In 1983 a new programming language was to appear. This language, created by computer scientists at Sun Microsystems was a language specifically designed for the World Wide Web and the ubiquitious web viewer application, the browser. More impressive was the scope of the Java language. The saying "Write Once Run Everywhere" was the promise of this new programming language. We can see this today by looking at the number of devices that use Java as their programming language. The TIOBE Index for programming languages has placed its "popularity" in the number 1 positiion. Its new moniker is "Java IS what Java does." 3,000,000 devices boast their use of Java. This book is for those who wish to learn Java as their first programming language. Unlike any other book teaching a programming language, it does not require you to use a computer to learn the language. The book focuses on the key skill of learning any new language - being able to THINK in the language. For that reason it can be used as part of a CS1 course in JAVA. As a book for the first programming course, CS1, in computer science, it can be used a the primary text or a supplemental text. As a primary text it deals with the number one cause that so many students find programming daunting - they don't know how to think about programming. This book teaches them just that without interference of learning how to use a computer. Written by a teacher of computer science for over 20 years and industry experience that spans more than 40 years, this book not a common one for learning a computer programming language.
About the Author: If people didn't know any better they might say that my blood consists of chips and diodes, transistors and resistors, . I was breathing, eating, tinkering, and manipulating computers long before many youngsters today. You see I began my trek when I was approximately 10 years old. That would put my beginning with computers in the ripe old year of 1965. That's right. Computers were only about 15 years old by then, just a little older than myself, and so most of the people using computers were, as they say, my elders. How many of the faculty in my current computer science department can say that the very first computer they laid their hands on when an IBM 360/65, an RCA Model 70, and an IBM 1130. I would wager a bet that few would ever be able to tell you anything about these computers. You see, I was so interested in computers that I would beg, do menial tasks, and just plain look like a puppy to have the chance to get near and USE one of these behemoths. And use them I did. 10 years old would place me in middle school. I went to a school for especially talented students named Masterman Laboratory and Demonstration School and Masterman was the first school to enter the computer age in Philadelphia. The school system of Philadelphia was way ahead of its time on a number of fronts. They were they first to buy a computer for one classroom at Masterman. They were the first to give this school access to a time sharing computer. And they were the first to implement a computer-based instruction system to teach reading and simple math skills. An actual PhD was in charge of all of this. One Dr. Altschuler who encouraged kids to become involved with computers. While I was reading a book about Fortran IV he tried to help but he did not understand what the things in the book meant sometimes. Not his fault. He was never exposed to FORTRAN and the like. Near the end of my stay at Masterman. the School System of Philadelphia switched its computer system to a newer HP 2000B. This was a so-called mini-computer that could support many students and many schools at the same time. It had a much better version of BASIC (HP BASIC), and was much more efficient. On this machine I wrote an award winning program that translated English to French and French to English. This brief biography scratches the surface of over 40 years as a computer scientist and information technologist. More than 20 of those years have been spent as a teacher.