Introduction - Java Concepts - page 15

Java was revised and extended many times during its lifeȌsee Table 1 . In this topic,
we assume that you have Java version 5 or later.

Finally, you cannot hope to learn all of Java in one semester. The Java langu age itself
is relatively simple, but Java contains a vast set of library packages that are required to
write useful programs. There are packages for graphics, user interface design,
cryptography, networking, sound, database storage, and many other purposes. Even
expert Java programmers cannot hope to know the contents of all of the packagesȌ
they just use those that they need for particular projects.

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Java has a very large library. Focus on learning those parts of the library that you
need for your programming projects.

Using this topic, you should expect to learn a good deal about the Java language and
about the most important packages. Keep in mind that the central goal of this topic is
not to make you memorize Java minutiae, but to teach you how to think about
programming.

Table 1 Java Versions

Version Year Important New Features

1.0 1996

1.1 1997 Inner classes

1.2 1998 Swing, Collections

1.3 2000 Performance enhancements

1.4 2002 Assertions, XML

5 2004 Generic classes, enhanced for loop, auto-boxing,

enumerations

6 2006 Library improvements

S ELF C HECK

8. What are the two most important benefits of the Java language?

9. How long does it take to learn the entire Java library?