Perfect for migrating to Java from a fellow object-oriented language (such as C++), the second edition of Thinking in Java continues the earlier version's thoughtful approach to learning Java inside and out, while also bringing it up to speed with some of the latest in Java 2 features. This massive tutorial covers many of the nooks and crannies of the language, which is of great value in the programming world.

The most prominent feature of the book is its diligent and extremely thorough treatment of the Java language, with special attention to object design. (For instance, 10 pages of sample code show all of the available operators.) Some of the best thinking about objects is in this book, including when to use composition over inheritance. The esoteric details of Java in regard to defining classes are thoroughly laid out. (The material on interfaces, inner classes, and designing for reuse will please any expert.) Each section also has sample exercises that let you try out and expand your Java knowledge.

Besides getting the reader to "think in objects," Thinking in Java also covers other APIs in Java 2. Excellent sections include an in-depth tour of Java's collection and stream classes, and enterprise-level APIs like servlets, JSPs, EJBs, and RMI. Weighing in at over 1,000 pages, any reader who is serious about learning Java inside and out will want to take a look at this superior resource on some of the latest and most advanced thinking in object design. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: Object-design basics Inheritance and polymorphism Object lifetimes Exception handling Multithreading and persistence Java on the Internet Analysis and design basics Java basics: keywords and flow control Initializing objects Garbage collection Java packages Designing for reuse: composition vs. inheritance The final keyword Interfaces and inner classes Arrays and container classes
Java I/O classes Run-time type identification UI design basics with Swing Deploying to JAR files Network programming with sockets JDBC database programming Introduction to servlets JavaServer Pages (JSPs) RMI CORBA Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs) and Jini Cloning objects The Java Native Interface (JNI) Java programming guidelines


From Book News, Inc.
Intended for C/C++ programmers, this book introduces the concepts of object-oriented programming and the features of the Java language with tutorial-style chapters on Java operators, reusing classes, polymorphism, interfaces, error handling, collections of objects, concurrency, and applets. The third edition is updated to Java JDK 1.4, and adds a chapter on testing. The CD-ROM contains two seminars.Copyright © 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
Wonderfully organized, full of high-quality examples, and polished to reflect today￯﾿ﾽs best practices, Bruce Eckel￯﾿ﾽs Thinking in Java, Third Edition may be the world's best way to learn Java.

Previous editions have earned worldwide praise and prizes -- notably the Java Developer's Journal Editor's Choice award, and Software Development's Productivity Award. This new Third Edition is the best yet. Yes, it fully reflects Sun￯﾿ﾽs recent Java 2 SDK 1.4 release. But if you￯﾿ﾽre accustomed to ￯﾿ﾽrun of the mill￯﾿ﾽ programming books, you￯﾿ﾽll be astounded at how much attention Eckel has given to improving the coverage of features that haven￯﾿ﾽt changed.

Among this book￯﾿ﾽs strengths have always been its structure and careful choice of topics. In this edition, Eckel thoroughly revisits both, to ensure that the book still give programmers a rock-solid grasp of today￯﾿ﾽs fundamentals. For instance, while most authors would￯﾿ﾽve been thrilled with the multithreading coverage presented in earlier editions, Eckel has thoroughly rewritten this chapter (now renamed ￯﾿ﾽConcurrency￯﾿ﾽ) to offer far deeper insight for real-world development.

Even more important, Eckel has increasingly recognized the crucial role of unit testing for high-quality Java development. (Of course, he￯﾿ﾽs not the only one to realize this: Testing is at the heart of agile methodologies like Extreme Programming, which Eckel admires. Chances are you￯﾿ﾽll be called upon to become much more actively involved in testing in coming days. This book will prepare you.)

With unit testing, Eckel points out, ￯﾿ﾽthe build process can check for more than just syntax errors, since you teach it how to check for semantic errors as well.￯﾿ﾽ By integrating unit testing into the build process, you can ￯﾿ﾽbe bolder in the changes that you make, more easily refactor your code when you discover design or implementation flaws, and in general produce a better product, faster.￯﾿ﾽ

To this end, Eckel has used unit testing throughout this edition to validate his code and display the expected output. (Much of that output now appears in the book, responding to one of the few criticisms made of earlier editions.)

As part of a detailed new chapter on ￯﾿ﾽDiscovering Problems,￯﾿ﾽ he also walks through the construction of a simple unit testing framework -- and offers detailed coverage of using the latest version of JUnit to perform more sophisticated functionality testing. The same chapter also covers JDK 1.4￯﾿ﾽs new logging and assertions support, as well as debugging and profiling techniques every Java developer needs.

Since there￯﾿ﾽs more to cover in Java than ever before, Eckel￯﾿ﾽs had to battle to keep this book down to size. (People have actually complained that Thinking in Java is too big -- which is like complaining that someone￯﾿ﾽs given you too many diamonds.) So he￯﾿ﾽs moved J2EE coverage out of this book (they￯﾿ﾽre downloadable, and will become part of his forthcoming Thinking in Enterprise Java). That means more space for crucial topics like analysis and design; class reuse techniques; collections; and I/O -- including Java 1.4￯﾿ﾽs newio.

As always, Eckel approaches Java with short, ￯﾿ﾽbite-size￯﾿ﾽ examples, each explaining one concept with total clarity, and organized to build step-by-step, from simple to sophisticated. For this edition, Eckel has revisited virtually all of his code examples. Some old examples are gone; many new ones have been added. In many cases, he￯﾿ﾽs thoroughly redesigned and reimplemented his examples, to improve consistency and to reflect today￯﾿ﾽs best practices for Java programming. In rewriting his code, he has a huge advantage over most other authors: the extensive feedback he gets in his seminars, event appearances, and at his hugely popular web site.

The accompanying CD-ROM contains electronic versions of the book plus all of its source code. But it also contains the solution to one of the key obstacles that face many developers trying to learn Java for the first time. Java￯﾿ﾽs roots are in C. To really instinctively ￯﾿ﾽget￯﾿ﾽ Java, it helps to know at least the rudiments of C. So Eckel has bundled a complete interactive ￯﾿ﾽThinking in C￯﾿ﾽ training course that covers everything you ought to know before you start learning Java. Just another example of how committed Eckel is to making sure you really get it. Bill Camarda

Bill Camarda is a consultant, writer, and web/multimedia content developer. His 15 books include Special Edition Using Word 2000 and Upgrading & Fixing Networks For Dummies®, Second Edition.

ANNOTATION

Destined to become a classic, this tutorial guides you through the fundamentals and the advanced aspects of Java. Author Bruce Eckel uses the same style, format, incisive prose and clear examples as he did in Thinking in C++. He doesn't just teach how to write code, he teaches how to think and program in Java. This highly recommended text is designed for those familiar with programming concepts and object-orientation. Eckel covers objects, program flow, error handling, network programming and design patterns. He includes details on the cornerstones of Java and OOP, with polymorphism, implementation hiding, class differentiation and reuse. He also covers passing/returning objects and running multiple concurrent subtasks.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

From the fundamentals of Java syntax to its most advanced features (network programming, advanced object-oriented capabilities, multi-threading), "Thinking in Java," is designed to teach. Bruce Eckel's readable style and small, direct programming examples make even the most arcane concepts clear.

SYNOPSIS