Early Adopter J2SE 1.4 [Paperback]

James Hart (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 2001

Due for release in quarter 4 of 2001, version 1.4 of the Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition, is set to be the biggest upgrade to the functionality of the basic Java platform since the release of Java 2 over two years ago. The latest version, until recently known by the codename Merlin, represents a true commitment by Sun and the Java community to turn Java into a viable client platform, after several years of concentrating on the server.

Early Adopter J2SE 1.4 presents assesses the significance of the changes to the Java 2 platform that Merlin introduces. We will be looking at functions that have been added or modified, and see how they impact on the Java application developer's life. Throughout this book, we will use the public beta version of the J2SE 1.4 SDK to demonstrate the platform's new capabilities.

This book covers:

Installation and working with the J2SE 1.4 public beta

The new I/O framework

Improvements for client and GUI applications including JNLP

Java's new built-in XML capabilities

New utility functions including preferences and regular expressions

Additional features to the Java language, such as assertions

A look to the additional features in the future of the Java 2 platform

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

This book is for professional Java developers who are keen to keep up to date with the new features and functionality offered by the latest version of the J2SE. This is done via discussions and illustrations of the new features, together with practical code examples with plenty of opportunities for experimentation and exploration. This methodology will make the changes and upgrades to the latest version of the Java 2 Platform easily apparent and understandable.

This book was written using the Sun J2SDK 1.4.0b2 release of the J2SE 1.4 platform. While we can't guarantee that the final version will be identical, you can be sure that all the concepts, examples, and explanations will still be valid for the final 1.4.0 release, scheduled for late quarter 4 of 2001.

About the Author

James Hart is a writer and programmer, employed as a Technical Architect on the Early Adopter editorial team at Wrox Press. As well as writing this book, he has also contributed to the Wrox books Professional Java XML and Java XML Programmer's Reference, in both cases writing about IBM's Java-based Web Services platform.

Product Details

• Paperback: 203 pages
• Publisher: Wrox Press; 1st edition (September 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1861006055
• ISBN-13: 978-1861006059
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,671,186 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars This book has problems, January 27, 2002

By 

Andrej Gabara (Germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Early Adopter J2SE 1.4 (Paperback)

I was disappointed reading this book. Two major flaws:

Page 2: "... even applets are limited, unable to open multiple windows, ..". That's wrong. Even with Java 1.02, applets were able to create new windows (frames). Reading something like this on page two sets the tone for the rest of the book.

Then the example in Chapter 2, pp 33: The example uses NIO, but still uses a new thread for every connection. Instead of blocking on a read, it now blocks on a select. What good does that do? One big advantage of using selectable IO is not to have threads for connections that are idle. It's about scalability, and although the example uses the new java.nio package, it doesn't have any advantages over using java.io.

The other examples also have questionable usefulness. For example the example on Scattering and Gathering uses an example to show the functionality, but solves a simple problem in a very complex way. Leaving the reader wondering what's the good thing about scattering and gathering.

Some items are useful, but for $... this book is way overpriced! Just read the JSRs.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Please ignore my previous review, May 13, 2002

By 

Andrej Gabara (Saarbrücken) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Java J2se 1.4 Core Platform Update (Paperback)

My previous review was on "Early Adopter J2SE 1.4", which has been superceded by "J2SE 1.4 Core Platform Update".

My previous rating and comments only applied to "Early Adopter J2SE 1.4", which is not available anymore. The new book has fixed some errors and had extended information on the new 1.4 features. That's why I recommend the book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice preview of the upcoming release, January 17, 2002

By 

Thomas Paul (Plainview, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Early Adopter J2SE 1.4 (Paperback)

This book, as part of the Wrox "Early Adopter" series, explains some of the new features of J2SE 1.4. This new version of Java has many improvements over prior versions and also contains quite a bit of added functionality.

The book is very well done and gives excellent examples of some of this new functionality. However some new features have been left out including print service and some AWT and Swing enhancements. The information included, however, covers some of the more complex features of this release.

The book starts with excellent coverage of the new I/O features and the Java Network Launch Protocol (JNLP). The chapter on XML, however, seems unnecessary. Although this version of Java is the first to include XML support, the JAXP, SAX, and DOM information is not new and is readily available from many published sources. The author's coverage of enhancements to the java.util package (especially regular expressions) is very good. The chapter on language enhancements is a bit confusing because the author starts the chapter with items that are not included in this release. This information would have been better placed in a separate appendix. The book ends with a section on possible enhancements for the next release of Java. The section on JAXB will be good news for many developers since it is available as an early access release. The book does not contain an index.

Anyone interested in the new features of Java will find this book very useful.