Obadiah said:
Hello. I am interested in doing some research on the Java language.
There is a tremendous amount of material out there and I am hoping
someone can point me in the right direction.
Most of my professional experience is in Microsoft languages (VB, Visual
Foxpro, SQLServer, et al).
I would like to start to get proficient in
Java too.
None of the above are a good introduction to Java. If you have been
writing classes instead of modules in VB you are part of the way but
you still need to understand inheritance. In any case, most of the
functionality of Java is in the class libraries and locating the
appropriate class is a daunting task. The good news is that SQLServer
and it's "free" companion, MSDE Server/SQL Server 2005 Express
(
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/msde/default.asp), have a Microsoft
supplied JDBC driver so you don't need to learn a new database.
Since I will working in the Windows environment for development (and
likely deploying to Wintel & Lintel), what IDE would you recommend I
use?
I moved from VB6 to Java. Here is the result of my search for a
comparable, free, GUI development environment.
I chose NetBeans (
www.netbeans.org) because it includes most of the
features of the expensive commercial products, is supported by Sun and
is open source. I like printed manuals so I use "Netbeans: The
Definitive Guide" (
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/netbeans/index.html)
but if you don't need hard copy the draft of the first edition is at
http://www.netbeans.org/download/books/definitive-guide/index.html.
Sun have some free web-based training
(
http://suned.sun.com/US/catalog/courses/WFB-100-180.html) for Sun One
Studio 4 Community Edition, which is derived from Netbeans, and is a
free download from
http://jsecom16d.sun.com/ECom/EComA...I9-401-TL9M&TransactionId=try&LMLoadBalanced=.
This Sun IDE has been superceded and Sun now suggest you use Netbeans
if you want a free version but I include it because the transition
from Sun One Studio 4 to NetBeans is trivial.
Borland's JBuilder Foundation
(
http://www.borland.com/jbuilder/foundation/) is a free download and I
think it is the IDE that most closely matches VB. Oracle's JDeveloper
(
http://otn.oracle.com/products/jdev/content.html) is also a free
download but the license severely restricts what you can do with
programs you write if you do not pay for it. JDeveloper includes some
excellent data access tools including VB-style "data bound" controls
and data entry form wizards. JDeveloper also has the best WYSIWYG HTML
editor I have ever used.
Eclipse (
www.eclipse.org) is a popular Open Source IDE and there are
free or cheap plug-ins like
http://www.cloudgarden.com/jigloo/index.html and
http://www.eclipse.org/vep/ that provide WYSIWYG GUI development.
Jigloo seemed the best of these but from my brief examination it fell
short of the products in the preceding paragraphs.
For the sake of completeness I should mention Websphere Studio
Application Developer
(
http://www-3.ibm.com/software/awdtools/studioappdev/). Websphere is
based on Eclipse but has many enhancements including a WYSIWYG editor
for GUI's. It is not free but a 60 day trial is available. The popular
IntelliJ IDEA (
http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/index.html) also includes
a GUI builder. It is not free but you can download a 30 day trial.
There are some significant differences between VB and Java GUI's and I
found "Swing Second Edition" (
http://www.manning.com/robinson2) an
excellent guide. The publisher no longer offers the first edition of
the book as a free download but it is still available from other
sources. Google for swingdoc.zip.
I believe that this is a complete list of full-featured free Java
IDE's that include a WYSIWYG GUI builder and contains references to
all the commercial vendors of such a product. Please submit a
follow-up if you have a correction.
Also, what starter book (there are so many) should be a good
companion?
I can only cite the books I chose and tell you that I generally prefer
a reference library to "Teach Yourself" style books. I have not
regretted my choice but I can't compare them with the ones I didn't
choose.
Bedtime reading:
Just Java (
http://www.phptr.com/title/0131482114)
Reference and bedtime reading for insomniacs:
Core Java -
http://www.phptr.com/title/0131482025 and
http://safari.phptr.com/?XmlId=0-13-092738-4
Those are my two main questions. I've always learned best by diving
in.
Good luck. You risk drowning but there is no risk of breaking your
neck because because the waters are too shallow.