Chapter 1 gives an overview of the capabilities of Java that set it apart from other
programming languages. We explain what the designers of the language set out to
do and to what extent they succeeded. Then, we give a short history of how Java
came into being and how it has evolved.
In Chapter 2, we tell you how to download and install the JDK and the program examples
for this book. Then we guide you through compiling and running three typical Java
programs, a console application, a graphical application, and an applet, using the plain
JDK, a Java-enabled text editor, and a Java IDE.
