Smart cards are taking off: more than 3 billion will be in use by the end of the Year 2000. Smart card technologies and skills are in enormous demand -- especially, familiarity with Sun's Java Card API. This specification brings Java technology to smart cards, enabling card issuers to build breakthrough platform-independent solutions, run multiple applications on the same card, and respond to changing customer needs by installing applications even after a card has been issued. This book is the first complete programmer's guide and reference to the new Java Card 2.1 API. Through extensive code examples, it shows readers exactly how smart cards work -- and how to fully leverage the Java Card APIs in smart card development. Expert smart card developer and Java Card API team member Zhiqun Chen covers the entire Java Card language subset and all key programming concepts. Next, she presents a complete, integrated tutorial walking step-by-step through the creation of Java Card applets. The book also contains a thorough API reference. For all Java developers, smart card application developers, developers working with credit-card related applications, and builders of e-commerce and enterprise applications.