The Java¿ FAQ (Java Series)

As the inventor and proprietor of the Java programming language, Sun Microsystems publishes a series of "authorized" books about Java, one of which is Jonni Kanerva's The Java FAQ. This volume solves some of the problems you may encounter when using Java in the real world. It's organized around language fundamentals and includes a comparison to C++ (with some topics centered around classes and objects) and Java enhancements such as interfaces. Experienced C++ programmers will best appreciate these chapters. Questions that begin "How do I ..." are almost always answered more usefully than those that begin with "Why can't I?" Later chapters look at Java events, both under the Java Development Kit (JDK) 1.0.2 and JDK 1.1. There are some useful tidbits here about unknown or unadvertised capabilities of Java. For instance, the book includes descriptions on how to invoke Java methods dynamically through self-modifying code and how to invoke CGI scripts with parameters through Java applets. Overall, this book is a minor, but interesting addition to Sun's Java series. Serious Java developers will certainly want to skim The Java FAQ as it explains some of the quirks--and limitations--of Java.