Bryson Payne - Learn Java the Easy Way

LEARN JAVA THE EASY WAY

A Hands-On Introduction to Programming

Bryson Payne

San Francisco

LEARN JAVA THE EASY WAY. Copyright 2018 by Bryson Payne.

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher.

ISBN-10: 1-59327-805-5
ISBN-13: 978-1-59327-805-2

Publisher: William Pollock
Production Editor: Riley Hoffman
Cover Illustration: Josh Ellingson
Interior Design: Octopod Studios
Developmental Editors: Jan Cash and Tyler Ortman
Technical Reviewer: Bryan Fagan
Copyeditor: Rachel Monaghan
Compositors: Riley Hoffman and Meg Sneeringer
Proofreader: Paula L. Fleming
Indexer: BIM Creatives, LLC.

For information on distribution, translations, or bulk sales, please contact No Starch Press, Inc. directly:
No Starch Press, Inc.
245 8th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103
phone: 1.415.863.9900; sales@nostarch.com
www.nostarch.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Payne, Bryson, author.

Title: Learn Java the easy way : a hands-on introduction to programming / Bryson Payne.

Description: San Francisco : No Starch Press, Inc., [2018]

Identifiers: LCCN 2017022283 (print) | LCCN 2017035701 (ebook) | ISBN 9781593278465 (epub) | ISBN 1593278462 (epub) | ISBN 9781593278052 (pbk.) | ISBN 1593278055 (pbk.)

Subjects: LCSH: Java (Computer program language) | Java (Computer program language)

Classification: LCC QA76.73.J38 (ebook) | LCC QA76.73.J38 P3955 2018 (print) | DDC 005.13/3--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017022283

No Starch Press and the No Starch Press logo are registered trademarks of No Starch Press, Inc. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a trademarked name, we are using the names only in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark.

The information in this book is distributed on an As Is basis, without warranty. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this work, neither the author nor No Starch Press, Inc. shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in it.

Dr. Bryson Payne is a tenured professor of computer science at the University of North Georgia, where he has taught aspiring coders since 1998. He is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), among other industry certifications. He was also the first Department Head of Computer Science at UNG and the founding Director of the Center for Cyber Operations Education, an NSA Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense. He enjoys working with K12 schools worldwide to promote computer science education.

Featured in CIO magazine, Campus Technology, and the Wall Street Journal, Dr. Payne is also the best-selling author of Teach Your Kids to Code: A Parent-Friendly Guide to Python Programming (No Starch Press, 2015), now published in five languages (Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, and English). Hes also a popular online instructor of several courses, including the highly rated Udemy course Real-World Ethical Hacking (2017). His courses reach more than 20,000 enrolled students from more than 150 countries. He holds a PhD in computer science from Georgia State University and has published articles in scholarly and trade journals, in addition to speaking regularly at regional and national conferences on computer science and cybersecurity education.

Dr. Payne lives north of Atlanta, Georgia, with his lovely wife, Bev; two sons, Alex and Max; and three cats, Leo, Rocky, and Pixel.

Bryan Fagan is a middle school engineering and technology teacher. He lives in Dahlonega, Georgia, where he teaches, enjoys the slow-rolling Appalachian mountains with his wife and daughter, and trains in Brazilian jiujitsu. He is the founder of Make Stuff, an after-school makerspace for middle school students.

To Mom, for always believing in me

1
GETTING STARTED

2
BUILD A HI-LO GUESSING GAME APP!

3
CREATING A GUI FOR OUR GUESSING GAME

4
CREATING YOUR FIRST ANDROID APP

5
POLISHING YOUR APP BY ADDING MENUS AND PREFERENCES

6
DECIPHERING SECRET MESSAGES

7
CREATING ADVANCED GUIs AND SHARING YOUR APP

8
MAKE SECRET MESSAGES A PHONE APP TO SHARE WITH FRIENDS!

9
PAINT COLORFUL BUBBLES WITH YOUR MOUSE!

10
ADDING ANIMATION AND COLLISION DETECTION WITH TIMERS

11
MAKING BUBBLEDRAW A MULTITOUCH ANDROID APP

APPENDIX
DEBUGGING AND AVOIDING COMMON ERRORS IN JAVA

This book would not have been possible without the exceptional support of the No Starch Press team. Thanks especially to Bill Pollock, Tyler Ortman, Riley Hoffman, Jan Cash, Serena Yang, Amanda Hariri, and Julia Borden for their tireless editing, review, and marketing, and for the innumerable ways they helped me improve this book from my original manuscript.

Thanks to Bryan Fagan for his awesome work as a technical reviewer.

Thanks to all of my current and former students who inspire me to continue to create interesting, engaging contentespecially Shah and Susan Rahman, Justin and Diane Turner, Jacob Elliott, Brian Murray, Aaron Walker, Robert Brown, Trent Deal, Seth Park, Simon Singh, Andrew Miller, the Ctrl-Alt-Del robotics team, Jackson Grant, Quintin Kerns, Grace and Jack Halley, Matthew Harpur, and David Knight. Thanks also to the students from 150 countries enrolled in my online courses, especially Hayden Redd and Bob Watson.

Thanks to my inspiring colleagues and friends who continually motivate me to be my best: Markus Hitz, Chuck Robertson, Irene Kokkala, Tamirat Abegaz, Antonio Sanz Montemayor, Don Watkins, Eddie Mienie, Rose Procter, Ron Larson, Victor Parker, Keith Antonia, Billy Wells, Jim Goldy, James Daniel, and Craig Gentry.

Thanks to my father-in-law, Norman Petty, whose passion for technology is surpassed only by his love for family, and my stepdad, Dale Carver, who always has time for my 3D-printed gadgets. Thanks most of all to my beautiful wife, Bev, and my amazing sons, Alex and Max, for their unending patience while I wrote two books in three years.

Special thanks to Kalen Cole. At eleven years old, Kalen embraced my first book, Teach Your Kids to Code, learning to code at his own pace. He even sent me his first creative design using lines of code hed written himself. Way to go, Kalen! You are an inspiration to every kid whos just beginning to discover who they are and what they want to become.