<em>Hooked on Java: Creating Hot Web Sites with Java Applets</em>
Want to sample some Java? Then give Hooked on Java a try. Written by three members of the Java implementation team at Sun Microsystems, Hooked on Java provides a brief and entertaining way of learning about Java and how Java can be used to perk up your Web pages.
Appendices provide a quick reference to tie applets discussed in the book with the examples provided on the CD-ROM, a list of Web sites related to Java, source code listings for the applets in the sixth chapter, and a series of Unix-style manual pages for the Java compiler, Java interpreter, and appletviewer.
This book is neither a full-blown tutorial on the Java language and class libraries, nor is it a reference. It provides a decent introduction to Java in the context of the Internet and World Wide Web, with plenty of pointers to other sources of material and lots of examples to play with. Non-programmers can benefit from the first four chapters with little problem. But later portions of this book will be difficult for readers who do not possess a background in C++ or other object-oriented languages — despite the fact that the authors indicate all that is necessary is a basic background in C.
Hooked on Java is written by experts on the subject matter, which is something that has been lacking in many of the books that have been hastily written and published over the past several months. However, the usefulness of this book will be relatively short-lived. Once the reader becomes familiar with the basic material, there is little need to refer to the book again. In addition, new books, such as Java in a Nutshell (David Flanagan, O’Reilly & Associates, 1996), provide a more detailed treatment of the language, and class libraries are beginning to emerge on the marketplace which will further devalue this book.
The CD-ROM accompanying the book contains the beta version of the Java developer’s kit (JDK) for Windows 95, Windows NT, and Solaris 2.x, as well as sample applets, Java-enabled HTML pages, and Java source-code examples. Since the publication of this book, the JDK has come out of beta, and an updated version can be obtained from https://www.javasoft.com/java.sun.com/products/JDK/index.html.
More information on this book is available on the Addison-Wesley home page (www.aw.com/devpress/java). Hooked On Java is the first of a series of books authored by Sun Microsystems employees that will be forthcoming from Addison-Wesley. To see what other titles will be available in Addison-Wesley’s Java Series, check out https://www.aw.com/cp/javaseries.html.
Hooked on Java: Creating Hot Web Sites with Java Applets
By Arthur van Hoff, Sami Shaio, and Orca Starbuck
Addison-Wesley, 1996
181 pages
9.95
ISBN 0-201-48837-X
