Ask HN: Suggestions for learning Java?

1 point·Amat··4 comments

Hey guys, I'm starting my next semester in a week, and one of my courses is in java. It has been two years since I have taken a class that needed Java, so I no longer have my old text books.

Was looking for some good resources you guys would recommend? I just want to get familiar with the syntax again before classes start.

Any recommendations? (Even from beginners guides to good refresher books)

Thanks all.

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Java is a relatively easy language to learn, and since you already have some experience with it, see if the Oracle tutorials[1] can help. Java 8 introduces a few features that make life easy, so you don't want to miss out on them.

Once you are kind of confident with the syntax, an excellent way to exercise your skills is to write small programs that mimic Unix utilities, like cp, ls, mv etc.

All the best :)

[1]: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/

Think of a program you'd like to actually have for your own use, then write it in Java.

You're likely to find that it's got some problems, because you haven't used Java in a while, so fix those problems, or even rewrite the whole program from scratch.

You only have a week - well really two before you'd be expected to turn in any work - so this program you'd want for your own use shouldn't be so ambitious.

"Effective Java" is a good book.

Head First Java is a pretty good book. It's an interesting style of teaching in it. It's very much geared towards novices though. I think they use it at my University now for their intro to Java classes.

If you want something more advanced, O'Reilly books are always a good way to go. Nowadays there is a ton of stuff on YouTube as well.

Bruce Eckel's Thinking in Java. The older edition is available online.

http://www.mindview.net/Books/TIJ/

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