Book excerpt: Introduction to computers and Java -- Java fundamentals -- A first look at classes and objects -- Decision structures -- Loops and files -- A second look at classes and objects -- Arrays and the arraylist class -- Text processing and wrapper classes -- Inheritance -- Exceptions and advanced file I/O -- GUI applications, part 1 -- GUI applications, part 2 -- Applets and more -- Recursion -- Databases -- Appendix A: Getting started with Alice -- Appendixes B-M available on the book's online resource page -- Case studies 1-5 available on the book's online resource page