what book to buy ???

[dhilipsiva]

Hi, I am DhilipSiva.
I need to learn java programming.
I know nothing about java.
which book(s) do you recommend to start as a beginner and end up as a pro ???

dhilipsiva@dhilipsiva.com

[Fubarable]

There is no one book that will do that, but rather if you're like most of us, you'll likely get several books through the years. What worked for me was to first buy some used books on Java to learn the basics and the go to the online Oracle tutorials for some more advanced stuff.

[dhilipsiva]

...What worked for me was to first buy some used books on Java to learn the basics and...

thanks. so what books do u suggest for learning basics ???

[Fubarable]

This is so subjective and really depends on how you learn. Myself, I like "grazing" a lot of resources at once, and when just starting learning Java (to help my sone with his Java homework), I wasn't sure if I'd stick with it, and so I got a bunch of used books, most of them slightly out of date. So I learned an older version of Java, but updated my knowledge online. Many here swear by the Head First book as a good intro. More recently I have read and endorse (for more advanced study after learning the basics) the Core Java volumes 1 and 2, the Head First book on Design Patterns, as well as the Filthy Rich Clients book.

[JosAH]

A little tip: don't buy or read anything written by Herbert Schildt; that guy is only in it for the money and knows nothing about C., C++ or Java, although he ruined quite some trees with his crappy books about those languages. They are a shame; rather read "The Java Programming Language" by James Goslings, the creator or the language; those creators write good books about their language (see also Dennis Ritchie and Bjarne Stroustrup). Some of Sun's/Oracle's reference books are also worth their money.

kind regards,

Jos

[DarrylBurke]

Cross posted
OTN Discussion Forums : what book to buy ??? ...

db

[Fubarable]

A little tip: don't buy or read anything written by Herbert Schildt; that guy is only in it for the money...

I went to check on this guy to see if he was from the Netherlands (a reasonable assumption, right?), but no! Not only is he from the USA, but he graduated from my undergraduate institution, the University of Illinois. Oh the shame!

[sunde887]

Don't know what books would be great for you, however; one of my favorites is head first java.

Rather than type a long post, I am going to link to a blog post I made. It contains non java books as well, focus on the java books(unless you are interested in others as well)
Helping beginners get started. « Sunde's Blog

[JosAH]

I went to check on this guy to see if he was from the Netherlands (a reasonable assumption, right?), but no! Not only is he from the USA, but he graduated from my undergraduate institution, the University of Illinois. Oh the shame!

Haha! He could've been Dutch alright; cheating, boozing, trying to make money out of nothing or by selling their mother; I didn't know such idiots existed in Illinois as well ... his ancestors must've been banned from the Netherlands centuries ago ;-)

kind regards,

Jos