Think In JAVA (the third edition) [10]
Solutions to selected exercises can be found in the electronic document The Thinking in Java Annotated Solution Guide, available for a small fee from www.BruceEckel.com.
The CD ROM
Another bonus with this edition is the CD ROM that is packaged in the back of the book. I’ve resisted putting CDs in the back of my books in the past because I felt the extra charge for a few kilobytes of source code on an enormous CD was not justified, preferring instead to allow people to download such things from my Web site. However, you’ll soon see that this CD is different.
The CD doesn’t contain the source code from the book, but instead has a link to the code at www.MindView.net (you don’t need the link on the CD to get to the source code. You can just go to the site and find it that way). There are two reasons for this: the code was not complete at the time the CD had to be sent to the printer, and this approach allows the code to evolve and be corrected as any issues arise.
Because the book has changed significantly over the three editions, the CD contains the first and second editions of the book in HTML format, including sections that for aforementioned reasons were removed from later editions but which may in some cases be useful to you. In addition, you can download the HTML version of the current (third edition) book from www.MindView.net, and this will include corrections as they are discovered and fixed. One benefit of the HTML version is that the index is hyperlinked so navigating it is much simpler.
The bulk of the 400+ Megabytes of the CD, however, is a full multimedia course called Foundations for Java. This includes the Thinking in C seminar that gives you an introduction to the C syntax, operators, and functions that Java syntax is based upon. In addition, it includes the first seven lectures from the second edition of the Hands-On Java seminar-on-CD that I created and narrate. Although historically the entire Hands-On Java CD is only available for sale separately (this is also the case with the third edition of the Hands-On Java CD that may be available when you read this—see www.MindView.net), I decided to include the first seven lectures from the second edition because they will not have changed too much in relationship to the third edition of the book, so it will not only provide you (along with Thinking in C) with a foundation for this book, but in addition I hope it will give you a taste for the quality and value of the Hands-On Java CD, 3rd Edition.
I originally commissioned Chuck Allison to create the Thinking in C part of this seminar-on-CD ROM as a standalone product, but decided to include it with the second editions of both Thinking in C++ and Thinking in Java because of the consistent experience of having people come to seminars without an adequate background in basic C syntax. The thinking apparently goes “I’m a smart programmer and I don’t want to learn C, but rather C++ or Java, so I’ll just skip C and go directly to C++/Java.” After arriving at the seminar, it slowly dawns on folks that the prerequisite of understanding C syntax is there for a very good reason. By including the CD ROM with the book, we can ensure that everyone attends a seminar with adequate preparation.
The CD also allows the book to appeal to a wider audience. Even though Chapter 3 (Controlling Program Flow) does cover the fundamentals of the parts of Java that come from C, the CD is a gentler introduction, and assumes even less about the student’s programming background than does the book. And being walked through the material in the first seven chapters via the corresponding lectures in the second edition of the Hands-On Java CD should help you get an even better foothold into Java. It is my hope that by including the CD, more people will be able to be brought into the fold of Java programming. The Hands-On Java CD ROM 3rd Edition is available only by ordering directly from the Web site www.BruceEckel.com.
Source code
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