This new edition of Learning Java has been expanded and updated for Java 2 Standard Edition SDK 1.4. It comprehensively addresses important topics such as web applications, servlets, and XML that are increasingly driving enterprise applications. This edition provides full coverage of all Java 1.4 language features including assertions and exception chaining as well as new APIs such as regular expressions and NIO, the new I/O package. New Swing features and components are described along with updated coverage of the JavaBeans component architecture using the open source NetBeans IDE the latest information about Applets and the Java Plug-in for all major web browsers.

Hardcore Java is an advanced book that focuses on the little-touched but critical parts of the Java programming language that expert programmers use. We're not talking about trivial things; we're talking about difficult but extremely powerful and useful programming techniques like reflection, advanced data modeling, advanced GUI design, and advanced aspects of JDO, EJB and XML-based web clients. This unique book reveals the true wizardry behind the complex and often-mysterious Java environment.

Threads are essential to Java programming, but learning to use them effectively is a nontrivial task. This new edition of the classic Java Threads shows you how to take full advantage of Java's threading facilities and brings you up-to-date with the watershed changes in Java 2 Standard Edition version 5.0 (J2SE 5.0). It provides a thorough, step-by-step approach to threads programming.

Java's threading system is simple relative to other threading systems. In earlier versions of Java, this simplicity came with tradeoffs: some of the advanced features in other threading systems were not available in Java. J2SE 5.0 changes all that: it provides a large number of new thread-related classes that make the task of writing multithreaded programs that much easier.

You'll learn where to use threads to increase efficiency, how to use them effectively, and how to avoid common mistakes. This book discusses problems like deadlock, race conditions, and starvation in detail, helping you to write code without hidden bugs.

Java Threads, Third Edition, has been thoroughly expanded and revised. It incorporates the concurrency utilities from java.util.concurrent throughout. New chapters cover thread performance, using threads with Swing, threads and Collection classes, thread pools, and threads and I/O (traditional, new, and interrupted). Developers who cannot yet deploy J2SE 5.0 can use thread utilities provided in the Appendix to achieve similar functionality with earlier versions of Java.

Software testing is indispensable and is one of the most discussed topics in software development today. Many companies address this issue by assigning a dedicated software testing phase towards the end of their development cycle. However, quality cannot be tested into a buggy application. Early and continuous unit testing has been shown to be crucial for high quality software and low defect rates. Yet current books on testing ignore the developer's point of view and give little guidance on how to bring the overwhelming amount of testing theory into practice. Unit Testing in Java represents a practical introduction to unit testing for software developers. It introduces the basic test-first approach and then discusses a large number of special issues and problem cases. The book instructs developers through each step and motivates them to explore further.

Organized for rapid access, focused on productivity, Eclipse Distilled brings together all the answers you need to make the most of today's most powerful Java development environment. David Carlson introduces proven best practices for working with Eclipse, and shows exactly how to integrate Eclipse into any Agile development process.

Part I shows how to customize workspaces, projects, perspectives, and views for optimal efficiency-and how to leverage Eclipse's rapid development, navigation, and debugging features to maximize both productivity and code quality. Part II focuses entirely on Agile development, demonstrating how Eclipse can simplify team ownership, refactoring, continuous testing, continuousintegration, and other Agile practices. Coverage includes

• Managing Eclipse projects from start to finish: handling both content and complexity
• Using perspectives, views, and editors to work more efficiently
• Setting preferences to fit your own unique needs-or your team's
• Leveraging Eclipse's powerful local and remote debugging tools
• Understanding how Eclipse fits into contemporary iterative development processes
• Performing continuous testing with JUnit in the Eclipse environment
• Using Eclipse's wizard-assisted refactoring tools
• Implementing continuous integration with Ant-based automated project builders
• Employing best practices for code sharing with CVS and other repositories

By focusing on need-to-know information and providing best practices and methodologies, this book is designed to get you working with Eclipse quickly. Whether you're building enterprise systems, Eclipse plug-ins, or anything else, this concise book will help you write better code-and do it faster.

Learn how to install, download, and run Ant. The book also describes various Ant data types, Ant tasks, Ant listeners and loggers, and Ant future versions.

In his new book, James Holmes, a "Committer" on the Struts development team, provides you with the first comprehensive treatment of Struts 1.1. His coverage begins with a comprehensive tutorial, followed by in-depth coverage of API, config files, Struts' tag library, and an entire section on end-to-end application development. He also emphasizes ways to handle Struts' most complex concepts including tiles, validators, security, and internationalization. Insider tips and techniques for making an amazing Struts application take you to that next level of manipulating this cutting-edge framework. Source code will be available online.

In Better, Faster, Lighter Java authors argue that the old heavyweight architectures, such as WebLogic, JBoss, and WebSphere, are unwieldy, complicated, and contribute to slow and buggy application code. As an alternative, the authors present two "lightweight" open source architectures, Hibernate and Spring, that can help you create enterprise applications that are easier to maintain, write, and debug, and are ultimately much faster.

Have you ever seen players eyes light up as they explore the worlds that youve created in your games? If you have, then game development probably has you hooked firmly in its grasp! If you've never taken your games beyond the PC, now's the time! J2ME Game Programming is a hands-on guide that teaches you how to create games for micro-devices. You'll be amazed at just how cool the games you create can look and play. Focusing primarily on mobile phone game creation, you'll jump right in and create your own games as you work your way through the book. The thought has surely crossed your mind that it would be nice to make some money off of this cool hobby of yours. J2ME offers real opportunity to profit from your games. Learn how you can earn revenue from your games by taking them to market. If you have a basic understanding of Java, then you're ready to explore all that J2ME Game Programming has to offer!