Java Cookbook, Second Edition [Paperback]

Ian F Darwin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 21, 2004

You have a choice: you can wade your way through lengthy Java tutorials and figure things out by trial and error, or you can pick up Java Cookbook, 2nd Edition and get to the heart of what you need to know when you need to know it.

With the completely revised and thoroughly updated Java Cookbook, 2nd Edition, Java developers like you will learn by example, try out new features, and use sample code to understand how new additions to the language and platform work--and how to put them to work for you.

This comprehensive collection of problems, solutions, and practical examples will satisfy Java developers at all levels of expertise. Whether you're new to Java programming and need something to bridge the gap between theory-laden reference manuals and real-world programs or you're a seasoned Java programmer looking for a new perspective or a different problem-solving context, this book will help you make the most of your Java knowledge.

Packed with hundreds of tried-and-true Java recipes covering all of the major APIs from the 1.4 version of Java, this book also offers significant first-look recipes for the most important features of the new 1.5 version, which is in beta release. You get practical solutions to everyday problems, and each is followed by a detailed, ultimately useful explanation of how and why the technology works.

Java Cookbook, 2nd Edition includes code segments covering many specialized APIs--like those for working with Struts, Ant and other new popular Open Source tools. It also includes expanded Mac OS X Panther coverage and serves as a great launching point for Java developers who want to get started in areas outside of their specialization.

In this major revision, you'll find succinct pieces of code that can be easily incorporated into other programs. Focusing on what's useful or tricky--or what's useful and tricky--Java Cookbook, 2nd Edition is the most practical Java programming book on the market.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"If you like cookbooks and program in Java then this is one of the best available." - Mike James, VSJ, November 2004

About the Author

Ian F. Darwin has worked in the computer industry for three decades: with Unix since 1980, Java since 1995, and OpenBSD since 1998. He wrote the freeware file(1) command used on Linux and BSD and is the author of Checking C Programs with Lint, Java Cookbook, and over seventy articles and several courses (both university and commercial) on C and Unix. In addition to programming and consulting, Ian teaches Unix, C, and Java for Learning Tree International, one of the world's largest technical training companies. He runs OpenBSD on most of his computers, and he runs a mirror of The Unix History Society archive.

Product Details

• Paperback: 864 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 2nd edition (June 21, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596007019
• ISBN-13: 978-0596007010
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #86,067 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #8 in Books > Computers & Technology > Apple > Mac Administration
  • #47 in Books > Computers & Technology > Networking > Network Programming
  • #76 in Books > Computers & Technology > Operating Systems > MacOS

More About the Author

Ian has worked in the computer field for decades, starting on mainframes(!) and moving to ever-smaller computers (his smallest devices with keyboards currently include a netbook running OpenBSD and a Motorola Milestone smartphone running Android). He's written several O'Reilly books over the years, including the long-ago "Checking C Programs with Lint" and the "Java Cookbook" which is available in at least ten languages. Ian also teaches computer courses for Learning Tree International and runs his own consultancy, RejmiNet Group Inc. He lives on a hobby farm north of Toronto with his wife, some of their children, a cat and some chickens - which explains, at long last, the animal on the cover of the Java Cookbook.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

84 of 88 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Practical Examples Beyond Basics, October 22, 2001

By 

Bruce Van Horn II (The Colony, Tx United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Java Cookbook (Paperback)

OK, you've learned the basics. You know 'public static void main string args' from a hole in th ground. What now? I teach Java at a college. Only a small percentage of my students are CS majors. Most introductory java books lack good practical problems to solve. The Java Cookbook is a list of common problems and code examples on how to solve them. I learned more in two days with this book than I did with several very good java books because I need to see examples and how things work in context. If you're like that too, you'll love this book. I pack it with my laptop so I'm never without it when I need it -- it's that useful to me!

114 of 122 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Half-Baked Recipes, August 2, 2001

By 

"schapel" (Hillsborough, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Java Cookbook (Paperback)

The idea of a Java Cookbook is a good one. This book is very similar to the popular and widely acclaimed Perl Cookbook. Even though Perl is more useful for short stand-alone programs and Java is most effective in large-scale systems, a lot of Java code can follow a standard "recipe". For example, writing an equals method is a very common and surprisingly difficult task, so having a standard template available along with a discussion of important points is necessary for all but the most advanced Java programmers.

To judge the quality of the recipes, I checked out some very basic and common Java problems, such as writing equals and clone methods, synchronizing threads, and comparing floating point numbers. In most cases, I found flaws in the code or accompanying explanations. The discussion of equals doesn't mention that the hashCode method needs to be compatible with it. The recipe for clone has the method unnecessarily throw a CloneNotSupportedException. The explanation of synchronizing threads says that locks are held on methods, instead of correctly pointing out that locks are held on objects. The code for floating point comparison requires that the user keep track of the magnitude of the numbers being compared.

By using the term "Cookbook" in the title, I expected to find a collection of the best standard code templates. Instead, I found code samples that merely demonstrated a basic concept, and that they serve as only a starting point for understanding Java. Together with the misleading explanations, this book has the potential for confusing beginning Java programmers as much as it guides them. This book is best used as merely a guide to get the beginning Java programmer started. The "recipes" should be viewed as started points to be improved upon -- using them as is will result in less than optimal Java code.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Much better than the first version, July 28, 2004

By 

Jack D. Herrington "engineer and author" (Silicon Valley, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Java Cookbook, Second Edition (Paperback)

I'm blown away by how much better the second version has improved from the first. I was so disappointed by the first edition that I swore off O'Reilly for a little while. One of my major gripes, the rampant use of classes provided by the author in libraries has all but vanished. In addition the anti-patterns of bad SQL use that are so rampant in other Java books are nowhere to be found, and in their place are recipes that show sane and proper use of JDBC.

I heartily recommend this practical work for Java engineers. For those not familiar with the first edition this is a solid practical work that covers a wide range of Java programming challenges. For those turned off by the first edition, you should take a look at the second, the improvement is profound.