The Java™ Developers Almanac 1.4, Volume 1: Examples and Quick Reference (4th Edition) [Paperback]

Patrick Chan (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0201752808 | ISBN-13: 978-0201752809 | Publication Date: April 4, 2002 | Edition: 4

Thousands of expert Java developers rely on The Javaa Developers Almanac for the fast answers they need to save time -- and the authoritative guidance they need to build great applications. Together, the Part A and Part B volumes are twice as big as the previous edition, The Javaa Developers Almanac Version 1.4 offers up-to-the-minute, thorough quick-reference information for every major version of the core Javaa Class Libraries, from JDKs 1.0/1.1 through the brand-new J2SE Version 1.4. You'll find updated coverage of 2,100 classes and 24,000 members -- all formatted, organized, and cross-referenced for easy lookup. No other quick ref includes as much information. The book is now printed in 2-color -- so it's even easier to find what you're looking for. The Javaa Developers Almanac Version 1.4 presents detailed analyses of API changes for each release, and 300+ "exampletsa " succinctly demonstrating each package's key operations. This, Part A, and its companion Part B, are logically divided in a way programmers will understand. Both volumes are essential resources for every Java developer.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Java Developers Almanac 1998 presents all the core Java packages and their members in an easy-to-consult format. The first part of Chan's book lists Java packages alphabetically. Each package is accompanied by a list, also alphabetical, of its member classes and their purposes. In later sections all the individual classes are listed alphabetically. A typical class's entry includes its inheritance structure and a table of all its properties and methods. The author concludes with useful commentaries on topical Java issues (such as operator precedence and the differences between Java 1.1 and Java 1.2) and a cross-reference that reveals relationships between classes. -- David Wall --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Inside Flap

Welcome to the third edition of The Java™ Developers Almanac.

There was a time, not long ago, when I intimately knew all of the Java class libraries. I knew how it all worked and exactly how everything fit together. I knew what subclassed what, what overrode what, and so on (of course, it helped that I was one of the original developers :-). But aside from the occasional inability to remember which argument of Vector.insertElementAt() is the index, I rarely had to refer to any reference documentation.

With version 1.1, my mastery of the Java class libraries was reduced to half. This left me feeling a little disoriented since I no longer knew my way around, and the increased size of the libraries exceeded my ability to recall the details of the signatures. When I took a peek at version 1.2, I was initially thrilled by all the new functionality I would now have at my fingertips. But as I browsed the new classes, I began to realize that my expertise was being reduced further to just a tiny fraction. I felt lost in this wonderful but vast sea of classes.

Since I make my living writing Java code, it was important that I find an efficient way of "navigating" the new libraries. What I wanted was a quick overview of all of the libraries; something that covered every class and briefly showed their relationships; something that would allow me to explore and quickly learn about new packages. This need led to this book.

The Java™ Developers Almanac is like a map of the Java class libraries. It's a compact and portable tool that covers almost all of the libraries, if only from a bird's-eye view. It's great for reminding you of things like method names and parameters. It's great for discovering the relationships between the classes, such as determining all methods that return an image. It's also great for quickly exploring a new package.

While this book is comprehensive, the libraries are so vast that there simply isn't enough room to provide equally comprehensive documentation.

The book is divided into four parts, briefly described next. Part 1: Packages

This part covers each package in alphabetical order: a brief description of the package, a description of each class and interface in the package, and a hierarchy diagram showing the relationship between the classes and interfaces in the package. This part is useful when you need an overview of a package or want to see what other related classes are available in a package. Most packages provide a number of "examplets" demonstrating common usage of classes in the package. The examplets are designed to demonstrate a particular task using the smallest amount of code possible. Their main purpose is to show you which classes are involved in the described task and generally how they interact with each other. Part 2: Classes

This part contains 500 pages of class tables, one for each class in all the covered packages. Each class table includes a class tree that shows the ancestry of the class and a list of every member in the class. Also included in the member lists are inherited members from superclasses. Thus you have a complete view of all members made available by a class. This part is useful when you're already working with a particular class and want a quick reference to all of the members in the class. Part 3: Topics

This part is a set of quick-reference tables on miscellaneous topics. For example, the topic title "Java 1.2" contains a detailed analysis of the API differences between Java 1.1 and Java 1.2. Other useful tables cover documentation comment tags and available system properties, among other topics. Part 4: Cross-Reference This part is a cross-reference of all of the Java classes and interfaces covered in this book. It includes classes from both core and extension packages. This part is useful when you have questions such as What methods return an Image object? or What are all the descendents of java.io.InputStream? Updates

As the title suggests, this book is intended to be updated whenever a new major version of the Java class libraries is released. Since it is designed for you to use in your everyday programming-related work, I would love to hear how I could improve it for the next version or simply what you thought about it. For example, are there any more useful tables you'd like to see in Part 3? Although I'm afraid I probably won't be able to reply, I promise to read and consider each suggestion I receive. You can reach me at the following e-mail address:

almanac@xeo
Acknowledgments

First and foremost, I thank Mike Hendrickson, who spent a great deal of time collaborating with me on this project. He helped me hone the ideas in this book and then supported me all of the way. It's been tremendous fun working with him.

Arthur Ogawa (ogawa@teleport), TeX master extraordinaire, provided me with TeX macros without which this book would have been impossible. Thanks for working with me in the wee hours of the morning trying to get everything just right.

I want to thank Lisa Friendly, the series editor, for all sorts of help getting this book off the ground and for getting me all of the support I needed. Special thanks to Rosanna, my wife, who helped me with writing examplets and many other parts of the book.

Many people gave me feedback or provided some other assistance in the making of this book. Thanks to Jens Alfke, Ken Arnold, Josh Bloch, Paul Bommarito, David Brownell, Michael Bundschuh, Bartley Calder, Casey Cameron, Norman Chin, Mark Drumm, Robert Field, Janice Heiss, Jeff Jackson, Doug Kramer, Sheng Liang, Tim Lindholm, Hans Muller, John Pampuch, Rob Posadas, Mark Reinhold, Dan Rudman, Georges Saab, Bill Shannon, Ann Sunhachawee, Joanne Stewart-Taylor, Laurence Vanhelsuwe, Bruce Wallace, Kathy Walrath, and Tony Welch.

Finally, I want to thank the wonderful people at Addison-Wesley who made this project a lot of fun: Sarah Weaver and Tracy Russ. Patrick Chan
April 2000
0201432994P04062001 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 1024 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 4 edition (April 4, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201752808
• ISBN-13: 978-0201752809
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.3 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,332,995 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Complete resource for class names and interfaces, January 11, 2000

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Java(TM) Developers Almanac: 1998 (Paperback)

Given the large size of the current class libraries in Java, the quality of your references is now more critical than ever. In my work as a technical editor of Java books, I have found this book invaluable. The content consists almost entirely of the class names, what they are derived from and the interfaces. The remainder is a collection of "examplets", small snippets of code that show how some of the methods are used. Alphabetized based on the class names, it is adequate when your only interest is in the name of a class or the characteristics of a method. Of course, it is only my first avenue, for more detailed information it is necessary to consult another resource. However, in many of those instances, consulting this book first saved time in examining the other documentation. Covering versions, 1.0, 1.1 and 1.2 of the JDK, this is one shelf reference that you should not be without. I listed it as one of the best books of the year in my On Books column that appeared in the September,1999 issue of Journal of Object-Oriented Programming.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just like its predecessor, June 4, 2000

By 

nee "nee" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Java(TM) Developers Almanac 2000 (3rd Edition) (Paperback)

The Java Developers ALMANAC 2000 is one the best reference books that I've every seen. It clearly goes through the class libraries. Clever use of <B>bold</B> text formatting and a terse set of symbols representing modifiers and OO concepts make this a very "dense" reference in a relatively small volume.

The printing and paper quality is good too. The book should be printed every quarter !

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An essential reference, December 3, 2002

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Java™ Developers Almanac 1.4, Volume 2: Examples and Quick Reference (4th Edition) (Paperback)

For some time, the Java Developers Almanac version 1.3 has been my constant companion when I taught my courses in Java. With it at my side, I was always able to answer questions of the form, "What class(method) do you use for . . . ?" It is one of that small of number of indispensable references that occupy my special shelf of books that stay within reach of my main workstation.
However, now it has been superceded by this version, the second volume of which covers 45 packages used in GUI development. It is a quick, yet thorough reference to the classes. Each description of a class in part 2 has the name and package it is found in, the inheritance tree describing how it is derived and the prototypes of all data and methods. Part 1 has small segments of code that illustrate the basics of how a class is used. The code examples are organized according to packages, where the packages are listed alphabetically. This makes it very easy to find the basic information about any class and method of the class. There is also a list of newly deprecated members, a complete list of all possible exceptions, a list of the modifications from 1.3 and the default values of the swing UI elements.
This book is rarely more than two feet from my body when I am writing Java and when it gets too far away, I correct the problem very quickly. I included it in my best books of the year list for the online Journal of Object Technology.