Scheduled public sessions (click to sign up):

Java's 1.5 (Tiger) release, scheduled for beta in a few months, incorporates several significant changes to the language itself. In particular, it adds:

• Constrained types (enums)
• Generics (sort of like C++ templates) and a "generified" collection library.
• Metadata (a.k.a. "Annotations" user-defined attributes for classes, fields, and methods)
• Primitive-type boxing/unboxing
• Static imports
• A "foreach" syntax
• Variable-length argument lists (and printf functionality)

Some of these additions are good, some are not.
Some are easy to grasp, some are not.

Generics, in fact, present an entirely new way of programming in Java, and are implemented in a completely different way than C++ templates. Generics are not just "templates for Java." They are much more capable but easier to manage. They also incorporate the notion a "variance," which is entirely missing from C++.

I'll review all the proposed additions, with emphasis both on what the feature is good for, and more importantly, on how using the features incorrectly (or at all) can get you into trouble and otherwise cause havoc. We'll cover generics — by far the most involved of the new features — in depth.

Based on student interest, the class may include a BYOC (Bring Your Own Laptop) hands-on session. We'll survey you when you sign up, and will do the hand-on session if there's interest.

You Will Come Away With:

• A solid understanding of all the new additions to Java proposed for Tiger.
• A solid understanding of generics, including the proposed "variance" mechanism, and how to use them.

Outline

• Introduction
• Getting and installing the enhanced compiler
• Static imports
• Variable-length argument lists
• Generics
  • Using Generics (the new Collection classes)
  • Generics and UML
  • Writing generic classes
    • Bound and Raw types
  • Variance
    • Covariance
    • Contravariance
    • Bivariance
• Autoboxing
• Foreach
  • Foreach and Generics
• Enum (constrained types)
  • The existing idioms
  • The new mechanism
• Metadata/Annotations
  • Defining annotation classes.
  • Accessing annotations via the introspection APIs.

Prerequisites

This class is for professional Java Programmers who want to come up to speed on new features. You must already know Java for this class to be useful to you.

Public-Class Locations, Time, Accommodations

We usually hold public sessions of the workshop in Berkeley, California, either at the Berkeley City Club or our offices, depending on the class size. Classes run from 9:30AM to 4:30PM. If you're coming in from out of town, here's a list of accommodations that are close by.

Cost

For public classes, the cost is $395 per student. A 10% discount is given if you enroll four or more students simultaneously. This class can also be provided in house, with a significant discount for groups of 10 or more. Contact us for details.