Stuart Howard wrote: >As you might expect I am running on information overload here ;) > >I have emerged well all the IDE and editors suggested [got to love >portage] and will make the choices when I am beyond hello world time, >I am reading the lecture prepared by Ted lovley work by the way >starts at my level :] > >Anyway my supplemental request is book choice and a mailing list to >watch for entry/mid level discussions? >[gentoo-user has taught me more about linux/gentoo than any of the >books I have read] > >I see that from Amazon "The Java Tutorial: A Short Course on the >Basics (Java S.)" is due for a new release at the end of this month >and seems a likly choice, however there are more books available than >you can shake a stick at to be honest and a tip would be nice. > > > If you really need to learn all from scratch i suggest Bruce Eckels book, thinking in Java, it's free download on the web as he released most of his book for free in pdf format... a simple google should fix you up with it. It will teach you all the basics off OO programming... >stu > >ps. All I need to do now is to farm the wife and kids out to a >religious cult and I will have some real time to get started :P > > >On 26/01/06, Greg Tassone wrote: > > >>On Thu, 2006-01-26 at 10:04 -0800, Ted Kosan wrote: >>... >> >> >>>I agree with another poster that eventually you will want to focus your efforts >>>on J2SE 5.0 but for people just learning Java you should be fine learning the >>>fundamentals on J2SE 1.4. >>> >>> >>I agree. Learn the fundamentals any which way you desire. Don't worry >>too much about which exact platform you are using for starting out. >> >> >> >> >>>>Next up would be an IDE, is Kdevelop good for java or is netbeans a >>>>good choice? >>>> >>>> >>... >> >> >>>This is where my opionin will usually differ with most people. My >>>recommendation is that Java beginners should start with a Java editor and do >>>all of thier development from the command line. The reason for this is that I >>>think people do not truly understand how Java works until they understand how >>>Java's runtime environemnt works at the commmand line level. >>> >>> >>I think there is merit to this opinion. Using the command line teaches >>you many things about the lower levels of a Java runtime that are >>normally hidden with an IDE. It is GOOD that they are generally hidden >>when using an IDE, as this generally increases productivity. However, >>IDE's usually are NOT intended for learning (Josh's comments on BlueJ >>notwithstanding, as I'm not familiar with the learning-focus of that >>IDE, but it sounds interesting). >> >> >> >> >>>As for which editor to use, I recommend using a Java-based editor instead of >>>something like nano or vim because one is able to pick up a lot of Java-related >>>information indirectly by using an editor that is written in Java. The Java >>>editor that I recommend is JEdit. >>> >>> >>Agreed. With something like JEdit you can even write simple >>(Java-based) bean-shell snippets to extend functionality of the editor, >>which also can be good as you're learning. >> >>Enjoy! >> >>~ Greg >> >> >> >>-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- >>Version: GnuPG v1.4.2 (GNU/Linux) >> >>iD8DBQBD2RMxaI3pdOrDO40RAqc7AKC1QgzXe4oFAeoaQkTyilTb/o163wCg4WjW >>fFIZGAaXbPVLKBUY77JXJM4= >>=dDHV >>-----END PGP SIGNATURE----- >> >> >> >> >> > > >-- >"There are 10 types of people in this world: those who understand >binary, those who don't" > >--Unknown > > > -- "Defer no time, delays have dangerous ends" "Ne humanus crede" Jochen Maes Gentoo Linux Gentoo Belgium http://sejo.be http://gentoo.be http://gentoo.org