About this Manual

6.1 About this Manual

This document is intended as a quick introduction to the Java programming language, particularly for people with a background in FORTRAN and engineering. In it, we develop a Java program that solves for roots of a function using Newton's method. You should learn from this the basics of Java syntax and structure. Also, at the end of the example you will find a reference section detailing everything learned from the examples and more. However, even this just covers elementary topics. In particular, we will not discuss in detail the object-oriented features of Java, nor will we cover graphics and the Abstract Window Toolkit.

If you are interested in learning more about Java programming, there are a couple of nice on-line sources. There is a good online guide to writing Java programs which was the precursor to the book The Java Tutorial: Object-Oriented Programming for the Internet . The hard core reference manual is the Java API documentation where you can find explicit information about all the classes comprising the core of Java. You should stay away from this less than transparant document until you become quite familiar with Java.

Your comments about this manual are welcomed by the author, David Maxwell.
Next 6.2 What is Java?

David Maxwell, who is still writing this, would like to hear your comments and suggestions.