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Subject: Re: Java tools and books
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2011 10:08:35 -0700
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On 6/21/2011 7:37 PM, William Colls wrote:

> 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'd definitely recommend getting a more recent source for Java, 1.4 is 
ancient.  Besides sources already mentioned, I recommend Learning Java, 
by O'Reilly.  It's decent teaching aid and it has enough material to use 
as a reference for a good long while.  Make sure to get the most up to 
date version, which is 3rd iirc.

For tools, get either NetBeans or Eclipse.  Eventually learn the other.

Ant is like the Unix tool "make", it automates builds from the command 
line.  Learn it eventually, but it's kinda confusing if you're brand 
new.  The IDEs will last you for a bit.

Tomcat is something else entirely.  Effectively it's a big bunch of 
libraries and a framework for doing websites (and that's not quite 
right: it's a "container," which means it calls you, you don't call it. 
Mostly.).  Not recommending to pick up right away.  Learn plain Java 
first.  Do web programming only if you know you need to.