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What is a good text book

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  What is a good text book jmclifford@aanet.com.au - 2016-01-03 07:51 -0800
    What is a good text book Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2016-01-03 10:27 -0800
    Re: What is a good text book Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2016-01-03 19:25 +0000
    Re: What is a good text book Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2016-01-09 21:24 -0500
      Re: What is a good text book Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2016-01-10 18:04 +0000

#33438 — What is a good text book

Hi all.
Is there a reasonable book for Java???
I am look for something that is definitive and also a reference book.
I find the web based learning difficult when it is a long time between drinks.

Also, you may have specific comment on books by Herbert Schildt which are;
1) Java A Beginner's Guide 6th edition,
2) Java The Complete Reference 9th edition.

Would you need both these book's (can the 2nd item negate the 1st item).

Regards JC......

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#33442

Web-based, but the Java Tutorials remain one of the best introductions to Java, and you can always print them out (and drink more heavily). _Effective Java_ by Joshua Bloch is a must-read.

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#33446

On Sun, 03 Jan 2016 07:51:47 -0800, jmclifford wrote:

> Hi all.
> Is there a reasonable book for Java???
> I am look for something that is definitive and also a reference book.
> I find the web based learning difficult when it is a long time between
> drinks.
> 
> Also, you may have specific comment on books by Herbert Schildt which
> are;
> 1) Java A Beginner's Guide 6th edition,
> 2) Java The Complete Reference 9th edition.
> 
> Would you need both these book's (can the 2nd item negate the 1st item).
> 
> Regards JC......

I got started with Ivor Horton's 'Beginning Java', which was pretty much 
what I wanted. It doesn't require you to use any particular IDE. In fact 
you can do all its exercises using only your favourite text editor and 
your OS's command line tools and Java compilers. The book provides a 
similar mix of information, example code, exercises and reference 
indexing to the K&R C book, aka "The C Programming language" by Kernighan 
and Richie, which is my benchmark for excellence in teach-yourself 
programming language books.

However, that was back in the days of Java 2. The latest version of 
'Beginning Java' seems to be for Java 7 and I don't know how good the 
latest edition may be.

IMO as well as downloading and installing the Java SE JDK you also need 
to grab and install the Java documentation set, which includes the Java 
language specification, manpages for the compilers etc, all the tutorials 
and last but not least, the documentation for the standard class library 
- the latter being even bigger than the standard C function library. 
You'll likely feel quite lost until you've learnt to find your way round 
the class library.
 

-- 
martin@   | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org       |

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#33459

On 1/3/2016 10:51 AM, jmclifford@aanet.com.au wrote:
> Is there a reasonable book for Java???
> I am look for something that is definitive and also a reference book.
> I find the web based learning difficult when it is a long time between drinks.
>
> Also, you may have specific comment on books by Herbert Schildt which are;
> 1) Java A Beginner's Guide 6th edition,
> 2) Java The Complete Reference 9th edition.
>
> Would you need both these book's (can the 2nd item negate the 1st item).

It all depends on what you are looking for.

1) Introduction to Java language for people *without* experience in
    "similar" language
2) Introduction to Java language for people *with* experience in
    "similar" language (C# is obvious but C++, VB.NET, OOP style PHP
    could also do)
3) Reference for Java language and Java library
4) Prescription on how to become a better Java programmer
5) Something about specific libraries or frameworks in Java

re 1)

You should probably look for books by Horton or Schildt. They are
good ay writing these kinds of books.

I have no specific recommendation. Too long ago I learned Java
(from an extremely crappy book).

re 2)

I have always considered Wrox "Professional XXXX" great books
for this purpose.

But "Professional Java" has not been updated for newer Java
versions.

:-(

re 3)

No need for this.

Just use the Java API javadocs as reference for the Java
library.

And for Java language then you can either just avoid writing
code that requires reference material (recommended!) or
read the JLS.

re 4)

There are a few very relevant books.

Effective Java / Josh Bloch and Java Concurrency in
Practice / Brian Goetz and other are two very good books.

re 5)

Depends entirely on what library/framework.

Arne

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#33460

On Sat, 09 Jan 2016 21:24:23 -0500, Arne Vajhøj wrote:

> re 4)
> 
> There are a few very relevant books.
> 
> Effective Java / Josh Bloch and Java Concurrency in Practice / Brian
> Goetz and other are two very good books.
> 
If you're a relatively new programmer and/or think you'd benefit from a 
refresher in writing readable, maintainable and debuggable code, try "The 
Practice of Programming" by Kernighan and Pike.


-- 
martin@   | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org       |

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