Think Java: How to Think Like a Computer Scientist

Think Java: How to Think Like a Computer Scientist

Currently used at many colleges, universities, and high schools, this hands-on introduction to computer science is ideal for people with little or no programming experience. The goal of this concise book is not just to teach you Java, but to help you think like a computer scientist. You’ll learn how to program—a useful skill by itself—but you’ll also discover how to use programming as a means to an end.

Authors Allen Downey and Chris Mayfield start with the most basic concepts and gradually move into topics that are more complex, such as recursion and object-oriented programming. Each brief chapter covers the material for one week of a college course and includes exercises to help you practice what you’ve learned.

• Learn one concept at a time: tackle complex topics in a series of small steps with examples
• Understand how to formulate problems, think creatively about solutions, and write programs clearly and accurately
• Determine which development techniques work best for you, and practice the important skill of debugging
• Learn relationships among input and output, decisions and loops, classes and methods, strings and arrays
• Work on exercises involving word games, graphics, puzzles, and playing cards

Free book by O'Reilly - Introducing Java 8: A Quick-Start Guide to Lambdas and Streams

Introducing Java 8
A Quick-Start Guide to Lambdas and Streams
By Raoul-Gabriel Urma
Publisher: O'Reilly
Released: August 2015

Java SE 8 is perhaps the largest change to Java in its history, led by its flagship feature—lambda expressions. If you’re an experienced developer looking to adopt Java 8 at work, this short guide will walk you through all of the major changes before taking a deep dive into lambda expressions and Java 8’s other big feature: the Streams API.

Author Raoul-Gabriel Urma explains how improved code readability and support for multicore processors were the prime movers behind Java 8 features. He’ll quickly get you up to speed on new classes including CompleteableFuture and Optional, along with enhanced interfaces and the new Date and Time API. You’ll also:

• Understand why lambda expressions are considered a kind of anonymous function
• Learn how lambda expressions and the behavior parameterization pattern let you write flexible and concise code
• Discover various operations and data processing patterns possible when using the Streams API
• Use Collector recipes to write queries that are more sophisticated
• Consider factors such as data size and the number of cores available when using streams in parallel
• Work with a practical refactoring example to bring lambda expressions and streams into focus

Raoul-Gabriel Urma is co-author of the bestselling book Java 8 in Action (Manning). He has worked as a software engineer for Oracle’s Java Platform Group, as well as for Google’s Python team, eBay and Goldman Sachs. An instructor and frequent conference speaker, he’s currently completing a PhD in Computer Science at the University of Cambridge.

link: http://www.oreilly.com/programming/free/introducing-java-8.csp

FREE Ebook from O'Reilly - Modern Java EE Design Patterns

Modern Java EE Design Patterns
Building Scalable Architecture for Sustainable Enterprise Development
Publisher: O'Reilly

With the ascent of DevOps, microservices, containers, and cloud-based development platforms, the gap between state-of-the-art solutions and the technology that enterprises typically support has greatly increased. But as Markus Eisele explains in this O’Reilly report, some enterprises are now looking to bridge that gap by building microservice-based architectures on top of Java EE.

Can it be done? Is it even a good idea? Eisele thoroughly explores the possibility and provides savvy advice for enterprises that want to move ahead. The issue is complex: Java EE wasn’t built with the distributed application approach in mind, but rather as one monolithic server runtime or cluster hosting many different applications. If you’re part of an enterprise development team investigating the use of microservices with Java EE, this book will help you:

• Understand the challenges of starting a greenfield development vs tearing apart an existing brownfield application into services
  Examine your business domain to see if microservices would be a good fit
• Explore best practices for automation, high availability, data separation, and performance
• Align your development teams around business capabilities and responsibilities
• Inspect design patterns such as aggregator, proxy, pipeline, or shared resources to model service interactions

Markus Eisele is a Developer Advocate at Red Hat and focuses on JBoss Middleware. He has been working with Java EE servers from different vendors for more than 14 years, and has worked with different customers on all kinds of Java EE related applications and solutions. He is a prolific blogger, writer, and tech editor for Java EE content. Markus is also a Java Champion and former ACE Director.

link: http://www.oreilly.com/programming/free/modern-java-ee-design-patterns.csp

Learning Java by Building Android Games

Learning Java by Building Android Games

Android is the fastest growing operating system (OS) with one of the largest installed bases of any mobile OS. Android uses one of the most popular programming languages, Java, as the primary language for building apps of all types. So, you should first obtain a solid grasp of the Java language and its foundation APIs to improve the chances of succeeding as an Android app developer.

This book will show you how to get your Android development environment set up and you will soon have your first working game. The difficulty level grows steadily with the introduction of key Java topics such as loops, methods, and OOP. You'll then use them in the development of games. You will learn how to build a math test game, a Simon-like memory game, a retro pong-style game, and for the grand finale, a Snake-style, retro arcade game with real Google Play leaderboards and achievements. The book has a hands-on approach and is packed with screenshots.