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Learning Java

Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2006 10:26 pm
by Luke
I just picked up a book (found it at work... asked the boss if I could borrow it) from 1997 "JAVA: The Complete Reference" by Patrick Naughton and Herbert Schildt. So far it's really well written. I can barely even tell it's from 1997... other than the "the internet is going to be big" attitude. Anyway... I just thought I'd share this since I'm pretty excited about it. I think I will like programming better than scripting... any resources or advice is welcome.

Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2006 11:03 pm
by RobertGonzalez
I wonder how complete it could be coming from 1997. Has Java changed much since then? And what the heck are you thinking, moving into programming. Don't you know that is for the 'real' geeks? :wink:

Re: Learning Java

Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 2:04 am
by shiznatix
The Ninja Space Goat wrote:any resources or advice is welcome.
my advice is to not learn java. learn python or C or somthing but java is just so ugly.

Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 2:21 am
by daedalus__
What do you want to use Java for?

Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 2:52 am
by jmut
I don't think Java is ugly.
I have been reading the man/tutorials for some time. It is pretty straight forward.
Very close to php5 actually....except for little changed syntax, libraries/classes to learn and you should give types to variables.
I personally would like to spend some time with it for buliding desktop appliactions.
C++ looks like too much to me. Especially that I have only php experience.
Don't tell me you could build desktop with php :)
And what is best....Java is extensivly using some design patterns that could be very handy in php.
This is the other reason learning Java...just helps you think more OOP....hence better PHP applications :)

Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 3:26 am
by shiznatix
jmut wrote:Don't tell me you could build desktop with php :)
I couldn't build a desktop with any programming language, that requires trees and paint and whatnot ;)

but it is possible to build desktop applications with php, very possible but i can't remember the name of it or if it worth it at all.

Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 3:29 am
by jmut
shiznatix wrote:
jmut wrote:Don't tell me you could build desktop with php :)
I couldn't build a desktop with any programming language, that requires trees and paint and whatnot ;)

but it is possible to build desktop applications with php, very possible but i can't remember the name of it or if it worth it at all.
this is what I meant. Yes you can build...but it is not worth it.
http://gtk.php.net/

Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 3:47 am
by jamiel
Hehe - At the moment PHP GTK seems more like a 'PHP Geek Toy' than a serious application building tool. But we are getting off topic now :-)

Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 4:04 am
by Chris Corbyn
Actaully I'm going to Learn Java myself and I'm not bothered with other people think ;) Installed gcj, written a few basic non-interactive programs and I'll just do what I did with PHP. They've been teaching it at Durham University since at least 2001 as their main language. The only think I dislike is the JVM slowing things down. I certainly wouldn't discourage people from learning it since it seems to score well with employers in the web industry.

Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 4:08 am
by jamiel
Can anyone recommend any up to date really good 'Starter Guide' books for Java (preferably focusing on Eclipse IDE)? Maybe I will make that my language of the year to learn.

Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 5:26 am
by jmut
jamiel wrote:Can anyone recommend any up to date really good 'Starter Guide' books for Java (preferably focusing on Eclipse IDE)? Maybe I will make that my language of the year to learn.
Pretty much the best you can get.

http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/index.html
http://jqa.tmorris.net/
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/api/

Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 9:46 am
by Bill H
..since it seems to score well with employers in the web industry.
Extremely well. Interestingly, higher than PHP at this point.

My wife works in HR, works with people who have been "downsized" helping them with resumes and job-landing skills. (It's sometimes a little depressing, since people weep in her office a lot.) Anyway, she says that PHP is low to nonexistant on the skillset list that employers are presenting to her in the way of requirements. Java and javascript are high on the list and (shudder) asp still appears with some regularity. Quite a lot of relatively non-web: C/C++, COBOL, things like that.

Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 10:10 am
by Luke
Everah wrote:I wonder how complete it could be coming from 1997. Has Java changed much since then? And what the heck are you thinking, moving into programming. Don't you know that is for the 'real' geeks? :wink:
9 years... nah I'm sure everything is exactly the same as it was in 1997. LOL.

I think the book I have is just fine for learning fundamentals (syntax, core classes, etc.) but once I have learned that, I will need a better book. I am definately more interested in learning java because it is OOP completely instead of procedural with oop built in (like php and c++). I think that if nothing else, this will develop my OOP skills in PHP.

Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 12:20 pm
by daedalus__
If Java looks good on a resume then I want to learn it too.

I want to write games though. :- /

Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 12:44 pm
by timvw
Daedalus- wrote:If Java looks good on a resume then I want to learn it too.

I want to write games though. :- /
And what's keeping you from writing games?? Last time i wrote a 3d game i used java and opengl bindings (search the web for jogl)...
Or you could use the directx.net lib and compile with a java.net compiler...