Java has been the computer programming language of choice for a large percentage of high school and college software programming courses for several years. Many of those programmers learned to develop software with techniques that are now outdated due to enhancements to the Java Development Kit in versions 5 and 6. O’Reilly’s Java Generics and Collections is an outstanding complement to an experienced Java programmer’s now-outdated education. It brings developers up to speed not only on generics, but on autoboxing, the enhanced for loop, and other recent features that, when combined, make it easier for Java programs to evolve.

Writing analysis

I was impressed with the high quality of the writing and editing in Java Generics and Collections. It explains every detail, defines every term that would be new to programmers who learned Java circa version 1.2 or 1.4, and in general effectively communicates the material that it claims to cover.

One thing that the author fails to do — as in so many other books on programming — is define his audience. Most books are simply bad at telling readers what skill level is required in order to understand the material; Java Generics and Collections completely ignores this requirement. This is absolutely not an introductory text; it is entirely designed for experienced Java developers who want to be brought up to date on the latest Java programming theories and practices.

The book’s code examples are purely theoretical and serve only to show how a particular concept is implemented. Most of the examples do not represent working programs. I prefer to see sample code that has meaning — something that a reader can type into Eclipse or NetBeans and actually see work. This allows a greater range of learning because readers can then hack the examples to play with the code a bit.

Putting the book to the test

The title is a bit misleading, and negatively so — much more than just generics and the collections framework are covered in Java Generics and Collections, and I think it would have been better presented as a primer on Java’s latest features and how best to implement them. If you don’t know what the term generics refers to, you might be disinclined to buy a book like this. If you’re an experienced Java developer, you’ll be right at home with this book, though.

You will derive the most benefit from Java Generics and Collections if you already have a Java application and/or Java libraries that you wish to update. According to the book, most of the techniques it showcases will not actually change the bytecode, so your binaries should not be any different for the changes you introduce. The code will be more maintainable and you should be able to change it more easily in the future, though. Since ease of code evolution and development is one of the primary reasons for programming software in Java, this book’s content and focus should fit an experienced Java developer’s style perfectly.

Summary and conclusions

If you’re a Java developer who wants to get up to speed on modern programming practices and techniques, Java Generics and Collections is perhaps the perfect book for you. Among the many Java-related books I have read or reviewed, before now I have not seen any that so succinctly cover only the most up-to-date material, ignoring all introductions to the language itself and concentrating specifically on the new features and how to use them. I wish the code samples were a little more useful, but the fact of their brevity doesn’t at all ruin the book. Definitely recommended for experiened Java programmers.

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Copyright 2007 JEM Electronic Media, Inc. No reprints without written permission.