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Ready to learn Java...start with 5 or 6?

H

hellfreeze

Golden Member
I'm looking to learn as much as I can of Java this summer, but I have a question:

I have a Java 5 book and a Java 6 book. Is it ok to read the Java 5 book or have a lot of things changed in Java 6?

I appreciate all the feedback!
 
Which one is more detailed? AFAIK there isn't a lot of huge changes. (and even if there are, it doesn't really matter, you learn by doing, not by reading.)

If they of the same quality, I would go for the 6 book, just because it is newer (no use learning about an older system)
 
Cogman said:
Which one is more detailed? AFAIK there isn't a lot of huge changes. (and even if there are, it doesn't really matter, you learn by doing, not by reading.)

If they of the same quality, I would go for the 6 book, just because it is newer (no use learning about an older system)
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The Java 5 book is the "Head First" series and the Java 6 book is one of the 24 hours books (I'm not a fan of the 24 hour books but this one had some decent reviews).

I expect both books to cover different subjects, however, I don't want to confuse myself with Java 5 information if it's completely different in 6.
 
hellfreeze said:
The Java 5 book is the "Head First" series and the Java 6 book is one of the 24 hours books (I'm not a fan of the 24 hour books but this one had some decent reviews).

I expect both books to cover different subjects, however, I don't want to confuse myself with Java 5 information if it's completely different in 6.
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I prefer the Head First series if you're brand new to a topic and looking for the basics. The are a quick read and you get a nice overview of the topic.
 
It doesn't look like Java 6 introduced anything that you would most likely run into. I'd read the Head First book on Java 5 then get a more advanced book on Java 6.
 
Use Head First. The main changes of Java 6 are Swing oriented (desktop application) and those are not that useful and would just add extra complexity.

As for JEE, JEE 6 is barely out so it won't become heavily adopted in the market for a while. That being said, JEE 6 has 3 major new technologies, namely Servlet 3.0, JSF 2.0 and CDI. You can catch up with those after you've learned Java 5 easily.
 
5 and 6 are very similar in terms of syntax and language features. Eitehr should do. The big thing though, is typed classes which is a BIG change over Java 1.4.

Java 7 is going to bring closures whcih is a nice feature to learn but nothing you need to know now.

If you can get a JFrame set up with the words hello world inside, you've done well.

The best ting about java htough, is Sun:
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/

They will teach you!
 
Thank you so much for the feedback and recommendations! I will first read Head First then go into Java 6.

Will my background in C and VB help me or is Java significantly different?
 
Java is very similar to C++ which is itself similar to C plus the added OO concepts. If you know C++ already, then learning Java should be a breeze.
 
Shilohen said:
Java is very similar to C++ which is itself similar to C plus the added OO concepts. If you know C++ already, then learning Java should be a breeze.
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Well, I kind of agree.

Java attempts to force OOP much heavier then C. While the syntactic stuff is similar (curly braces, dots, and ->) I wouldn't put them quite in the same class.

Knowing C will both help and hurt. You'll want to do things procedurally, which isn't terrible, just not the way java was meant to be used. I would recommend picking up a book on OOP along with your java book as OOP is a bit different.
 
Cogman said:
Well, I kind of agree.

Java attempts to force OOP much heavier then C. While the syntactic stuff is similar (curly braces, dots, and ->) I wouldn't put them quite in the same class.

Knowing C will both help and hurt. You'll want to do things procedurally, which isn't terrible, just not the way java was meant to be used. I would recommend picking up a book on OOP along with your java book as OOP is a bit different.
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That's a great suggestion! Do you know of any good ones off the top of your head?
 
hellfreeze said:
That's a great suggestion! Do you know of any good ones off the top of your head?
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Unfortunately, no. The OOP books I had from school were terrible. However, I learned the concept well enough from class that I didn't really need a book.

I'm sure someone here has a better suggestion.
 
Cogman said:
Unfortunately, no. The OOP books I had from school were terrible. However, I learned the concept well enough from class that I didn't really need a book.

I'm sure someone here has a better suggestion.
Click to expand...

Through what language did you learn OOP?
 
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