Book Image

Transitioning to Java

By : Ken Fogel
Book Image

Transitioning to Java

By: Ken Fogel

Overview of this book

This comprehensive guide will help non-Java developers already using different languages transition from their current language to all things Java. The chapters are designed in a way that re-enforces a developer’s existing knowledge of object-oriented methodologies as they apply to Java. This book has been divided into four sections, with each section touching upon different aspects that’ll enable your effective transition. The first section helps you get to grips with the Java development environment and the Maven build tool for modern Java applications. In the second section, you’ll learn about Java language fundamentals, along with exploring object-oriented programming (OOP) methodologies and functional programming and discovering how to implement software design patterns in Java. The third section shows you how to code in Java on different platforms and helps you get familiar with the challenges faced on these platforms. In the fourth section, you’ll find out how you can manage and package your Java code. By the end of this Java programming book, you’ll have learned the core concepts of Java that’ll help you successfully transition from a different language to Java.
Table of Contents (23 chapters)
1
Part 1:The Java Development Environment
5
Part 2:Language Fundamentals
15
Part 3:GUI and Web Coding in Java
19
Part 4:Packaging Java Code

A brief history of Java GUIs

The first user interfaces in personal computers mimicked the terminals of mainframes or minicomputers. Apple introduced the Mac in 1984 and Microsoft introduced Windows a year later. Yet, most personal computers sold in the 1980s had terminal interfaces. What changed everything was the general availability of the internet and the creation of the technology behind the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee, starting in 1989. By the end of the 20th century, we expected the computers we used to have a GUI. In Chapter 15, Jakarta Faces Application, we will look at web programming in Java, while in this chapter, we will look at desktop GUI programming.

When Java was introduced in 1995, its original purpose was the creation of applets, small programs that run from web pages inside a web browser. These pages delivered compiled applets that ran in the JVM rather than in the browser. JavaScript, also developed around the same time, ran inside the browser. This led...