Learning Java


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Thread: Learning Java

  1. #1
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    Learning Java

    So work wants me to learn Java, mainly to port their web services to mobile apps and the like. I already have a strong background in Assembly, C, C++, VB, LISP, etc., so it shouldn't be a huge hurdle. However, I was curious of opinions on a good primer/howto book to take me from scratch to mid level smoothly, then maybe an advanced book or two.

    Thanks for any recommendations.
    "Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect."

    -Mark Twain

  2. #2
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    Quote Originally Posted by trilarian View Post
    So work wants me to learn Java, mainly to port their web services to mobile apps and the like. I already have a strong background in Assembly, C, C++, VB, LISP, etc., so it shouldn't be a huge hurdle. However, I was curious of opinions on a good primer/howto book to take me from scratch to mid level smoothly, then maybe an advanced book or two.

    Thanks for any recommendations.
    The Dietel & Dietel book(s) (spelling? mebbe Deitel instead...) are what we use to teach Java here at the community college...

  3. #3
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    I found Barry Burd's Java for Dummies was a good introduction, though with your background you might want to skip a chapter or two.
    We are free to think. We are free to plan. And we are free to do. But once an action has been taken, we are never free from its consequences.
    --Russel M. Nelson, apostle.

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    "I was pulled over for speeding today. The officer said, "Don't you know
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  5. #5
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    Thanks guys will check out your recommendations.

    JohnT: Thanks, will bookmark those links for reference. The reason I was asking for a book is I already sit in front of a monitor 10-12 hours a day at work. Trying to give my eyes a break.

    Of course if they would give me the time to learn this crap while at work...
    "Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect."

    -Mark Twain

  6. #6
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    Out of curiosity what are you looking to learn Java for? Are you looking to learn Standard Edition or Enterprise Edition? Standard Edition is probably more of a familiar thing where you just write a simple program and it exits. Sure there is more to it like Swing and so forth, but that's the main idea. J2EE is generally more related to designing server side programs that contain long-running processes, serving up clients, maintaining connection pools, etc.

    Depending on what you're trying to learn it may require a slightly different text. Syntactically they are the same but J2EE provides additional classes for writing modular applications that generally run on an application server (WAS, Tomcat, JBoss, etc.).

    If you already know C++ then Java should be a breeze.
    "The author of that poem is either Homer or, if not Homer, somebody else of the same name."

  7. #7
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    Things can always change, of course...

    However, what they are looking for at the moment is simple mobile apps/widgets to access currently developed web services.

    The first project can go one of two ways. They have a regular site up that is following a javascript template, that is rather simple, but seems to confuse a lot of browsers. It is a three panel template with a static size left and right panel, with the center growing to the width of the browser. Firefox reads it perfectly, IE8 and above can - IE7 and below take over 10 minutes to do "the math" of the center panel... lol. It contains a mix of Flash, Javascript, and some action script which give a WYSIWYG post editor.

    Mobile wise, Android 2.2 can access it fine. Blackberry and iPhone crap out trying to do anything. So the first option is to make a mobile version of the site in Java so it should be more accessible by mobile devices. The other is to make a Java app that can access the site's database (in a very limited way obviously), that can then read and write in it's own environment that will be pushed to the actual site. May just start with a RSS feed type thing to give read access to the BB/iPhone users.

    Longer term there are many more features than just the forum that we would want an actual app for. There will be a market, company documentation, event maps, etc. (list is like 100+ long) that will be a mix of public and employee. I really don't want to go behind the web dev guy (who no longer works here) and rewrite everything in Java for a mobile site, as I'd have to maintain two versions of everything and figure out a poorly commented wall of code.

    So the idea I'm learning towards, is make an app that can access the database (at the same level as a browser would, but be menu based on the phone) and new features as I figure it out, but being purely Java should allow me to make minimal changes to port to all the major phones. We'll see... I have so many projects as is, this is just one they are seeing if I can do with my current workload without hiring a separate Java dev. If I can pull it off, I can push for a raise, so it is in my best interest.

    Long story short, I'll prob end up learning both.
    "Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect."

    -Mark Twain

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