it simpler to work with Java, even for beginners. Every chapter provides extensive review summaries of the important points that are demonstrated in each section, as well as a handful of exercises that'll let you try out material on your own.

Now that Java is used routinely as a first programming language in many colleges, Java Programming from the Beginning fills a useful niche. It's also an excellent home-study choice for the reader who appreciates a patient and thorough teaching style. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered:

Basics of computer hardware and software Graphical user interfaces vs. text-based interfaces General introduction to programming languages Basic Java language features and syntax Calculations Constants Methods Console I/O Computing averages Syntax errors and debugging Introduction to object-oriented design: classes, objects, and instance methods Working with the Java String and StringBuffer classes Basic control structures Comparison Relational and equality operators Operator precedence Loops and counting variables Decoding social security numbers Using Java arrays and the Vector class Using arrays for a database Arrays of objects Sample case study for a telephone directory Drawing basic shapes, colors, and text A message window example

Class variables and methods Passing arguments to methods Helper methods Principles for designing methods in Java Exception-handling basics The switch statement Using the Java primitive types Writing custom classes The this keyword Constructors Code reuse Sample code for blackjack Inheritance and subclasses Polymorphism Abstract classes The final classes Introduction to the Abstract Windowing Toolkit (AWT) Frames and event handlers Layout managers Data structures, sorting, and searching Using sets (and bit sets) File I/O in Java (opening, reading, and writing files) Installing the Sun JDK Custom classes for simplified introductory Java programming