Path: csiph.com!newsfeed.hal-mli.net!feeder3.hal-mli.net!newsfeed.hal-mli.net!feeder1.hal-mli.net!npeer01.iad.highwinds-media.com!news.highwinds-media.com!feed-me.highwinds-media.com!border3.nntp.dca.giganews.com!Xl.tags.giganews.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!local2.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.earthlink.com!news.earthlink.com.POSTED!not-for-mail
NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2012 21:08:44 -0500
Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2012 19:08:38 -0700
From: Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org>
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.2; WOW64; rv:11.0) Gecko/20120327 Thunderbird/11.0.1
MIME-Version: 1.0
Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer
Subject: Re: Learning Java
References: <jmklps$3uu$1@speranza.aioe.org>
In-Reply-To: <jmklps$3uu$1@speranza.aioe.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Message-ID: <vZednW1a6byxvxPSnZ2dnUVZ_j2dnZ2d@earthlink.com>
Lines: 30
X-Usenet-Provider: http://www.giganews.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: 70.230.201.141
X-Trace: sv3-skN48ZbjRWIPEQEJhiLRDWoj9/aqsSc6nQioIlr5RjVPqv8X2Yrx0k/PED1EdJnGxJjvB2IkNebbKRv!6UjEQfHvzi2336xUgGwLSFMDHV4UXPK6xAWQu9/Ay0J1q1is9A22dFG1+dr2G2W+dSnagzZHNE2p!q1VzebIZMS64m/UNi0qEwtBSrG5FlBc692kN/1LnH7bmjfQ=
X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers
X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly
X-Postfilter: 1.3.40
X-Original-Bytes: 2412
X-Received-Bytes: 2553
Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.java.programmer:13625

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.

I sometimes find a beginner book or tutorial works best, especially if
the programming language I'm learning requires a change of mindset.

When I do that, I have a definite procedure for each section. I first
read it very quickly, skipping details and trying to find out what it is
about.

If I think it is something I understand, I go on to the programming
exercises for that section. If I can do them quickly, I really did
understand it, and can go on to the next section.

If I have trouble with the programming exercises or if the content looks
unfamiliar on a quick scan, I read it properly before (re)attempting the
exercises.

The key is to do the programming exercises. That both checks that I'm
not skipping anything I need to read fully, and gets the basics of the
language into my fingers.

Patricia