Java Developers Almanac 1.4 Vol. 1

Jason Bennett writes "The Java Developer's Almanac is an interesting cross-breed of a book. On one hand, it's a reference book for the entire Java 1.4 API, complete with a listing for every method in every class in the API. On the other hand, it's a mini-tutorial, as it comes with myriad examples of how to use various Java classes. In the end, though, it's a book geared toward the advanced Java developer, especially one facing a new part of the API who needs a little guidance." Read on for his review. Java Developers Almanac 1.4 Vol. 1 author Patrick Chan pages 1007 publisher Addison Wesley rating 7/10 reviewer Jason Bennett ISBN 0201752808 summary A concise reference to every class and method in Java 1.4, with examples for many.

What's the Book About?

The Almanac is divided into four main parts: packages, which covers every package in the core Java distribution, with the exceptions of the AWT, Swing, and printing; classes, which lists every class in alphabetical order, including all of its methods and fields; topics, which details the changes between each version of Java; and cross-reference, which allows you to look up every class, interface, and member type in Java 1.4.

Section 1, the package list, gives you every package in Java 1.4, every class inside those packages, the top-level description of the classes (from Sun's JavaDoc), a note of what JDK version the class was born in, an abstract/final indicator, and a hierarchy of the classes in the package. If this were all, it might be a nice, basic Java reference.

In addition to the strict listing, however, are hundreds of examples of how to use the classes; some basic, some obvious, and some you probably haven't seen.

The examples are extremely handy, if only to point out various utilities included with Java that you might otherwise not know about. With over 500 examples in the book, there's probably one you haven't seen or want to understand better.

There's also a website with all the code available at javaalmanac.com, so you don't have to type in every example you want to use in your code.

Section 2 provides a listing of every class in the covered packages in alphabetical order, along with all the signature of every public method in those classes. The book also cross-references every example in part 1 for each method. So, if you want to know how to better use ResultSet.afterLast(), you only need find the ResultSet class, and next to the afterLast() method are the two examples that use that method. With this easy organization, it's very straightforward to find any example you're looking for.

Part 3 goes through every major JDK release, starting at 1.0, and tells you everything you could possibly want to know about that release. You can find a statistical analysis of each release, including how many packages, classes, and members there are, how many classes in each package, new and removed classes and methods, deprecations, and all defined exceptions. I've certainly never seen a better or more compact reference on the differences between the JDKs.

Finally, part 4 gives a complete cross-reference for every class, interface and member mentioned. If you want to find every class that throws a ParseException, this is the place to find it.

What's Bad?

The one bad thing that strikes me about this book is actually just a simple question: Why should I use it when most of this information is at my fingertips in an IDE? Sun's JavaDoc is nicely thorough, and includes most everything in this book, the examples being a notable exception. Parts 3 and 4, of course, are not at all included in the JavaDoc, but I'm not sure how often I might need those sections.

So What's In It For Me?

If you're a down-and-dirty professional Java programmer, this book may very well be useful to you. The examples are quite handy, and as a reference to Java, it covers most anything you might need. Much of the information in the last two sections is hard to find in one coherent compilation. At $25 MSRP, it's an excellent value for all the information packed into the book.

Table of Contents

1. Preface
2. Part 1: Packages
3. Part 2: Classes
4. Part 3: Topics
5. Part 4: Cross-reference

You can purchase Java Developers' Almanac 1.4 Vol. 1 from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Comments

Java business model

[Anonymous Coward]

1. Publish book on Java
2. ???
3. Bankruptcy

In case of Slashdotting!

[Anonymous Coward]

Java Developers Almanac 1.4 Vol. 1
Posted by timothy on Wednesday November 27, @10:30AM
Jason Bennett writes "The Java Developer's Almanac is an interesting cross-breed of a book. On one hand, it's a reference book for the entire Java 1.4 API, complete with a listing for every method in every class in the API. On the other hand, it's a mini-tutorial, as it comes with myriad examples of how to use various Java classes. In the end, though, it's a book geared toward the advanced Java developer, especially one facing a new part of the API who needs a little guidance." Read on for his review. Java Developers Almanac 1.4 Vol. 1
author Patrick Chan
pages 1007
publisher Addison Wesley
rating 7/10
reviewer Jason Bennett
ISBN 0201752808
summary A concise reference to every class and method in Java 1.4, with examples for many.

What's the Book About?
The Almanac is divided into four main parts: packages, which covers every package in the core Java distribution, with the exceptions of the AWT, Swing, and printing; classes, which lists every class in alphabetical order, including all of its methods and fields; topics, which details the changes between each version of Java; and cross-reference, which allows you to look up every class, interface, and member type in Java 1.4.

Section 1, the package list, gives you every package in Java 1.4, every class inside those packages, the top-level description of the classes (from Sun's JavaDoc), a note of what JDK version the class was born in, an abstract/final indicator, and a hierarchy of the classes in the package. If this were all, it might be a nice, basic Java reference.

In addition to the strict listing, however, are hundreds of examples of how to use the classes; some basic, some obvious, and some you probably haven't seen.

The examples are extremely handy, if only to point out various utilities included with Java that you might otherwise not know about. With over 500 examples in the book, there's probably one you haven't seen or want to understand better.

There's also a website with all the code available at javaalmanac.com, so you don't have to type in every example you want to use in your code.

Section 2 provides a listing of every class in the covered packages in alphabetical order, along with all the signature of every public method in those classes. The book also cross-references every example in part 1 for each method. So, if you want to know how to better use ResultSet.afterLast(), you only need find the ResultSet class, and next to the afterLast() method are the two examples that use that method. With this easy organization, it's very straightforward to find any example you're looking for.

Part 3 goes through every major JDK release, starting at 1.0, and tells you everything you could possibly want to know about that release. You can find a statistical analysis of each release, including how many packages, classes, and members there are, how many classes in each package, new and removed classes and methods, deprecations, and all defined exceptions. I've certainly never seen a better or more compact reference on the differences between the JDKs.

Finally, part 4 gives a complete cross-reference for every class, interface and member mentioned. If you want to find every class that throws a ParseException, this is the place to find it.

What's Bad?
The one bad thing that strikes me about this book is actually just a simple question: Why should I use it when most of this information is at my fingertips in an IDE? Sun's JavaDoc is nicely thorough, and includes most everything in this book, the examples being a notable exception. Parts 3 and 4, of course, are not at all included in the JavaDoc, but I'm not sure how often I might need those sections.

So What's In It For Me?
If you're a down-and-dirty professional Java programmer, this book may very well be useful to you. The examples are quite handy, and as a reference to Java, it covers most anything you might need. Much of the information in the last two sections is hard to find in one coherent compilation. At $25 MSRP, it's an excellent value for all the information packed into the book.

Table of Contents
Preface
Part 1: Packages
Part 2: Classes
Part 3: Topics
Part 4: Cross-reference

You can purchase Java Developers' Almanac 1.4 Vol. 1 from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Java in 6 easy steps

[photon317]

1. Buy Java for Dummies book, write a cute web applet
2. Get $100,000 job coding Java for some corporate application.
3. Watch your self-esteem fall through the floor over the course of 3 years at that job, from realizing that the only language you know sucks ass, your products are all bug-ridden and bloated, and your source-code is grossly inefficient and unreadable.
4. Quit job, become crack addict bum on downtown street that other Java developers at an earlier stage than yourself stare at and don't give money to.
5. In a drunked cracked-out haze, have a moment of Zen enlightenment, and dawn upon the reality of computers, unix, and all the better languages out there.
6. Clean up, move in with parents, learn , get a real job, feel good about your code, live happily ever after.

Re:Java in 6 easy steps

[Vaulter]

4. Quit job, become crack addict bum on downtown street that other Java developers at an earlier stage than yourself stare at and don't give money to.


Was that you I walked by this morning?

Sounds like someone is a little envious of us successful, well paid, easy job, lots of spare time for OSS java developers who date lingerie models 2 at a time.

Re:Java in 6 easy steps

[Anonymous Coward]

Yep, we are jealous all right. Of both of you.

A moment of clarity

[Anonymous Coward]

At first I thought to post a standard "I hate Java 'cos it's slow" flamebait, but as I was writing it I suddenly felt empty and tired as if trolling had become devoid of any meaning.

Then I realized what's wrong. I'm 31, I have a good secure job and I am financially well off. Yet, I am still a virgin, I've never even kissed a woman and I spend inordinate amounts of time on the web trolling Slashdot. Instead of this shit I could be chatting with my coworkers, making friends after work and actually having fun in the real world instead of downing a sixpack every evening alone at home and jerking off to some porn before I go to sleep.

Goddamn I'm depressed. Life is hell.

Re:A moment of clarity

[Anonymous Coward]

The holidays are hard on all of us.

"us" being the slashdot virgins.

Re:comprehensive but somewhat redundant

[stratjakt]

You do realize that not every workstation has access to the web, espescially when you consider that java is an EMBEDDED platform.

And even those that do, it gets knocked out from time to time.

Plus, many developers (myself included) like to do the bulk of our stuff in a 'sandbox', completely disconnected from the network at large.

And how many programmers have WWW access in the toilet, where most research is done.