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

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.