Preface Studying a computer language is a career-long process. Many developers make the mistake of thinking that they have learned enough. They get caught in the corporate cycle of build-and-deploy and don’t seek to expand their knowledge. However, we can hardly blame them for that. For one, the build-and-deploy cycle is intensive and carries with it a substantial amount of political pressure: managers don’t want you to spend days reading a book or trying out code snippets when bugs and deadlines are looming. However, developers should take the time to experiment and learn more. When you expand your skills as a developer, there is some initial time investment. However, this will rapidly pay off in increased productivity and quality. Instead of spending hundreds of hours debugging, you can implement coding standards that block bugs and spend a fraction of that time implementing new features. In the end, everyone wins; your company gets higher-quality code and quicker feature turnaround, and you get to spend more time playing Frisbee with your dog. The second problem that the corporate developer has to deal with is that the majority of computer books are often not appropriate for the intermediate to advanced developer. When looking at my rather impressive computer book library, much of it from O’Reilly, I notice that my books tend to fall into two categories: many are introductions to concepts and most of the others are references to concepts. Although these books are very useful, there is a distinct lack of books that target the intermediate to advanced programmer. However, there is one shining exception in my library. In a dusty corner of my desk is a book I bought several years ago. Secrets of the C++ Masters by Jeff Alger (Academic Press Limited) is absolutely essential for an intermediate C++ developer. It begins with the assumption that you know the language and then expands from there. The result is a book that can really transform a developer from the intermediate level to a true guru. That is the goal of this book with regards to the Java™ language. Most of the material is meant to help you avoid many common mistakes made by Java developers. We will also cover nuances of Java, idiosyncrasies of the JDK, and advanced techniques. With luck, this book will increase your productivity and your enjoyment of Java development. | 
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