Murach’s Beginning Java with Eclipse

Section 1: Get your students started right

Section 1 presents a 6-chapter Java course that gets your students off to a great start. This section works for a first course in programming or in Java because it lets you set the right pace. For a first programming course, you can have your students move slowly and do all the exercises. For a first Java course, they’ll move more quickly and do the exercises that you select.

From the start, your students will be using the Eclipse IDE because that will help them learn faster. Then, by chapter 3, they’ll be developing applications that use classes from the Java API. By chapter 4, they’ll be creating and using their own classes. By chapter 5, they’ll be using a 3-tier architecture to structure object-oriented applications like a professional. And by chapter 6, they’ll be using the best practices for testing and debugging their applications.

Once your students master the skills of section 1, the hard work is done. Then, you can add to their core skills by covering the chapters in sections 2, 3, and 4. At that point, they’ll have all the Java prerequisites they need for web or Android courses.

And if you have time, you can give them a good look at the real world of Java programming by using section 5. This section introduces them to coding desktop applications using Swing to create GUI interfaces and using MySQL to handle database data.

Section 2: The essential core Java skills

In section 2, your students will expand upon what they learned in section 1 by mastering more of the core Java skills that they’ll use all the time. That means that they’ll learn new skills, like how to work with strings and arrays. But they’ll also learn more about topics that were introduced in section 1, like working with primitive types and operators and coding control statements. These are the essentials that your students need for section 3.

Section 3: Object-oriented programming made clear

In section 1, your students learned how to develop their first object-oriented programs. Now, after section 2, they have the core skills for learning more about OOP.

Then, section 3 cuts through the mysteries of inheritance, interfaces, polymorphism, and the factory pattern so your students learn how to create and use more sophisticated business and data access classes. When your students finish this section, they will know how to develop real-world, object-oriented, business applications.

Section 4: The rest of the core Java skills

Like section 2, section 4 lets your students expand their core Java skills in new ways. To be specific, it covers how to work with collections, generics, lambdas, dates, times, exceptions, file I/O, and threads. However, because each chapter in this section is an independent module, you don’t have to assign these chapters in sequence and you don’t have to assign all of them. Instead, you can use the sequence and content that works best for your class.

Section 5: Real-world GUI and database programming

When your students complete sections 1-4, they will have all the perquisite Java skills they need for courses on Java web programming, Android programming, or advanced Java. But there’s a bonus section!

The 4 chapters in section 5 are designed to give your students a better appreciation for what real-world programming is like. As a result, they introduce your students to the skills for developing desktop applications. To start, these chapters show how to create a MySQL database and how to write the Java code that works with the data in this database. Then, these chapters show how to develop a graphical user interface (GUI) for the application.

Of course, you don’t have to assign the chapters in this section. You can also assign them as information only: no exercises. But we think that this section will provide an aha! moment for many students, showing them where their Java skills can take them… and that’s important in any first programming course.

Like all of our books, this one has the distinctive features that make Murach books so effective. But here are a few of the benefits that are specific to this book:

Your students are supported through the learning curve

For the past 13 years, we’ve often had true beginners tell us that they like our Java book overall, but they also find it overwhelming at times. (As one reviewer of the first edition put it, “It’s not for the faint of heart!”) Students and would-be professionals alike have requested more explanation of certain topics, more examples, and a more relaxed pace.

So that’s what Murach’s Beginning Java delivers:

• We’ve taken a hard look at the way we present material in Murach’s Java Programming and rearranged topics with beginners in mind.
• We’ve introduced object-oriented programming earlier so that the OOP mindset becomes natural right at the start.
• We’ve added more explanation on core programming concepts, like working with classes, numbers, strings, and control structures.
• We’ve slowed the pace some, breaking the material down into shorter chapters that are easier to master.
• We’ve added more examples to guide beginners through the code and more exercises to let them practice what they’ve learned.

In short, we now have the ideal book for your students who are taking their first courses in programming and Java.

Your students will take full advantage of Eclipse

Unlike many Java books, this book shows how to use an IDE for developing Java applications. That’s how Java programming is done in the real world because an IDE is loaded with time-saving development tools. So that by itself will help your students learn faster.

For this book, we’ve chosen the Eclipse IDE because it’s free, widely used, and easy for beginners to get started with. Then, chapter 1 shows the basics of using this IDE, and subsequent chapters present new Eclipse skills whenever they’re useful.

Note, however, that we also have an NetBeans version of this book. So if you prefer to use that IDE, please get a review copy of that book. The only difference between the two books is the IDE.

Your students will learn OOP from the start

Unlike many Java books, this one gets you going with object-oriented programming (OOP) from the start (call it “early objects”). By chapter 3, your students will be developing applications that use the classes from the Java API. By chapter 4, they’ll be creating and using their own classes. And by chapter 5, they’ll be using a 3-tier architecture to structure their object-oriented applications the way professionals do.

From that point on, your students will be doing and thinking objects throughout the rest of the book.

Your students will learn the skills that they need on the job

Unlike many Java books, this one focuses on the core Java features that are needed every day on the job. As a result, it doesn’t waste your students’ time by presenting skills that they probably won’t ever need.

This also means that all of the examples in this book are drawn from real-world applications. This is especially apparent in the object-oriented chapters, where most competing books resort to “animal”, “vehicle”, and “toy” applications that misrepresent what OOP is really like.

Your students will learn all of the prerequisite Java skills that they need for web and Android programming

One of the goals of this book is to present all of the Java skills that your students will need to start learning web and Android programming. That’s why we made sure that this book covers all the prerequisites that are needed for Murach’s Java Servlets and JSP (our Java web programming book) and Murach’s Android Programming.

But regardless of what web programming or Android book you use, we haven’t seen another beginning Java book that prepares students so thoroughly for advanced courses.

Java SE 8 is the current version of Java and the one that this book shows how to use. However, since all versions of Java are backwards compatible, the code and skills presented in this book will work with later versions too.

As you can tell from its title, this book shows how to use the Eclipse IDE to code, test, and debug applications. We chose Eclipse because we think it’s a great tool that is easy for beginners to use and runs on all operating systems.

Your students can download Java and its documentation for free from the Oracle website. Likewise, they can download Eclipse for free from the Eclipse website. To make this easier, Appendix A (for Windows) and Appendix B (for the Mac) explain the procedures that they will use to download and install both pieces of software.

If you prefer to use NetBeans for your Java course, please note that we have an NetBeans version of this book called Murach’s Beginning Java with NetBeans. The only difference between that book and this one is the IDE.

After we published our Beginning Java texts, we updated our longtime core Java book, and the latest edition is Murach’s Java Programming (5th Edition).

It differs from this Beginning Java book in that (1) it goes into more depth and breadth on some subjects, especially GUI and database handling, (2) it covers up through Java 9 instead of Java 8, and (3) it uses NetBeans as the IDE (but we provide all the source code in Eclipse format, along with a PDF on using Eclipse instead of NetBeans with the book). It differs, too, from the 4^th edition in that we integrated much of what we learned from the Beginning books to make this edition more beginner-friendly.

So you might want to take a look at the table of contents to see if you prefer it to the Beginning Java book. It’s true, you probably won’t be able to cover everything in it unless you offer multiple courses in Java. But by the end of your first course, students will be confident about using the book to learn additional skills on their own…a great resource for those who become professional Java developers.

“This is a great book for someone new to programming or just new to the Java language.
     “The authors slowly walk the reader through the basics: what Java is, OO basics, how to use an IDE, and how to test and debug. The core Java constructs are covered: control statements (if/else, loops and exception handling), strings and arrays. Proper detail is given to key concepts needed to work with Java, including inheritance, how to use collections, and working with lambdas. [And] the book does a complete job instructing the reader on how to use the free and open source IDE, Eclipse.”
- Erik Weibust, Java MUG (Metroplex Users Group)

“I really liked the intro including types of applications and keywords. I liked the covering Eclipse as needed for specific concepts, including perspectives, code completion, and the debugger. Similarly, good programming idioms are covered so readers can see patterns. I particularly liked how the code listings highlight the relevant parts.”
     “Great for learning both Java and your first IDE.”
- Jeanne Boyarsky, JavaRanch.com

“At the end of every chapter, there are a set of hands-on exercises that let you practice the concepts in that chapter. So many other books either don't have practice problems at all, or if they do, they are so open-ended and time-consuming that it is hard to know if you got them right. Murach provides practice code that you download from their website. The problems typically involve using the IDE to make simple code modifications, and then running and debugging your changes. This is an important hands-on approach, since it is not enough to learn a new language just by reading about it.”
- Bruce Alspaugh, St. Louis Java Users Group

“The text rightly uses console applications to focus on the actions described in code. Creating a user interface takes a back seat and is only discussed in the last two chapters, which keeps the focus on the Java code itself. Too many introductory texts focus on the UI at the expense of the code. A great beginner’s text for learning Java.”
- Eric Notheisen, Enterprise Developers Guild