CS 3291 (Java with Internet Applications):
Useful Links and Other Resources
Useful links
Other online resources
- Usenet newsgroups comp.lang.java.*. If you're not
familiar with Usenet news:
- Netscape's Web site has a
primer on Usenet news,
including directions for reading news with
Netscape. Do read the "read this first"
pages first. Many other programs are
available for reading news, depending on
your environment, but this is one place to
start.
- You can also use
Deja News to
scan archived Usenet newsgroups.
Books
Books about Java
Any bookstore that carries technical books will probably have
a wide variety of books on Java. Here are a few that seem
good, or at least widely recommended.
This list may be updated soon with other references.
- Exploring Java (Second Edition);
Patrick Niemeyer and Joshua Peck;
O'Reilly & Associates; 1997.
I used this as a textbook in a previous course;
I liked it as an introduction/overview, though
the students I think would have preferred something
that included a complete language reference.
This book is available online locally; start
here and follow links.
- The Java Programming Language (Second Edition);
Ken Arnold and James Gosling; Addison-Wesley; 1997.
Gosling is credited (on the book's back cover) as
the creator of Java, so this is pretty
authoritative and generally seems very solid.
I also used this book to prepare lectures for
a previous course.
- Java in a Nutshell (Second Edition);
David Flanagan; O'Reilly & Associates; 1997.
The O'Reilly Nutshell books seem to be very popular,
and this one contains a hard-copy version of the
Core API specification.
I recommend against buying something like this unless
you're confident that you'll use it a lot
before it becomes obsolete.
This book is available online locally; start
here and follow links.
Books on object-oriented design
Again, there are many books on object-oriented design.
One that's mentioned time after time is the following.
- Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented
Software;
Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, and John Vlissides;
Addison-Wesley; 1995.
This book has been very influential and is highly
regarded. It's not easy reading, but it's probably
worthwhile for those who are serious about
doing good object-oriented design.