Java and Object Oriented Development - a recommended learning path

I don't like those extremely long lists of books or links. You see them at readings on university for example. There they usually consist of a list of all more or less famous books that were ever written about the theme of the reading. When someone from a lower semester asks me which books to use for a certain reading I can only recommend about two books in most cases.
On this page you will only see recommendations for the really good sites / books.

Getting started

Literature

In my opinion there are only two books / tutorials in question.

• Thinking in Java is a thorough introduction to object-oriented programming using Java as the example language. Useful exercises are at the end of each chapter. Don't skip them, unless you prefer to make your own sample programs about everything you read! (Store such samples in a special place where you can look them up whenever you need them, for example a directory "reference" with small programs like "ArrayExample", "InheritanceExample" and so on.) The chapter 16 and the following chapters are a must, even when you choose to use a different book / tutorial for the rest! The 3rd edition can be downloaded. For the 4th edition there are free sample chapters. Note that the 4th edition addresses the important changes in Java 2 5.0! It is not recommended to learn only with the 3rd edition. A possible free combination is to read the free sample chapters of the 4th edition and chapters 16 and following from the 3rd edition.
• The Sun tutorial is a valuable addition to "Thinking in Java". It is not as wordy as "Thinking in Java", and it certainly provides a quick and easy start. It tells far less about object-oriented programming than the book above does, but it covers much more of the Java core API.
• Fundamentals in informatics are required as well. They can be acquired by studying informatics at a university and finishing with a bachelor, master, diploma or similar degree. Theoretically a self-education works just as well, but don't be tempted to skip things like the fundamentals of mathematics, analysis and linear algebra, or other programming paradigms like functional programming. Here is an excellent introduction to computer science / informatics and functional programming at the same time: http://www.informatik.uni-kiel.de/~rub/SkriptInformatik.ps.gz (German). It's a good start that provides an overview. Instead of ML / SML you may want to try the examples in Haskell, which is newer and has (almost) only advantages over SML.

Tools

Sun JDK, editor (good ones include vim, gvim, emacs, xemacs). For a long time I thought that it were merely harder to learn when one starts with an IDE from the very beginning, but after I observed many people who did so I am sure that it is impossible to ever become good at Java with an IDE from the very beginning. So no Netbeans, Eclipse, Intellij Idea or similar environments until you have some skill. See the FAQ of Tony Morris for details.

Advanced literature

General Java programming

There are many books about Java, but only one is a must-have: "Effective Java" by Joshua Bloch. After finishing the appendix of "Thinking in Java" there are basically two ways to go: "Effective Java" or "Design Patterns".
There are many sample chapters available for download. Only glance over the following items, because they don't fully apply to Java 2 5.0:

• Item 21

Object-Oriented Design

One book is a must-have: "Design Patterns" by Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson and John Vlissides. In my opinion the first chapter is particularly valuable and timeless. Regarding the third chapter, the following design patterns are considered controversial these days, because they compromise with the principles of programming to an interface (see chapter 1) or rely on concrete inheritance (see also my Design Principles article):

• Singleton
• Template Method

The same problem applies to some code samples and flavours of certain patterns.

My two cents about Object-Oriented Design ...

... are found in the Design Principles article.

Enterprise Computing with the JavaEE

• Start with Sun's general resources for Java EE, including the FAQ.
• The Java EE 5 Tutorial teaches good practice and has a good coverage on Java EE.
• For EJB only you can use "Mastering EJB" by Ed Roman (free download or buy the book). The general Java and OO style in that book differs a lot from my opinion, though.
• For Servlets and JSP only you can use "Core Servlets & JSP" by Marty Hall (book).

Rare goodies about various topics

Effective painting with AWT or Swing
This article describes precisely how the AWT and the Swing painting mechanism works and how it should be used.

java.util.prefs
This article is a brief introduction to the Preferences API.

Creating HelpSet Data and Navigation Files for JavaHelp
Ironically, JavaHelp is the 2nd party library with the single worst help / documentation. For the old version there once was a book named Creating Effective JavaHelp. It offers a free sample chapter which describes how to create HelpSet data and navigation files. The files of the example used in that chapter and other example files are available for download, too. The chapter also contains a very short, very simple introduction to XML.