[JAVA][Beginning Java 8 Games Development]

Chapter 3 ■ A Java 8 Primer: An Introduction to Java 8 Concepts and Principles
Next, you should take a look at the curly { braces ({. . .}) delimiter, which, like the multiline comment delimiter,
has an opening curly brace, which delimits (that is, which shows a compiler) the start of a collection of Java
statements, as well as a closing curly brace, which delimits the end of the collection of Java programming statements.
The curly braces allow you to use multiple Java programming statements inside a number of Java constructs,
including inside of Java classes, methods, loops, conditional statements, lambda expressions, and interfaces, all of
which you will be learning about over the course of this book.
As illustrated in Figure 3-2, Java code blocks delimited using curly braces can be nested (contained) inside of
each other, allowing far more complex Java code constructs. The first (outermost) code block using curly braces is
the InvinciBagel class, with other constructs then nested as follows: the start() method, the .setOnAction() method,
and the handle() method. You will be examining what all this code does as this chapter progresses. What I want you
to visualize now (with the help of the red squares in Figure 3.2) is how the curly braces are allowing your methods
(and class) to define their own code blocks (structures), each of which is a part of a larger Java structure, with the
largest Java structure being the InvinciBagel.java class itself. Note how each opening curly brace has a matching
closing curly brace. Note as well the indenting of the code, such that the innermost Java code structures are indented
the farthest to the right. Each block of code is indented by an additional four characters or spaces. As you can see,
the class is not indented (0), the start() method is 4 spaces in, the .setOnAction() method is 8 spaces in, and the
handle() method is 12 spaces in. NetBeans 8.0 will indent each of your Java code structures for you! Also notice that
NetBeans 8.0 draws very fine (gray) indentation guide lines in the IDE so that you can line up your code structures
visually, if you prefer.
Figure 3-2. Nested Java code blocks for the InvinciBagel class, start method, setOnAction method, and handle method
The Java code inside each of the red squares begins with a curly brace and ends with a curly brace. Now that you
are familiar with the various Java 8 code commenting approaches, as well as how your Java 8 game programming
statements need to be delimited, both individually and as Java code blocks, you will next study the various Java code
structures themselves—how they are used, what they can do for your applications and games, and which important
Java keywords are employed to implement them.
46
www.it-ebooks.info