I’m doing a lot of work in java right now. Some of it I’ve done before (a long time ago) and am remembering (e.g. Java Desktop Development) and some is brand new (J2EE Development).
As Mike pointed out to me there is a lot more to java than being platform independant. Java provides a huge API which can make life a lot easier, assuming you want to do things their way. Mind you “their way” is, by and large, using proper OOP and patterns, so once you’re in that mindset it should be ok.
Ok, let’s start at the beginning:
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/api/ - the java 1.5 API.
This is the complete documentation for the latest J2SE API. They just javadoc’d all their source and posted on-line. Incredibly useful to look up interfaces, classes, etc. The documentation also has links into the Java Tutorial (http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/) if you’re looking for a more in-depth explanation of how to use something (this is not available for everything but is available for more complex objects, i.e. many Swing objects have links).
http://java.sun.com/j2ee/1.4/docs/api/index.html - The Enterprise Java API.
This is the complete documentation for Enterprise Java code. Really useful for anyone doing J2EE. I’m not working with it at this moment so I don’t have much to say about it.
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/uiswing/components/components.html - Swing Component “Visual Index”
Like I said, Java provides a huge api. A very convienent part of that API is Swing, a platform independant GUI toolkit. Go here to see a whole bunch of different Components. Includes links into the Java Tutorial on how to use each component.
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/uiswing/layout/visual.html - Visual Guide to Layout Managers
When making Swing apps you can put components into window by positioning them using absolute coordinates. You can also us a large number of layout managers and have them lay out your object. This is the preferred method (though, outside of accessablility, I don’t understand why).
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/uiswing/events/api.html - Listener API Table
Whenever an Event is throuwn (e.g. when you click a button) if no one is listening then it will be ignored. So which listener do you use when? What kinds of listeners are available? This link shows you what listeners are available (and what adapters implement them!).
These links are not meant to give you some new awe inspiring knowledge, rather they are provided for your convience. They’re useful for reminding you of stuff you (and/or I 
) may have forgotten. If you want to learn Java (and already know some programming and/or OOP) I strongly recommend the the Java Tutorial (http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/).
If you don’t know programming I recommend learning modular programming (esspecially C/C++) before moving on to OOP. I recomend going to your local college and looking into some courses. Good programming is hard and most people will benefit from formal training on top of spending lots of time and energy in developing their skills.
RDF:
Comment by themystic.ca
2 27. March 2006, 7:54 pm o'clock |
I’m for learning the tough stuff first… then you can forget it. Learning easy stuff (like Java) first doesn’t enforce the fundamentals and people have a hard time remembering “details” like how a pointer works (like why you need a point pointer to point a pointer where it wasn’t pointing before). Alliteration is fun!
Comment by Cesar
1 10. March 2006, 12:55 am o'clock |
Yeah, java is very easy. I’m socket programming in C right now for networking class (I made the decision to do it C rather in java), and you miss the great documentation that java provides.
When you look something up in java, it has a few paragraphs for introduction, a paragraph for each method. Quick, simple, to the point.
When you look something up something in the man pages for c, its “oh you want to do socket programming? Look up a,b,c,d,e. Here is some important information for later..”, then you go to a, and it asks you go check out f and g. Didn’t work? Well here’s a list of 15 things that probably went wrong.
I just went to the java api to look up socket programming. Its two classes, each with like 5 methods.
Anyways, I would have to disagree on your comment about learning C/C++ first. I would be more inclined to recommend java simply becaise you don’t have to worry about such things as buffer overflow and freestore memory (although it still helps).
Happy strike break week!