Java Programming Book

duck

duck

duck

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Joined
22 Oct 2002
Posts
47
Location
West country
Could anyone recommend a good Java book, I know it's personal choice but as I do not have a local bookshop for a browse I want to order on-line and don't want to waste money on a book thats a lemon !

I brought a book which I do not find very good (Ivor Hortons Beginning Java 2).

I have read some reviews on Amazon and "Core Java 2: Volume 1 Fundamentals" seems quiet popular.

I would be interested to hear of any Java books people use and what they think of them.

Cheers
 
Sorry I should have mentioned that:

I have/do use VBA a lot.
I've used asp and asp.net.
I've done a little C & C++ programming.

I've done the basic stuff in Java using the book I already have and also using on-line tutorials but most of that is command line programms and I would like to find out more about using windows/graphics, handling exceptions, capturing mouse and keyboard events and reading/writing to files and databases.
 
I have Ivor Hortons Java book and I can see what your saying about it being bad but it depends on how much java you've done. I mainly use it as a reference point.

I tend to find the best place to advance at java is net because most books that are out there are useless, well i believe so anyway.

There are some really good tutorials out there about java object orientation and at the end of the day when you do get in java you become solely reliant on looking stuff up in the API anyway.
 
Have you done the Swing tutorial on sun's website? If so the best bet is to write a program to solve a problem that you have. Something simple but not too simple. What about a TV Guide interface that reads the TV Listings form the web and displays them to the user with searches etc?

HT
 
duck said:
Thanks for the replies.

I have discovered the sun tutorials and have started this one:

http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/java/TOC.html#nutsandbolts

I shall look for the swing one when I have finished this.

I have a couple of little program ideas that I will have a bash at once I get the tutorials under my belt.

Cheers
Click to expand...

that will be more than enough to give you the skillset to make some 1/2 decent apps. don't forget the API reference on that site as well.

No dead trees required, accessible from any computer on the planet and it's all free as well :D

HT
 
i'd say avoid the java black book.
i had it and found it to be quite poor.

i had and liked "java an introduction to computing - nyhoff" and the O'Reilly java swing when i was learning.

but i flogged them and just stick with the online API's these days.
 
Thanks for all the replies.

I'm really enjoying the sun tutorial I mentioned above and can recommend it to anyone else looking to learn java, I'm about half way through and it's getting more interesting as it goes on.

Cheers
 
Personally I like the O'Reilly books although they tend to be targetted at the slightly more experienced user. While we're on the subject of IDE's I'd thoroughly recommend taking a look at Eclipse (www.eclipse.org).
 
I leant using Ivor's good old doorstop in uni, found it pretty darn good, in fact it was the only thing I did use (didn't go to any lectures), well that and textpad, and I still got a 1st for my java dissertation.
 
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