Foreword

In the winter of 2013–14, the United Kingdom was battered by an extended series of exceptionally violent winter storms. These storms uncovered shipwrecks and some amazing archaeology, especially in my home county of Cornwall. One of the most striking discoveries was a petrified forest, dating back to the end of the last Ice Age, now covered by the sea and sand. Before the sea claimed it again, I was lucky enough to visit it at very low tide and spend some hours exploring it.

Among the remaining roots and tree stumps and beds of organic matter on their way to becoming peat, I could still make out pieces of trunk branch and bark. As I wandered along the shore with the tide coming in, I came across a single hemisphere from a nut—from a tree that no longer grows in these latitudes. Despite being embedded in the organic layer, the shape of the nutshell and its ability to survive over long periods of time was still unmistakable.

In working on this new edition of David’s classic text, I hope to have embodied the spirit of that prehistoric tree. If I have preserved the tenacious form and, crucially, the feel of Java in a Nutshell, while bringing it to the attention of a new generation of developers, with the important parts emphasized, then I shall be well satisfied.

—Ben Evans, 2014