Think Java

Think Java is the Chinese edition of Think Java: How to Think Like a Computer Scientist, co-written by American computer science teachers Allen B. Downey and Chris Mayfield and translated by Yuan Guozhong. It belongs to the Turing Programming Series from Posts & Telecom Press. The book has 14 chapters and 3 appendices, totaling about 325,000 Chinese characters. The authors' aim was to write a genuine introductory book for Java, focused on basic programming structures and techniques rather than covering all of Java, so they take a "late objects" approach: variables, operators, input and output, void methods, conditionals and logic, value methods, loops, arrays, and strings come first, followed by objects, class design, arrays of objects, and arrays of objects, and finally objects that contain other objects and inheritance. Every concept is first given a clear definition and illustrated with examples and visual tools such as state diagrams, stack diagrams, and class diagrams to help readers understand what happens in memory and during method calls. Each chapter corresponds to about one week of a university course, and each ends with a glossary and exercises on topics such as word games, graphics, board games, and card simulations. The appendices cover development tools, Java 2D graphics, and debugging techniques. The book's premise is "programming as a means of solving problems," and its goal is to help readers with no programming background develop the habits of a computer scientist—breaking down problems, testing ideas, and debugging errors—which is why many universities and secondary schools use it as an introductory computer science textbook or as a supplement for AP Computer Science.