Java keeps growing, adding features, functionality, complexity, and tempting developers to growl with frustration. The 1.4 release of Java 2 Standard edition increases the size of the platform by 50%, to 2757 classes in 135 packages. This guide to the 1.4 version of Java contains an accelerated introduction to the Java programming language and its key APIs so programmers can start writing code right a way. It covers the new features that come with version 1.4 which include: high-performance NIO API; support for pattern matching with regular expressions; a logging API; a user preferences API; new collections classes; an XML-based persistence mechanism for Java Beans; support for XML parsing using both the DOM and SAX APIs; user authentication with the JAAS API; support for secure network connections using the SSL protocol; and support for cryptography. The book contains O'Reilly's quick-reference for all the classes in the essential Java packages, so users can dive in and find what is needed to make the 1.4 version work for them.