Learning and Certification
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:
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.cinjug.org The Cincinnati Java User Group (if you live in the area!)
Other Java related sites that you may want to checkout:
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.