What exactly are these APIs? JDBC—the basic component of this book—enables you to write applications that access relational databases without any thought as to which particular database you .
are using. If you have ever had experience programming to more than one database API, you will definitely appreciate this aspect of Java. When you write a Java database program, that same program will run against Oracle, MySQL, Sybase, Ingres, Informix, mSQL, PostgreSQL, or any other database that supports this API.
EJB, on the other hand, gives real meaning to the expression "the network is the computer." If you have written Internet applications in the past, you have probably been faced with the challenge of writing TCP/IP or UDP/IP sockets. While socket programming in Java is not nearly as hard as it is in other programming languages, the task of writing sockets is generally a side technical issue that takes time away from the writing of your main application code. By using distributed object Technology, you can build Java objects that run on different machines but communicate with one another through simple Java method calls.
How do these APIs make Java more than a simple applet building language? Database access is the core requirement of the majority of mission-critical business applications that get developed. By giving Java database access combined with the development of GUI development tools, Sun has made Java a language that competes with established tools, such as VisualBasic and PowerBuilder. Java distributed object support goes a giant step beyond these tools by liberating Java components
from the need to be located together in the same Java Virtual Machine.
Audience
If you have not yet read a book on Java, then this book should not be the first one you pick up. I assume that readers have a basic understanding of the Java programming language. Specifically, you should feel comfortable with the basic syntax of Java and central concepts such as classes, interfaces, and packages. If you are looking for a starter book for Java programming, I strongly recommend Learning Java by Patrick Niemeyer and Jonathan Knudsen (O'Reilly & Associates).
