Java keeps growing, adding features, functionality, complexity, and tempting developers to growl with frustration. The 1.4 release of Java 2 Standard edition increases the size of the platform by 50%, to 2757 classes in 135 packages. This guide to the 1.4 version of Java contains an accelerated introduction to the Java programming language and its key APIs so programmers can start writing code right a way. It covers the new features that come with version 1.4 which include: high-performance NIO API; support for pattern matching with regular expressions; a logging API; a user preferences API; new collections classes; an XML-based persistence mechanism for Java Beans; support for XML parsing using both the DOM and SAX APIs; user authentication with the JAAS API; support for secure network connections using the SSL protocol; and support for cryptography. The book contains O'Reilly's quick-reference for all the classes in the essential Java packages, so users can dive in and find what is needed to make the 1.4 version work for them.

Benjamin J. Evans是jClarity公司的聯閤創始人，倫敦Java用戶組的組織者，JCP執行委員會委員。Java Champion和JavaOne Rockstar榮譽得主。與人閤著有《Java程序員修煉之道》。他經常就Java平颱、性能、並發和相關主題 發錶公開演講。

David Flanagan是Mozilla的高級前端軟件工程師，著有《JavaScript權威指南》《Ruby編程語言》等。博客地址是：davidflanagan.com。