I received my copy today of Java 1.5 Tiger: A Developer's Notebook. This is a new O'Reilly book by Brett McLaughlin on which I'm credited as a co-author. Consultant would be a better term, since Brett did all of the writing. I did the research, and gave him draft copies of the material I was working on for the 5th edition of Java in a Nutshell, but Brett wrote all the prose, and most of the example code, too.
This book was sent to the printer in time to be on sale at JavaOne, so you can take a peek at it there, if you're going. Amazon is taking pre-orders for it today, but since I've got a copy in hand, I'm sure they'll start shipping soon. See the link in the left column if you'd like to order it. (If you're reading this through the permalink rather than on the home page, then you won't see the Amazon link.)
If you're looking for a quick introduction to the new language features of Tiger, this might be the perfect book for you. If you've read any of my other books, this one is nothing like it. Brett did the writing, and he's got a completely different prose style than mine. More importantly, this book is part of a new "Developer's Notebook" series from O'Reilly. (Brett is the driving force behind the whole series, actually.) The new series promises "all lab, no lecture", so the books are extremely task-driven and code-focused. (To emphasize this, they've made the book look like a lab notebook. The pages have a graph paper background, handwritten notes in the margin and water stains on the first page of each chapter.)
There is a lot of good material in this book, and if you like Brett's approach to covering it, this is a quick (171 pages) and easy way to learn Tiger. Don't judge the book by its back cover, however, or by the series introduction and preface inside the front cover: those sections are heavy-handed promotion of the whole "Developer's Notebook" concept, and they might put you off. You've got to actually read one of the chapters to see if it works for you. O'Reilly has put chapter 3 online, so you can try it out and learn about enumerated types at the same time.
Also, please disregard the second sentence on the back cover. I don't know who came up with the idea that Tiger contains "over 100 substantial changes to the core language". That's just gibberish, and someone should have corrected it before it went to the printer.
Finally, to pique your interest I'll add that the second paragraph of the preface and the second sentence of Chapter 1 both mention something that is supposed to remain a secret until JavaOne. If you can get your hands on a copy before then, you can be in the know while it is still secret. (Hint: notice that I've been refering to this next release of Java by its codename.)
I'll enable comments on this entry, at least until the spammers find it. If you read the book, let me know what you think!
