The Java(TM) Developers Almanac 1999 [Paperback]

Patrick Chan (Author)

Book Description

Series: Java Series | Publication Date: January 1999

The Ultimate Java Quick Reference "This reminds me of the catalogs of integrated circuits that we use to build hardware systems, and shows how far and fast Java has come in having a library of incredibly useful software components. An indispensable desk reference!" -Bill Joy, co-founder, Sun Microsystems, Inc. Quoted from his keynote address at JavaOneSM "I think this book is, quite simply, a stroke of genius. I've been lamenting the stack of Java(tm) books I've had to pore over when all I needed was a detail about some method or package. The Almanac is the one-stop shop I was unconsciously waiting for." -John Vlissides, IBM TJ Watson Co-author of the best-selling book Design Patterns The Java Developers Almanac is the most up-to-date and complete quick reference for all three major versions of the core Java Class Libraries-JDK(tm) 1.0, 1.1, and 1.2. (Due to space constraints, the javax.swing.plaf.* packages are not included.) No other JDK quick reference includes as much information in a single convenient volume. Information from 1,500 classes and 17,000 members is carefully formatted and arranged for easy lookup.In this book you will find: *Complete member listings of every class (including inherited members! ) *Class inheritance hierarchies for every package *An extensive cross-reference section *Detailed analysis of API changes for each major release *Quick-reference information for the language, the virtual machine, JNI, PersonalJava, and more A valuable new feature of the 1999 Almanac is the addition of more than 250 examplets(tm) that succinctly demonstrate the most common operations for a package. No matter what level Java programmer you are, you will find this book an invaluable tool for everyday Java development. 0201432986B04062001

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Java grows larger and more feature-rich each year. The Java Developer's Almanac 1999 provides experienced programmers with a carefully organized portrait of the language since JavaSoft's release of Java 2.

This book presents information on all core Java packages and their contents (except javax.swing.plaf.*, omitted to save space) in tabular, easily searchable form. Entries for hundreds of classes and interfaces include inheritance information and member listings, complete with argument specifications and return data types. Package entries give brief summaries in English of what each package member does. The only elements of this book that are slightly didactic are the succinct examples that show how to perform various tasks, such as create a JavaBean or load native code.

Patrick Chan based The Java Developer's Almanac 1999 on a late preview release of what used to be called Java 1.2, now known in its final form as Java 2. Though he refers to "Java 1.2" in the text, this book actually covers Java 1.0x, Java 1.1x, and Java 2--the difference between Java 1.2 and Java 2 is semantic. --David Wall

From the Inside Flap

Welcome to the second 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.Organization

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, Tracy Russ, Deborah King, Marina Lang, and Katherine Kwack.

Patrick Chan

0201432986P04062001

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Product Details

• Paperback: 861 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley (C) (January 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201432986
• ISBN-13: 978-0201432985
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,877,140 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cool!, October 16, 2000

By 

brad (Springville, Utah USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Java(TM) Developers Almanac 1999 (Paperback)

I have about a half-dozen java books. I recently discovered this one, even though it's been on my shelf for awhile. Now, it's the only one I use.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just what a beginner should have, March 11, 1999

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[e-mail] (Ellensburg, WA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Java(TM) Developers Almanac 1999 (Paperback)

I'm a beginner to the java environment, but not to the programming scene, and this book has been extremely helpful. You need to first realize though that this is a reference manual, not something that you can read from cover to cover and learn java in 21 days. It's a great source of information for the classes within java, and I'd highly recommend this to anyone who has C/C++ experience who wants to make that leap to java.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Adding Examplets made a 5-star book a 5-1/2-star book, February 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Java(TM) Developers Almanac 1999 (Paperback)

I've been using the 1998 edition literally ALL the time and found it to be indispensible to any Java task. It becomes more so as you use it.

The only problem I have is the actual physical aspect of the book. I preferred its old compact size and the paper texture but apart from that this is a great book that got greater.