Learn Java for Android Development [Paperback]

Jeff Friesen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 29, 2010 | ISBN-10: 1430231564 | ISBN-13: 978-1430231561 | Edition: 1

Android development is hot, and many programmers are interested in joining the fun. However, because this technology is based on Java, you should first obtain a solid grasp of the Java language and its foundational APIs to improve your chances of succeeding as an Android app developer. After all, you will be busy learning the architecture of an Android app, the various Android-specific APIs, and Android-specific tools. If you do not already know Java fundamentals, you will probably end up with a massive headache from also having to quickly cram those fundamentals into your knowledge base.  

Learn Java for Android Development teaches programmers of any skill level the essential Java language and foundational Java API skills that must be learned to improve the programmer’s chances of succeeding as an Android app developer. Each of the book’s 10 chapters provides an exercise section that gives you the opportunity to reinforce your understanding of the chapter’s material. Answers to the book’s more than 300 exercises are provided in an appendix. Additionally, author Jeff Friesen has created six bonus chapters that you can download from his personal site, located at http://tutortutor.ca/cgi-bin/makepage.cgi?/books/ljfad.

Once you complete this book, you will be ready to dive into Android, and you can start that journey by obtaining a copy of Beginning Android 2.  

What you’ll learn

• The Java language: This book provides complete coverage of nearly every pre-Java version 7 language feature (native methods are briefly mentioned but not formally covered). Starting with those features related to classes and objects, you progress to object-oriented features related to inheritance, polymorphism, and interfaces. You then explore the advanced language features for nested types, packages, static imports, exceptions, assertions, annotations, generics, and enums. Continuing, you investigate strictfp, class literals, synchronized, volatile, the enhanced for loop statement, autoboxing/unboxing, and transient fields. The book also briefly presents most (if not all) of Java version 7’s language features, although not much is said about closures or modules (which were not finalized at the time of writing).
• Java APIs: In addition to Object and APIs related to exceptions, you explore Math, StrictMath, BigDecimal, BigInteger, Package, Boolean, Character, Byte, Short, Integer, Long, Float, Double, Number, the References API, the Reflection API, String, StringBuffer, System, the Threading API, the collections framework, the concurrency utilities, the internationalization APIs, the Preferences API, Random, the Regular Expressions API, File, RandomAccessFile, stream classes, and writer/reader classes. You will also get a tiny taste of Swing in the context of internationalization.
• Tools: You will learn how to use the JDK’s javac (compiler), java (application launcher), javadoc (Java documentation generator), and jar (Java archive creator, updater, and extractor) tools. You will also receive an introduction to the NetBeans and Eclipse integrated development environments. Although you can develop Android apps without NetBeans or Eclipse, working with these IDEs is much more pleasant.

Who this book is for

This book is for any programmer (including existing Java programmers and Objective-C [iPhone/iPad] programmers) of any skill level who needs to obtain a solid understanding of the Java language and foundational Java APIs before jumping into Android app development.

Table of Contents

1. Getting Started with Java
2. Learning Language Fundamentals
3. Learning Object-Oriented Language Features
4. Mastering Advanced Language Features, Part 1
5. Mastering Advanced Language Features, Part 2
6. Exploring the Basic APIs, Part 1
7. Exploring the Basic APIs, Part 2
8. Discovering the Collections Framework
9. Discovering Additional Utility APIs
10. Performing I/O
11. Solutions to Exercises

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jeff Friesen is a freelance tutor and software developer with an emphasis on Java (and now Android). In addition to writing Android Recipes, Jeff has written numerous articles on Java and other technologies for JavaWorld (JavaWorld.com), informIT (InformIT.com), Java.net, and DevSource (DevSource.com). Jeff can be contacted via his website at TutorTutor.ca.

Product Details

• Paperback: 656 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (September 29, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1430231564
• ISBN-13: 978-1430231561
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #43,927 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #66 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Java
  • #77 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Introductory & Beginning

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

137 of 143 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars About Learn Java for Android Development, December 13, 2010

By 

javajeff - See all my reviews

This review is from: Learn Java for Android Development (Paperback)

Hello,

I'm the author of Learn Java for Android Development and would like to share some background information on why LJFAD is the way it is, in part to respond to the accusations of deception that have been made against me and this book.

Approximately one year ago, I was contacted by Apress to write LJFAD. I was given the book's title, Learn Java for Android Development, and told that this book would serve as a prequel to Apress's Beginning Android/Beginning Android 2 books. Because LJFAD would serve as a prequel, I was told that it could not focus on Android development.

After much thought, I decided to focus this book on Java language and API fundamentals, because the aspiring Android developer needs to understand the Java language and fundamental Java APIs (such as collections and threading) before diving into Android development. Android requires the developer to learn a lot of Android-specific knowledge (such as activities and resources), so it's a good idea to first have a solid understanding of the Java language and various APIs before jumping into Android.

To those who are accusing me of a deception, I wish you would first take the time to read the book's description on Amazon, which clearly states what this book is and is not. For example, consider the following sentence from the description:

"Learn Java for Android Development teaches programmers of any skill level the essential Java language and foundational Java API skills that must be learned to improve the programmer's s chances of succeeding as an Android app developer."

I don't know how much clearer I can be.

If this book had been titled "Learn Android Development", I could certainly understand the accusations. However, the emphasis is "Learn Java" (for Android development).

On a different subject, I understand that this book is densely packed with information, and that some readers will find this denseness difficult. Unfortunately, I found myself having to tradeoff simplicity for comprehensive coverage, because I really wanted to cover the entire Java language, and even offer smaller insights into minor items not easily found elsewhere. For example, did you know that Java provides access to an object's private fields under certain circumstances? You'll discover these circumstances in this book. When an author is originally tasked with writing 400 pages, and cannot exceed 600 pages, but still wants to be thorough, sometimes the resulting product isn't as nice as one might like, but it still contains the knowledge.

In closing, I apologize to each of you who feel you've been mislead, and to each of you who feel that the book is too difficult for you to comprehend. However, I still believe that this book has much value to offer, as a preparation for getting into Android development, and as a means for becoming a better Java developer -- you'll learn lots about Java generics and enums, for example.

Jeff "JavaJeff" Friesen

47 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Useful as a reference guide, November 2, 2010

By 

M. Freeman (Birmingham, AL) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Learn Java for Android Development (Paperback)

Although classified as a beginner's book, it should be noted that this book is not written for beginning programmers. If you are new to programming in general, start somewhere else and look at this book later. This comprehensive review of the Java language features takes the reader from the primitive data types to a whirlwind exposure to the standard Java libraries.

The good:

Learn Java for Android Development attempts to cover everything you might need to know about Java for purposes of Android development. Unlike many learning Java books, this book does not include information about Swing or Graphical programming. This is a big plus as those features of the language can be confusing for developers new to Java. Considering the book is aimed at Android developers, who won't be using Swing, it makes perfect sense.

While reading the book, I learned several new things about features coming in the release of JDK7. I even learned a few things about JDK5/6 that I can do better in my day to day development.

The book can serve as a quick reference for certain features of the language.

The author recognized that several important topics needed to be covered (XML parsing for example), but couldn't be due to the size of the book. He has stated that he will make some new chapters available for free on his website.

The bad:

The book attempts to tackle everything, and I do mean everything. Because of this, the book is very dense with material and at times difficult to read.

In many cases, example code was way too long and descriptions were way too short.

Although the title includes the word "Learning", I would not recommend this as a book for someone who wants to learn the Java language. It is obvious the author knows Java extremely well, however, I don't feel he does a good job of conveying that knowledge in a manner that flows. In many cases, I was overwhelmed by the examples given and felt confused by the sudden switch of topics.

While the book states that you are learning Java for the Android platform, very few references are actually made to Android.

Overall:

Overall, the book is OK. It can definitely serve as a reference for language features and would possibly be a useful book to own of you are an experience developer who is new to Java, but familiar with OO programming with another C type language (C++, C#, etc). Would I recommend this book to someone new to Java, who is not an advanced developer? No. Would I recommend this book to an experienced developer who is new to Java? Maybe. If you are the type of reader who appreciates short and to the point descriptions with an example to make it stick, you may enjoy this book. If you need a little more explanation for why something is being done or how it relates to other aspects of the language, this isn't the book for you. My rating: 3 stars. It is an OK book, but the reader needs to be aware of the intended audience before purchasing the book. I think the title can be a little misleading with that regards.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive Book, December 23, 2010

By 

Steven Elliott - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Learn Java for Android Development (Paperback)

I recently was required to write some Android applications for my company and as such needed to brush up on Java. I think the last time that I did this was at university in CS I and II; anyway, I have found this book to be extremely helpful and complete. There have been some reviews that state this book is 'misleading'; which is hard to understand since the title of the book clearly states that this is a book that focuses on Java so that you may do Android development later. The author is obviously very knowledgeable about the subject matter and expresses ideas in a very clear way. I keep this book with me whenever I am doing any Android development mostly as a reference. I did work through the book when I first bought it from cover-to-cover as a refresher and found it to be enormously helpful.

Highly recommend for anyone that is going to be doing any serious Java development, whether it be Android or otherwise.

You Rock, JavaJeff!