Essential Java 2 fast: How to develop applications and applets with Java 2 (Essential Series) [Paperback]

John Cowell (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1852330716 | ISBN-13: 978-1852330712 | Publication Date: May 14, 1999

If you are a new programmer or a Java programmer moving to Java 2 then this is the book for you! It offers: a complete introduction to Java 2; describes the language and many of its class libraries; shows how they are used; describes the key concepts of object orientation with lots of examples of how to apply the theory. This book will show you how to take advantage of Java 2's new features (such as the abstract windowing toolkit and the Swing classes) for creating graphical user interfaces. John Cowell explains how to use Swing components to change the look and feel of your Java applications so that they look like Windows, Mac or Motif applications. Sun Microsystems Java 2 (formerly called the Java Development Kit 1.2 - JDK 1.2) is a major step forward in the growth of Java into a powerful mature language for writing both applications and applets. Topics covered in this book include: the Java language; the abstract windowing toolkit; the new Java Swing components; handling component, keyboard and mouse events; polymorphism and inheritance; animation and multithreading; handling exceptions; using files. Essential Java 2 - fast is designed for professional developers or students who need to learn the maximum in the minimum time. You'll develop applications and applets fast, learning everything you need to write Java applications and applets quickly with Java.

Product Details

• Paperback: 246 pages
• Publisher: Springer (May 14, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1852330716
• ISBN-13: 978-1852330712
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,342,611 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great introduction for professionals, February 17, 2000

By 

David Matuszek "Dr. Dave" (Malvern, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Essential Java 2 fast: How to develop applications and applets with Java 2 (Essential Series) (Paperback)

IMHO this is a gem of a book for the right audience: good programmers who like concise information. It doesn't try to teach programming and is skimpy on the O-O approach (get Bruce Eckel's "Thinking in Java" for that). It DOES cover basic Java 2 clearly and quickly, and the examples are brief and very focussed. Java is a huge language (you may want a good reference book in addition), but this short book succeeds in covering all the essentials. Even Swing is covered to a very useful depth. I have some minor quibbles, e.g. Exceptions should be covered much earlier in the book, but I highly recommend this book.

Important note: I do NOT recommend the earlier edition, "Essential Java Fast," because it describes a pre-1.0 version of Java unlike any available version. Avoid!

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Applet Workshop, August 24, 2000

By 

"gunn11" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Essential Java 2 fast: How to develop applications and applets with Java 2 (Essential Series) (Paperback)

I can only now after reading about three books on Java give this book a fair review. I gave it three stars primarily because right on the front cover it say applications and applets, yet this book is more than 90% devoted to applets. After reading a few books on Java I have found applets to be completely useless. The book is clear and well written and if you want to learn applets it is great. Also I would not recommend this book to any one that has absolutely no knowledge about Java. The title of the book says fast and it isn't lying. The author explains one topic and immediately moves to the next.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for structured programers, November 20, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Essential Java 2 fast: How to develop applications and applets with Java 2 (Essential Series) (Paperback)

If you are a structured programmer (e.g. Pascal or Fortran) and want to make the jump to Java programming, then this is your book. I have bought several other introductory Java books and they are just two thick and tedious at the beginning for someone with programming experience. While several of them have better explanations of the concepts and history of object oriented programming, this book is great for all the good stuff in a short and effecient manner.