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公司的联合创始人，伦敦Java用户组的组织者，JCP执行委员会委员。Java Champion和JavaOne Rockstar荣誉得主。与人合著有《Java程序员修炼之道》。他经常就Java平台、性能、并发和相关主题 发表公开演讲。

David Flanagan是Mozilla的高级前端软件工程师，著有《JavaScript权威指南》《Ruby编程语言》等。博客地址是：davidflanagan.com。