Chapter 1, Java Language Improvements: In this chapter, we examine the various language improvements introduced as part of Project Coin. These features include simple improvements such as using underscores in literals and the use of strings with switch statements. Also, more significant improvements such as the try-with-resources block and the introduction of the diamond operator are detailed.

Chapter 2, Locating Files and Directories Using Paths: The Path class is introduced in this chapter. It is used in this and other chapters and is the basis for much of the new file-related additions to Java 7.

Chapter 3, Obtaining File and Directory Information: Many applications need access to specific file and directory information. How to access this file information is addressed here, including accessing such information as the basic file attributes, Posix attributes, and a file's access control list.

Chapter 4, Managing Files and Directories: In this chapter, the basic mechanisms for managing files and directories are covered, including such actions as creating and deleting files. Also addressed are the use of temporary files and the management of symbolic links.

Chapter 5, Managing File Systems: Here a number of interesting topics, such as how to obtain the filesystem and file store information, the classes used to traverse a file structure, how to watch for file and directory events, and how to work with a ZIP file system are presented.

Chapter 6, Stream IO in Java 7: NIO2 is introduced. New techniques for performing asynchronous IO are detailed along with new approaches for performing random access IO and using a secure directory stream.

Chapter 7, Graphical User Interface Improvements: There have been several additions to Java 7 to address the creation of a GUI interface. It is now possible to create windows with different shapes and windows that are transparent. In addition, numerous enhancements are explained such as the use of the JLayer decorator, which improves the ability to overlay graphics on a window.

Chapter 8, Handling Events: In this chapter, new methods for working with various application events are examined. Java 7 now supports extra mouse buttons and precision mouse wheels. The ability to control a window's focus has been improved and secondary loops have been introduced to mimic the behavior of modal dialog boxes.

Chapter 9, Database, Security, and System Enhancements: Various database improvements such as the introduction of the new RowSetFactory class are illustrated along with how to take advantage of new SSL support. In addition, other system improvements such as additional support for MXBeans are demonstrated.

Chapter 10, Concurrent Processing: Several new classes have been added to support the use of threads, including classes that support the fork/join paradigm, the phaser model, an improved dequeue class, and a transfer queue class. The new ThreadLocalRandom class, used to generate random numbers, is explained.

Chapter 11, Odds and Ends: This chapter demonstrates many other Java 7 improvements such as new support for week, years, and currency. Also included in this chapter is the improved support for dealing with null references.

The software required for this book includes the Java Development Kit (JDK) 1.7 or later. Any integrated development environment that supports Java 7 can be used to create and execute the recipes. The examples in this book were developed using NetBeans 7.0.1.

This book is designed to bring those who are familiar with Java up-to-speed on the new features found in Java 7.

In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text are shown as follows: "We can include other contexts through the use of the include directive."

A block of code is set as follows:

private void gameEngine(List<Entity> entities)
{
final Phaser phaser = new Phaser(1);
for (final Entity entity : entities)
{
final String member = entity.toString();
System.out.println(member + " joined the game");
phaser.register();
new Thread()
{
@Override
public void run()
{
System.out.println(member +
" waiting for the remaining participants");
phaser.arriveAndAwaitAdvance(); // wait for remaining entities
System.out.println(member + " starting run");
entity.run();
}
}.start();
}
phaser.arriveAndDeregister(); //Deregister and continue
System.out.println("Phaser continuing");
}

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:

private void gameEngine(List<Entity> entities)
{
final Phaser phaser = new Phaser(1);
for (final Entity entity : entities)
{
final String member = entity.toString();
System.out.println(member + " joined the game");
phaser.register();
new Thread()
{
@Override
public void run()
{
System.out.println(member +
" waiting for the remaining participants");
phaser.arriveAndAwaitAdvance(); // wait for remaining entities
System.out.println(member + " starting run");
entity.run();
}
}.start();
}
phaser.arriveAndDeregister(); //Deregister and continue
System.out.println("Phaser continuing");
}

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

Paths.get(new URI("file:///C:/home/docs/users.txt")), Charset.defaultCharset()))

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "clicking the Next button moves you to the next screen".

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To send us general feedback, simply send an e-mail to <[email protected]>, and mention the book title through the subject of your message.

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