Java Foundation Classes in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference Book

JFC is positioned between O'Reilly's Java In a Nutshell and JavaEnterprise titles. It's really two books in that the first seven chapters (to page 136) are entirely concerned with the graphics and graphical user interface APIs in Java 2. There are lots of examples, mainly using Swing, which augments AWT.Although it covers a lot of ground quickly, Java Foundation Classes in a Nutshell does a good job of discussing the differences from Java 1.0and 1.2. It also explains a lot of the real world usage issues which arise when constructing Java interfaces.The majority of the book, however, is class references for the various Java 2 packages. Each chapter deals with one class, starting with an overview and heirarchy diagram. The references are arranged alphabetically by class and package, so you need to know the package the class is in to find it quickly.This reviewer finds the layout and typography of O'Reilly's reference sections difficult to read with so much of the rather small text being embedded in dark grey. It doesn't photocopy well either. However, it does the job as a complete reference. --Steve PatientRead More