Java, as a modern object-oriented programming language with a clean and elegant design, is an ideal language for teaching object-oriented programming skills to first year computer science students. Reflecting the authors' experience of teaching Java to their first year students, this undergraduate programming text, assumes no prior knowledge of general programming concepts. It provides coverage of the fundamental aspects of object-oriented programming using Java. Structured into five parts, the book introduces students to using objects from "day one", using them to introduce the basic concepts of programming and allowing the reader to become familiar with using objects in a variety of applications. The book then moves on to explain how to write objects, whilst parts three and four cover more advanced object and Java language features. The book concludes with a section on object-oriented design.