How to Use This Book

The core of Agile Java is fifteen lessons of about 30 pages each. You will start with baby steps in Java, TDD, and OO. You will finish with a strong foundation for professional Java development.

The core lessons are sequential. You should start at Lesson 1 and complete each lesson before proceeding to the next. Once you have completed the core lessons, you should have a solid understanding of how to build robust Java code.

If you haven't completed the fifteen core lessons, you should not assume you know how to write good Java code! (Even if you have completed the lessons, you're not an expert . . . yet.) Each lesson builds upon the previous lessons. If you stop short of completing the lessons, your lack of full understanding may lead you to construct poor code.

Each lesson starts with a brief overview of the topics to be discussed. The remainder of the lesson is a narrative. I describe each language feature in the text, specified by test code. I demonstrate each feature in a corresponding code implementation. I have interspersed discussions of TDD technique, OO principles, and good development practices in these lessons.

I've supplied three additional lessons to cover a few more Java topics. Two of the lessons present an introduction to Java's tool for user interface development, Swing. These two lessons will provide you with enough information to begin building robust user interface applications in Java. But the bigger intent is to give you some ideas for how to build them using TDD. The third additional lesson presents an overview for a number of Java topics, things that most Java developers will want to know.

For the most effective learning experience, you should follow along with the lessons by entering and executing each bit of test and implementation code as I present it. While the code is available for downloading (see the next paragraph), I highly recommend that you type each bit of code yourself. Part of doing TDD correctly is getting a good understanding of the rhythm involved in going back and forth between the tests and the code. If you just download the code and execute it, you're not going to learn nearly as much. The tactile response of the keyboard seems to impart a lot of learning.

However, who am I to make you work in a certain way? You may choose to download the code from http://www.LangrSoft.com/agileJava/code. I've organized this code by lesson. I have made available the code that is the result of working each lessonin the state it exists by the end of the lesson. This will make it easier for you to pick up at any point, particularly since many of the examples carry through to subsequent lessons.