Java™ Application Development on Linux - Dator

xxviiiIntroductionIf you are an experienced Linux user or developer, and you are interestedin using the Java language on that platform, this book will guide you throughsome advanced Java development topics and will present, we hope, some noveluses for familiar Linux and GNU tools.If you are a rank beginner to either Linux or Java, we still think this bookhas value, but we would recommend that you use it in conjunction with moreintroductory books. For a basic introduction to Java and object-oriented programming,we recommend Bruce Eckel’s excellent book, Thinking in Java(ISBN 0-13-100287-2). For an introduction to Linux and its tools, we canrecommend The Linux Book by David Elboth (ISBN 0-13-032765-4) 1 as anall-around title. We also list several other books in sections titled Resourcesthroughout this book. Many books we recommend are not actually Linuxspecific.Since Linux duplicates (in most respects) a UNIX platform, we dooccasionally recommend books that are general to all *nix systems.If you are a developer, contractor, or MIS development manager withmore projects than budget, our book will introduce you to many solid toolsthat are free of license fees for the development and deployment of productionJava applications. We are all being asked to do more with less all the time. Inmany (but certainly not all) cases, Free and Open Source software is an excellentway to do that.WHO SHOULD NOT BUY THIS BOOKThose looking for complete documentation on Java APIs and Linux-based Javaapplication servers will be disappointed. Complete reference material on FreeSoftware and Open Source Software may be found in book form, but it is mostcertainly out-of-date. And while this is an open-content book, we know fullwell that we will only be updating it as our “day jobs” permit. In other words,those seeking complete and current reference material should go to the Web.Those who have a multimillion-dollar budget for applications developmentwill probably be well served by commercial application server products. Whilewe very much believe that Linux and Java on Linux are fully capable of supportingproduction environments, we recognize that products such as BEAWeblogicand IBM’s WebSphere have large support organizations behind them, and1. Note that we do tend to recommend titles from Pearson Education (our publishers), butthat we by no means confine ourselves to that publisher.