Java Programming Today is written for the individual interested in learning to write computer programs in Java. You may be

• a college student planning to become a professional programmer,
• a community college student working towards an associate's degree in programming or web scripting,
• a mainframe programmer working for a company that is converting the company's software to a web-based environment using databases and Java Server Pages,
• an employee interested in becoming a programmer at your company, or
• a retired individual interested in learning to write programs for fun.

Whatever your situation, if you are ready to learn computer programming, Java Programming Today is for you. This text provides the software tools and covers all the basics in an easy-to-read, conversational style. Each Java concept is illustrated with example code and diagrams that the reader will find helpful and informative.

Java Programming Today Is for Beginning Programming Students

Java Programming Today assumes that the reader has never learned a programming language. We start at the beginning with a discussion of programming languages. The reader should have basic computer skills and be able to navigate through the various directory (or folder) structures on the computer.

Learning Java and object-oriented programming techniques as a first computer programming language is a wonderful advantage for today's programmer. The world of programming is rapidly becoming object-oriented. Many colleges and universities recognize this and are moving their first programming courses to Java. Students acquiring the object-oriented train of thought as their first language start thinking in terms of classes and objects—a most important mindset!

Java Programming Today Is Light on Math and Heavy on Java Concepts

Readers of Java Programming Today are not expected to have taken any math courses recently. It is true that many programming applications require rigorous mathematics, but the only skills we need here are addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

The author's philosophy is to provide Java students and instructors with "All of the stuff you need and none of the stuff you don't need." To understand Java, students must understand object-oriented programming and how Java interacts with the computer's operating system. To this end, this text presents the language fundamentals as well as complex topics such as stacks and heaps, and packaging and classpaths. In the real world, it is common to have several programmers work on one project. Therefore, it is necessary for programmers to separate their code into packages. How to incorporate the packages and tell Java where to find them is a practical task indeed!

Java Programming Today Is Packed with Example Code

Java Programming Today presents a wealth of Java program examples that illustrate various object-oriented concepts, as well as the right way to code and the wrong way to code. Troubleshooting sections illustrate pitfalls and poor style along with error-prone techniques. Seeing code written the wrong way is as informative as seeing code written the right way. Most people need to see many examples, and Java Programming Today has many. Each chapter has complete sample programs that illustrate new concepts as well as practice programs. Every program example in the text is found on the text's CD. The inside back cover of the text includes a program reference guide for a number of Java classes and sample programs.

Java Programming Today Offers Java Flexibility for Teaching

Java Programming Today presents the core Java language in the first nine chapters. Sun Microsystem's Java 2 Software Development Kit Standard Edition (J2SDK SE) is included on the text's CD, along with jEdit, a Java source code editor from the jEdit development group. The reader can install the Java environment and the jEdit editor and start writing Java programs in Chapter 2. There are four Advanced Topics chapters that present important material, including exception handling, input/output, Java archive files (JARs), packages, and classpaths. These items should be taught in an introductory Java course, but due to time constraints they may be omitted. The instructor may wish to have his or her students incorporate the various advanced topics such as error handling and creating JAR files early in the course and these chapters will provide reference to the core chapters. Six appendixes provide the information for installing and getting started using the Java environment and jEdit editor; an introduction to bits and bytes; hexadecimal notation; Unicode; and IDEs. Nested classes are explained and found in supplemental material. Lastly, the Java debugging program is illustrated using sample programs from the text.

Java Programming Today Helps the Reader Build .Java Programs from Scratch

Java Programming Today presents Java programs that are built from scratch, meaning that we use a text editor (jEdit or Microsoft's Notepad) to write each line of Java code. The Java file is saved on the hard disk. We then use the MS-DOS Prompt Window (Command Prompt) to enter the Java command needed to run these programs using Sun's J2SDK.

It is necessary to learn how to write code from scratch, because programmers must learn the purpose of each line of code, where the files must be located, and the underlying system requirements for the Java environment. But writing Java programs from scratch can be a time-consuming and tedious task!

Java Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) provide ease of use and allow for rapid code development, generating many lines of source code with a few mouse clicks. Some IDEs provide tools for working with databases and building Web applications. This is necessary in today's development arena. The tradeoff is that there is a learning curve for a programmer to become efficient with IDES. IDEs build the code a certain way, which may or may not be the best way. Also, IDEs sometimes create their own directory structure and place the files where they want them. A programmer developing Java programs solely through an IDE may never understand what the code is doing nor the "software magic" that is performed by the development tool. We do not cover any specific development tool in this text. Appendix E provides a list of popular IDES. Many of them are free for the Java developer to download and use.

Java Programming Today Uses a Unique Approach for Teaching Java

Java Programming Today uses a unique approach for introducing beginning programmers to the language and object-oriented programming principles. It's fun to have fun, and we have fun as soon as possible. Programming students, like many other students, are visual learners. The sooner they can see a concept in action, the better they learn. Java Programming Today has the beginning programmer using message boxes in Chapter 2 and painting text, graphics, and images in JApplets and JFrames in Chapter 3! Giving students the painting tools early on helps them to visualize programming concepts.

Object-oriented methodologies and programming concepts are complicated. Most people find them difficult to grasp at first. In Java Programming Today, instead of presenting these concepts formally, the readers are given enough information for a general understanding without overwhelming them. For example, Chapter 2 presents the idea of needing a Plumber (class), using the Yellow Pages to find a plumber (Don and Donna's Plumbing Service), and Donna comes to the house (she is a plumber object). Donna performs plumber tasks (methods) such as stopping the leak and fixing the faucet. The reader certainly can grasp this concept: classes are job descriptions, objects are persons performing the job, and the actual tasks are methods. In Chapter 2, we begin importing classes and calling both static and nonstatic methods.

Chapter 1 presents an overview of the language, and Chapter 2 introduces the language fundamentals, including keywords, operators, primitive data types, Strings, and arithmetic. We use Java's JOptionPane class, which allows students to gather data from the user via an input message box and display program output in a message box. This is much more fun than making calls to the console window using the System.out.println() method.

Chapter 3 introduces the reader to class hierarchy concepts. Although it is not a formal presentation of inheritance, we discuss how the class Object is the root class for all classes. It is important to get the reader thinking about inheritance and the notion that classes inherit methods and data from their superclasses. To assist the reader in learning this concept, we build an inheritance tree of job tasks. We begin with employees (all have names, tax ID numbers, work, and get a paycheck) and branch several layers for Airline and Hospital Employees ending at airline pilots (fly the plane, talk to the tower) and coronary care nurses (operate heart monitors, know heart medicines). We then see several examples of how Java subclasses inherit their methods from the superclasses.

Using these class hierarchy concepts, Chapter 3 introduces the JApplet and JFrame classes, examining the inheritance trees for both JApplet and Wrame. Applet and Web browser interaction is also covered. We see how our classes, by extending the JApplet or JFrame classes, gain the ability to be a JApplet or a Wrame. This allows the programmer to build fun programs incorporating methods from Java's Graphics class into the paint() method.

Chapter 4 presents control statements and loops, and Chapter 5 presents Arrays. Because we have developed JApplets and JFrames, the reader is able to build interesting programs and have fun designing the output by setting colors, showing images, and drawing graphical figures. One tool provided in this text is a pause method that allows the programmer to pause the program for a given number of milliseconds. By incorporating the pause method in nested for loops and drawing routines, the beginning programmer can watch the progress of the program. The reader can also build simple animated program.

Chapters 6 and 7 present object-oriented concepts, writing classes and methods, static methods, and instantiating our own anonymous classes within another class. Chapter 7 also presents the concept of interfaces and specific listeners, which give us the ability to incorporate buttons, sliders, and other graphic user interface (GUI) components into our programs. We build simple interfaces in this chapter. Chapter 8 covers how to build a GUI for a program. This GUI discussion includes controls, layout managers, panels, menus, and threads. Many coding examples present the how-tos for commonly used GUI controls. Chapter 9 presents the details of inheritance, including writing superclasses and subclasses. Abstract classes, interfaces, and polymorphism are presented as well.

The Advanced Topics chapters cover exception handling, Java I/O, Java archive files, packages, and classpaths nested classes, IDES, and debugging. With the current emphasis on XML and Web application programming, the 1/O chapter offers the basics for reading and writing data files-a needed task when writing XML-based applications.

Java Programming Today Provides All Necessary Software

Java Programming Today includes one CD that contains all of the example programs found in the text. The CD includes Sun Microsystems' J2SDK SE, and jEdit, an open source Java text editor distributed by the jEdit organization. Appendices provide installation instructions and use for these packages. In short, the CD contains everything the reader needs to get going with Java!

Java Programming Today Motto: Seeing Is Believing!

Java Programming Today's unique approach of introducing fun to write programs early on and its style and layout offer both beginning programming students and their instructors a wonderful tool for learning Java. Beginning Java programming students at Albuquerque's Technical Vocational Institute created several examples that illustrate the type and quality of programs beginning Java students can write. Examples are included throughout the text.

Java Programming Today Was Test-Driven by Students

Java Programming Today uses the same well-liked style found in the author's first text, C++ Programming Today. The C++ text is becoming a classroom favorite for C++ instructors because of its readability, clarity, methods of instruction, easily understood programming problems, depth of subject matter, and wonderful textbook design. Java Programming Today follows this lead and presents the nuts and bolts of the Java language and object-oriented concepts in a way that beginning programmers can easily grasp. Once again, the author (a faculty member at Albuquerque Technical Vocational Institute, New Mexico's largest community college) enlisted her students' assistance during the text's development. True to form, these students (the intended audience for this text) offered invaluable insight and information for this book.

Java Programming Today's Style Is a Classroom Favorite!

Java Programming Today's text design makes ultimate use of its color layout by incorporating colors to assist the reader throughout the text. The rainbow-colored tabs delineate the chapters, making it easy for the reader to find material in the text. Highlighting bad code in red, and providing a light background and line numbers for good code help beginning programmers to see how code should be written and aid the classroom instructor in illustrating pertinent topics. The text uses red lights, yellow lights, green lights, and troubleshooting icons for emphasis; margin glossary entries for new terms; recommendation sections; and consistent color coding in figures. Actual program input and output windows are shown for all examples.

Java Programming Today;s Supplements Make a Complete Package for Java Instructors

Java Programming Today offers the following ancillaries:

• Instructor's Manual containing PowerPoint slides of all the figures in the text and solutions to chapter questions and programming problems (ISBN 0-13-048624-8).
• TestGen, a computerized test bank (ISBN 0-13-048795-3).
• Companion Website at www.prenhall.com/johnston.
• Online Course Support: If your program is offering your digital electronics course in a distance-learning format, please contact your local Prentice Hall sales representative for a list of product solutions.