Path: csiph.com!v102.xanadu-bbs.net!xanadu-bbs.net!feeder.erje.net!eu.feeder.erje.net!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Martin Gregorie Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer Subject: Re: Recommendations for an online Introduction to programming using Java Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2013 22:33:14 +0000 (UTC) Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 42 Message-ID: References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2013 22:33:14 +0000 (UTC) Injection-Info: mx05.eternal-september.org; posting-host="e5160e2be48f1ea550cf61512446f525"; logging-data="8632"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX19+PAVU7HF3fhGGeR9wzSe9hYX08R0+Mi8=" User-Agent: Pan/0.139 (Sexual Chocolate; GIT bf56508 git://git.gnome.org/pan2) Cancel-Lock: sha1:xCsnbWynFGJj1yY8JYTuQNt4tPU= Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.java.programmer:26980 On Tue, 17 Dec 2013 14:37:50 -0500, Henry Cate wrote: > I skimmed the first one and it doesn't seem basic enough > for what I want, but it does look like a good resource for once these > teenagers get going. > In a way its a pity you're going for Java, much as I like it personally. I had the same problem getting started. I was already an experienced programmer at that point (lots of assembler, COBOL and C plus projects written using PL/1, TAL and RPG 3 [shudder]), but a 5 day Sun Java course didn't help me at all. I eventually got a copy of Ivor Horton's "Beginning Java". I'm certain its not to best book in the world, but it did get me set on the right path and had the advantage of assuming I'd learn using a command line, my favourite text editor and the JDK. Later I picked up ant and the use of an IDE. It also has a decent collection of fairly well thought-out examples and exercises. Why a pity? Because I thought one of the best computer language teaching books I have used was "The C Programming Language" by Kernighan & Richie. They write very well and provide both excellent example code and useful chapter-end examples. I do think that a beginner could learn to write decent C using only this book and would, at the end of it, find they had a useful conceptual grounding that could be easily extended to make sense of almost any other block-structured language. Add a copy of "The Practise of Programming" by Kernighan & Pike, which BTW, can be usefully read to improve your programming in almost any modern language and you have a solid basis for any programmer's reference library. This book takes over where the language teaching texts leave off and contains sound advice in writing code that is well structured with a sensible naming convention, while also being easy to debug and easy to read and maintain. Top those off with a copy of Sedgewick's "Algorithms" and you have the basis of a programming reference library that will serve you well for a very long time. -- martin@ | Martin Gregorie gregorie. | Essex, UK org |