This introductory programming in Java book offers an object-oriented approach, introducing the concepts of object, class, and message as early as the first chapter. The code has been thoroughly updated to the Java 2 platform. This object-oriented approach is used throughout the text, as students learn the fundamentals of object-oriented programming along with the basics of imperative programming. The authors place a strong emphasis on the software development process, presenting a clear and usable procedure for solving problems by developing classes that is used throughout the text. In addition, each chapter has an optional supplemental section that introduces graphical user interface (GUI) concepts through the medium of the Java AWT.

Java's support for GUI and network programming makes a great setting for diverse programming examples: a calculator, a strategy game, reading the Dow Jones from Yahoo!, a Web surveyor application, scheduling songs for a radio station, as well as traditional payroll and student GPA computations. Working with these and other examples, students learn to think like a programmer, analyze problems, devise solutions, design classes, and write code.