I would probably start with the sun.java.com website at:
http://java.sun.com/new2java/ From there, follow the appropriate tutorials and afterward, find some good books. As a practical note, one thing that I have found useful when learning a new technology is to develop a simple telephone directory look up tool. It can be as simple or complex as you like, but be sure to do full Create, Read, Update and Delete (CRUD) functionality. Data can be stored in a simple flat text file at first, then once complete, if you design the MVC correctly, you can change the flat file into a database such as MySQL for further training.
Also check out the following:
http://www.javabeginner.com/java-swing-tutorial.htm Hope this helps...not simple, but effective...
[ September 02, 2008: Message edited by: G Estes ]
