Introduction

Welcome to Java 5: A Beginner’s Tutorial. Java is a mature programming language that is easy to learn. At the same time it is also a vast collection of technologies that are so diverse that beginners often don’t know where to start. If you are one of them, then this book is for you because it has been designed as a tutorial for novices.

As a beginner’s tutorial, this book does not teach you every Java technology there is. (It is impossible to cram everything into a single volume anyway, and that’s why most Java titles are focused on one technology.) Rather, this book covers the most important Java programming topics that you need to master to be able to learn other technologies yourself. Nonetheless this book is comprehensive that by fully understanding all the chapters and doing the exercises you’ll be able to perform an intermediate Java programmer’s daily tasks quite well.