New to Java - Books Recommendation Please

[Miles]

Hello all,

I've been programming for about 10 years now. First in VB, then
Delphi/Freepascal and finally a bit of C#/Chrome over the last year or two.

Over the last year or so, I've been wanting to do more and more cross platform
(Windows/Linux) GUI development but I have yet to see anything aside from Java
that is doing it really well and consistently without significant difficulty.

I'm reading over Sun's tutorials now to get familiar with Java syntax which has
been pretty easy going, but I've found that having 1-2 good books around to get
knowledgeable is usually very helpful.

If anyone can offer suggestions on a couple of books, I'd appreciate it. As I
mentioned, I have programming experience so I was thinking that something with a
bit above beginning Java experience and another one targeted towards
intermediate skills would be great to get me started.

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[Mark Space]

If anyone can offer suggestions on a couple of books, I'd appreciate
it. As I
mentioned, I have programming experience so I was thinking that
something with a
bit above beginning Java experience and another one targeted towards
intermediate skills would be great to get me started.

_Learning Java_ by O'Reilly is a good first start. It has basics, but
it also has a lot of more advanced material. I still use it as a
reference and a guide for implementation even though I think I'm well
past the learning stage. It has, for example, one of the better
explanations of generics that I've found.

The other place to go for learning is JavaPassion.com. This is a
website run by a Sun researcher that offers free online classes on
various Java related subjects. There's a basic Java course, which I
found useful just because it forced me to write code and get familiar
with the language. Some of the lessons were pretty remedial for me but
I always managed to learn something, even if it was just some
productivity feature of the IDE, NetBeans.

There's also a lot of related stuff on JavaPassion. The web programming
course offers an introduction to a lot of technologies that are not Java
(AJAX, Dojo, JMaki, DHTML, JSF, GWT, Jason, etc.) and shows how they can
be used with a Java/J2EE website. It was very informative, and much
easier than trying to find them all on my own. I'd recommend that class
as well, once you get the basics down.

 

[Miles]

_Learning Java_ by O'Reilly is a good first start. It has basics, but
it also has a lot of more advanced material. I still use it as a
reference and a guide for implementation even though I think I'm well
past the learning stage. It has, for example, one of the better
explanations of generics that I've found.

Excellent. I've come to like O'Reilly books very much, but they usually have a
lot of editions on the same subject (especially on Java I'm sure) so thanks for
that.

The other place to go for learning is JavaPassion.com. This is a
website run by a Sun researcher that offers free online classes on
various Java related subjects. There's a basic Java course, which I
found useful just because it forced me to write code and get familiar
with the language. Some of the lessons were pretty remedial for me but
I always managed to learn something, even if it was just some
productivity feature of the IDE, NetBeans.

Neat site, I'll be visiting it a lot.

 

[Mark Space]

Excellent. I've come to like O'Reilly books very much, but they usually
have a lot of editions on the same subject (especially on Java I'm sure)
so thanks for that.

Make sure to get the latest edition, which is 3rd, I believe.

 

[Arne Vajhøj]

I like the Wrox series of books on Java.

I like their .NET and XML books.

Are they as good for Java ?

Arne

 

[Tom Anderson]

If anyone can offer suggestions on a couple of books, I'd appreciate it.

Just Java - Peter van der Linden. Back when i was learning java, this was
my standout favourite, head and shoulders above the rest. Other java books
tend to be some combination of (a) inaccurate (b) overly concerned with
either GUI or web stuff and (c) painfully badly written. JJ isn't. It is,
however, a beginner's book, so if you're already writing java, there might
not be that much in there for you. If you're coming from another language,
it would be a good choice, though: it's not written at child- or
idiot-level.

Thinking in Java - Bruce Eckels. Another beginner's book, but a good one.
You can get the older editions as free PDFs.

Effective Java - Josh Bloch. I've not read it that heavily, but Josh Bloch
is a top chap! This is more of an advanced book; in fact, it's something
of a standard manual of good engineering practice in java.

And some books that aren't about java, but are about ideas that will help
you work better in any language:

Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software - Gamma,
Helm, Johnson, Vlissides

Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code - Martin Fowler, Kent
Beck, and some other guys

tom

 

[Miles]

Just Java - Peter van der Linden. Back when i was learning java, this

Thinking in Java - Bruce Eckels. Another beginner's book, but a good
one. You can get the older editions as free PDFs.

Effective Java - Josh Bloch. I've not read it that heavily, but Josh
Bloch is a top chap! This is more of an advanced book; in fact, it's
something of a standard manual of good engineering practice in java.

And some books that aren't about java, but are about ideas that will
help you work better in any language:

Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software - Gamma,
Helm, Johnson, Vlissides

Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code - Martin Fowler, Kent
Beck, and some other guys

tom

Thanks Tom, I'm off to my local super bookstore tomorrow and will check for
these although I already have the GoF book and ironically enough, "Head First
Design Patterns" when I first start getting into OO in Delphi but the java
examples were super easy to follow. Effective Java, I've seen suggested before
so I'll check that one out as well.

 

[Mark Space]

Thanks Tom, I'm off to my local super bookstore tomorrow and will check
for these although I already have the GoF book and ironically enough,
"Head First Design Patterns" when I first start getting into OO in
Delphi but the java examples were super easy to follow. Effective Java,
I've seen suggested before so I'll check that one out as well.

_Effective Java_ is excellent, and I agree with Lew that it's completely
understandable at an intermediate level. Highly recommended.

For intermediate learning, I found _Java Concurrency in Practice_ by
Brian Goetz to be excellent.

_Thinking in Java_ I didn't care for. I've thumbed through it and
didn't care for the excerpts I read. Bruce Eckels isn't my favorite
programming author I guess. Deitel and Deitel are the dame for me, not
really the best books imo.

 

[TiloVillwock]

Hi

if you're ready to spend some money, you might also find "java in a
nutshell" very useful, it's half learn & exercise book, half
reference. it also should apply to you as a programmer with existing
knowledge.

Tilo

 

[Roedy Green]

If anyone can offer suggestions on a couple of books, I'd appreciate it.

see http://mindprod.com/jgloss/gettingstarted.html

Java syntax is not the problem. It is learning how to use the huge
set of standard libraries.