I was looking for "practical examples" to help me get back into Java (for fun) after a long hiatus -- as I prefer a hands on approach.

I found this example refreshingly practical, and the theoretical aspects were integrated organically instead of abstractly -- a frustration with many other exercises.

PS. Had no problems compiling and running (other than the usual --the terminal 'debugging info' pointed out my errors and they were easy enough to figure out) in OSX 10.2.8 on a TiBook.

PPS. Used JEdit as an editor for this -- which I recommend -- it makes it easy to jump back and forth between text files. The Project Builder can be a confounding maze of menus for a newbie where it is easy to make the wrong choices before you even get started.

Thanks very much for this.