After you have finished the book, you might be wondering where you can go to improve your Java programming skills. This article lists some books, websites, Internet discussion groups, and other resources that you can use to expand your Java knowledge.
Sams Publishing publishes a multitude of books on Java programming topics, including many that follow up on the material covered in the book. The following list includes ISBN numbers, which will be needed at bookstores if they don’t currently carry the book that you’re looking for:
Sams Teach Yourself Programming with Java in 24 Hours, Fourth Edition, by Rogers Cadenhead, one of the authors of this book. ISBN 0-67232-844-5. A more casual and irreverent introduction to Java programming aimed at people new to programming or inexperienced with an object-oriented language.
Java Phrasebook, by Timothy R. Fisher. ISBN 0-67232-907-7. A collection of more than 100 snippets of code for use in your own Java projects, created by a professional programmer and Java Developer’s Journal contributor.
Eclipse Kick Start, by Carlos Valcarcel. ISBN 0-67232-610-8. A hands-on guide to the highly adaptable open source Java development environment.
Sams Teach Yourself J2EE in 21 Days, by Martin Bond and others. ISBN: 0-67232-384-2. A tutorial for Java developers who want to use the Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE).
JXTA: Java P2P Programming, by Daniel Brookshier and others. ISBN: 0-67232-366-4. An introduction to Sun Microsystems’ JXTA classes, which support peer-topeer networked programming.
MySQL and JSP Web Applications: Data-Driven Programming Using Tomcat and MySQL, by James Turner. ISBN: 0-67232-309-5. Advice and programming tutorials for JavaServer Pages programmers using the MySQL database with their web applications.
Developing Java Servlets, Second Edition, by James Goodwill and Samir Mehta. ISBN: 0-67232-107-6. A tutorial on Java servlet and JavaServer Pages programming and how to use them with Extensible Markup Language (XML), Enterprise Java Beans, and the Java 2 Enterprise Edition.
Jini and JavaSpaces Application Development, by Robert Flenner. ISBN: 0-67232-258-7. A guide to wireless networked programming using JINI, Sun’s technology for connecting different disconnected devices using Java.
Chapters and other material from many Sams Publishing Java books have been made available for free on the World Wide Web at InformIT, a website for information technology professionals produced in collaboration with Sams at http://www.InformIT.com.
The Sams Publishing website, http://www.samspublishing.com, includes an online catalog, a list of upcoming releases, and links to author websites. It’s a good place to see what’s coming up from Sams Publishing and other parts of the Pearson Technology Group.
The Java software division of Sun Microsystems Inc. maintains three websites of interest to programmers and users of its language.
Java.Sun.Com, which is published at http://java.sun.com, is the first place to visit when looking for Java-related information. New versions of the Java Development Kit and other programming resources are available for downloading, along with documentation for the entire Java class library. There’s also a bug database, support forums, and full documentation for the Java class library.
Java.Net, launched in 2003 at http://www.java.net, is a community resource where Java programmers can participate in discussions, start their own weblogs focused on the language, and host open source Java projects.
Java.Com, also launched that year at http://www.java.com, promotes the benefits of the language to consumers and nonprogrammers. The Java runtime environment can be downloaded from the site to support the latest version of the language in web applets, Java Web Start applications, and other programs.
Perhaps the most useful part of Sun’s Java site is the documentation for every class, variable, and method in Java’s class library. Thousands of pages are online at no cost to show you how to use the classes in your programs.
To visit the class documentation for Java 6, visit the web page at http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/api.
A large number of websites focus on Java and Java programming.
The book has an official website at http://www.java21days.com, which is described fully in Appendix C, “This Book’s Website.”
Elliotte Rusty Harold, the author of several excellent books on Java programming, offers Café au Lait, a frequently updated weblog covering Java news, product releases, and other sites of interest to programmers. The site is a terrific resource for people interested in Java and is published at http://www.ibiblio.org/javafaq. Harold also offers a list of frequently asked questions related to Java, as well as some unofficial documentation compiled by programmers over the past several years.
Rogers Cadenhead, the book’s coauthor, publishes a weblog, Workbench, that covers Java, Internet technology, computer books, and similar topics. The weblog covers new developments in the language, open source projects built with Java, and issues related to his Java books. It’s published at http://www.cadenhead.org/Workbench.
Hundreds of other weblogs cover Java programming, either as their primary focus or part of more diverse subject matter. The blog search service Technorati provides a running list of the latest weblogs to write about Java at http://www.technorati.com/tag/java. Though this list has been hit by some spammers, you usually can find some worthwhile Javafocused blogs in its ranks.
The tech reference site InformIT, which is available at http://www.InformIT.com, is a comprehensive resource that was cocreated by the publisher of this book. The site devotes sections to more than a dozen subjects related to software development and the Internet. InformIT’s Java section includes how-to articles and a beginner’s reference.
The Java Review Service reviews new programs, components, and tools that are published on the Web, recognizing some as Top 1%, Top 5%, or Top 25%. Resources also are categorized by topic, with a description of each resource and links to download the source code, if it is available. To access the Java Review Service (JARS) website, which is another directory that rates Java applets, direct your web browser to http://www.jars.com.
A magazine that has covered Java since the first public release of the language, JavaWorld publishes frequent tutorial articles along with Java development news and other features. Visit on the web at http://www.javaworld.com.
Because Java is an object-oriented language that offers JavaBeans as a means to create self-contained programming components, it is easy to use resources created by other developers in your own programs. Before you start a Java project of any significance, you should scan the Web for resources that you might be able to use in your program.
A good place to start is Gamelan, Earthweb’s Java directory. This site catalogs Java programs, programming resources, and other information at http://www.developer.com/java.
A worthwhile resource for both novice and experienced Java programmers is Usenet, the international network of discussion groups that is available to most Internet users through either an Internet service provider or a news service, such as Google Groups at http://groups.google.com or NewsGuy at http://www.newsguy.com/news.asp.
The following are descriptions of some of the Java discussion groups that are available on Usenet:
comp.lang.java.programmer—. Because this group is devoted to questions and answers related to Java programming, it is the place for all subjects that don’t belong in one of the other groups. Any Java-related topic is suitable for discussion here.comp.lang.java.advocacy—. This group is devoted to any Java discussions that are likely to inspire heated or comparative debate. If you want to argue the merits of Java against another language, this is the place for it. This group can be a good place to consult if you want to see whether Java is the right choice for a project on which you’re working.comp.lang.java.announce—. This group contains announcements, advertisements, and press releases of interest to the Java development community. It is moderated so that all postings must be submitted for approval before they are posted to the group.comp.lang.java.beans—. This group is devoted to discussions related to JavaBeans programming, announcements of beans that have been made available, and similar topics concerning component software development.comp.lang.java.databases—. This group is used for talk related to JDBC, Java Database Connectivity, and other solutions for connecting Java programs to databases.comp.lang.java.gui—. This group is devoted to the Abstract Windowing Toolkit, Swing, and other graphical user interface class libraries and development tools.comp.lang.java.help—. This group provides a place to discuss installation problems related to Java programming tools and similar issues that bedevil beginners.comp.lang.java.machine—. The most advanced of the Java discussion groups, this group is devoted to discussing the implementation of the language, issues with porting it to new machines, the specifics of the Java Virtual Machine, and similar subjects.comp.lang.java.programmer—. This group contains questions and answers related to Java programming, which makes it another good place for new programmers to frequent.comp.lang.java.security—. This discussion group is devoted to security issues related to Java, especially in regard to running Java programs and other executable content on the World Wide Web.
For a more interactive place to seek guidance from Java programmers, try Internet relay chat (IRC), a network of live chat rooms—which are called channels—devoted to specific topics.
The #java channel on the Undernet network was highly recommended by a reader of a previous edition of the book.
Undernet servers can be accessed from any IRC chat client. You also can participate over the Web by visiting http://www.undernet.org.
A Java applet on the site provides the means to communicate in real time with the users in the channel.
Before seeking help, you should review the frequently asked questions for the channel, which have been published on the Web at http://javafaq.mine.nu.
The channel can be rough on new arrivals, as demonstrated by an excerpt from the FAQ: “treating people who are showing a lack of motivation to help themselves like dirt is part of the great master plan of #java to actually scare people, so that they rather investigate their problems at Google for hours before asking in the channel.”
If you’re one of those folks learning Java as a part of your plan to become a captain of industry, several of the resources listed in this appendix have a section devoted to job opportunities. Check out some of the Java-related job openings that may be available.
If you are interested in joining Sun’s Java division itself, visit http://www.sun.com/corp_emp.
Although it isn’t specifically a Java employment resource, the Career Builder website enables you to search the job classifieds of more than two dozen job databases, including newspaper classifieds and many other sources. You have to register to use the site, but it’s free, and there are more than 100,000 job postings that you can search using keywords such as Java or Internet or snake charmer. Go to http://www.careerbuilder.com.