Java Programmer's Reference

Palmer, Grant

ISBN 10: 1861004222 / ISBN 13: 9781861004222

Published by Apress, 2000

About this Item

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Bibliographic Details

Title: Java Programmer's Reference

Publisher: Apress

Publication Date: 2000

Binding: paperback

Condition: Good

About this title

Synopsis:

Covers the 12 most commonly used packages of Java 2 SDK, version 1.3: Java language, utility, I/O, network programming classes, and GUI development using the Abstract Windowing Toolkit and Swing, applets, event handling, and Java Beans.

Review:

JDK2 contains 76 packages with more than 2000 classes. The average person gets by with a working vocabulary of around 1500 English words so remembering 2000 classes is a non-trivial exercise for most of us. In fact, Grant Palmer doesn't cover all the classes in Java Programmer's Reference--just the 90 per cent he says you really need to know. As he's a professional Java scientific programmer we're prepared to accept his choices.

After an opening chapter on Java basics you're straight into classes, starting--naturally--with the Java Object class. The format is straightforward but can look confusing on the page. After naming a class (for example the String class), you're introduced to the various ways you can use it. You get (in this example) the String constructor, String methods and the various operations possible on String objects. Example code is minimal as the book is aimed at those who already use and understand Java. This is fine until you want to know about a class in an area outside your expertise. If you're a graphics programmer suddenly thrust into networking support you'll need more than an overview of the relevant classes.

In practice, Java Programmer's Reference is best treated as a large, separate appendix to a good book on Java programming. Nevertheless, this is an information-dense book that works hard to present a lot of facts about standard Java classes into an easily accessible form. In fact, the format lends itself well to a searchable online or CD-based application and you'll probably find the version on the supplied CD more useful than the paper one.--Steve Patient