Java™ Application Development on Linux - Dator

52Chapter 3An Experienced Programmer’s Introduction to Java• Why the absence of templates in Java is not as crippling as a C++programmer might suppose.• How final is better than virtual and how interfaces are often betterthan multiple inheritance.This is going to be a whirlwind tour. Our book assumes that you alreadyknow programming in general, and have had some exposure to OO programming.We are going to distill into a single chapter material that comprises significantportions of other books. In particular, if there are concepts here thatyou are not already familiar with, look at Chapters 1–9 of Bruce Eckel’s wonderfulbook, Thinking in Java, 3rd ed., published by Prentice Hall PTR (ISBN0-131-00287-2). It is, genuinely, one of the best books on the market forlearning the Java language and the design principles Java embodies.If you are somewhat new to programming, but technically quite adept(maybe a system administrator or database administrator with little formalprogramming background), you may want to supplement your reading with abook that, unlike Eckel’s, is targeted more toward the novice programmer. Welike Java Software Solutions: Foundations of Program Design, 3rd ed., by JohnLewis and William Loftus, Addison-Wesley, 2003 (ISBN 0-201-78129-8).It will introduce the concepts behind the programming constructs, whereaswe will assume that you know these concepts so we can focus only on theJava syntax.3.2FUNDAMENTAL LANGUAGE ELEMENTSBefore the object-oriented structures, Java (like C) has a small number offundamental statements and (again, like C and C++) some fundamental“nonobject” data types. 11. The existence of these nonobject data types is another thing that brings up criticism of theJava language. Since Java does not have C++’s operator overloading features, you cannot useobjects in standard algebraic expressions. I’m not sure if the inclusion of scalar classes was motivatedby speed, or by the lack of operator overloading. Whatever the reason, like any otherdesign compromise, it has both advantages and disadvantages, as we shall see throughoutthe book.