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Introduction to Java programming, Part 1: Java language basics

Object-oriented programming on the Java platform

J Steven Perry (steve.perry@makotoconsulting.com), Principal Consultant, Makoto Consulting Group, Inc.

J. Steven Perry is a software developer, architect, and general Java nut who has been developing software professionally since 1991. His professional interests range from the inner workings of the JVM to UML modeling and everything in between. Steve has a passion for writing and mentoring; he is the author of Java Management Extensions (O'Reilly), Log4j (O'Reilly), and the IBM developerWorks articles "Joda-Time" and OpenID for Java Web applications." In his spare time, he hangs out with his three kids, rides his bike, and teaches yoga.

Summary: This two-part tutorial introduces the structure, syntax, and programming paradigm of the Java™ language and platform. You'll learn the Java syntax you are most likely to encounter professionally and Java programming idioms you can use to build robust, maintainable Java applications. In Part 1, J. Steven Perry guides you through the essentials of object-oriented programming on the Java platform, including fundamental Java syntax and its use. You'll get started with creating Java objects and adding behavior to them, and conclude with an introduction to the Java Collections Framework, with considerable ground covered in between.

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Date: 19 Aug 2010
Level: Introductory
PDF: A4 and Letter (1290 KB | 57 pages)Get Adobe® Reader®

Activity: 608995 views
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Before you begin

Find out what to expect from this tutorial and how to get the most out of it.

About this tutorial

The two-part "Introduction to Java programming" tutorial is intended to get software developers who are new to Java technology up and running with object-oriented programming (OOP) and real-world application development using the Java language and platform.

This first part is a step-by-step introduction to OOP using the Java language. The tutorial begins with an overview of the Java platform and language and is followed by instructions for setting up a development environment consisting of a Java Development Kit (JDK) and the Eclipse IDE. Once you have been introduced to your development environment's components, you will begin learning basic Java syntax hands-on.

Part 2 covers more-advanced language features, including regular expressions, generics, I/O, and serialization. Programming examples in Part 2 build on the Person object that you begin developing in Part 1.

Objectives

When you've finished Part 1, you will be familiar with basic Java language syntax and able to write simple Java programs. You should follow up with "Introduction to Java programming, Part 2: Constructs for real-world applications" to build on this foundation.

Prerequisites

This tutorial is for software developers who are not yet experienced with Java code or the Java platform. The tutorial includes an overview of OOP concepts.

System requirements

To complete the exercises in this tutorial, install and set up a development environment consisting of:

JDK 6 from Sun/Oracle.
Eclipse IDE for Java Developers.

Download and installation instructions for both are included in the tutorial.

The recommended system configuration is:

A system supporting Java SE 6 with at least 1GB of main memory. Java 6 is supported on Linux®, Windows®, and Solaris®.
At least 20MB of disk space to install the software components and examples.