Introduction to Programming Using Java, Version 5.1
News and Errata
NEWS about Introduction to Programming with Java,
including any significant errors that are found after publication,
will be posted in the on-line version of this page,
which can be found at:
http://math.hws.edu/eck/cs124/javanotes5/news_5_1.html
News
- June 20, 2009 -- Version 5.1 is released, with minor corrections and updates from Version 5.0.
Old News
- December 14, 2008 -- A reader (Matias Niklison, from Argentina) has noted a small error in the way that I handle saving of files when a file of the same name already exists. I present a dialog box asking whether the user want's to replace the existing file. I test the user's response with "if (response == JOptionPane.NO_OPTION)". As the reader points out, this test allows the existing file to be replaced when the user closes the dialog box by clicking on its close box (the response in this case is JOptionPane.CANCEL_OPTION rather than JOptionPane.YES_OPTION). I agree that this behaviour is incorrect. Changing the test to "if (response != JOptionPane.YES_OPTION)" fixes the problem. This change should be made in a number of places in the text and in the sample source code. I will make the changes with the next minor version update (which will be coming up soon).
- December 14, 2008 -- A reader (Matias Niklison, from Argentina) has noted a small error in the way that I handle saving of files when a file of the same name already exists. I present a dialog box asking whether the user want's to replace the existing file. I test the user's response with "if (response == JOptionPane.NO_OPTION)". As the reader points out, this test allows the existing file to be replaced when the user closes the dialog box by clicking on its close box (the response in this case is JOptionPane.CANCEL_OPTION rather than JOptionPane.YES_OPTION). I agree that this behaviour is incorrect. Changing the test to "if (response != JOptionPane.YES_OPTION)" fixes the problem. This change should be made in a number of places in the text and in the sample source code. I will make the changes with the next minor version update (which will be coming up soon).
- December 2, 2007 -- I have discovered and fixed a bug in the MandelbrotViewer example from Section 12.5. The bug affected only the "LauncherApplet" version, and only on non-Mac-OS computers. The bug was an uncaught SecurityException in the file Menus.java that prevented the program's window from opening (except under Mac OS). The bug has been fixed in the on-line web site and in the web site downloads. Since the text of the book was not modified, I have not changed the version number, which remains at 5.0.2.
- December 1, 2007 -- This semester, I have been teaching a course in Intermediate Programming in Java, based on Chapters 8 through 12 of this book. The web site for that course can be found at http://math.hws.edu/eck/cs225/index.html. The web site includes the lab worksheets that were used in the course.
- November 15, 2007 -- Version 5.0.2 has been released, with a few minor bug fixes and some typographical corrections. For a description of the bugs, see the previous news item, below.
- November, 2007 -- A bug has been discovered in TextIO.java by students of Prof. D. McCarthy of Brock University: When the input source is changed, unread data from the previous source remained in the buffer so that the next "get" operation would take its input from the old source instead of the new source. A related bug was found in TextIOApplet.java by Praveen Pendyala in India that affects some of the TextIO-based applets on web pages in the book: When the user presses the "Run Program" button, there could still be some data in the buffer from the previous run of the program. In addition to these bugs, I have noticed an error in Subsection 12.5.3, in which I said that the locale code for Japan is "jp"; in fact, the code for Japan is "ja". Finally, I thank Beatrice Santorini, who has reported a variety of typographical errors in the book. These bugs and errors are fixed in Version 5.0.2 of the textbook, released in November 2007.
- May 1, 2007 -- Version 5.0.1 has been released. This version is identical to Version 5.0, which was published in December 2006, except for the correction of typographical errors and a very small number of substantive errors. (For a list of errors that have been corrected in this version, see the News and Errata page for Version 5.0.)
- February 5, 2007 -- OOP2_from_Univ_KwaZulu-Natal.pdf. Anban Pillay (School of Computer Science, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa) has put together a set of notes for a second course in Object Oriented Programming using Java. This is the second version of his notes; it is based on Version 5.0 of my book. The notes use parts of Chapters 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, and 11 together with additional material from other sources. A nice PDF (1.4 MB) of the notes can be downloaded through this link. See the preface of the PDF for more details.
- January 16, 2007 -- I have made a printed version of the full textbook available at lulu.com. See http://www.lulu.com/content/612392. Previously, only the first seven chapters were available in a printed version. The complete version, at 700 pages, is rather thick and a little unwieldy. (Please do not feel any obligation to buy the printed version -- I do not make any money from it.)
- January 16, 2007 -- A new "linked" PDF has been added to the download section of the main page. This PDF contains internal links for navigation and external links to material on the web site that is not included in the PDF. This PDF in more suitable for reading on line, rather than printing.
- December 18, 2006 -- Version 5.0 is released. This version of the book requires Java 5.0 or higher.