Java SE 7 Programming Essentials

Introduction

As Java nears its 20th birthday, I think it’s time people stopped using the term cool to describe this technology and rock star to describe the people who have made shining contributions to it. In dog time, Java is 140 years old. In Internet time, that’s a millennium or so. Java today is more like the Roman Empire than a cultural phenomenon. It is pervasive and far-flung, a world power, a Goliath its neighbors fear and loathe. It supports a culture at least as worried about its decline as it is hopeful about its advance. And it is a well-guarded prize that those nerd barbarians on the steppes dream of sacking every day, as they should.

Java has a canon of literature devoted to it, books worth reading twice and keeping close at hand. ...