Path: csiph.com!x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net!usenet.pasdenom.info!gegeweb.org!de-l.enfer-du-nord.net!feeder1.enfer-du-nord.net!feeder.news-service.com!newsfeed.xs4all.nl!newsfeed5.news.xs4all.nl!xs4all!newsgate.cistron.nl!newsgate.news.xs4all.nl!news.nosignal.org!news.xcski.com!ncf.ca!not-for-mail From: William Colls Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer Subject: Java tools and books Date: Tue, 21 Jun 2011 22:37:56 -0400 Organization: National Capital Freenet, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Lines: 25 Sender: ft787@cpe002369f5842a-cm0012c9db4d68.cpe.net.cable.rogers.com Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: cpe002369f5842a-cm0012c9db4d68.cpe.net.cable.rogers.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: theodyn.ncf.ca 1308710229 5539 99.224.92.37 (22 Jun 2011 02:37:09 GMT) X-Complaints-To: complaints@ncf.ca NNTP-Posting-Date: 22 Jun 2011 02:37:09 GMT User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.9.2.17) Gecko/20110424 Thunderbird/3.1.10 Xref: x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net comp.lang.java.programmer:5507 I am just getting into the java world, and I am looking to mine the collected wisdom of the group for some suggestions. 1. Are there any reference books that you would consider essential. I have O'Rielly's Java in a nutshell(4th edition). This only goes as far as v 1.4. Is worth getting a newer edition? I also have Sam's "Teach yourself Java 2 in 21 days" which uses SDK 1.5. Not going to get the newer edition. I have looked at/read some of/bookmarked the tutorial pages on the Oracle site. I know there are lots more online references. So any other books/sites/resources that you would consider as essential to the beginner? 2 Tools for working with Java. I am currently working with NetBeans IDE 6.8. I am aware of ant and tomcat, but not intimately familiar with either of them. I have used eclipse as a developmnet environment in the past, but not for java, and it was a limited, and short exposure. So what tools/IDE's should I be getting (at least) familiar with? Thank you for your time and thoughtful answers. I recognize that the above questions a somewhat in the "how long is a piece of string" question category, but hopefully I can get some feel for the things I need to be looking at/for. Again, Thanks for your time.