If you are looking for an easy to read overview of OO, the Java language and APIs with the odd bit of humour thrown in this book is worth looking at. It is one of the excellent SunSoft Press Java series from Prentice Hall and is aimed at giving experienced programmers (in Pascal, VB, FORTRAN, Ada, C, etc.) a fast introduction to Java.

After an introduction to Java and important issues (portability, performance, garbage collection, the Internet, etc.) there is a discussion (Chapter 2) of OO programming concepts covering abstraction, encapsulation, inheritance, polymorphism, etc. I would not advise readers experienced in C++, Smalltalk, etc. to skip this because much of the Java class syntax is outlined and keywords defined (public, protected, private, final, static, etc.) Chapters 3, 4 and 5 then introduce the Java language building up from basics (types, expressions, etc.) to exception handling, treads, etc. To support the discussion there are plenty of diagrams and sample code. Chapter 6 then reinforces the basics with a fairly complex case study of a program generating anagrams (the code may be obtained from the CD and used with the discussion in the text). Following chapters then describe applets, APIs, the AWT, graphics programming, the JFC (Swingset), I/O and networking. Each chapter ends with Light Relief (humorous anecdotes, etc.), exercises and recommended further reading.

The book is an excellent easy to read introduction to Java programming. It does, however, provide very brief coverage of many APIs and the system developer would soon require texts on advanced features (see 'Core Java' below). Highly recommended!