Amazon.co.uk Review
After you've learned some basic Java, what comes next? Brett Spell's
Professional Java Programming can bring your skills to a new level with this tutorial on an appealing range of advanced topics that will extend the reach of your applications. This topic-based text offers something for every intermediate-to-advanced Java developer.
By focusing on individual advanced topics, you can use this book to solve real-world problems while generally improving your understanding of Java. A valuable early section examines what methods you should implement for your Java classes. (By implementing these methods, your classes can be as robust and flexible as those built into Java.) A section on multithreading shows you the right way to create threads that run reliably in the background.
If you use a Java IDE for designing user interfaces, you probably won't find much use for sections on event handling and layouts, which are covered here in considerable depth. (The reason is that today's Java tools automate this aspect of UI design.) However, two chapters on advanced Swing controls--the JTable and JTree components--are simply indispensable. (You learn how to perform custom rendering, as well as edit the contents of these controls. The controls are powerful, but it's hard to find any information on customising them.)
If you want your Java application to mimic the functionality of traditional applications, you'll benefit from the chapters on adding cut and paste and drag-and-drop functionality, as well as printing. A group of chapters will extend the range of Java when working with data, whether through JDBC, standard streams, XML or sockets, CORBA, or Remote Method Invocation (RMI). (The author uses a chat server to illustrate basic distributed computing.) The book closes with some valuable tips on Java security, help systems, performance tuning and internationalisation.
In all, Professional Java offers a mixed bag of tips and tricks for extending the range of your Java applications, whether on a single desktop or across the enterprise. Even if you don't read it cover to cover, this text offers plenty of invaluable tips and solutions that will benefit any working Java developer. --Richard Dragan
Book Description
Java has developed into a robust, and dynamic general purpose programming language, which has proved itself to be adaptable, extensible and well suited to a range of development environments. This book is about improving your core Java programming skills and learning how to create professional Java applications.
Every Java developer, whatever their speciality, wants to expand their Java knowledge and expertise. Over the course of this book, you'll discover the particulars of working with the Java language and APIs to develop applications in many different contexts - as well as delving into more advanced topics such as XML data exchange, or the Swing graphical user interface. By the end of the book you'll be fully prepared to take advantage of the ease of development Java offers, and able to create powerful and sophisticated Java applications.
