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The activities are NOT optional.
The exercises and activities are not add-ons; they’re part of the core content of the book.
Some of them are to help with memory, some are for understanding, and some will help
you apply what you’ve learned. Don’t skip the exercises.

The redundancy is intentional and important.
One distinct difference in a Head First book is that we want you to really get it. And we
want you to finish the book remembering what you’ve learned. Most reference books
don’t have retention and recall as a goal, but this book is about learning, so you’ll see some
of the same concepts come up more than once.

The examples are as lean as possible.
Our readers tell us that it’s frustrating to wade through 200 lines of an example looking
for the two lines they need to understand. Most examples in this book are shown within
the smallest possible context, so that the part you’re trying to learn is clear and simple.
Don’t expect all of the examples to be robust, or even complete—they are written
specifically for learning, and aren’t always fully-functional.
We’ve placed a lot of the code examples on the Web so you can copy and paste them as
needed. You’ll find them at two locations:

http://www.headfirstlabs.com/books/hfprog/ and

http://programming.itcarlow.ie

The Brain Power exercises don’t have answers.

For some of them, there is no right answer, and for others, part of the learning
experience of the Brain Power activities is for you to decide if and when your answers
are right. In some of the Brain Power exercises, you will find hints to point you in the
right direction.

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