Java In a Nutshell, 4th Edition

Larger Cover

By David Flanagan

Publisher: O'Reilly Media

Released: March 2002

Pages: 992

Java just keeps growing, adding features, functionality, complexity, and tempting developers to growl with frustration. The new 1.4 release of Java 2 Standard edition increases the size of the platform by 50%, to 2757 classes in 135 packages. How are you going to figure out what this means for your applications? As always, Java in a Nutshell has the answers. The new 4th edition still contains an accelerated introduction to the Java programming language and its key APIs so you can start writing code right away. And with more than 250 new pages, author David Flanagan quickly brings you up to speed on new features that come with version 1.4:

High-performance NIO API
Support for pattern matching with regular expressions
A logging API
A user preferences API
New Collections classes
An XML-based persistence mechanism for Java Beans
Support for XML parsing using both the DOM and SAX APIs
User authentication with the JAAS API
Support for secure network connections using the SSL protocol
Support for cryptography

The book contains O'Reilly's classic quick-reference for all the classes in the essential Java packages, so you can dive in and find what you need to make the new 1.4 version work for you. For as long as Java developers have existed, Java in a Nutshell has been ready, willing and able to take you right to the heart of the program, turning those frustrated grrrrss into purrrss of satisfaction. No wonder readers of Java Developer's Journal voted this the "Best Java Book" the past two years in a row!

Introducing Java
1. Chapter 1 Introduction
  1. What Is Java?
  2. Key Benefits of Java
  3. An Example Program
2. Chapter 2 Java Syntax from the Ground Up
  1. The Unicode Character Set
  2. Comments
  3. Identifiers and Reserved Words
  4. Primitive Data Types
  5. Expressions and Operators
  6. Statements
  7. Methods
  8. Classes and Objects
  9. Array Types
  10. Reference Types
  11. Packages and the Java Namespace
  12. Java File Structure
  13. Defining and Running Java Programs
  14. Differences Between C and Java
3. Chapter 3 Object-Oriented Programming in Java
  1. The Members of a Class
  2. Creating and Initializing Objects
  3. Destroying and Finalizing Objects
  4. Subclasses and Inheritance
  5. Data Hiding and Encapsulation
  6. Abstract Classes and Methods
  7. Interfaces
  8. Inner Class Overview
  9. Static Member Classes
  10. Member Classes
  11. Local Classes
  12. Anonymous Classes
  13. How Inner Classes Work
  14. Modifier Summary
  15. C++ Features Not Found in Java
4. Chapter 4 The Java Platform
  1. Java Platform Overview
  2. Strings and Characters
  3. Numbers and Math
  4. Dates and Times
  5. Arrays
  6. Collections
  7. Types, Reflection, and Dynamic Loading
  8. Threads
  9. Files and Directories
  10. Input and Output Streams
  11. Networking
  12. Properties and Preferences
  13. Logging
  14. The New I/O API
  15. XML
  16. Processes
  17. Security
  18. Cryptography
5. Chapter 5 Java Security
  1. Security Risks
  2. Java VM Security and Class File Verification
  3. Authentication and Cryptography
  4. Access Control
  5. Security for Everyone
  6. Permission Classes
6. Chapter 6 JavaBeans
  1. Bean Basics
  2. JavaBeans Conventions
  3. Bean Contexts and Services
7. Chapter 7 Java Programming and Documentation Conventions
  1. Naming and Capitalization Conventions
  2. Portability Conventions and Pure Java Rules
  3. Java Documentation Comments
8. Chapter 8 Java Development Tools
API Quick Reference
1. Chapter 9 java.beans and java.beans.beancontext
2. Chapter 10 java.io
3. Chapter 11 java.lang, java.lang.ref,and java.lang.reflect
4. Chapter 12 java.math
5. Chapter 13 java.net
6. Chapter 14 java.nio and Subpackages
7. Chapter 15 java.security and Subpackages
8. Chapter 16 java.text
9. Chapter 17 java.util and Subpackages
10. Chapter 18 javax.crypto and Subpackages
11. Chapter 19 javax.net and javax.net.ssl
12. Chapter 20 javax.security.auth and Subpackages
13. Chapter 21 javax.xml.parsers, java.xml.transform, and Subpackages
14. Chapter 22 org.ietf.jgss
15. Chapter 23 org.w3c.dom
16. Chapter 24 org.xml.sax, org.xml.sax.ext,and org.xml.sax.helpers

Colophon

Title:

Java In a Nutshell, 4th Edition

By:

David Flanagan

Publisher:

O'Reilly Media

Formats:

Print
Safari Books Online

Print:

March 2002

Pages:

992

Print ISBN:

978-0-596-00283-1

| ISBN 10:

0-596-00283-1

Colophon

Our look is the result of reader comments, our own experimentation, and feedback from distribution channels. Distinctive covers complement our distinctive approach to technical topics, breathing personality and life into potentially dry subjects. The animal on the cover of Java in a Nutshell, Fourth Edition is a Javan tiger. It is the smallest of the eight subspecies of tiger and has the longest cheek whiskers, which form a short mane across the neck. The encroachment of the growing human population, along with increases in poaching, have led to the near-extinction of the Javan tiger. The Indonesian government has become involved in trying to preserve the tiger. It is to be hoped that the remaining subspecies of tiger will be helped by increasing awareness and stricter protections.

Tigers are the largest of all cats, weighing up to 660 pounds and with a body length of up to 9 feet. They are solitary animals and, unlike lions, hunt alone. Tigers prefer large prey, such as wild pigs, cattle, or deer. Tigers rarely attack humans, although attacks on humans have increased as the increasing human population more frequently comes into contact with tigers. Tiger attacks usually occur when the tiger feels that it or its young are being threatened. In such cases, the tiger almost never eats its human victim. There are some tigers, however, who have developed a taste for human flesh. This is a particularly bad problem in an area of India and Bangladesh called the Sunderbans. Matt Hutchinson was the production editor and copyeditor for Java in a Nutshell, Fourth Edition. Rachel Wheeler and Emily Quill provided quality control. Ellen Troutman-Zaig and Brenda Miller wrote the index. Lenny Muellner provided XML support.

Edie Freedman designed the cover of this book, using a 19th-century engraving from the Dover Pictorial Archive. David Futato designed the interior layout based on a series design by Nancy Priest. The print version of this book was created by translating the Doc-Book XML markup of its source files into a set of gtroff macros using a filter developed at O'Reilly & Associates by Norman Walsh. Steve Talbott designed and wrote the underlying macro set on the basis of the GNU troff --gs macros; Lenny Muellner adapted them to XML and implemented the book design. The GNU groff text formatter Version 1.11.1 was used to generate PostScript output. The text and heading fonts are ITC Garamond Light and Garamond Book; the code font is Constant Willison. The hierarchy diagrams that appear in the quick-reference section of this book were produced in encapsulated PostScript format by a Java program written by David Flanagan. This colophon was written by Clairemarie Fisher O'Leary.

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Customer Reviews

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oreilly Java In a Nutshell, Fourth Edition

3.4

(based on 9 reviews)

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Reviewed by 9 customers

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Displaying reviews 1-9

3/4/2004

(1 of 1 customers found this review helpful)

4.0

Java in a Nutshell, 4th Edition Review

By Kyle

from Undisclosed

Comments about oreilly Java In a Nutshell, Fourth Edition:

Regarding those little black tabs, we put them back in on subsequent printings of the 4th edition. We're not exactly sure what possessed us to remove them either, but we came to our senses. Sorry for the frustration.

3/4/2004

2.0

Java in a Nutshell, 4th Edition Review

By Joe Ogulin

from Undisclosed

Comments about oreilly Java In a Nutshell, Fourth Edition:

I liked the third edition better for one primary reason: those little black tabs on the pages to identify where the different classes were. This version is a lot harder to use... in fact, it's an outright pain in the posterior, slightly below the coccyx.

PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE put those tabs back on the class reference pages. I don't know what posessed you to get rid of them.

6/3/2003

(1 of 1 customers found this review helpful)

5.0

Java in a Nutshell, 4th Edition Review

By Tsjisse Tilma

from Undisclosed

Comments about oreilly Java In a Nutshell, Fourth Edition:

I have this book for about half a year. I basically learnd J2SE with this book. It is very cryptic. Yes it is a nutshell. If you want to purely learn Java, this is probably not the one you want. But it does show all interfaces and classes at the core of Java. It is a wonderfull quick reference to e.g. java.util.LinkedHashSet and java.nio.FileChannel etc etc. Once you know how to work with them, this book really starts to pay off. Each method and argument are explained, although very briefly. Yes, it is a Nutshell. This book certainly not too big.

2/7/2003

5.0

Java in a Nutshell, 4th Edition Review

By nick grayson

from Undisclosed

Comments about oreilly Java In a Nutshell, Fourth Edition:

most (or all, im not sure) of the classes are in alphabetical order at the back of the book "Class, Method and Field" and there is a black box on the right of the page to help you find this section (and all others) quickly.

Flanagan says: "Part I of the book is a fast paced, "no fluff" introduction to the Java programming language and the core APIs of the Java platform. Part II is a quick-reference section that succinctly details most classes and interfaces of those core APIs. The book covers Java 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4."

-better than Bruce Eckels 'ground up' Thinking In Java. you need know nothing of Java to start this book, only a very brief knowledge of object oriented programming and compiling but no knowledge of expressions or operators. if you want an introduction to OOP then type "java tutorial", dont click on the Sun ones, click on the .edu site ones- they seem to know people better and won's stereotype you or patronise you.

-has comparisons with c and C++

-fast paced lesson in Java (no "hello, world" program. much more mature)

-my above quote sums it all up very nicely.

i would have to give 4.5 fluffly animals out of 5 (but i cant) becuase i am a strong believer that all programming books should have test/ question pages in them, like maths books at school did. i keep forgetting things that i should know like operator precedence and because i have not learnt it (though i have read it) i repeatedly have to go back again and again. this is my only real criticism of the book. you'd never learn a thing in school maths if you didnt keep getting quizzed. maybe this book is too mature for me or maybe the writer forgets how people learn...

9/20/2002

(1 of 1 customers found this review helpful)

4.0

Java in a Nutshell, 4th Edition Review

By yun kim

from Undisclosed

Comments about oreilly Java In a Nutshell, Fourth Edition:

i from china too.

I think book is vey vey good. recommend big time to gi joe.

9/18/2002

1.0

Java in a Nutshell, 4th Edition Review

By martin

from Undisclosed

Comments about oreilly Java In a Nutshell, Fourth Edition:

i am from china.

i know this book was famous in computer world,but its chinese version was so bad!

5/15/2002

1.0

Java in a Nutshell, 4th Edition Review

By Norman Richards

from Undisclosed

Comments about oreilly Java In a Nutshell, Fourth Edition:

This book is a step back from previous editions in terms of usefullness. The class API reference no longer has the package names in the black boxes on page borders, which makes it impossible to quickly locate classes. Furthermore, the class package diagrams showing the reltionship between classes in a package are missing. This is very disappointing. On the positive side, the API reference

does a good job of indicating which version of java classes and methods are available in.

My other complaint is the size. 900+ pages is a bit more than a nutshell. I hope in the future the publisher splits up the content (perhaps an API reference and a feature tutorial) to keep the size manageable and adds back in the tabs and other essential parts of the API quick reference section.

5/11/2002

4.0

Java in a Nutshell, 4th Edition Review

By Craig Pfeifer

from Undisclosed

Comments about oreilly Java In a Nutshell, Fourth Edition:

If I was trapped in a desert cubicle and allowed only one Java book this would

be it. I dig Sun's Javadocs that come with the SDKs, but Java in a Nutshell has proved invaluable to java developers. It is compact, easy to browse, and

provides a very handy language/SDK guide. With each major release of J2SE. This edition is no exception:

- most up to date coverage of SDK & language changes:

- assertions

- cryptography

- XML processing

- new IO facilities

- logging

- properties & preferences,

- collections changes

A quick search of Amazon yielded only one other book that is up to date for J2SE 1.4, and it was not a reference for experienced programmers. This nutshell reference is ahead of the pack.

However, there have been a few changes to this edition that aren't popular with me. I was a big fan of the quasi-UML class diagrams on the first page of each package. Especially for the IO and Util (collections) packages, it was a great way to see the architecture of an entire package. I could find out at a glance who implements a certain interface, or to find a common ancestor class. These diagrams are gone. Instead of having one diagram for all the elements (interfaces, classes, exceptions) in a single package, the authors present a class diagram for each individual class and place it with each class' entry. To somewhat make up for this, the author has provided expanded narrative at the beginning of each package, hitting the highlights and providing an almost javadoc style listing of the elements contained in the package.

I understand this was probably done for practical reasons. Some of the packages have grown very large with one or more subpackages (java.util being the biggest offender here) and diagrams for some of the packages wouldn't fit on the smaller pages of the Nutshell series. Irregardless, it a loss of key functionality for this edition.

Lastly, the authors removed the singlemost important navigational tool of the previous editions: the thumb tabs on the margins of the pages indexed by package. These tabs made it very easy to quickly flip to the exact package you were looking for. In this edition you have to rely on the page footers for this information.

Despite the small changes, this edition continues in the tradition of the Java in a Nutshell series: the most up to date java reference that is available on the market.

5/2/2002

5.0

Java in a Nutshell, 4th Edition Review

By Wayne Cater

from Undisclosed

Comments about oreilly Java In a Nutshell, Fourth Edition:

This book is very well written. I didn't fall asleep trying to get through it. The author held true to his commitment stated in the front of the book. I felt my money was well invested. I have spent a small fortune on computer books in the past. I will be sticking with O'Reilly as much as is possible for my future needs.

I came from a C/C++, and Visual Basic background. The layout of the book made me feel at ease and was actually very interesting reading. It will also double as a wonderful reference for my future use.

I was a little concerned at first about how the author would do teaching Java to a split audience -- newbies to Java coming from another language (like me) and to seasoned professionals. I was presently surprised. I never felt lost.

If you are learning Java, or need a reference, get this book. Be sure to get the Java Foundation Classes related book too.

Wayne

Displaying reviews 1-9


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Introducing Java

Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 2 Java Syntax from the Ground Up

Chapter 3 Object-Oriented Programming in Java

Chapter 4 The Java Platform

Chapter 5 Java Security

Chapter 6 JavaBeans

Chapter 7 Java Programming and Documentation Conventions

Chapter 8 Java Development Tools

API Quick Reference

Chapter 9 java.beans and java.beans.beancontext

Chapter 10 java.io

Chapter 11 java.lang, java.lang.ref,and java.lang.reflect

Chapter 12 java.math

Chapter 13 java.net

Chapter 14 java.nio and Subpackages

Chapter 15 java.security and Subpackages

Chapter 16 java.text

Chapter 17 java.util and Subpackages

Chapter 18 javax.crypto and Subpackages

Chapter 19 javax.net and javax.net.ssl

Chapter 20 javax.security.auth and Subpackages

Chapter 21 javax.xml.parsers, java.xml.transform, and Subpackages

Chapter 22 org.ietf.jgss

Chapter 23 org.w3c.dom

Chapter 24 org.xml.sax, org.xml.sax.ext,and org.xml.sax.helpers

Colophon

David Flanagan

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