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From: glen herrmannsfeldt <gah@ugcs.caltech.edu>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer
Subject: Re: Learning Java
Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2012 21:50:47 +0000 (UTC)
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markspace <-@.> wrote:
> On 4/17/2012 2:03 PM, Steve Graham wrote:
>> I've been a programmer for 3 decades working in mostly procedural
>> languages, although I have done some work with a couple of
>> object-oriented ones.

>> Which book would you recommend that I read to learn Java? Obviously, I
>> don't want to read a beginning programming book, nor do I want to study
>> one which presupposes I know something about Java or a lot about OO
>> concepts.

You can do procedural programming in Java. You might find it easier
to start that way, to get used to Java, and then learn the OO stuff.

Read about static methods in any Java book, and you can pretty
easily write anything that you would in C. (It will even look
a lot like C.)

Java is much like C (to me, it is closer to C than C++ is).
If your 3 decades are in C, you should have an easy time learning
procedural Java. 

Also, you can do OO programming in a procedural language, though
it isn't quite as easy. I knew OO programs in Fortran 66 (more than
three decades ago). 

> First, how is your object oriented programming skills?  
> Java really only provides OO options, so you're going to 
> need to know OO decently.

> To get started with Java itself, I recommend you start with 
> the Oracle tutorial.  It's free and does a decent job.

> <http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/>

> Second, there are quite a few books.  I like O'Reilly's Learning Java. 
> It starts as a basic introduction, but there's enough other information 
> in the book that will last you quite a while as a reference.  It also 
> has one of the better explanations of Java's generics;  that alone is 
> worth the price of the book imo.

He can skip the chapters that are too easy, but should study
the OO parts, even if they are introductory.

(snip of more book discussion)

-- glen