Direct from the creators of the Java(t) programming language, the completely revised fourth edition of The Java(t) Programming Language is an indispensable resource for novice and advanced programmers alike. Developers around the world have used previous editions to quickly gain a deep understanding of the Java programming language, its design goals, and how to use it most effectively in real-world development. Now, Ken Arnold, James Gosling, and David Holmes have updated this classic to reflect the major enhancements in Java(t) 2 Standard Edition 5.0 (J2SE(t) 5.0). The authors systematically cover most classes in Java,s main packages, java.lang.*, java.util, and java.io, presenting in-depth explanations of why these classes work as they do, with informative examples. Several new chapters and major sections have been added, and every chapter has been updated to reflect today,s best practices for building robust, efficient, and maintainable Java software. Key changes in this edition include * New chapters on generics, enums, and annotations, the most powerful new language features introduced in J2SE 5.0 * Changes to classes and methods throughout to reflect the addition of generics * Major new sections on assertions and regular expressions * Coverage of all the new language features, from autoboxing and variable argument methods to the enhanced for-loop and covariant return types * Coverage of key new classes, such as Formatter and Scanner The Java(t) Programming Language, Fourth Edition, is the definitive tutorial introduction to the Java language and essential libraries and an indispensable reference for all programmers, including those with extensive experience. It brings together insights you can only get from the creators of Java: insights that will help you write software of exceptional quality.

Ken Arnold 曾任 Sun 公司研究中心的高級工程師，是麵嚮對象設計與實現方麵首屈一指的專傢。他曾經是 Jini 技術的架構師之一、 Sun 公司 JavaSpaces 技術的首席工程師。

James Gosling 是 Sun 公司院士和該公司開發平颱組（ Developer Platform Group ）的 CTO 。他設計瞭 Java 程序設計語言，實現瞭最初的 Java 編譯器和虛擬機，最近他正緻力於 Java 實時規範（ Real-Time Specification for Java ）的相關工作。他是計算機界最受尊敬的程序員之一，曾榮獲 Software Development 雜誌評選的“程序設計傑齣大奬”（1996 年）。

David Holmes 是澳大利亞布裏斯班的 DLTech 公司的董事。他專攻同步與並發問題，是開發瞭最新的 Java 並發工具的 JSR-166 專傢組的成員。他還參與瞭 Java 實時規範的修訂工作，在過去的幾年中他一直緻力於該規範的實現工作。