Can you advise me as to some useful Java books to read first?
+14
A:
The official Java tutorial. If you already have programming experience, skim through the familiar parts.
It's still, IMHO, the best resource for learning Java. I haven't found a better book yet for learning the language and the libraries..
There are some great books in Java, but they are all meant for the power users. My favourite is Joshua Bloch's Effective Java, but you better master the language before you actually get to it.
Uri
2009-09-24 13:18:39
Java has one of the best web-based documentation and tutorial sets that I have yet to find. Python and Ruby come close, but I still think Java beats them...
Thomas Owens
2009-09-24 13:21:08
+1 on Java Sun website there's a lot of good tutorial / documentation.
Nettogrof
2009-09-24 13:21:43
Thomas: While the tutorials are generally very good the online documentation is, while very elaborate in some places, severely lacking in many others. Also online Javadoc is a pain to read, imho :/
Joey
2009-09-24 13:24:42
JavaDoc is reference materials, not really meant for learning anything. And often, it doesn't even serve that purpose well enough...
Uri
2009-09-24 13:45:35
+1
A:
- Use search on stackoverflow.com - same questions is here
- You can start with this list of Java books
Nicholas Bayborodin
2009-09-24 13:20:58
All the books in your second point are pretty unsuitable for learning the language.
Joey
2009-09-24 13:23:32
+6
A:
Thinking in Java by Bruce Eckel : http://www.mindview.net/Books/TIJ/
Also you might want to check out http://javaranch.com - there are excellent forums there with a huge audience.
Frank Hale
2009-09-24 13:29:59
Beware that the freely downloadable version of Thinking in Java is outdates (it's about Java 1.4, which lacks lots of new language features which were added in Java 1.5).
Jesper
2009-09-24 15:03:41
A:
I started JAVA quite a few years ago (about 12 or 13, I think) and I found that the MS "J++ Learning Java Now" was a recommended, and good starting place. I was commented by a guy at a seminar that it was odd considering MS's stance/action on java at that time, but it was a good book to start off with as it went through the fundamentals well. I also found "Java By Example" quite useful.
Mad Halfling
2009-09-24 13:47:51
Java has changed a lot and come a long way in those 12 or 13 years, and both those source are way outdated and not useful anymore.
Jesper
2009-09-24 15:04:53
That doesn't mean that they are still useless, some old reference books teach very good basic programming theory. They also will probably have been updated and revised and so may be worth investigating
Mad Halfling
2009-09-24 22:40:55
The MS java implementation was created by MS India, to explicity provide a higher level abtraction for creating COM objects, and subsequently used by MS, to try and break the Java standard, hence the Sun settlementa few years ago, which killed it off.
scope_creep
2009-10-04 13:51:33
Hence my comment "it was odd considering MS's stance/action on java at that time" - the recommendation for that book came from someone either from sun or borland, so it wasn't a biased (in fact, quite the opposite) opinion.
Mad Halfling
2009-10-06 08:15:07
I totally agree. I've got the book, now in the loft, forgotten, like yesterdays toys. I loved MS Java. It suddenly made COM real and easy. after using it with C++ for 3 years, which was a constant struggle, that and the fact that ms didn't release a COM naming server until 1998.
scope_creep
2009-10-06 10:16:01
A:
Hi I know you are specifically looking for book recommendations, but if you have a budget, have you thought of going for training in a foreign county, where you get value for money, and the training is still in English. It gets you up to speed much quicker that books, and you guarenteed to to be certified after you leave.
I sent a bundle of folk across to these guys, after testing them out myself in 2004-5 and found them to be excellent. They have a training joint in north of India, close to the Himalayas, so its nice and cool, and you can get excellent snow boarding in while you learn. The training provided is generally excellent, and at around 20% of UK and UK training costs, its definetly worth a look.
scope_creep
2009-10-04 13:48:14
+1
A:
Get a copy of Effective Java a.s.a.p. Its a key text and teaches very good practice. I also have a copy of the Java Programming Language. This is very good indeed.
Fortyrunner
2009-10-06 18:38:50
A:
Back when I was completing my degree, the course catalog required us to take Java. The textbook my instructor used in class was this one by Deitel and Associates. The particular edition I linked you to is about a year or two behind the latest, but I still keep it for reference. It's full of examples that work, plus a supplementary CD. For a textbook it's not really too dry of a read, either.
Matt G.
2009-10-06 18:54:14