Re: How far back can we go?

From	Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.java.help
Subject	Re: How far back can we go?
Date	2011-08-27 01:29 -0700
Organization	http://groups.google.com
Message-ID	<d54d80ea-c4e9-4c87-b97b-4e53dc1e8db1@glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com> (permalink)
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jaap wrote:
> schreef Fritz Wuehler:
>> I'm finding some older Java books on the net. How far back in time is it
>> safe to use these books to learn Java? They seem to be putting out new
>> releases pretty often. Are they building on each other or is the old stuff
>> outdated? I know a few procedural languages and I understand basic OO
>> concepts but I am having trouble learning Java. Thanks.
>>
> Most of the older things still work, but there are many very good new 
> features.
> I learned Java a decade ago with the Java Tutorial, it is updated with 
> every version:
> http://download.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/

The trouble with old books is twofold, or more - they often pitch disfavored classes like 'Vector' and 'Hashtable' (replaced in 1998), and they don't give you the goodies that came about in recent versions, like the better memory model for concurrent programming, collections enhancements and generics, to name a few.  This can even be harmful, as when older books neglect to tell you to construct Swing GUIs on the Event Dispatch Thread, or they repeat canards about slow GC or inefficient concurrent locks.

As Jaap says, the tutorial is up to date, though it's also thin in parts.  But the Tutorial Really Big Index does get one into some pretty good training, and it's a great start even if it doesn't take you all the way.

A good second step would be to read, even study _Effective Java_, by Joshua Bloch (2nd ed.). http://java.sun.com/docs/books/effective/.  Keep that book around - it gets better the more you know about Java.

As a rule of thumb stick with Java SE books that deal with version 5 (itself obsolete but close enough to 6) or later.  There are just too many significant improvements between 1.4 and 5 (a.k.a. 1.5).  Besides, 1.4 is truly ancient and you don't want a zombie version eating your brain.  If the book tries to get you to use 'java.util.Vector' or 'java.util.Hashtable', throw it out.

This is just the start of your fun.  Wait until you get into Java EE, JPA, annotations, concurrent programming, various frameworks, ...

-- 
Lew

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How far back can we go? Fritz Wuehler <fritz@spamexpire-201108.rodent.frell.theremailer.net> - 2011-08-27 08:15 +0200
  Re: How far back can we go? jaap <niemand@meel.homelinux.net> - 2011-08-27 10:11 +0200
    Re: How far back can we go? Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2011-08-27 01:29 -0700
    Re: How far back can we go? Fritz Wuehler <fritz@spamexpire-201108.rodent.frell.theremailer.net> - 2011-08-28 07:46 +0200
      Re: How far back can we go? Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2011-08-28 02:17 -0700
        Re: How far back can we go? blmblm@myrealbox.com <blmblm.myrealbox@gmail.com> - 2011-08-29 12:07 +0000
          Re: How far back can we go? Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2011-08-29 08:25 -0700
            Re: How far back can we go? blmblm@myrealbox.com <blmblm.myrealbox@gmail.com> - 2011-08-29 16:03 +0000
              Re: How far back can we go? Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2011-08-29 09:19 -0700
                Re: How far back can we go? blmblm@myrealbox.com <blmblm.myrealbox@gmail.com> - 2011-08-30 14:28 +0000
  Re: How far back can we go? Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2011-08-29 04:16 -0700
  Re: How far back can we go? Steve <tinker123@gmail.com> - 2011-08-29 10:03 -0400
    Re: How far back can we go? Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2011-08-29 14:06 -0700
      Re: How far back can we go? Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2011-08-29 14:30 -0700
        Re: How far back can we go? Joshua Cranmer <Pidgeot18@verizon.invalid> - 2011-08-30 08:28 -0500
          Re: How far back can we go? Fritz Wuehler <fritz@spamexpire-201108.rodent.frell.theremailer.net> - 2011-08-31 06:44 +0200
            Re: How far back can we go? Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2011-08-30 22:21 -0700
      Re: How far back can we go? Steve <tinker123@gmail.com> - 2011-08-30 10:51 -0400
        Re: How far back can we go? Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2011-08-30 09:30 -0700
    Re: How far back can we go? Fritz Wuehler <fritz@spamexpire-201108.rodent.frell.theremailer.net> - 2011-08-30 01:48 +0200
      Re: How far back can we go? markspace <-@.> - 2011-08-29 18:53 -0700
        Re: How far back can we go? Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2011-08-29 19:06 -0700
        Re: How far back can we go? markspace <-@.> - 2011-08-29 20:05 -0700

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