To get the most out of this book

In order to get the most out of this book, some knowledge of Java and the ability to run Java programs is required. Also, it helps to have your favorite editor or, even better, an IDE installed and configured for use in the recipes. Because the book is essentially a collection of recipes, with each recipe being based on specific examples, the benefits of the book will be lost if the reader does not execute the examples provided. Readers will get even more from this book if they reproduce every example that is provided in their IDE, execute it, and compare their result with the one shown in the book.