Java Rules
Doug Dunn · 2001
From the Book: This book has been under continuous development for over five years, since shortly after the JDK 1.0 release back in 1995. Married to the Java Specifications This book is based on the Java Language Specification (JLS). In fact, I started out to write what I regarded as The Java Language Specification for Application Programmers. Shortly thereafter, however, I realized that material from The Java Virtual Machine Specification (JVMS) would have to be included as well. The work has grown to include everything of interest to mainstream business application programmers in the latest and greatest copies of a host of Java specifications, including notably the Second Editions of both the JLS and the JVMS. The main difference between the specifications and this book is the target audience. The JVMS is, of course, written for someone who wants to implement a JVM. What is not as generally understood is that the JLS is a grammar that is primarily intended for someone who wants to write a Java compiler, such as the jikes compiler team at IBM. Thus, it includes a lot of material that is only of interest to programmers who make a living in the arcane world of compilers. That is truly unfortunate, because the JLS contains a wealth of information of interest to application programmers that rarely makes it into mainstream Java books. The same can be said of the JVMS. This book extracts all of that information, elaborates upon it where necessary, and presents it in a technical writing style appropriate for mainstream business application programmers. The Target Audience Mainstream business application programmers are the target audience. By that I mean working programmers, most of whom will be found in corporations outside of Silicon Valley. These are experienced professionals that need to learn the language at a professional level in the first pass. That requires a serious and dedicated focus on the part of the reader. Mainstream business application programmers have that focus. They bring to the subject years of experience and a strong motivation to learn. More generally, this book is for any programmer who wants to truly master the fundamentals of the Java programming language. While formalism and stylistic norms forbid me to include students in the target audience, I firmly believe that these books can be profitably used to teach the Java programming language (if not as the primary text, then as an auxiliary reference work).