Preface
Javaisnowovertwentyyearsold,andtheclassicbook,CoreJava,covers,in
meticulousdetail,notjustthelanguagebutallcorelibrariesandamultitudeof
changesbetweenversions,spanningtwovolumesandwellover2,000pages.
However,ifyoujustwanttobeproductivewithmodernJava,thereisamuch
faster,easierpathwayforlearningthelanguageandcorelibraries.Inthisbook,I
don'tretracehistoryanddon'tdwellonfeaturesofpastversions.Ishowyouthe
goodpartsofJavaasitexiststoday,withJava9,soyoucanputyourknowledge
toworkquickly.
Aswithmyprevious"Impatient"books,Iquicklycuttothechase,showingyou
whatyouneedtoknowtosolveaprogrammingproblemwithoutlecturingabout
thesuperiorityofoneparadigmoveranother.Ialsopresenttheinformationin
smallchunks,organizedsothatyoucanquicklyretrieveitwhenneeded.
Assumingyouareproficientinsomeotherprogramminglanguage,suchasC++,
JavaScript,ObjectiveC,PHP,orRuby,withthisbookyouwilllearnhowto
becomeacompetentJavaprogrammer.IcoverallaspectsofJavathata
developerneedstoknow,includingthepowerfulconceptsoflambdaexpressions
andstreams.Itellyouwheretofindoutmoreaboutold-fashionedconceptsthat
youmightstillseeinlegacycode,butIdon'tdwellonthem.
AkeyreasontouseJavaistotackleconcurrentprogramming.Withparallel
algorithmsandthreadsafedatastructuresreadilyavailableintheJavalibrary,the
wayapplicationprogrammersshouldhandleconcurrentprogramminghas
completelychanged.Iprovidefreshcoverage,showingyouhowtousethe
powerfullibraryfeaturesinsteadoferror-pronelow-levelconstructs.
Traditionally,booksonJavahavefocusedonuserinterfaceprogramming—but
nowadays,fewdevelopersproduceuserinterfacesondesktopcomputers.Ifyou
intendtouseJavaforserver-sideprogrammingorAndroidprogramming,you
willbeabletousethisbookeffectivelywithoutbeingdistractedbydesktopGUI
code.
Finally,thisbookiswrittenforapplicationprogrammers,notforacollege
courseandnotforsystemswizards.Thebookcoversissuesthatapplication
programmersneedtowrestlewith,suchasloggingandworkingwithfiles—but
youwon'tlearnhowtoimplementalinkedlistbyhandorhowtowriteaweb
server.
Ihopeyouenjoythisrapid-fireintroductionintomodernJava,andIhopeitwill