1.2: Object-Oriented Programming

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Some Java books introduce classes and objects immediately; others begin with procedural programming and transition to object-oriented more gradually.

Many of Java’s object-oriented features are motivated by problems with previous languages, and their implementations are influenced by this history. Some of these features are hard to explain when people aren’t familiar with the problems they solve.

We get to object-oriented programming as quickly as possible, limited by the requirement that we introduce concepts one at a time, as clearly as possible, in a way that allows readers to practice each idea in isolation before moving on. So it takes some time to get there.

But you can’t write Java programs (even hello world) without encountering object-oriented features. In some cases we explain a feature briefly when it first appears, and then explain it more deeply later on.

This book is well suited to prepare students for the AP Computer Science A exam, which includes object-oriented design and implementation. (AP is a registered trademark of the College Board.) We introduce nearly every topic in the “AP Java subset” with a few exceptions. A mapping of Think Java section numbers to the current AP course description is available on our website: http://thinkjava.org.