Java Programming: A Student-Friendly Approach

One of Woody Allen’s jokes goes like this: ” I took a speed reading class. I read War and Peace in ten minutes. I think it’s about Russia.” War and Peace has always been the undisputed exemplar of a book too long to read. Unfortunately, like War and Peace, most introductory Java textbooks are simply too long to read in a single semester course. In contrast, this book is quite short. Nevertheless, it covers everything students need to learn in a first course in computer science and programming. The book emphasizes program design, recursion, and simple linked structures–three topics that are absolutely essential prerequisites for the second course (typically called “data structures”). It also thoroughly explains the essential object-oriented features of Java. The free software package for the book contains slides for the entire book, an extra chapter on GUI programming and applets, all the Java programs that appear in the book, plenty of homework problems, sample exams (with answers), and instructions on using the JDK, text editors, and the command line.