Ask HN: Best resources to learn Java in 2017

#1

Post by theweirdone » Fri, Jan 06, 2017, 9:16 AM UTC

Most of the Java tutorials available online don't have very good interface and structure, in comparison with front-end documentation.

I have been doing front-end development for past 3 years and know enough node and Java to get by on server sice. I want to deepen my knowledge in backend dev in general, Java seemed like a good start because of better career prospects.

Related: Is Java still relevant? Or should I start with some other backend stack?

Re: Ask HN: Best resources to learn Java in 2017

#2

Post by fiftyacorn » Fri, Jan 06, 2017, 10:23 AM UTC

Yes Java is still relevent - but how relevent depends on your local market. What are the main skill sets in your local market? What aspects of Java are they looking for? Im seeing some java stacks being replaced with nodejs - but we'll see if the trend lasts

In terms of resources its hard to advise - different people learn differently. Some people prefer books, some youtube videos and some by example. Best bet is to google the resources

I do think Java 8 in action is an excellent book, also oracle's tutorials are good. The stackoverflow documentation pages for java are quite good too, as is dzone

Re: Ask HN: Best resources to learn Java in 2017

#3

Post by jabv » Fri, Jan 06, 2017, 2:53 PM UTC

I find the book "Absolute Java" by Savitch to be rather readable for a textbook about a language. The author doesn't seem too self-serious. Grab an older edition for cheap.

I am curious if anyone else likes/dislikes the book.

Re: Ask HN: Best resources to learn Java in 2017

#4

Post by rvdavis » Fri, Jan 06, 2017, 6:41 PM UTC

I was sponsored through the Udacity Intro to Java course by my employer as a condition of employment when I first got recruited. I found that it was a great course on learning the language.

https://www.udacity.com/course/intro-to-java-programming--cs...

Re: Ask HN: Best resources to learn Java in 2017

#5

Post by adamnemecek » Fri, Jan 06, 2017, 9:19 PM UTC

Effective Java, while a bit out of date is still relevant https://www.amazon.com/Effective-Java-2nd-Joshua-Bloch/dp/03...

Re: Ask HN: Best resources to learn Java in 2017

#6

Post by tom5 » Tue, Jan 10, 2017, 6:57 AM UTC

Yes, Java is relevant, especially in large companies. A lot of back-end systems are using Java.

For learning, you can start with reading Java Language Specification. And then you can read Java Virtual Machine Specification. After that, you should have very good understanding of big picture. Then it is just about writing code using APIs.

As for back-end, there are a lot of topics (not specific to language). File system, networking, distributed computing and others. In real production systems, it is about how to compute/process within certain time-frame. And how to operate the production systems.