| Average Rating: |
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| Sales Rank: | 4737934 (lower is better) |
| Price Used: | $4.81 |
| Shipping: | Free Shipping on most orders over $25* |
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| Pages: | 1074 |
| Binding: | Paperback |
| Publication Date: | 1997-04 |
| ASIN: | B00007FYJJ |
| Category: | Book |
This book takes you beyond what you'd expect from a standard reference manual. Classes and methods are, of course, described in detail. But the book does much more. It offers a comprehensive explanation of how AWT components fit together. In working with components, for example, you'll see how events fit into the overall picture, what they mean, and how to use them. The book includes lots of sample code, so that you can learn by example. In addition to descriptions of the standard layout managers, for instance, you'll find an extended code example for writing your own layout manager.
The Java AWT Reference is part of O'Reilly's Java documentation series. This edition describes both Version 1.0.2 and Version 1.1 of the Java Development Kit and includes:
The Java AWT Reference is meant to be used in conjunction with the Java Fundamental Classes Reference. Together, these two reference manuals cover all of the classes in the the Java Core API. The Java Language Reference completes the package, providing a complete reference on the Java programming language. These manuals comprise the definitive set of Java documentation that you need to do serious programming with Java.
O'Reilly & Associates also publishes an introductory text,Exploring Java, if you need to get up to speed with this exciting new technology. For advanced Java programming topics, look for upcoming books from O'Reilly on network programming, distributed computing, and database programming. And as new Java APIs become available, O'Reilly is committed to expanding the Java series to cover those as well.
The author carefully introduces all the basics here, starting with graphics programming and continuing with new JDK 1.1 features, such as the new event model, and information on working with individual AWT components like labels, buttons, and text controls. Along the way, the author highlights features that are new to JDK 1.1 (for instance, clipboard and printing capabilities, which are described in separate chapters). Although the book is primarily a reference for the AWT (a look-up section contains over 450 pages of the AWT class APIs), it also includes some short, clear programming examples on how to use the main features of AWT. Clearly written, this book is a good candidate for the library of any Java developer who needs to learn the nuts and bolts of AWT programming, including JDK 1.1-specific features.
Unfortunately, the last half of the book leaves a lot to be desired. It's ALL reference material virtually airlifted from Java in a Nutshell. It does give a little more detail than Nutshell, but not by much.
If this book had been cut in half (and reduced in price accordingly), it would be a perfect AWT book. I just hope the upcoming O'Reilly Swing book doesn't have the same waste of space.
This book isn't just a reference with the API's and constants listed for you. It also has excellent descriptions of the classes, and how they work, along with samples that demonstrate the new features. Many chapters (notable the printing chapter) document bugs in Sun's JDK that you'll run into as well.
The appendices on internationalization using resource bundles and properties is also excellent, and the table on platform-specific event handling (i.e., which VM's/browsers support which events) will save you many hours in debugging.
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