Java Basics

The introductory set: fundamentals, explained more slowly than the main notes.

These pages cover the same language as the main notes but assume less. Where the reference states a rule, these work through why it is the rule and what goes wrong without it.

Start here if Java is your first language, or your first typed one.

Notes in this section

Multiple return statements, and the single-exit rule
One exit or many. An argument old enough to have outlived the machines it was about, and still worth settling for yourself.
How a method call works
What the machine does between the call and the return: the call stack, one frame per method, and why locals vanish when it finishes.