Java has grown in size until it cannot be covered in detail in volumes of 600 or 700 pages. The first and second editions of 'Core Java' were single volumes (see review by Francis in C Vu July 1996), this, the third edition, is in two volumes - Fundamentals and Advanced Features.

Volume 1 of 'Core Java 1.1', which is one of the excellent SunSoft Java series from Prentice Hall, concentrates on the fundamentals of the Java 1.1 language and building GUIs. The text is aimed at serious programmers developing real-world systems and is intended to act both as a text to learn Java and as a reference to the language and AWT. It is assumed that the reader already has extensive programming experience but not necessarily in an OO language.

The first six chapters cover language fundamentals, introducing Java (objectives/advantages/disadvant-ages, etc.) and the JDK and then rapidly moving on to describe data types and language structures and implementing and using methods, classes, inheritance, interfaces, etc. (empathising important OO concepts such as encapsulation, information hiding, reuse, etc.) Chapter 7, 8 and 9 start real application programming using the AWT (covering the new event model) showing how to build platform independent GUIs. Applets are covered in Chapter 10, with the final two chapters covering data structures (vectors, hash tables, linked lists, etc.) and exceptions.

An excellent text for the serious programmer showing plenty of good application programs. In particular I was pleased to see applets relegated to where they should be, a special use of the AWT - too many texts treat Java as nothing but applet programming. It can be used as a reference but I consider the 'Java Language Reference' and companion volumes from O'Reilly better for this purpose (assuming one has the money to buy them and the shelf space to store them!) Highly recommended!