Core Java, Volume I: Fundamentals

I am a self-taught Perl programmer. I've been using Perl 5 for about eight years, and in the last couple of years I've been wanting to move to Java. I've tried so many books - Herb Schildt's "Beginning Java" (too easy and boring examples), Deitels' gigantic volume (worthless crap - as are all of Deitel's stuff; I mean, do you really need to waste a chapter teaching would-be Java coders UML?), Cadenhead's "Teach Yourself Java 6 in 21 days" (left too many holes; not enough depth in critical areas, and lots of mistakes), etc. I finally found this book and ordered it. This is the one I should have been using all along. When you work through this book, you get the sense that you are being taught by a real Java guru, an author who isn't going to leave you hanging. This is a serious text, and as others have noted -- it isn't for a new programmer. Having said that, it is perfect for anyone coming to Java from another language. About the only critical remark I would have is that I think the chapters on error-handling and on collections might have been better placed ahead of the chapters on Swing; as it is, the Swing stuff seems a little bit of a diversion in the middle of the book. But fortunately, this book is so well done that you can easily jump forward a couple of chapters, then back one, etc. Indeed, there are some places where the author simply says stuff like "the rest of this chapter may be more relevant to the tool-builder than to the application programmer; application programmers may want to skip ahead to the next chapter." To me, that represents an honest writer who has years of experience teaching people Java. A word of advice: if you are the kind of person that learns best from little exercises, strict tutorials, etc., you may not want this book (except as a reference). If, on the other hand, you like trying out the stuff by applying it "in your own world" so to speak, this book is ideal; you should be sufficiently inspired to adapt the examples, etc., to your own liking. I have worked through just about all of the book in about a month, and I am now confidently "converting" some of my Perl stuff over to Java. This book has given me a real love of Java, and I look forward to working my way through Volume II when I finish this one.

I am an extremely experienced Java programmer and Ph. D. computer scientist. I write and teach courses and develop technical assessments, so it's important to me to keep up with language developments. While I've bought a great many Java books over the years, I've been neglecting Core Java for many editions, thinking it would no longer be of any use and being tired of repurchasing books. I'm part way through this one, and I am astounded at how much I am discovering, especially about Java 5 & 6 (even though I thought I knew all about their new features). I'm also enjoying the detailed comparisons with C++, as I used to use and teach that too. No matter how much you know about Java I would strongly recommend this book, if only to read all the well-delineated comments and clarifications that appear frequently. A particularly nice feature is that where portions of the API are summarized there are indications of the version in which the feature was added -- it helped reduce my feelings of chagrin when I read something surprising to find that it had been introduced in v6 or was a part of v5 I hadn't yet explored. Unlike so many other books this one provides meaningful and useful examples. I am eagerly anticipating the second volume.

This is a very fine book. Althought I am still progressing through the first third of it, I have found it to be very useful.

"Core Java, Volume I - Fundamentals" is meant to teach Java to developers who already know another language. Or as they put it, "serious programmers ... with a solid background in a language other than Java." This is important as the book assumes a knowledge of programming concepts. As such, the authors can explain OO rather than how a loop works. The syntax diagrams and flow diagrams offer concise explanations. This edition (the eighth of the book) covers Java 6. I liked that each section was updated to reflect changes to the languages. The authors didn't just tack on some chapters about the new features. They integrated features as they made sense. More importantly, they updated existing examples to reflect the way they would be written if they were initially written today. This gives the reader appropriate exposure as to when to use new features. At the same time, the authors point out what was added in Java 1.4 so you can use it with an older version. There was even a screenshot of Windows Vista in the getting started section. The book is about 800 pages. Some of this is long classes and API extractions. The authors do highlight important code snippets with explanations first, so it is possible to skip these parts. I did like the feature of the API extractions that showed when methods were introduced. The authors explain Java in practice well including caveats. There are a few carefully labeled sections that are quite advanced. (proxys and new classloaders.) This is definitely not just an intro book! There was a bit of premature optimization. I don't see a need to worry about whether ArrayList is efficient unless it is a problem. At the same time, it is important to know why things work the way they do. I recommend this book if you are looking to learn Java or have only used certain pieces of it. Just be sure to read the TOC carefully as the authors branch out. For example, the inheritance chapter covers var args and reflection.

This is the latest edition and eighth round of the "Core Java" series of books. When it first came out in 1996 it had no competitors, and now alternatives abound, in particular the "Head First" series for learning Java published by O'Reilly and Associates. However, this is still my recommendation both for people who are learning Java and for those who are old pros and just want to catch up on what's new in the language. There are plenty of code examples, and the explanations are very clear as in the previous editions. This series always comes in two volumes - the fundamentals volume appears first followed by an "advanced features" volume a few months later. Both are usually worthwhile due to their comprehensive coverage of the language. The following is the table of contents for the eighth edition, not yet shown on the product page at the time I am writing this: Chapter 1: An Introduction to Java 1 Java As a Programming Platform 2 The Java "White Paper" Buzzwords 2 Java Applets and the Internet 7 A Short History of Java 9 Common Misconceptions about Java 11 Chapter 2: The Java Programming Environment 15 Installing the Java Development Kit 16 Choosing a Development Environment 21 Using the Command-Line Tools 22 Using an Integrated Development Environment 25 Running a Graphical Application 28 Building and Running Applets 31 Chapter 3: Fundamental Programming Structures in Java 35 A Simple Java Program 36 Comments 39 Data Types 40 Variables 44 Operators 46 Strings 53 Input and Output 63 Control Flow 71 Big Numbers 88 Arrays 90 Chapter 4: Objects and Classes 105 Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming 106 Using Predefined Classes 111 Defining Your Own Classes 122 Static Fields and Methods 132 Method Parameters 138 Object Construction 144 Packages 15 The Class Path 160 Documentation Comments 162 Class Design Hints 167 Chapter 5: Inheritance 171 Classes, Superclasses, and Subclasses 172 Object: The Cosmic Superclass 192 Generic Array Lists 204 Object Wrappers and Autoboxing 211 Methods with a Variable Number of Parameters 214 Enumeration Classes 215 Reflection 217 Design Hints for Inheritance 238 Chapter 6: Interfaces and Inner Classes 241 Interfaces 242 Object Cloning 249 Interfaces and Callbacks 255 Inner Classes 258 Proxies 275 Chapter 7: Graphics Programming 281 Introducing Swing 282 Creating a Frame 285 Positioning a Frame 288 Displaying Information in a Component 294 Working with 2D Shapes 299 Using Color 307 Using Special Fonts for Text 310 Displaying Images 318 Chapter 8: Event Handling 323 Basics of Event Handling 324 Actions 342 Mouse Events 349 The AWT Event Hierarchy 357 Chapter 9: User Interface Components with Swing 361 Swing and the Model-View-Controller Design Pattern 362 Introduction to Layout Management 368 Text Input 377 Choice Components 385 Menus 406 Sophisticated Layout Management 424 Dialog Boxes 452 Chapter 10: Deploying Applications and Applets 493 JAR Files 494 Java Web Start 501 Applets 516 Storage of Applicat