Cay Horstmann's Home Page

Welcome to Cay Horstmann's Home Page!

I grew up in Northern Germany and attended the Christian-Albrechts-Universität in Kiel , a harbor town at the Baltic sea. I received a M.S. in computer science from Syracuse University , and a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. For four years, I was VP and CTO of an Internet startup that went from 3 people in a tiny office to a public company. I now teach computer science at San Jose State University . In my copious spare time I write books and articles on Java and computer science education. Click here for a copy of my resume .

My Java blog

SJSU Students: Please go to my SJSU course page.

Fellow Horstmanns who are interested in the family genealogy may want to turn to Bernhard Horstmann's site http://www.family-horstmann.net.

Books

Memorable Quotes

The March of Progress

1980: C

printf("%10.2f", x);

1988: C++

cout << setw(10) << setprecision(2) << showpoint << x;

1996: Java

java.text.NumberFormat formatter = java.text.NumberFormat.getNumberInstance(); formatter.setMinimumFractionDigits(2); 
formatter.setMaximumFractionDigits(2); 
String s = formatter.format(x); 
for (int i = s.length(); i < 10; i++) System.out.print(' '); 
System.out.print(s);

2004: Java

System.out.printf("%10.2f", x);

2008: Scala and Groovy

printf("%10.2f", x)

(Thanks to Will Iverson for the update. He writes: “Note the lack of semi-colon. Improvement!”)

Programming and Software

Violet is a free, easy to use UML editor.
Tame the GridBagLayout with a handy helper class.
The new and improved ImportCleaner is a utility to clean up Java import statement sets. (Here is the original article.)
Safe STL is a safe version of the original HP STL implementation. For a modern safe version of STL, check out Boris Fomitchev's STLport .
C++ Pitfalls | Polish translation, thanks to Darek Ostolski
C++ Iostreams
Are you frequently trapped in boring meetings? Are you a fan of the Great Underground Empire? Download a z-machine interpreter for your favorite device (for example Android or Linux) and the Zork games from Peter Scheyen's Infocom page, and make your meetings more productive.
I love the AlienCamel spam filtering service.

Fun Applets

Traffic jam simulator. This is an applet that is fascinating (or depressing, depending on your outlook). It simulates the traffic flow on a freeway and shows how traffic jams are inevitable even at modest loads if too many people don't maintain their speed.
Traffic light simulation. This is an applet that I wrote for David Bellin's CRC book. It simulates traffic signals at an intersection.
Retirement calculator. This applet calculates how much money you will have left for your well-deserved retirement, under various savings scenarios. Another one of those fascinating/depressing applets. From the first edition of Core Java.
Weather report . Get an up-to-date weather report. Also from the first edition of Core Java.

You can get these stickers from here.