Think In JAVA (the third edition) [3]
I had already decided that when the next version of Java (JDK 1.5) is released from Sun, which will presumably include a major new topic called generics (inspired by C++ templates), I would have to split the book in two in order to add that new chapter. A little voice said “why wait?” So, I decided to do it for this edition, and suddenly everything made sense. I was trying to cram too much into an introductory book.
The new book isn’t a second volume, but rather a more advanced topic. It will be called Thinking in Enterprise Java, and it is currently available (in some form) as a free download from www.BruceEckel.com. Because it is a separate book, it can expand to fit the necessary topics. The goal, like Thinking in Java, is to produce a very understandable coverage of the basics of the J2EE technologies so that the reader is prepared for more advanced coverage of those topics. You can find more details in Appendix C.
For those of you who still can’t stand the size of the book, I do apologize. Believe it or not, I have worked hard to keep it small. Despite the bulk, I feel like there may be enough alternatives to satisfy you. For one thing, the book is available electronically, so if you carry your laptop, you can put the book on that and add no extra weight to your daily commute. If you’re really into slimming down, there are actually Palm Pilot versions of the book floating around. (One person told me he would read the book on his Palm in bed with the backlighting on to keep from annoying his wife. I can only hope that it helps send him to slumberland.) If you need it on paper, I know of people who print a chapter at a time and carry it in their briefcase to read on the train.
Java 2, JDK 1.4
The releases of the Java JDK are numbered 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, and for this book, 1.4. Although these version numbers are still in the “ones,” the standard way to refer to any version of the language that is JDK 1.2 or greater is to call it “Java 2.” This indicates the very significant changes between “old Java”—which had many warts that I complained about in the first edition of this book—and this more modern and improved version of the language, which has far fewer warts and many additions and nice designs.
This book is written for Java 2, in particular JDK 1.4 (much of the code will not compile with earlier versions, and the build system will complain and stop if you try). I have the great luxury of getting rid of all the old stuff and writing to only the new, improved language, because the old information still exists in the earlier editions, on the Web, and on the CD ROM. Also, because anyone can freely download the JDK from java.sun.com, it means that by writing to JDK 1.4, I’m not imposing a financial hardship on anyone by forcing them to upgrade.
Previous versions of Java were slow in coming out for Linux (see www.Linux.org), but that seems to have been fixed, and new versions are released for Linux at the same time as for other platforms—now even the Macintosh is starting to keep up with more recent versions of Java. Linux is a very important development in conjunction with Java, because it is quickly becoming the most important server platform out there—fast, reliable, robust, secure, well-maintained, and free, it’s a true revolution in the history