This chapter begins our introduction to the Java language syntax. Because readers come to this book with different levels of programming experience, it is difficult to set the right level for all audiences. We have tried to strike a balance between giving a thorough tour of the language syntax for beginners and providing enough background information so that a more experienced reader can quickly gauge the differences between Java and other languages. Since Java’s syntax is derived from C, we make some comparisons to features of that language, but no prior knowledge of C is necessary. We spend more time on aspects of Java that are different from other languages and less on elemental programming concepts. For example, we’ll take a close look at arrays in Java because they are significantly different from those in other languages. We won’t, on the other hand, spend a lot of time explaining basic language constructs such as loops and control structures. Chapters 5 through 7 will build on this chapter by talking about Java’s object-oriented side and complete the discussion of the core language. Chapter 8 discusses generics, a feature that enhances the way types work in the Java language, allowing you to write certain kinds of classes more flexibly and safely. After that, we dive into the Java APIs and see what we can do with the language. The rest of this book is filled with concise examples that do useful things and if you are left with any questions after these introductory chapters, we hope they’ll be answered as you look at the code.
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