Book for a Beginner? Anyone?

[arcotik]

Does anybody know of a JAVA programming book for a beginner, such as
myself, to learn with? I'm looking at Java In A Nutshell, but I'm
unsure. Could anyone please reccomend a book to learn from? Thank you!!!

 

[Knute Johnson]

Does anybody know of a JAVA programming book for a beginner, such as
myself, to learn with? I'm looking at Java In A Nutshell, but I'm
unsure. Could anyone please reccomend a book to learn from? Thank you!!!

I have bought numerous books myself and am not really satisfied with any
of them. If you have any programming experience whatsoever, I suggest
you just try looking at the Java Tutorial as a place to start. Be sure
to download a copy of the Java Docs for reference. I'm convinced the
way to learn to write programs is to write programs. Start with
something simple and work up from there. You can always get help on
these lists too.

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

http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp

 

[JohhB]

For Java I thing Bruce Eckel's Thinking in Java is the best.
Search it from Amazon.

 

[zero]

(e-mail address removed) wrote in

Does anybody know of a JAVA programming book for a beginner, such as
myself, to learn with? I'm looking at Java In A Nutshell, but I'm
unsure. Could anyone please reccomend a book to learn from? Thank
you!!!

First of all, this is a very subjective question. Different programmers
will have different ideas about what's a good book. And more
importantly, students with different backgrounds have different needs.
Someone who already knows C++ is likely to need a different book than
someone who's never programmed before. Even beyond that, different
people have different learning methods, meaning different books will
appeal to them.

That being said, here's my personal opinion.

I think it is very important for new programmers to get started using OO
techniques right away. Most books I have seen over the years start with
structural programming and tell you to ignore the object oriented parts
until later on. I think this is very wrong. If a book has a chapter
about "functions", "methods" or "control structures" before its first
chapter about "classes" or "object orientation", I'd stay away from it.

One book that I think does a decent job at teaching OO basics before
anything else, is Deitel's "Java How To Program". Barnes & Kölling's
"Objects First With Java" also does a good job at this - but I rather
dislike that they use an IDE. I believe a student should first be
comfortable with the command line compiler before using an IDE.

On the right side of http://www.techbookreport.com/JavaIndex.html you'll
find a section "New to programming and to Java" recommending a couple of
beginner's books.

Finally, have a look at Roedy Green's Java Glossary at
http://mindprod.com/jgloss/gettingstarted.html, and subscribe to the
comp.lang.java.help and comp.lang.java.programmer groups. The first one
is more beginner-friendly, the second more for discussions among
established programmers, but both can be very interesting to lurk in.

 

[Mark Space]

Does anybody know of a JAVA programming book for a beginner, such as
myself, to learn with? I'm looking at Java In A Nutshell, but I'm
unsure. Could anyone please reccomend a book to learn from? Thank you!!!

I recommend _Learning Java_ by O'Reilly. _Learning Java_ doesn't cover
everything, but it'll get you started and give you a pretty good, if
general, overview of Java. It does cover certain (beginner) aspects
quite well, but it's unfortunately a bit lacking on advanced
information. Strictly for beginners. You might try _Head First Java_.
I've never used it, but there's a wealth of positive comments on
O'Reilly's web site.

If you have a specific application in mind, you might be better off
finding a book specifically for that. For example, for Java Applets get
a beginner's book on Applets. For Web Apps, _Head First Servlets and
JSP_ also by O'Reilly, is quite good (but doesn't really teach you Java,
per se).

You should also look at learning an IDE for Java. I never used IDEs
before, but for a language like Java, it makes a lot of sense. Time
spent learning the IDE will be a sound investment. I'd recommend NetBeans.

I'm pretty sure _Java in a Nutshell_ is a reference, not a beginners
book. I never liked Bruce Eckel's Thinking ... series. Sorry John.

I also recommend the online tutorial by Sun at java.sun.com. Someone
else gave you the correct link already, but I've used it and it's quite
good, but VERY introductory.

 

[vvk]

hello,
try with the Java 2 Complete Reference with version 1.5 to know all
the basic concepts,classes and methods.......i find it as a very good
guide to program in Java.........and many sites have the java online
ebooks.......
__Vasantha kumar

 

[Michael Redlich]

Does anybody know of a JAVA programming book for a beginner, such as
myself, to learn with? I'm looking at Java In A Nutshell, but I'm
unsure. Could anyone please reccomend a book to learn from? Thank you!!!

Hi:

I would recommend "Java 2 for Dummies" by Barry Burd and "Head First
Java" by Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates. Kathy Sierra is a Sun "Java
Champion," and her series of books are excellent.

Hope this helps...

Mike.