The Well-Grounded Java Developer is split into four parts: Developing with Java 7; Vital Techniques; Polyglot programming on the JVM; Crafting the polyglot project. Part I contains two chapters on Java 7. The book uses Java 7 syntax and semantics troughout, so chapter 1, "Introducing Java 7, "should be considered required reading. Chapter 2, "New I/O, " will be of specific interest to developers who work with files, filesystems, and net work I/O. Part II countains four chapters (3-6) covering the topics of dependency injection, modern concurrency, classfiles/byte code, and performance tuning. Part III (chapter 7-10) covers polyglot programming on the JVM. Chapter 7 should be considered required reading as it sets the stage by discussing the categorization and use of alternative language on the JVM. The following three language chapters move from a Java-like language (Groovy), through a hybrid OO-functional language (Scala), to a fully functional one (Clojure). Those languages can be read standalone although developers new a functional programming will probably want to read them in order. Part IV (the final four chapters) introduces new material as well as builds on topics that have been introduced earlier. Although the chapters can be read stand-alone, in some sections we assume that you've read the earlier chapters and/or already have familiarity with certain topics. //ir
