Features

• Table of Contents
• Preface

Reviewer Testimonials

• Updated to reflect the state of the art in Java technologies; its deep and crystal clear explanations make it indispensable. The social-consciousness [Making a Difference] exercises are something really new and refreshing. —José Antonio González Seco, Parliament of Andalusia
• Gives new programmers the benefit of the wisdom derived from many years of software development experience! —Edward F. Gehringer, North Carolina State University
• Introduces good design practices and methodologies right from the beginning. An excellent starting point for developing high-quality robust Java applications. —Simon Ritter, Oracle Corporation
• An easy-to-read conversational style. Clear code examples propel readers to become proficient in Java. —Patty Kraft, San Diego State University
• A great textbook with a myriad of examples from various application domains—excellent for a typical CS1 or CS2 course. —William E. Duncan, Louisiana State University
• The [early] introduction of the class concept is clearly presented. A comprehensive overview of control structures and the pitfalls that befall new programmers. I applaud the authors for their topical research and illustrative examples. The [arrays] exercises are sophisticated and interesting. The clearest explanation of pass-by-value and pass-by-reference that I’ve encountered. A logical progression of inheritance and the rationale for properly implementing encapsulation in a system involving an inheritance hierarchy. The polymorphism and exception handling discussions are the best I’ve seen. An excellent strings chapter. I like the [recursion] discussions of the ‘Lo Fractal’ and backtracking (which is useful in computer vision applications). A good segue into a data structures course. —Ric Heishman, George Mason University
• Practical top-down, solution approach to teaching programming basics, covering pseudocode, algorithm development and activity diagrams. Of immense value to practitioners and students of the object-oriented approach. Demystifies inheritance and polymorphism, and illustrates their use in getting elegant, simple and maintainable code. The [optional OO design] case study presents the object-oriented approach in a simple manner, from requirements to Java code. —Vinod Varma, Astro Infotech Private Limited
• Easy-to-follow examples provide great teaching opportunities! I like the [optional] graphics track early in the book—the exercises will be fun for the students. OO design techniques are incorporated throughout. The concept of inheritance is built through the examples and very understandable. Great examples of polymorphism and interfaces. Great comparison of recursion and iteration. The [Searching and Sorting] chapter is just right. A simplified explanation of Big O—the best I’ve read! I appreciate the coverage of GUI threading issues. Great approach to Java web technologies. —Sue McFarland Metzger, Villanova University
• The Making a Difference exercises are inspired—they have a real contemporary feeling, both in their topics and in the way they encourage the student to gather data from the Internet and bring it back to the question at hand. —Vince O’Brien, Pearson Education (our publisher)
• Most major concepts are illustrated by complete, annotated programs. Abundant exercises hone your understanding of the material. JDBC is explained well.—Shyamal Mitra, University of Texas at Austin
• The best introductory textbook that I’ve encountered. I wish I had this book when I was learning how to program! Good introduction to UML and the software engineering process.—Lance Andersen, Oracle
• You’ll be well on your way to becoming a great Java programmer with this book. The Polymorphism and Generic Collections chapters are excellent for a new student.—Peter Pilgrim, Java Champion, Consultant
• A good objects-early introduction to Java. Exceptionally well-written chapter on recursion. Graphics exercises are great. Excellent descriptions of the search and sort algorithms and a gentle introduction to Big-O notation. The examples give the code for the algorithms, and output that creates a picture of how the algorithms work. —Diana Franklin, University of California, Santa Barbara
• Suitable for new programmers, intermediate-level programmers who want to hone their skills, and expert programmers who need a well-organized reference. Glad to see the mention of Nimbus. Swing components, event handling and layouts are well explained.—Manjeet Rege, Rochester Institute of Technology
• Beautiful collections of exercises—a nice illustration of how to use Java libraries to generate impressive and stimulating graphics.—Amr Sabry, Indiana University
• Excellent coverage of exception handling. A complete introduction to Java networking. Great coverage of multithreading. —José Antonio González Seco, Parliament of Andalusia
• Good explanation of static vs. non-static methods and variables. Best introduction to Java 2D I’ve seen! The collections framework is well explained.—Manfred Riem, Java Champion, Consultant, Robert Half
• The [optional] OOD ATM case study puts many concepts from previous chapters together in a plan for a large program, showing the object-oriented design process. The discussion on inheritance and polymorphism is especially good as [the authors] integrate these into the design. —Susan Rodger, Duke University
• The transition from design to implementation is explained powerfully—the reader can easily understand the design issues and how to implement them in Java. —S. Sivakumar, Astro Infotech Private Limited