Learning Java, 7th Edition

Chapter 4. The Java Language

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Humans learn the subtleties of spoken language through trial and error. They learn where to put the subject in relation to the verb and how to handle things like tenses and plurals. They certainly learn advanced language rules in school, but even the youngest students can ask their teachers intelligible questions. Computer languages have similar features: there are “parts of speech” that work as composable building blocks. There are ways of declaring facts and asking questions. In this chapter, we look at those fundamental programming units in Java. Trial and error remains a great teacher, so we’ll also look at how to play with these new units and practice your skills.

Since Java’s syntax is derived from C, we make some comparisons to features of that language, but no prior knowledge of C is necessary. Chapter 5 builds on this chapter by talking about Java’s object-oriented side and completing the discussion of the core language. Chapter 7 discusses generics and records: ...