Beginning Java SE 6 Platform: From Novice to Professional [Paperback]

Beginning Java™ SE 6 Platform: From Novice to Professional steers you through the maze of Java Standard Edition (SE) 6 features. The first chapter sets the stage by introducing Java SE 6 in terms of its name change, themes, an overview, and a sampling of new features. It also briefly discusses the first two Java SE 6 updates.

The remaining nine chapters organize features into the following categories: core libraries, GUI toolkits: AWT, GUI toolkits: Swing, internationalization, Java Database Connectivity, monitoring and management, networking, scripting, and security and web services. While exploring these chapters, you will encounter a variety of useful and interesting topics: introducing a new locale with its own currency, creating a new JConsole plug–in, creating a scripted JEditorPane component, invoking and communicating with JavaFX Script and JRuby scripts from a Java application that interacts with the Scripting API, signing an arbitrary XML document and validating a signed document’s XML signature, and accessing an existing web service are examples.

With a few exceptions, each of chapters 2 through 10 alphabetically organizes its topics for convenient access. Furthermore, all 10 chapters end with a “Test Your Understanding” section that provides questions and exercises to help you reinforce your understanding of what you have read.

Additional features are covered in the first three appendices. The first appendix introduces you to annotation types for annotation processors, Common Annotations 1.0, and several tables that conveniently organize additional annotation types that are new to Java SE 6. The second appendix explores changes made to various Java tools. For example, the Java compiler tool now supports annotation processing—you'll learn how to take advantage of this capability by writing your own annotation processor.lÓ,