Learning Java, 4th Edition

Preface

This book is about the Java programming language and environment. Whether you are a software developer or just someone who uses the Internet in your daily life, you’ve undoubtedly heard about Java. Its introduction was one of the most exciting developments in the history of the Web and Java applications have powered much of the growth of business on the Internet in the past 15 years. Java is, arguably, the most popular programming language in the world, used by millions of developers on almost every kind of computer imaginable. In the past decade, Java has surpassed languages such as C++ and Visual Basic in terms of developer demand and has become the de facto language for certain kinds of development—especially for web-based services. Most universities are now using Java in their introductory courses alongside the other important modern languages. Perhaps you are using this text in one of your classes right now!

This book gives you a thorough grounding in Java fundamentals and APIs. Learning Java, Fourth Edition, attempts to live up to its name by mapping out the Java language and its class libraries, programming techniques, and idioms. We’ll dig deep into interesting areas and at least scratch the surface of the rest. Other titles from O’Reilly pick up where we leave off and provide more comprehensive information on specific areas and applications of Java.

Whenever possible, we provide compelling, realistic, and fun examples and avoid merely cataloging features. The examples ...