What are the most important things to learn about Java Programming? [closed]

Answer 1

Some things may have changed since you left the language, here some personal proposals:

• Servlets and JSP, you should take the dust off to this and include some EL (Expression Language)
• A build tool (Maven or Ant), most of Java application are now built with the help of them.
• Any Web Framework (Spring MVC, Struts2 or JSF are good choices)
• IoC and ORM (Spring and Hibernate are good choices)
• Take a look to Apache Commons and use them when possible

Also some features from Java 5+ like:

• Annotations
• Generics

Answer 2

I would start with other APIs besides Swing, unless you have a real nead for it. Apache Commons has several components, like daemon starting, logging, IO, application launching, db connection pools... And the best part is, the source is there for you to read.

Some other things to learn: how some of Java itself works. Hunt down souce code (Suns, an opn source, it doesn't matter), look at classes like StringBuffer, and see how they work.

Good luck space cowboy!

Answer 3

I believe that practice is the most important aspect. Books give you "a map", and it's difficult to start without a map, but until you explore the territory on your own, you can't really understand it. So, pick any project that interests you, and just go ahead and implement it.

Regarding how many years does it take - see Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years by Peter Norvig.

Answer 4

Being a good programmer isn't an issue of time so much as it is an issue of being able to perform certain tasks. Swing is certainly something you want to know if you want to make a graphics application. If you want other things to know about Java, learn how to use the collections framework, which defines different data structure interfaces in Java. Of course, learning how the data structures work and making them from scratch is nice. Other than that, it really depends on what you're going to be developing. I have found java.sun.com's API to be invaluable

Answer 5

In my experience the Java Tutorial is a good online resource for entry level programmers, as it is very clear in what it wants to say.

The "Head First Java" book is also really good (even though it doesn't look like it). The colloquial style is just a facade - there is hard core knowledge in there.

Answer 6

I wouldn't say it takes years to learn it. You just have to write code, and learn from your mistakes.