Books for VisualAge are few and far between and this is a welcome addition.

The text centres around building a calculator form initial design and simple applet through to a more substantial program that is the basis for a useful project.

The first chapter describes the VisualAge IDE, how to load the software and setup the classpath. The second details how to create the ubiquitous Hello World example, as needed in all good programming texts.

The rest of the book starts gently and increases at a fair pace, enabling the reader to create some useful first applets and applications. This is most definitely not a 'Teach yourself Java' book as it is mostly GUI based using the Point& Click technique.

The text explains how to create logic beans and how events, properties and methods are used along with how connections between the various entities are made and used. Later chapters explain the basics of a JDBC connection to access a database and what can be done with the records returned and how and when to use Servlets.

Included with the book is a CD that contains the Professional version of VisualAge v3.02.

All in all a very useful beginner's reference book.