Re: [gentoo-java] Startup advice

[Stuart Howard <stuart.g.howard@gmail.com>]

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.

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 <greg@tassone.net> 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
>
>
>
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--
"There are 10 types of people in this world: those who understand
binary, those who don't"

--Unknown

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