
Preface
The purpose of this book is to help you quickly learn the essentials of the Java language. After
its release in 1995, Java was initially used to execute programs from a Web page by means of
applets. However, Java is also a general-purpose, object-oriented programming language. Java
is used for developing applications as diverse as statistical calculations, graphics, and accessing
databases in a multitiered environment. In contrast to other languages, Java has from the start
supplied a large number of libraries. The latest release of Java 2 Standard Edition version 1.4,
or J2SE 1.4, in February 2002 contains over 2000 classes. All ...