JAVA
- How to program
Reviewed by J L Tooze MISTC [1997]
The first attempt to gut, before digestion, this 1006 page catch, seized
on the index listing "Morse code". In an ttempt to start from Boy Scout normality
in what the preface tells us is a university textbook. "In use since 1832",
we read. Well maybe, many programmers are intuitive, self-starting learners.
And well-motivated persons, intent on coming to grips with JAVA, would be
able to make good progress simply by working through the 18 chapters themselves.
In other words, with this tome you might not need a lecturer. A few friends
perhaps, but lectures you will not need.
One therapy resorted to by travellers, in order to cling to some sort of
norm or reality, is writing. D H Lawrence produced certain of his later novels
in this manner. Apparently "JAVA - How to Program" (it) was written in seven
months or so, by this pair of authors, but it is not clear whether they are
blood relatives. The tome is a by-product of delivering, as trainers to industry,
25 courses on the C++ and JAVA languages, while living no doubt out of the
boot of a car in the North American version of a royal progress.
The whole purpose of this text is to allow and enable the production of computer
programmes written in JAVA, this leading edge language for the internet that
can "walk the web" to quote J C R Licklider. (A good allusion to the spider's
web that the Internet amounts to.) Quips such as these head every chapter,
assisting the motivation, no doubt, of bright-eyed students and programmers
when indulging themselves with introspective asides from the keyboard.
Java was originated, the authors tell us, by Sun Microsystems as a public
domain, and laudably so, FREE computing language, i.e. no licence fee has
to be paid to use the language when incorporated into programmes. Such was
the case with UNIX, developed by AT&T, and certainly is the case with
the English language itself. Not so with other major products of the computer
software industry.
The writers' experience with machine code programming (FACE, FEED, and onto
FFFF), is in the unit base 16-hexadecimal notation - which his instructor
recommended he practise by converting car registration numbers into and back
from (rather than decimal 10) while musing in his car. Such mental agility
is necessary and means that the work in learning computer programming is considerable,
and hardly intuitive, more a question of steeping oneself in the form, much
as is necessary when you learn Morse code.
An example might be a key programming element applet "application letter"
perhaps, which gives a clue as to how the language can be readily absorbed
by enthusiasts. The joy of Java, apart from its graphics facilities, is its
ability to load and play to recipients/viewers/browsers, audio messages "clips",
as an announcer in railway stations and airport. Pre-prepared messages which
play in a loop and stop - I hear, I forget - I read, I remember - I write,
I understand, as if it were a telephone answering machine. Very useful additions
to one's computing repertoire. No doubt with bells on as well.
The main interest to an improver could be Chapter 15, creating, writing and
updating files in a Java hierarchy. We all remember grappling, some of us
still have to, with our first computer and the run-on to hard disc management"Housekeeping". We learn that Java imposes no structure on a file. There is
no such thing as a "record", however 153 lines of program must amount to something...
The significance of this is that Java produces rugged program structures
that do not allow detailed changes to elements of a sequential file of data.
Mr "White" as a persons name cannot readily be over written to say, perhaps
Mr "Worthington". It would require all the records to be reprocessed to amend
this one record. The code is relatively "hacker" proof, some say completely
so. Students and programmers are given an insight into such in "JAVA - How
to Program" with multiple examples of good practice, and programming work
errors encountered in practice in actual programming by the authors. Multiple
examples of syntax and screen dumps in the text reinforce and build the Java
programmer's learning curve. With this knowledge you can produce your own
header pages, hypertext, and firewalls. No need to pay a lot to agencies for
your bespoke place on the World Wide Web.
Could you put the book down? Yes, but only on a shelf within reach of your
keyboard. We all know how it is with worthwhile reference books, you like
to be able to put your hand on them. This one is well worth having, in your
own library, to save you from tearing your hair out!
Available from Amazon.co.uk
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