Recipe 1.5 Using the com.darwinsys API Classes from This Book

Problem

You want to try out my example code and/or use my utility classes.

Solution

I have built up a fairly sizeable collection of reusable classes into my own API, which I use in my own Java projects. I use example code from it throughout this book, and I use classes from it in many of the other examples. So, if you're going to be downloading and compiling the examples individually, you should first download the file darwinsys.jar and include it in your CLASSPATH. Note that if you are going to build all of my source code (as in Recipe 1.6), you can skip this download because the top-level Ant file starts off by building the JAR file for this API.

Discussion

I have split the com.darwinsys.util package from the first edition of this book into about a dozen com.darwinsys packages, listed in Table 1-1. I have also added many new classes; these packages now include approximately 50 classes and interfaces. You can peruse the documentation online at http://javacook.darwinsys.com/docs/api.

Table 1-1. The com.darwinsys packages

Package name	Package description
com.darwinsys.database	Classes for dealing with databases in a general way
com.darwinsys.html	Classes (only one so far) for dealing with HTML
com.darwinsys.io	Classes for input and output operations, using Java's underlying I/O classes
com.darwinsys.lang	Classes for dealing with standard features of Java
com.darwinsys.macosui	Classes for dealing with Swing GUIs slightly differently under Mac OS X
com.darwinsys.mail	Classes for dealing with e-mail, mainly a convenience class for sending mail
com.darwinsys.sql	Classes for dealing with SQL databases
com.darwinsys.swingui	Classes for helping construct and use Swing GUIs
com.darwinsys.swingui.layout	A few interesting LayoutManager implementations
com.darwinsys.util	A few miscellaneous utility classes

Many of these classes are used as examples in this book; just look for files whose first line is:

package com.darwinsys.nnn;

You'll also find that many examples have imports from the com.darwinsys packages.