Conventions

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As is common in many computer books, we use monospace type to represent computer code.

C++ NOTE

There are many C++ notes that explain the difference between Java and C++. You can skip over them if you don't have a background in C++ or if you consider your experience with that language a bad dream of which you'd rather not be reminded.

NOTE

Notes are tagged with "note" icons that look like this.

TIP

Tips are tagged with the "tip" icon that look like this.

CAUTION

When there is danger ahead, we warn you with a "caution" icon.

 Application Programming Interface 

Java comes with a large programming library or Application Programming Interface (API). When using an API call for the first time, we add a short summary description tagged with an API icon at the end of the section. These descriptions are a bit more informal, but we hope also a little more informative than those in the official on-line API documentation. We now tag each API note with the version number in which the feature was introduced, to help the readers who don't use the "bleeding edge" version of Java.

Programs whose source code is on the Web are listed as examples, for instance

Example 2 4: WelcomeApplet.java

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