Conventions Used in This Book

We use the following formatting conventions in this book:

Italic

Used for emphasis and to signify the first use of a term. Italic is also used for commands, email addresses, web sites, FTP sites, and file and directory names.

Bold

Occasionally used to refer to particular keys on a computer keyboard or to portions of a user interface, such as the Back button or the Options menu.

Constant Width

Used for all Java code as well as for anything that you would type literally when programming, including keywords, data types, constants, method names, variables, class names, and interface names.

Constant Width Italic

Used for the names of function arguments and generally as a placeholder to indicate an item that should be replaced with an actual value in your program. Sometimes used to refer to a conceptual section or line of code as in statement.

Franklin Gothic Book Condensed

Used for the Java class synopses in the quick reference section. This very narrow font allows us to fit a lot of information on the page without a lot of distracting line breaks. This font is also used for code entities in the descriptions in the quick reference section.

Franklin Gothic Demi Condensed

Used for highlighting class, method, field, property, and constructor names in the quick reference section, which makes it easier to scan the class synopses.

Franklin Gothic Book Condensed Italic

Used for method parameter names and comments in the quick reference section.