Aware that many students need a careful introduction to programming and that they respond well to graphical illustration, this concise book adopts a visual approach to programming. Throughout the text, programs that use graphical images are emphasized to clearly demonstrate all the important programming principles. The authors use a spiral approach to programming concepts; introducing concepts simply early on, then in a more sophisticated way later, (e.g., objects are integrated throughout five chapters). Java for Students emphasizes the use of applets but also shows how to program free-standing applications. The authors have been careful to put together a text that covers the powerful features of Java and presents the language to students as both a fun and useful tool.

The object-oriented paradigm continues to dominate the teaching of introductory computer programming. Objects First With Java is the first textbook to completely integrate the BlueJ Java development environment with the teaching of object-oriented principles. By using BlueJ, the authors are able to take a truly objects first approach, introducing the student to objects and classes from the outset, and enabling him/her to create an object and call its methods as the very first activity.