General description
The book is 400 pages long, consists of 11 chapters and one appendix. In addition to text, the book contains many images and code snippets. At the beginning of each chapter a brief outline of the material is presented, and at the end—a mini‑summary of what has been covered. Practical exercises for independent work are also provided at the end of each chapter. The difficulty level is rather easy.
Brief description
- Chapter 1. Introduces the reader to the Java environment, familiarising them with JShell — an interactive shell for quick code testing.
- Chapter 2. Building simple applications: creates the game «Больше‑меньше».
- Chapter 3. Refines the game from the previous section by adding a graphical interface to it.
- Chapter 4. Creates the first mobile app using Android Studio.
- Chapter 5. Enhances the app by adding a menu and customization options.
- Chapter 6. Creates a program for decrypting secret messages. Encryption theory is explained using the Caesar cipher as an example.
- Chapter 7. Creates an expanded graphical interface and exchanges data with other applications.
- Chapter 8. Builds a mobile version of the «Секретное сообщение» (Secret Message) application, which was developed in one of the earlier chapters.
- Chapter 9. Creates a new game app «Разноцветные пузырьки» (Colorful Bubbles) controlled with the mouse.
- Chapter 10. Refines the game from the previous section by adding animation and collision detection using a timer.
- Chapter 11. Further refines the game with support for multi‑touch on Android devices.
- Appendix. The appendix is devoted to debugging and fixing the most common and typical errors in Java.
Opinion
The book, after which I left a very small outline, perhaps indicates either that I know Java exceptionally well or that the book contains no useful information. Java is not my everyday language, so the first option is ruled out, although the second also holds. The book is actually quite good. It covers not only native syntax and basic Java concepts but also has a slight focus on Android. It also discusses several mini‑projects using small games as examples.
