Section 1.2. Who This Book Is For | Java for ColdFusion Developers

1.2 Who This Book Is For

This book is for Web developers who are interested in learning Java. It is assumed that you already know HTML and attendant Web technologies and server behavior, and are able to write SQL statements. Many callouts in the text will reference how the Java topic being covered is distinguished from the corresponding ColdFusion topic. For instance, ColdFusion has arrays, and Java has arrays. But ColdFusion arrays start at 1, whereas Java arrays start at 0. Likewise, there are a number of similarities between CFScript ( especially in ColdFusion MX) and Java syntax, so that knowledge will help you. Exception handling is similar as well.

This book would also be useful to a Web developer who does not know ColdFusion specifically , but some of the ColdFusion contextualization would of course have little meaning.

Here is one version of how a ColdFusion developer might have previously gone about learning Java and JSP:

Spend hours in the bookstore reading endless tables of contents and hours online reading reviews to determine the best Java book to buy.
Decide to buy the "serious" Java book because I'm not an idiot, nor quite a dummy ; nor do I think I can learn anything complex in 10 minutes. Pick up one that looks big and straightforward that covers the basics.
Read 40 pages of Serious Java. Realize that I have not been writing software in C++ for the past 10 years and have no background in OOP. Decide, when I'm honest with myself , that it's my fault ”not the book's ”and that this is okay. Determine that I need another book to serve as background for this one.
Buy a UML book because now I know I should learn that first. Consider buying Beginning Programming so that I have a true foundation. Instead, get a taco and slink home.
Everything in the UML book is too abstract and removed from code. I need something faster. Buy the Marketing Manager's Guide to Java . Strangely, it doesn't quite seem deep enough.
Realize that all I wanted to know in the first place was how to write JSPs. Buy three JSP books.
Read 30 pages of the first JSP book. Buy a 700-page book on JDBC because now I'm "cooking." Spend 14 hours trying to install Tomcat on Windows as a service. Realize that my understanding of Java is insufficient to follow along. Decide that maybe I need an easier book. Buy a Java exam preparation guide because I'm not embarrassed to bring it to the counter.
Now disoriented and bloody near disgusted, forget about the whole thing for five months. Take a Cosmo self-help quiz to determine if what I really like is buying books, not reading them, or just reading programming books, and not programming. Consider a career in the design department where "the money's easy." Fall asleep.
Resume reading Serious Java. Decide it's high time to ride or get off the horse. Invest $2,500 in a two-day training class. Wear the free t-shirt so that the guys at the batting cage will think I work for Sun.
Slowly come to understand Java. Piece it together by writing programs of increasing difficulty, sorting through all of these texts , and talking to people "with a different skill set." Congratulate self on wry navigation of the Java world.

Java for ColdFusion Developers is written with ColdFusion developers in mind. Even if you are a seasoned Visual Basic programmer and the above scenario does not remotely describe your experience, you will find this book concise and very useful.

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