Java Readings

[Ryan10]

I would like to as all you guys..the professionals on here what they think some of the best jave books are to get started with. What books helped you out the most?

[Eranga]

What ever it is, practice lead to the professional.

I've refer (and still) Suns' tutorial and articles. It explains all what you need from the basis to advanced topics.

[Eranga]

And you can find the link to Java Tutorial on my forum signature.

[sunde887]

Im still fairly new, and I do not know what your experience is, however; one of my most highly suggested books for a beginner is head first java.

It really all depends on your current skill level and how you learn most. Do you prefer lots of exercises with easy to understand explanations, or do you prefer lots of verbose explanations of the java languages?

One thing is for sure, read more than one book at a time, different books will offer different styles and perspectives.

A decent book I can suggest is thinking in java.

Some other good books are sams 21 days java(have only read about half, it's decent)
Java software solutions is a book I just started and it has a lot of great examples. You can also google "Stack overflow good java books"

My number one choice though, is, and will remain to be, head first java. They do a great job of covering a wide variety of topics whilst keeping the explanations semi short and to the point. You will learn the very basics of threading, and guis, and will obtain a fairly good understanding of how classes, oop, variables, and other essential things work.

Another thing that I can almost guarantee will be recommended here is the oracle(I want to say sun, but apparantly they don't exist anymore :() tutorials. They do a good job, and they are written by the people who work on the actual language.

Once you get a bit more comfortable try to think of your own projects. I currently don't have the greatest imagination, but some things I have done/am doing are, a calculator with gui(like windows calc), a simple notepad clone, a more sophisticated text editor, and a fairly basic address book type gui program. Practice is really important for learning.

I believe my longs post is done.

TL;DR: Head First Java

[Ryan10]

i suppose that tutorial is good but i'd rather not read from a screen haha

[Ryan10]

Thanks Sunde887 appreciate the reply

[Eranga]

i suppose that tutorial is good but i'd rather not read from a screen haha

But it's better if you could do that. Then if you stuck on something just search the web, you can clarify in few min. Or may be you can post your question here. ;)

[sunde887]

As stated previously, do not expect to read one book and understand everything. The ultimate advice: Read a lot of books(at the same time if necessary), use google intelligently, come here as a last resort, and don't give up easily. When you start something, don't be afraid to try different things, be adventurous, at first things will be difficult. You will get the experience and it will get easier, trust me. Just stay as dedicated as possible(motivation is good as well). I'm not sure about your age/college plans, but going to a college(even just a community college, for a few classes) should prove to be helpful.

[Ryan10]

Yeah im taking a basic java class now..it interests me just trying to make a code work and have it to display what you want. Im 20 going to be 21 and yes it is a community college.

[sunde887]

Ah, you are still fairly young. Try not getting overwhelmed and try to motivate yourself as much as possible. Sometimes you go through a funk, but make sure to keep working and learning as much as you can. The learning you obtain from learning java will help you with a great amount of stuff. Try not to be too narrow, java isn't the only language, and others will help you as well. If you feel confident, try picking up some basic c++, and c # books as well(any other language is good too). Try to find what interests you and keep learning.

Another amazing book(which actually got me interested in this stuff) is HTDP(How to design programs), freely available at htdp.org. It uses scheme, which is a variation on lisp and deals heavily with recursion, and procedural type programming. It goes over many different types of sorting(merge sort, selection sort, insertion sort, quick sort), moves onto fractals(sierpinski triangle, bezier curve, savannah tree), and many other topics in between. It has lots of great examples and exercises.

I am only 23 btw so I am not much older than you are.

[sunde887]

Getting involved in these forums is a great idea too, I tend to spend an abnormal time trolling for topics that I find interesting.

Don't be discouraged by people here either. They will absolutely be rude and blunt if you ask bad questions. Instead of being offended by it, try to recognize what you did wrong and don't repeat it. Almost all the time, a bad question here will be met with rude responses and mocking comments. Even then, do not be upset, just learn from it. Don't be afraid to put your 2 cents into a thread, if you aren't sure, be sure to include your uncertainty and welcome others to correct you if you are wrong.

There are times I give bad advice, however; I always welcome smarter people(like fubar, darryl, etc) to correct me and I take there corrections as opportunities to learn.

[Ryan10]

Thats what i have been doing..looking through threads that other people have had problems with and i have learned just by doing that. Thanks :)

[shazam]

I just purchased "head first java" and will start reading it tonight

Java is my first experience in programming so it has been fun but also a tough learning curve.

I think the OOP concepts are what is hurting my brain right now :D

Hopefully the book will help shed some light on OOP and more for me

[Ryan10]

i got it too :)

[Eranga]

I think the OOP concepts are what is hurting my brain right now :D

Just by reading some materials you cannot learn those topics really. You can have a theoretical knowledge about the concept by reading, but when implementing you can experience the real story behind it. So practice it. Try to start with OOP concepts parallel to your learning curve.

[sunde887]

As eranga said, theoretical knowledge only goes so far. You will need to also practice coding stuff. Try to think of something interesting but not too difficult and write code for it, understand the code, then move on from there to more difficult projects. Let me know how you like "thinking in java", it was very informative to me.

[Eranga]

But people try to work on with more difficult, more complex projects rather understanding the simplest one.

[sunde887]

Can't agree more with eranga. I am certainly no expert yet, and have a long way to go, but getting a really good understanding of the basics is important. To practice some basic logic check out this website
CodingBat

Try to do as much as you can there. When you start your own projects don't start with something too complicated. You may just end up frustrated and less motivated because it's too challenging for your current skill level. An address book which uses serialization and a gui to display people, search people, and sort people can be a fairly easy first project. You can also learn a decent amount with it(io, gui basics, using comparators, some basic oop ideas, linear searching, etc)

[Eranga]

I'm not advising to work on with complex stuff. Am I said that before or are we messup? My advice is always to work on with the basic stuff.

[shazam]

Update:
I have finished Chapter 1 in "Head first Java"
only Took me a month :p

I will begin Chapter 2 tonight :eek:

I just learn slower than most people...so that is why it took me so long


I will start a new thread for Questions (hurdles) i run into for chapter 2