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This book was designed to be used in a first course in programming and computer science.It covers programming techniques, as well as the basics of the Java programming language. It is suitable for courses as short as one quarter or as long as one full academic year.No previous programming experience is required, nor is any mathematics, other than a little high school algebra. The book can also be used for a course designed to teach Java to students who have already had another programming course, in which case the first few chapters can be assigned as outside reading. (For students who have had previous programming experience in C or C++, there is an appendix that explains some of the differences between Java and C or C++.)
All of the code in the book has been tested with Java 2 from Sun Microsystems (version 1.4). To be fully compatible with the material presented, the Java used in your class should be version 1.4 or higher. The coverage of Java was carefully arrived at by class testing and is a concise, accessible introduction for beginners.
Changes in This Edition
If you have not used the second edition of this text, you can skip this subsection. If you have used the second edition, this subsection will tell you how this third edition differs from that edition.
For instructors, the transition from the second edition of the text to this third edition is easy: You can teach the same course, with basically the same topics presented, in the same order and with only very minor changes in the material covered.