About this book

The Java Programming Wikibook is a shared effort in amassing a comprehensive guide of the complete Java platform — from programming advice and tutorials for the desktop computer to programming on mobile phones. The information presented in this book has been conceptualised with the combined efforts of various contributors, and anonymous editors.

The primary purpose of this book is to teach the Java programming language to an audience of beginners, but with its progressive layout of tutorials increasing in complexity, it can be just as helpful for intermediate and experienced programmers. Thus, this book is meant to be used as:

• a collection of tutorials building upon one another in a progressive manner;
• a guidebook for efficient programming with the Java programming language; and,
• a comprehensive manual resource for the advanced programmer.

This book is intended to be used in conjunction with various other online resources, such as:

• the Java platform API documentation;
• the official Java website; and,
• active Java communities online, such as Java.net and JavaRanch, etc.

Who should read this book?

Everything you would need to know to write computer programs would be explained in this book. By the time you finish reading, you will find yourself proficient enough to tackle just about anything in Java and programs written using it. This book serves as the first few stepping stones of many you would need to cross the unfriendly waters of computer programming. We have put a lot of emphasis in structuring this book in a way that lets you start programming from scratch, with Java as your preferred language of choice. This book is designed for you if any one of the following is true.

• You are relatively new to programming and have heard how easy it is to learn Java.
• You had some BASIC or Pascal in school, and have a grasp of basic programming and logic.
• You already know and have been introduced to programming in earlier versions of Java.
• You are an experienced developer and know how to program in other languages like C++, Visual Basic, Python, Ruby, etc.
• You've heard that Java is great for web applications and web services programming.

Although this book is generally meant to be for readers who are beginning to learn programming, it can be highly beneficial for intermediate and advanced programmers who may have missed out on some vital information. After completing this book you should be able to solve many complicated problems using the Java skills presented in the following chapters. Once you finish, you are also encouraged to undertake ambitious programming projects of your own.

This book assumes that the reader has no prior knowledge of programming in Java, or for that matter, any object-oriented programming language. Practical examples and exercises following each topic and module make it easy to understand the software development methodology. If you are a complete beginner, we suggest that you move slowly through this book and complete each exercise at your own pace.

How to use this book

This book is a reference book of the Java language and its related technologies. Its goal is to give a complete picture of Java and its technologies. While the book can be read from the beginning to end, it is also designed to have individual sections that can be read independently. To help find information quickly, navigation boxes are given in the online version for access to individual topics.

This book is divided into sections. Pages are grouped together into section topics. To make this book expandable in the future via the addition of new sections, the sections navigation-wide are independent from each other. Each section can be considered as a mini book by itself. Pages that belong to the same topic can be navigated by the links on the right hand side.

How can you participate

Content is constantly being updated and enhanced in this book as is the nature of wiki-based content. This book is therefore in a constant state of evolution. Any Wikibooks users can participate in helping this book to a better standard as both a reader, or a contributor.

As a reader

If you are interested in reading the content present in this book, we encourage you to:

• share comments about the technical accuracy, content, or organization of this book by telling the contributors in the Discussion section for each page. You can find the link Discussion on each page in this book leading you to appropriate sections for discussion. Leave a signature when providing feedback, writing comments, or giving suggestion on the Discussion pages. This can be achieved by appending -- ~~~~ to your messages. Do not add your signatures to the Book pages, they are only meant for the Discussion pages.
• share news about the Java Programming Wikibook with your family and friends and let them know about this comprehensive Java guide online.
• become a contributing author, if you think that you have information that could fill in some missing gaps in this book.

As a contributor

If you are intent on writing content for this book, you need to do the following:

• When writing content for this book, you can always pose as an anonymous contributor, however we recommend you sign-in into the Wikibooks website when doing so. It becomes easier to track and acknowledge changes to certain parts of the book. Furthermore, the opinions and views of logged-in users are given precedence over anonymous users.
• Once you have started contributing content for this book, make sure that you add your name to the contributor list.
• Be bold and try to follow the conventions for this Wikibook. It is important that the conventions for this book be followed to the letter to make content consistent and reliable throughout.