To get the most out of this book

I hope you agree that we really need to write actual code to study programming. This book is built around code samples. Every section in the book is accompanied by a corresponding code sample and, if applicable, screenshots.

Before starting to read this book, I strongly encourage you to get a Git and download the accompanying GitHub repository, which you can find at https://github.com/sgrinev/mastering-javafx-9-10-book.

There are about 130 code samples, grouped by chapters numbers. For your convenience, each chapter is a NetBeans project, but almost every code sample is self-sufficient and can be run separately without the help of an IDE. If you opt for the latter approach, you can find the guidelines for running JavaFX apps from the command line in Chapter 11, Packaging with Java9 Jigsaw.

At the time of writing, you need the latest in-development version of Netbeans to work with Java 9 and 10. You can find it at http://bits.netbeans.org/download/trunk/nightly/latest/.

While you can get a good grasp of the topics described by just reading the book and looking at the screenshots, toying with the code samples and seeing the results of your changes will give you a much better understanding of JavaFX APIs.

Also, although the book has been released once and for all, I plan to update and fix these samples if any issues are found later on. Refer to GitHub's README.md for a history of changes.

Download the example code files

You can download the example code files for this book from your account at www.packtpub.com. If you purchased this book elsewhere, you can visit www.packtpub.com/support and register to have the files emailed directly to you.

You can download the code files by following these steps:

1. Log in or register at www.packtpub.com.
2. Select the SUPPORT tab.
3. Click on Code Downloads & Errata.
4. Enter the name of the book in the Search box and follow the onscreen instructions.

Once the file is downloaded, please make sure that you unzip or extract the folder using the latest version of:

• WinRAR/7-Zip for Windows
• Zipeg/iZip/UnRarX for Mac
• 7-Zip/PeaZip for Linux

The code bundle for the book is also hosted on GitHub at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Mastering-JavaFX-10. In case there's an update to the code, it will be updated on the existing GitHub repository.

We also have other code bundles from our rich catalog of books and videos available at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/. Check them out!

Download the color images

We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. You can download it here: https://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/MasteringJavaFX10_ColorImages.pdf

Conventions used

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

CodeInText: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: "You can import one CSS from another using the @import keyword."

A block of code is set as follows:

public static void main(String[] args) {
    // you custom code
    Application.launch(MyApplication.class, args);
}

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:

@DefaultProperty("children")
public class Pane
extends Region

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

> javac FXApplication.java
> java FXApplication

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For example, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in the text like this. Here is an example: "For example, we see that the area under the mouse cursor is a DIV, as shown in the following screenshot."

Warnings or important notes appear like this.

Tips and tricks appear like this.