4. Nuts and Bolts of the Java Programming Language

The purpose of this chapter is to get acquainted with more elements of the Java language such as data types, flow of control, accessibility of objects and classes, packages, and so on. We shall not discuss all possible topics, but we shall concentrate on two major issues: If you have a background in programming in C, the first part of this chapter will be a short refresher course. Only a few new things will show up. Occasionally we shall discuss differences between Java and the C language for the interested reader. In any case, it is expected that you have some knowledge about fundamental programming structures like condition and repetition. The second part of this chapter is meant for dotting one's i's and crossing one's t's in object-oriented programming in Java.