Preface¶
Preface to the third edition¶
Welcome to Java for Python Programmers. This is a quick introduction to Java for programmers that already know another language, preferably Python.
We will begin by looking at a very simple Java program, just to see what the language looks like and how we get a program to run. Next, we will look at the basic syntax of Java, and relate it to python. We will then spend some time looking at inductively defined functions and array. Finally, we will look at how to define our own classes in Java.
This edition of the text is adapted to the data structures classes taught at DePaul. As our primary text, we use Algorithms 4e. The main changes are to the section on classes. I’ve also added a new section on inductive programming over arrays using iteration and recursion.
James Riely jriely@cs.depaul.edu December, 2013
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License. See http://creativecommons.org
Preface to the second edition¶
Welcome to Java for Python Programmers. This short ebook is an ongoing project to help Computer Science students who have had one or two semesters of Python learn the Java programming language. If you are not a part of that audience you may still find this a useful way to learn about Java. This book is written using the build on what you know philosophy. In order to help you learn Java I will start with a Python example and then implement the example in Java. Along the way we will examine the strengths, weaknesses and differences between those two languages.
This book does not attempt to replace the many good Java reference books that are available, in fact I use this in my course along with Horstman’s Core Java volumes. Please feel free to use this book for yourself, or if it fits a class you are teaching you are welcome to use this as a resource for your own class.
I have published this article using a Creative Commons license to encourage you to use it, change it, and modify it for your own purposes. I would appreciate knowing what you think if you do use this book, and I would love to see any modifications or additions you make.
Brad Miller bmiller@luther.edu January, 2008
Shameless Plug¶
At Luther college we use Python for CS1 and CS2. When we decided to make the switch to introducing CS with Python we wanted to provide our students with two semesters of Python. The reason is that after one semester students are just getting comfortable with the language and it does not make sense to push them into a brand new language just as they are getting some comfort. The second reason is that Python really is a great language for teaching data structures. The language makes the algorithms evident by clearing away all of the syntactic clutter. So we (David Ranum and I) wrote a CS2 book called Problem Solving with Algorithms and Data Structures using Python. After we finished the CS2 book we decided to write our own CS1 book as well. This book will be available for Fall 2008 classes from Jones and Bartlett publishers. The tentative title is Python in Context. Please feel free to contact me for more information.