Abdul Habra, 6.20.2001
Many of my friends and colleagues ask me this question in one form or another: I am a programmer, and want to learn Java and get certification, what should I do/read? and by the way, what IDE or text editor should I use?
Here is my answer: - Read this book:
Just Java 2, by Peter van der Linden Make sure to get the latest edition. The book should give you a good understanding of Java.
- After you read the above book, look at these links:
http://suned.sun.com/US/certification/ www.software.u-net.com/javaexam/javaexamold.htm www.enterprisedeveloper.com/jcertify/
These links should give you a good sense of Java certifications and exams.
- If you want to continue with certification, read this book:
Java 2 Exam Cram, by Bill Brogden. This is not a big book, so read it all and make sure to solve all its examples.
- Do the exam. Its official title is:
Sun Certified Programmer for Java 2 Platform. Good luck.
- If you want to stay current with Java, check out these sites regularly:
www.javaworld.com/ www.jguru.com http://developer.java.sun.com/developer/index.html www.cinjug.org The Cincinnati Java User Group (if you live in the area!)
- Other Java related sites that you may want to checkout:
www.michael-thomas.com/java/javahotsites.htm www.devx.com/gethelp/ www.confluent.fr/javadoc/indexe.html Java Docs in WinHelp format. www.javareport.com/java2interactive/index.html Java Docs with class diagrams. www.mindview.net/Books Download the "Thinking in Java" book by Bruce Eckel. www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/java/ IBM's Java zone. www.gnu.org/software/java/java.html GNU's Java software with a lot of source code.
- Finally for the IDEs and text editors:
www.inprise.com/downloads/ Download the free JBuilder Foundation. JBuilder is my favorite IDE. www.textpad.com/ TextPad is a good shareware text editor that has Java syntax coloring.
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