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Socoder -> On Topic -> Learning Java

Tue, 09 Jun 2009, 22:55
oscar
I've just lately become interested in the idea of learning java. But looking at the bookstore somewhat confused me (with all the options and obscure sounding names). Does anyone know any good resources (online or in book form) to get me started?


|edit| Java in a web development capacity (if that makes any difference) |edit|
Wed, 10 Jun 2009, 02:16
Afr0
Java in a web development capacity (if that makes any difference)


Nope, doesn't make sense. Are you talking about Javascript?


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Wed, 10 Jun 2009, 02:48
cthug
I think he means java applets, in a web-browser.
Wed, 10 Jun 2009, 03:08
JL235
Java is heavily used on servers, I presume he is talking about like Java EE or Spring for web application development.

There is only one Java book I've found great for learning and that is Objects First with Java. Brilliant for learning as it incorporates good design and proper OO conventions as it teaches. However it's aimed at complete programming beginners, the section on loops starts at around page 100 so I think it might be too easy for you.

A safe choice would be to look at Java EE and Spring, however Ruby also runs on the JVM thanks to JRuby and it's original main aim was to fully support Ruby on Rails (which people say is awesome). There is also Grovy on Grails, a similar framework for Grovy (a language for the JVM).
Wed, 10 Jun 2009, 07:51
Scherererer
This site doesn't look that bad. When you're looking for resources, make sure that it's at least Java 5 (version 1.5 (I know, it doesn't make any sense to me either)). Anything before Java 5 is garbage, complete garbage. Not enough changed between 5 and 6, so as a beginner, resources in either category are alright; but a lot changed with the making of 5, so it doesn't make sense to learn anything before it.

After you get comfortable with the basics of java, then you can pretty much just start combing through the javadoc and looking at classes.

for general stuff:
java.lang
java.util
java.math

for GUI's, look at:
java.awt
java.awt.event
javax.swing

file & network i/o
java.net
java.io

There's a saying, to which I'm sure you'll agree once you do some more work with java: "If you have to do any programming in Java, then you didn't look through the JavaDoc hard enough."

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Wed, 10 Jun 2009, 08:45
JL235
I used to joke that all Java applications are already implemented in the API.

One small point I'd like to mention, is that in regards to GUIs alot of classes that are for the same thing are in both Swing and AWT. For example there are two frames: javax.swing.JFrame and java.awt.Frame. You should always use the Swing version over the AWT one, however you can't do this will all classes. The majority of event, image and drawing classes are all stored under java.awt.

The point of Swing was to replace AWT. But it replaces it by building on top of it and so just replaces the bad sections. Lots of AWT classes are required when you use Swing, but if it's in both then use the Swing version.