Textbook for developing full applications in Java?

April 23, 2008 9:18 AM

I need a good tutorial text on developing full-blown applications in Java.

A professor in my department is teaching this class, and hasn't picked a text yet. He knows the language, but is a very poor teacher. If I want to get anything out of the class, I'm going to need a good, clear text. Does anybody have any suggestions I can pass along to him?

posted by Orb2069 to computers & internet (6 comments total)

You'll need to be more specific about what you want to cover. The language? Swing GUIs? Eclipse's SWT toolkit? Web Apps? J2EE monsters with EJBs?

There are giant books on each of these topics.
posted by mmascolino at 9:25 AM on April 23

I'm going to slip in here, and add my specifics to the question, in case Orb2069 doesn't-- as it's one I would find useful to be answered, every programming book I've gone through, except for the Tom Kyte books on Oracle/PLSQL, and a great one on PHP/MySQL have left me wanting.

A perfect programming book, in my mind, would be one which takes a single fairly complex project such as a web-browser, which is comprised of many simple elements (main window just displays text albeit formatted, management of bookmarks, perhaps a small note-taking windows) that are all cohesively joined to make a full application.

Most programming books go into basic examples. This is how you make a little screen which you can draw, in the next chapter, this is how you create a RTF compatible text-box. What they fail to do is show how to bring those simple elements together to forge a complex program.

The book would take that project from initial conception through to completion. Explaining itself along the way, so you'll have you're various UML diagrams and see how they map through to your project and objects, and further learn how your objects can communicate and share through the different modes of the program. It'll actually teach you how to organise an object-orientated project, how you can take those

Recommendations, in whatever language, for the syntax is a minor problem compared to learning the actual structuring and progression of a complex application. I want a programming project book, rather then just a language description.
posted by Static Vagabond at 11:11 AM on April 23

I had a much, much earlier edition, but I remember the Deitel & Deitel Java book to be decent.
posted by mikeh at 11:28 AM on April 23

Can you tell I wrote my earlier comment in a rush-- apologies!
posted by Static Vagabond at 1:20 PM on April 23

Not a book or tutorial, but a very useful resource: Roedy Green's Java Glossary.
posted by Zarkonnen at 4:50 AM on April 24

...Hi everybody. The prof couldn't provide any more clarification, and after some thinking, I realized that I really don't want the grief of taking such a poorly defined class. Sorry I haven't updated sooner, but final projects are due thursday, and I'm trying to avoid using the internet lest I waste good mirror-polishing time. Thanks for your efforts!
posted by Orb2069 at 11:44 AM on May 4