Stuart Howard wrote:

>As you might expect I am running on information overload here ;)
>
>I have emerged well all the IDE and editors suggested [got to love
>portage] and will make the choices when I am beyond hello world time,
>I am reading  the lecture prepared by Ted lovley work by the way
>starts at my level :]
>
>Anyway my supplemental request is book choice and a mailing list to
>watch for entry/mid level discussions?
>[gentoo-user has taught me more about linux/gentoo than any of the
>books I have read]
>
>I see that from Amazon "The Java Tutorial: A Short Course on the
>Basics (Java S.)" is due for a new release at the end of this month
>and seems a likly choice, however there are more books available than
>you can shake a stick at to be honest and a tip would be nice.
>
>  
>
If you really need to learn all from scratch i suggest Bruce Eckels 
book, thinking in Java, it's free download on the web as he released 
most of his book for free in pdf format...
a simple google should fix you up with it.
It will teach you all the basics off OO programming...

>stu
>
>ps. All I need to do now is to farm the wife and kids out to a
>religious cult and I will have some real time to get started :P
>
>
>On 26/01/06, Greg Tassone <greg@...> wrote:
>  
>
>>On Thu, 2006-01-26 at 10:04 -0800, Ted Kosan wrote:
>>...
>>    
>>
>>>I agree with another poster that eventually you will want to focus your efforts
>>>on J2SE 5.0 but for people just learning Java you should be fine learning the
>>>fundamentals on J2SE 1.4.
>>>      
>>>
>>I agree.  Learn the fundamentals any which way you desire.  Don't worry
>>too much about which exact platform you are using for starting out.
>>
>>
>>    
>>
>>>>Next up would be an IDE, is Kdevelop good for java or is netbeans a
>>>>good choice?
>>>>        
>>>>
>>...
>>    
>>
>>>This is where my opionin will usually differ with most people.  My
>>>recommendation is that Java beginners should start with a Java editor and do
>>>all of thier development from the command line. The reason for this is that I
>>>think people do not truly understand how Java works until they understand how
>>>Java's runtime environemnt works at the commmand line level.
>>>      
>>>
>>I think there is merit to this opinion.  Using the command line teaches
>>you many things about the lower levels of a Java runtime that are
>>normally hidden with an IDE.  It is GOOD that they are generally hidden
>>when using an IDE, as this generally increases productivity.  However,
>>IDE's usually are NOT intended for learning (Josh's comments on BlueJ
>>notwithstanding, as I'm not familiar with the learning-focus of that
>>IDE, but it sounds interesting).
>>
>>
>>    
>>
>>>As for which editor to use, I recommend using a Java-based editor instead of
>>>something like nano or vim because one is able to pick up a lot of Java-related
>>>information indirectly by using an editor that is written in Java.  The Java
>>>editor that I recommend is JEdit.
>>>      
>>>
>>Agreed.  With something like JEdit you can even write simple
>>(Java-based) bean-shell snippets to extend functionality of the editor,
>>which also can be good as you're learning.
>>
>>Enjoy!
>>
>>~ Greg
>>
>>
>>
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>>
>>
>>
>>    
>>
>
>
>--
>"There are 10 types of people in this world: those who understand
>binary, those who don't"
>
>--Unknown
>
>  
>


-- 
"Defer no time, delays have dangerous ends"
"Ne humanus crede"

Jochen Maes                     
Gentoo Linux
Gentoo Belgium
http://sejo.be
http://gentoo.be
http://gentoo.org