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About the Author
I started as a poet. I discovered that I had no “spark,” though I was good
enough at the mechanics. So I became a teacher. Having gotten two degrees in
English literature while trying to be a poet, I naturally taught English. Starting
in 1986, I also worked part-time writing software manuals.
As it happened, I had taken all the linguistics courses the university
offered, purely because I enjoy concepts such as transformational grammar
and morphology. When I was looking at code over a developer's shoulder, I
said, “I see structure and syntax here. Tell me how it works.” Phil Schlump was
smart enough to not try to explain how C works while I looked over his
shoulder. Instead, he told me to buy The C Programming Language, by Brian
Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie. I read the book and did all the exercises, with a
little coaching from Phil.
That got me started on my journey toward software development. From there, I read many more
books and learned (and have forgotten some) more languages. When the university let me go in 1991, I
continued on as a technical writer who programmed as a hobby until 1998, when I started writing code
as part of my job. I was annoyed with the documentation tools I had, so I started writing some of my
own. After a few years of doing even more programming to make documentation tools, I gave up writing
as part of my job and became a full-time software developer in late 2004. I worked full-time as a Java and
XSLT developer for three years and then full time as a Java Web Application Developer for three years.
By the end of those experiences, I knew enough to write a book about Java. Writing this book has
taught me some more and helped to formalize the knowledge I already had. As ever, the act of teaching
(and writing this kind of book is an exercise in teaching) also teaches the teacher.
Writing this book also reminded me that I really like writing. So I've taken a job that lets me both
write and code. I'm writing API documentation. That is, I explain how software works to software
developers, so that they can get more done in less time. The job title I like best for this sort of work is
Programming Writer, so that's what I call myself these days.
When I'm not writing software and writing about software, I play games of all sorts (not just
computer games), read fantasy and science fiction, and go out with friends. I live with an orange tabby
cat named Oscar who alternates between feline terrorist and snugglemonster.Jay Bryant