Bruce Tate, author of the Jolt Award-winning Better, Faster, Lighter Java has an intriguing notion about the future of Java, and it's causing some agitation among Java developers. Bruce believes Java is abandoning its base, and conditions are ripe for an alternative to emerge. In Beyond Java, Bruce chronicles the rise of the most successful language of all time, and then lays out, in painstaking detail, the compromises the founders had to make to establish success. Then, he describes the characteristics of likely successors to Java. He builds to a rapid and heady climax, presenting...

Absolute Beginner's Guide to Programming, Second Edition will help the reader understand what programming really is. The reader not only gets an overview of the job of programming, but also learns which specific skills are needed for certain jobs. The reader will understand How a computer interprets a program's instructions and gain insight into what goes on "under the hood" when a computer runs a program. How programming can and does relate to the Internet and learn about the skills required for adding security to programs. Compiled versus other kinds of programs such as...