Java Programmer's Reference

ISBN 1-861004-22-2 Price £25.99  UK
Grant Palner

       14 Chapters and Index in 1227 pages

Chapter List

        1    Java Fundamentals
        2    java.lang
        3    java.util
        4    java.io
        5    java.net
        6    java.awt
        7    java.awt.event
        8    java.applet
        9    javax.swing
        10  javax.swing.border
        11  javax.swing.table
        12  javax.swing.tree
        13  java.beans
        14  Other Packages in the Standard Java API
  

Synopsis

Yes, I know.  I've heard it so many times that I can't remember how many times I heard it.  Yes, Java isn't open source.  But neither was Motif until someone made it that way.  If you sit still and say nothing then Java will be used on platforms other than Linux.

The Java Reference is one of those indispensable books that most programmers like to have around for those times when the unusual question is asked.  Rather like the Motif reference manual it gives you most of the answers that you were looking for.

Review

Grant Palmer is a scientific programmer who works for NASA.  He's worked with Java since 1996.  Most of us who read newspapers are aware that Java has been used to successfully explore small parts of the surface of Mars with a robot lander.  It proved to be very reliable and outperformed the designers best hopes by quite a longish yardstick.

This is the book you should get hold of if you really want to learn Java programming for Linux.  It's got most of the things that you might need to use most of the time.  But there are things that are still not here.  There are more than 1200 pages so you can assume that you'll be able to find what you want ?  It's difficult to review the phone book so if you don't get much from this you might want to wander over to the book shop to have a closer look ?  There is a good explanation inside the front of the book.....

" It is not feasible for a single book to cover the entire class library in detail.  The first chapter presents some fundamental features of the Java language, and the subsequent chapters discuss the details of 12 of the most commonly used packages, covering basic Java language and utility classes, I/O, network programming, GUI development using the Abstract Windowing Toolkit and Swing, applets, event handling, and Java Beans. "

Each chapter shows the important classes and methods within the package, as well as clear and concise examples of what to do and how to use them.
All Wrox Press books are laid out in this way and it does make them easy to understand.

Well worth the price tag of £25.99.  There are many books on the shelves which cost much more and aren't anything like as good at informing people about Java and Java methods.

Review by Richard Ibbotson