Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
The Java code inside each of the red squares begins with a curly brace and ends
with a curly brace. Now that you are familiar with the various Java 8 code commenting
approaches, as well as how your Java 8 game programming statements need to be de-
limited, both individually and as Java code blocks, you will next study the various Java
code structures themselves—how they are used, what they can do for your applications
and games, and which important Java keywords are employed to implement them.
Java APIs: Using Packages to Organize
by Function
At the highest level of a programming platform, such as Google's 32-bit Android 4,
which uses Java SE 6; 64-bit Android 5, which uses Java SE 7; and the current Oracle
Java SE platform, which was recently released as Java SE 8, there is a collection of
packages that contain classes, interfaces, methods, and constants and that together form
the
API
. This collection of Java code (in this case, the Java 8 API) can be used by ap-
plication (in this case, game) developers to create professional-level software across
many OSs, platforms, and consumer electronics devices, such as computers, laptops,
netbooks, notebooks, tablets, iTV sets, game consoles, smartwatches, and smartphones.
To install a given version of an API level, you install the SDK
(Software Develop-
ment Kit)
. The Java SDK has a special name, the JDK
(Java Development Kit)
.
Those of you who are familiar with Android (Java SE on top of Linux) OS develop-
ment know that a different API level is released every time a few new features are ad-
ded. This is because these new
hardware features
need to be supported, not because
Google's executives feel like releasing a new SDK every few months. Android has 24
different API levels, whereas Java SE has only eight, and only three of Java's API
levels (Java 6, Java 7, Java 8) are in use currently.
Java SE 6 is used with Eclipse ADT (Android Developer Tools) IDE to develop for
32-bit Android (versions 1.5 through 4.5); Java SE 7 is used with IntelliJ IDEA to de-
velop for 64-bit Android (version 5.0 and later); and Java 8 is used with the NetBeans
IDE to develop for JavaFX and Java 8 across the Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and
Oracle Solaris OSs. I have three different workstations that are optimized for each of
these Java API platforms and IDE software packages so that I can develop applications
for Android 4 (Java 6), Android 5 (Java 7), and JavaFX (Java 8) at the same time. For-
tunately, you can get a powerful Windows 8.1 hexacore or octacore 64-bit AMD work-
station on
PriceWatch.com
for a few hundred dollars!
