Customer Reviews

The JDK 1.4 Tutorial

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book explains for an experienced Java developer the new features introduced in JDK1.4. Particularly the sections on assestions and Collections are very lucid and I found them very helpful. All the examples in the book are presented in a detailed and clear manner and on going through them, it is easy for a reader to understand how to use the APIs.

Novice programmers may not find this book helpful as it seems to be targeted for those developers who are already using some flavour of Java 2 platform.

I found this book to be a good tutorial when upgrading to Java 1.4. Afterwards it was also useful as a reference book.

The book clearly explains the new concepts and features in Java 1.4 and has many examples. It doesn't waste time explaining how to program in Java instead sticking to the new features. It is good to have a book that focuses mainly on new features instead of being filled up with information that is already known.

It is a good book for finding out the new features of Java 1.4.

Now in year 2009 we have JDK1.6 on our hands. Even the fundamental change of Java language through JDK1.5 generics and annotations dates back to year 2004, why would this book be of any value?

Well, it is. I see it here on sale by many, and I consider it a mistake. Here is why:

Travis mastered a great tutorial of how to use new library packages provided in the rather large upgrade through JDK 1.4, most notably providing:

1) NIO, the new IO system,
2) Java Web Start (JAWS)
3) Logging
4) Assertions
5) Regular expressions
6) Preferences
7) Java Secure Socket Extension (JSSE)
...and more!

Wow, this was a track load of new features added to the language's libraries. It takes indeed a book like this to describe them all. Most importantly, these new packages are of course very much current now in 2009, and for the the most part even unchanged since their release!

JDK1.4 was the last, and a very large at that, of upgrades to Java, which left the language widely untouched. With JDK1.4 we merely received the usual new load of a new functionality in the java.* environment. As we know, this has changed with JDK1.5, but this does not negate the usefulness of Travis'es text.

Reader will like his non-nonsense approach, diagrams and quite good example code. Some of it debatable, we always do have our own opinion about code, right? But, it serves the purpose. Especially if it comes to understanding NIO, I still consider his text (Chapters 1 and 2) unparalleled and best. I like the diagrams showing progress in channels and buffers, I understood instantly how to use NIO.

You sell it for what I see now below a dollar? Really? For me this book is a keeper, I will give it up only "from a cold hand of my dead body."

At the beginning of 2006, Java 6 is looming on the horizon, so this book could be considered obsolete, were it not for the fact that most veteran java programmers have remained lazily barricated in the previous ( and now enciant ) java versions. In another case of the disciple surpassing the master, java grows form the simple, crystal clear laguage it was at his birth to a way more intimidating beast than C++, and if you happen to be one the programmers who have been left behind this text is a good and now cheap chance to absorb the features added in the 1.4 realease: NIO, assertions, regexp. NOte that this is not a java tutorial, it has been written for programmers already fluent in java, but needing a tutorial on the 1.4 extensions.
The presentation style is really clear, but I do have some issues with the code examples which in some case are a bit contrived and in a couple of cases are flawed.

Don't judge a book by it's title. I had hoped that the book would be a good primer on not only the newest version of Java but of Java itself. As a novice I was disappointed. It did provide some nice insights into where Java wanted to go and how the changes would get it there. But I had hoped for more. When I get more experience with programming I look forward to coming back to this book and more fully appreciating what it offers.