Unlike my Perl colleagues Tom and Nathan, I don't have to spend as much time on the odditiesand idioms of the language; Java is refreshingly free of strange quirks. But that doesn't mean it'strivial to learn well! If it were, there'd be no need for this book. My main approach, then, is toconcentrate on the Java APIs: I'll teach you by example what the APIs are and what they aregood for.