"Java Programming for the Absolute Beginner"

[finalstrike777]

Hi!
I took two courses of C++ at my university and since it's summer I've decided to pick up Java programming. I'm currently using the book "Java Programming for the Absolute Beginner" by Joseph Russell and I was wondering if it was still a viable book to use. It was written in 2001 so I was wondering if it was too outdated or if it will still work fine for me.

On a side note today was the first day I moved from notepad to Jcreator and was wondering what is the most convenient/ easy to use compiler out there.

Thanks

[bigsonny]

Your book is ten years old. While it will teach you the basics, generally speaking, it is believed that the Oracle site is THE authority on java. You can go through their tutorials for an up-to-date tutorial. Plus since it is online and freely accessible, members of this site can give you help for free:)

[Dark]

As bigsonny said, you can learn Java from the Oracle tutorials. Or if you're more of a book person and don't have a problem with spending a little money there are great up to date books out there. I just finished Head First Java a little while ago and I have nothing but good things to say about it.

Sunde wrote a great blog post about some book reviews, if you want you could look at that for ideas.

However, with the book you have right now I don't suggest it. There are a lot of things that have changed, and I'm willing to bet most of the things it will tell you to try out will be deprecated.