Book recommendation for a Ruby dev learning Java

Question

I've been a Ruby developer for the past 4-5 years, and prior to that coded in Perl and a language called ProvideX for years.

As hard as it may seem, I've never written a Java application short of the basic Hello World app probably a decade ago.

I'm beginning to start doing some Android development to port some iPhone applications we did for a client over to the Android platform. As such, I'm wondering what the best reference book I can buy is to get up to speed quickly with the features (and peculiarities) of Java.

There are numerous "Learn Ruby for Java programmers" out there, but not really any reference books for going the otherway of Ruby-to-Java. I'm looking for something preferably like the "Learn Perl the Hard Way" book. I know how to code, I just need a reference on learning the proper mechanics of Java after having done Ruby (and a bit of Obj-C) work exclusively for the past few years.

Answer 1

Go with the Sun Tutorials. Sun (now Oracle) did a really smash up job with their set of Tutorials. They cover pretty much everything in a straight forward manner.

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

Bookmark and keep a window up to the Standard API at all times, while you are at it: http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/api/

I honestly don't think you need a book for Java if you've programmed enough before (otherwise, I'd immediately recommend Head First Java).

[Edit based on comment asking for syntax guide]

One book (although it's available in .html) that might help if you just need a syntax guide / reference is the Java Language Specification (JLS): http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jls/

Answer 2

I found this book pretty good: Introduction to Java Programming: Fundamentals First