

Ask HN: Suggestions for learning Java? - Amat

Hey guys, I&#x27;m starting my next semester in a week, and one of my courses is in java.
It has been two years since I have taken a class that needed Java, so I no longer have my old text books.<p>Was looking for some good resources you guys would recommend? I just want to get familiar with the syntax again before classes start.<p>Any recommendations? (Even from beginners guides to good refresher books)<p>Thanks all.
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yati
Java is a relatively easy language to learn, and since you already have some
experience with it, see if the Oracle tutorials[1] can help. Java 8 introduces
a few features that make life easy, so you don't want to miss out on them.

Once you are kind of confident with the syntax, an excellent way to exercise
your skills is to write small programs that mimic Unix utilities, like cp, ls,
mv etc.

All the best :)

[1]:
[http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/](http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/)

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MichaelCrawford
Think of a program you'd like to actually have for your own use, then write it
in Java.

You're likely to find that it's got some problems, because you haven't used
Java in a while, so fix those problems, or even rewrite the whole program from
scratch.

You only have a week - well really two before you'd be expected to turn in any
work - so this program you'd want for your own use shouldn't be so ambitious.

"Effective Java" is a good book.

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chromejs10
Head First Java is a pretty good book. It's an interesting style of teaching
in it. It's very much geared towards novices though. I think they use it at my
University now for their intro to Java classes.

If you want something more advanced, O'Reilly books are always a good way to
go. Nowadays there is a ton of stuff on YouTube as well.

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wallflower
Bruce Eckel's Thinking in Java. The older edition is available online.

[http://www.mindview.net/Books/TIJ/](http://www.mindview.net/Books/TIJ/)

