Sams Teach Yourself Java 2 in 21 Days (Teach Yourself in 21 Days Series) [Paperback]

Laura Lemay (Author), Rogers Cadenhead (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0672316382 | ISBN-13: 978-0672316388 | Publication Date: February 1999 | Edition: 3

Sams Teach Yourself Java in 21 Days continues to be the most popular, best-selling Java tutorial on the market. It has been acclaimed for its clear and personable writing, for its extensive use of examples, and for its logical and complete organization. The third edition of the book maintains and improves upon all these qualities while updating the material to cover the latest developments in the Java language - such as using Java Foundation Classes, Java 2D Classes, and JavaBeans.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Newly revised for some of the latest Sun JDK 1.3 standards, the second edition of Sams Teach Yourself Java 2 in 21 Days provides a refreshingly compact and useful tour of Java suitable for anyone who wants to master this powerful programming language quickly.

Currently, Java has some 2,000 classes and over 24,000 methods and properties. Instead of covering a laundry list of features, this book concentrates on what's really important, and keeps your attention with short, clever examples, many of which use names and examples drawn from pop culture or historical trivia.

The first week of lessons in the book comprises an easily digestible tutorial on basic Java, with review questions and exercises that will help you start using it on your own. Next comes a tour of the various options for building user interfaces in today's Java, including Swing applets and applications. In addition to basic component programming, you'll learn graphics using the new Java 2D API. (The older Abstract Windowing Toolkit, AWT, isn't covered.) Material on threading, animation, and sound helps you explore Java's multimedia capabilities.

The third and final week of lessons addresses advanced Java APIs and features that extend the reach of Java on the enterprise. After delving into more advanced class design, the book looks at topics like I/O streams in Java and Object Serialization (which allows objects to work with streams). Chapters on security and basic networking (illustrated using a server that generates trivia questions for clients) will let you work with Java on the Internet. The book closes with a chapter on database programming with JDBC. (There's also coverage of the older JDK 1.0 collection classes, which is a little surprising given the book's focus on newer Java 2 standards.)

All in all, Sams Teach Yourself Java 2 in 21 Days provides an efficiently packaged tutorial for learning Java, one that will be appreciated by any beginning Java programmer. The sheer number of classes and APIs in today's Java can be overwhelming. The intelligent and concise series of lessons in this book will help jump-start your knowledge. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered:

• Overview and history of Java
• Introduction to objects
• Class inheritance
• Tutorial for basic Java (including data types and keywords, flow control, and working with objects)
• Arrays
• Basic Java applications
• Methods and constructors
• Introduction to Java applets
• Building Swing user interfaces (basic component types, layout managers, and event processing)
• Java 2D graphics (drawing basic shapes, text output, and fonts)
• Using threads for animation
• Loading and displaying images
• Java Sound (including MIDI files)
• Advanced class design (interfaces, packages, advanced method options)
• Exception handling and security
• Signing JAR files
• File and stream I/O in Java
• Object Serialization and reflection
• Remote Method Invocation (RMI)
• Java networking basics (sockets and servers)
• Building custom UI components with JavaBeans
• Database programming with JDBC
• JDK 1.0 collection classes
• References on the Sun JDK 1.3 (including installation)

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From the Back Cover

Sams Teach Yourself Java in 21 Days continues to be the most popular, best-selling Java tutorial on the market. It has been acclaimed for its clear and personable writing, for its extensive use of examples, and for its logical and complete organization. The third edition of the book maintains and improves upon all these qualities while updating the material to cover the latest developments in the Java language - such as using Java Foundation Classes, Java 2D Classes, and JavaBeans.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 680 pages
• Publisher: Pearson Sams Publishing; 3 edition (February 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0672316382
• ISBN-13: 978-0672316388
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 7.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (88 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,622,037 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

87 of 89 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A well-organised tutorial to get you up to speed in Java, February 18, 2000

By 

Rohan Parkes (St. Kilda, Vic Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself Java 2 in 21 Days (Teach Yourself in 21 Days Series) (Paperback)

I found most of the content in the negative reviews here bewildering. To take some examples:

"The code doesn't compile" - yes it does.

"They teach you deprecated code" - yes they do. This is because if you want to write applets, you have to use deprecated code. This is reiterated frequently throughout the applet section. They also teach you Java 2 code.

"They don't explain the examples" - yes they do, often giving line-by-line explanations. There are a couple of early examples that use yet-to-be-explained code, but they tell you this (it would be impossible to write functioning code with all you learned in day 1).

"They don't build on a foundation" - yes they do. The class concept is clearly explained, then the syntax, data types, then you move onto applet writing.

I suspect most of the negative contributors here are merely venting their frustration.

My only problem with this type of book is that it is unrealistically titled - you will only get through it in 21 days if you don't have a day job, don't take notes, and dont' revise.

Other than that, it was one of the better tutorials in this series.

40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good for beginners, something for experts, October 15, 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: Sams Teach Yourself Java 2 in 21 Days (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

An excellent criteria to apply to any book designed to teach a topic is that experienced teachers can find something to use in future lessons. Since I have taught Java for over three years and am currently teaching three sections using the JDK 1.3, I can humbly consider myself experienced in the language. There are two examples in the book that gave me the ideas for additional lessons that I have incorporated into my current classes.
However, that does not mean that the material is too advanced for beginners. On the contrary, the initial position and the movement is ideal for someone just learning the language. Some of the material that is new and improved in the JDK 1.3 is examined, although not in detail.
If you are in need of a book that will give you a quick overview of a language that you are unfamiliar with, then this book is a good choice if the language is Java. The examples are good, current and expressed in a form that is easy to understand.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good for someone who understands the basics of programming, December 16, 1999

By 

Steve Selleny (Erie, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself Java 2 in 21 Days (Teach Yourself in 21 Days Series) (Paperback)

As long as you understand Object-Oriented Programming basics, this is a good place to start for learning Java. Good as a primer before you get into a book that covers Java more deeply. Of course, to really learn any language you need about 8 books on it, so don't be surprised if there's some things this book doesn't cover. It teaches you the basics of class structures, etc. and spends a lot of time on applets. I'd say that if you wanted to learn to write applications in Java 2, this is not the book for you. It mentions nothing-to-little about the implementation of data structures in Java (i.e. stacks, trees) and reading from / writing to files. Also, it assumes knowledge of SQL for the later, advanced chapters.