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Zeno
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29 Mar 2010, 11:03 am

In the last few years I have spent so much time working on a project to map out the market for Chinese equities that I basically got to a point a few weeks ago when it felt that I had to do something different or else try to hang myself with freshly spun spider silk. And so I decided to learn Java. My programming background had hitherto been limited to VBA for Excel with subroutines that were written largely in an event driven procedural manner. The local library had quite a few books on Java but one by Jacquie Barker, “Beginning Java Objects”, caught my eye. Having gone from literally zero to writing nontrivial macros that are essential for my ongoing project, I knew better than to believe that it is possible for anyone to learn a programming language in 24 hours or even 21 days. Getting the fundamental concepts right is not vital for future development, it will also save any student a great measure of pain.

As it turns out, I got lucky and Ms. Barker’s introduction to the object oriented world has opened up a whole new way of thinking for me. However, while “Beginning Java Objects” is effective at getting students off the ground conceptually, there is not enough meat in it to get me to where I want to go. My personal objective is to develop Java based applications for my mobile phone (Sony Ericsson W700i). Specifically, I am looking to create an Indonesian-English dictionary that includes the roots of the Indonesian word and its other derivatives whenever any particular word is looked up. I have been studying the Indonesian language for nearly a year now and such a dictionary, which is currently unavailable, would really aid foreigners looking to learn the language. The idea is to help myself pick up a broad Indonesian vocabulary while at the same time working on a project that extends my expertise into the Java programming language.

I have downloaded Bruce Eckel’s “Thinking in Java, 3rd Edition” and checked his book plus CD out of the library. I even created an accessible pdf file from the Eckel’s html files which has definitely made the electronic book a lot more usable. My question is, how do I go from here? I am an autodidact and very much prefer to learn on my own. Eckel is impressive but he does assume that the reader has a significant background in C or at least C++. Ivor Horton has garnered some good reviews but his Java offerings are quite jaded. Dietel’s “Java How to Program” is used by many colleges as a standard text and yet oddly enough, or perhaps because of its use by frustrated college brats, the reviews on Dietel are horrible. Kathy Sierra’s “Head First Java” has gotten rave reviews but it appears to be very much the sort of introductory text that I have just worked through with “Beginning Java Objects”.

Any suggestions as to what my next steps should be would be must appreciated.



cmate
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29 Mar 2010, 11:36 am

Thinking In Java is a GREAT book. Thats a good starting point for Java.

However, I would recommend learning Flex/Actionscript. If you need to create a desktop app, you can do so by using Adobe AIR. The same app can run in a browser too.

I have found that Flex is soooo much easier than many other languages to create good looking feature rich applications.

Plus adobe has a lot of solutions for the back end if you need that. In fact, some of them are Java based.

There are some good Flex tutorials on Adobe.


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Blue Jay
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29 Mar 2010, 2:13 pm

Absolute Java is also a good source, and the author freely gives away an old edition. I also found this site http://wps.aw.com/aw_savitch_abjava_4s/ ... index.html accompanying a more recent version, but it has videos of someone explaining some of the projects. It really helped me.

Also, it may be worth looking in to a community college course. Structure helped me learn, and the prof I had was AMAZING. He helped me with anything I wanted help on, related to the class or not.



Zeno
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29 Mar 2010, 6:52 pm

Thanks for the suggestions. Eckel’s book is good which is why I went to the trouble to create an accessible pdf file from the html download. Did Walter Savitch make publicly available earlier versions of his book? I did a search and found only stuff on RapidShare which has never worked for me because I refuse to pay for membership.



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Blue Jay
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29 Mar 2010, 9:14 pm

It looks like they took it down since last summer. Bummer.

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