Learning Java

solsovly · February 2007

I basically need to learn the basics of java by next month for a job requirement. Looking for some starter points on where to go for tutorials.

I received a bunch of old books, most around the 1998-1999 period.

SAMS Teach Yourself Java 2 in 21 days (mentions JDK 1.2) I did some googling and looks like 1.5 is the newest version. Should I even bother starting with this book?

I was also told to download these things:

Myeclipse
Tomcat
Java JDK 1.4 (not 1.5)

to get started.

Can anyone direct me to some solid websites where I can get started? I have a couple bookmarked but always appreciate more input.

Obs · February 2007

My advice is skip the reading and just start writing as many programs as possible, referencing the reading for things you don't know how to do.

Java isn't too difficult. Easily learnable in about a week. (if you have a programming background)

clsCorwin · February 2007

Eclipse is a very good IDE, but it may be too complicated for someone just learning Java who doesn't need an IDE complicating things.

I'd recommend downloading TextPad, it's a pretty simple and straigtforward IDE to work with, and you can move on to Eclipse once you get comfortable with it.

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/api/

Thats the official Java API. Everything you need to know about any particular method or package is there.

I am by no means an expert, but I thought Programming and Problem Solving with Java, by Walter Savitch was a pretty good book. Its designed to introduce Java and programming concepts at the same time, but if you've got the concepts down, you can skip aroud and get to learn some of the important aspects of it quickly.

Just pick some problems out of the end of each chapter and practice writing those programs. Practce makes perfect.

Also, go here: http://www.javaranch.com/

Forum dedicated to all things Java. They'd probably be able to refer you to better resources than I.

Weretaco · February 2007

Obs wrote: »

My advice is skip the reading and just start writing as many programs as possible, referencing the reading for things you don't know how to do.

Java isn't too difficult. Easily learnable in about a week. (if you have a programming background)

While practice is the best way to learn. I really think you should do some reading on object oriented programming. It applies to most current languages and makes a lot of the stuff make way more sense. Having a solid basis in programming theory makes jumping between languages trivial since the most important part in programming is design/problem solving/choosing the right tool/language for the job.

Obs · February 2007

Weretaco wrote: »

Obs wrote: »

My advice is skip the reading and just start writing as many programs as possible, referencing the reading for things you don't know how to do.

Java isn't too difficult. Easily learnable in about a week. (if you have a programming background)

While practice is the best way to learn. I really think you should do some reading on object oriented programming. It applies to most current languages and makes a lot of the stuff make way more sense. Having a solid basis in programming theory makes jumping between languages trivial since the most important part in programming is design/problem solving/choosing the right tool/language for the job.

I'd assume he'd already be familiar with object oriented programming.

Heir · February 2007

I'm not sure if this helps, as I too am trying to learn Java currently.

But, here's a website with pretty basic definitions and tutorials.

http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/java/index.html

I have no idea if it's considered "good" or not, but it's helping me get a basic understanding of the language.

MasterDebater · February 2007

The Java documentation is really nice. I would download Eclipse or some other IDE and start writing some code.

Don't bother with the SAMS book (I have that one and it's rubbish).

vonPoonBurGer · February 2007

Thinking in Java, 3rd Ed. is available for free in HTML format. I used an earlier edition when teaching myself Java for a new job several years ago, I highly recommend it. Sadly, the latest edition (4th) isn't available for free, but I suppose the author has to eat, so I can't really fault him.

Mr.FragBait · March 2007

I found this site useful for some basics: http://www.cafeaulait.org/course/

If you already know some C you can skip the simple stuff, but if you're new to it all the site is still useful. Clearly lays out basic concepts and things you need to know in a linear fashion. Good to use as example code when trying stuff out as well.

panksea06 · March 2007

Well I am currently taking a course in java and one of the professors is about to release his book, which is finished and ready for market next quarter, but for the moment he has it fully online and downloadable in PDF form here:

http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/courses/cse142/CurrentQtr/book.html
or directly at
http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/courses/cse142/CurrentQtr/chapters/book.pdf
So that is up to date and rather nice if you want a nice pdf. Pretty simple stuff though, but nice to have in a pdf form.

Hope that helps.

Philodox · March 2007

Unless you're a super motivated self learner, take a course. The tutorials you find on the internet can teach you the syntax of the language but not how to properly use it. Having an instructor and doing assignments gives you a couple of benefits.

1) Predetermined projects. The hardest part of learning a new language (for me) is figuring out a decent sized project that I can really sink my teeth into.

2) Grades. If you think up a bad idea for how something should be implemented hopefully your instructor will catch it and let you know.

Also there is a lot of bad code in the tutorial websites out there. The quick and dirty code that works well for tutorials doesn't carry over very well to the real world.

solsovly · April 2007

panksea06 wrote: »

Well I am currently taking a course in java and one of the professors is about to release his book, which is finished and ready for market next quarter, but for the moment he has it fully online and downloadable in PDF form here:

http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/courses/cse142/CurrentQtr/book.html
or directly at
http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/courses/cse142/CurrentQtr/chapters/book.pdf
So that is up to date and rather nice if you want a nice pdf. Pretty simple stuff though, but nice to have in a pdf form.

Hope that helps.

Hey I just wanted to thank you for that pdf book. Tell your professor it's pretty great. I borrowed a bunch of books, Java for Dummies, references, programming in Java. I prefered his most of all. The best part was one of my old college buddies found out I took an interest in programming. He got me a job there as a software engineer. Talk about a huge job jump (with a nice salary increase). So now I'm tinkering in java and will be learning some XML as well.

clsCorwin · April 2007

http://www.freeprogrammingresources.com/javabook.html

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