Essentials of the Java Programming Language: A Hands-On Guide

Monica Pawlan

With so many APIs and features, the complexity of today's Java 2 standard is certainly a strength of the platform, but this complexity does mean the language can seem a bit daunting to beginners. Instead of aiming to be comprehensive, Monica Pawlan's Essentials of the Java Programming Language gives you what you need to get started with Java in a smart, understandable tour of the most relevant features for serious enterprise development.

Organized into 14 "lessons," this book covers the basics of Java to build a simple applet-based e-commerce example. Besides covering the basics, including simple class design and practical hints for compiling, running, and deploying your first Java programs, this book concentrates on the APIs needed for real-world development. This includes servlets for building HTML on the fly, socket programming, RMI for remote procedure calls, and JDBC for database programming.

Enhanced in several steps, the author's sample code lets the reader see essential Java concepts. By the end of the volume, the sample application can simulate processing orders for a simple fruit store (including credit card numbers). Although it's far from commercially viable, the sample is a good choice for showing off the fundamentals of Java. Besides hitting the basics, the book covers such topics as basic file I/O and internationalization issues. (An appendix even introduces cryptography done the Java way.)

Of course, readers will want to explore the topics introduced in Essentials of the Java Programming Language in more detail elsewhere. But there's little doubt this slim, well-presented, and digestible book can put the basics of today's hottest language into the hands of anyone who has a little programming experience. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: Introductory Java tutorial, installation and compilation hints, Java classes, fields and methods; applets, basic Swing components and user interfaces, event handling, introduction to servlets and JavaServer Pages (JSPs), HTML forms, Java collections, Java file I/O, exception handling, security, permissions and policy files; JDBC and database basics, accessing data in servlets, Remote Method Invocation (RMI) clients and servers, Java socket classes, internationalization, packages, JAR files and deployment, introduction to object-oriented programming, and cryptography basics.

1 This book rules!!!
What other intro book covers JDBC and database basics, accessing data in servlets, Remote Method Invocation (RMI) clients and servers, Java socket classes, internationalization, packages, JAR files and deployment, introduction to object-oriented programming, and cryptography basics in less then 300 pages!!!!

Well written and quickly adsorbable. Unlike the other reviewer, I am glad she covered Objects at the end of the book. This allows you to see some real word examples before diving into theory. It is a much better way to learn.

Even if you know Java and want to learn more about some of the so called 'advanced topics' covered in this book(servers, servlets, sockets, rmi, ect), you can use this book as a quick intro.

2 Clear, crisp, concise
Great book for beginners. Our entire development team was initiated into Java programming using the author's tutorials..

Author has tremendous ability to deal with abstract concepts with ease - without compromising on depth, clarity or effectiveness.

Her greatest asset seems to be the gift of keeping things simple and short. The Java world is inundated with plenty of verbose literature and brevity is always welcome ...Monica makes an outstanding effort in that direction.

3 Clear, crisp, concise
Great book for beginners. Our entire development team was initiated into Java programming using the author's tutorials..

Author has tremendous ability to deal with abstract concepts with ease - without compromising on depth, clarity or effectiveness.

4 Not quite sure where the audience is
One thing that can be said about this book is that the approach to demonstrating how things are done in Java is quite different. The first three lessons are standard ones about compiling and running a simple program, building an application and designing an applet. However, after ten lessons that cover among other things building servlets, file and database access; remote method invocation, socket communications and internationalization, there is a fourteenth and final lesson on object-oriented programming. Given that the presentation of the previous material requires the explanation of methods, constructors, exceptions, extends, accessors, implements, event handling, class hierarchies and so many of the other principles of object-oriented programming the last lesson is essentially superfluous. I find it baffling that chapter 14 would introduce the topics of classes, objects, inheritance, polymorphism, and data access levels. It should have been split up and doled out into the other chapters or better yet made into a summary as an appendix.
The first five chapters are clearly aimed at beginners, either to Java or even to programming. The examples are short and well within the capabilities of a beginner. However, in chapter six things change quickly. Exceptions are introduced and the inheritance tree ending at the java.lang.Error and java.lang.Exception classes is presented. This combination would overwhelm a beginner and a similar approach is followed throughout the book until the last lesson.
However, most examples are quite good in that they demonstrate the topics with code that is crisp and easy to understand, provided you have the necessary background. This is a case where the author tried to write a book for beginners and missed the mark by aiming too high. The higher goal of a book of examples for experienced programmers was also missed by aiming too low. To be honest, I really do not know where to place it if I were asked to describe the target audience.

5 Learn Java by doing...
I am using this book along with other books to study for Java certification. It is quite helpful and practical. The explanations to do a very good job of condensing the large Java language into smaller more digestable concepts. It has lot's of good hands on examples. With explanations. I recommend this book to Java beginners and anyone who would like to learn more by example.

6 Java Programming - Basics
Good book to start working on Java

Advanced Programming for the Java 2 Platform