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How good are Sun's tutorials?

 
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Hi everyone,

I have a fairly decent knowledge of java programming but i wanted to start over from scratch and teach myself java to a advance level.

I am not putting a time frame on it at the moment but decided to start by using these tutorials...

http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/

My question is; How good are these tutorials and are these worth putting all your time into?

As i tried reading books but didnt get nowhere so i have decided to put all my effort into one guide, and this one seems good.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance
[ August 16, 2008: Message edited by: Bear Bibeault ]
 
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Waria,
Good and bad are subjective. They are "good" in that they are correct. Whether they match you learning style is another story.

What didn't you like about the books you read? Sharing this may help people tell you whether the tutorials are a good fit.
 
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Personally, I think the tutorials are good. As Jeanne mentions, they are accurate. I still use them when I need a quick refresher on an area of Java I haven't used in a while. The thing I like about them is that there are plenty of examples to download and play with. I personally think playing around and experimenting with code samples is an important part of the learning process for developers. But again, as Jeanne mentions, people have different learning styles.

Another advantage of the tutorials is that everyone has access to them. So if while working through them a question comes up, you can post a link to the section you are working on in your JavaRanch post and everyone & anyone can look at exactly what you are working on. With other books, only people that have the book could look at the material in question when answering your post.

With that said, will the working through the entire tutorial make you a Java Guru? No. You'll have good exposure to all the parts of Java and will be proficient. But Java is far too vast of a subject area for any one resource to be the definitive end-all-be-all resource.

I'd echo Jeanne's comments about mentioning what you did and did not like about other things you have tried so people can better determine if the tutorials might be a good fit.
 
Waria Ahmed
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Thanks guys,

I was reading Just Java 2, but I am struggling to read and read and read, I want a guide where I read and then I'm shown a walk through example and then I can go and attempt similar programs myself etc.

So i was hoping i would start from right at the top, and after every section, I would make a few programs based on what I've learnt.

Is this a good guide for learning or do I need to be doing something else as well. I am to become a confident java programmer so I need some advice of the experienced ones in the best way of learning.

Thanks
 
Waria Ahmed
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Also, how good is the joegrip interactive java guide?
 
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Hi Waria,
I would suggest you the Head First Java and along with it The Complete Reference and lastly I would say in any topic if you are confused or not satisfied with what you have learned so just come and have dip here in javaranch it has all.
 
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