R.J. Arzki

Welcome.

It's good to see the book keeping up with the language changes.

Hi guys,

Java in a Nutshell was always a good reference for me. I currently own the 6th edition but I've used older ones as well.

My question is:
Does the book contain enough new information so that an upgrade from 6th to 7th version is warranted? I realize that it covers Java 11, but besides that, has anything drastically changed in the book format?

cheers.

Jan de Boer wrote:If you think that all software problems should be solved by that one tool and programming language you know best, ...


I mean this: I once had a colleague who did everything in Delphi what could have be done far more easily in e.g. a shell script. But he knew Delphi, so everything was solved with calling a little Delphi exe. Calling a Delphi console exe to copy some files to a certain location, stuff like that.

This is exactly the one I wanted to write as well Now I have to thing of another one.

1) ... you've never rewritten your code just because you found out there is a better way of doing it...
2) ... you never fixed bugs on production using vim, while waiting for the official hot-fix to go live...

I think the best way to prepare for the exam is to read other people's stories here: https://coderanch.com/wiki/659980/Ocajp-Wall-Fame

This way you can see what sources everyone else used: books, software, mock-up exams, etc.

My particular one is this: https://coderanch.com/t/692163/certification/Passed-OCAJP


Good luck!

Even though I had experience with Java and IDE's, when I took my OCAJP exam, I went back to classical editors (VSCode without any java plugin enabled), command line and javac/java commands. This was an invaluable help in understanding some of the things an IDE is usually hides from me (like classpaths and package dependencies).

However, I was still using an IDE for the purpose of studding the JDK itself. I've looked at a lot of code from common java classes (like LocalDateTime for example). This helped a lot in understanding how the actual JDK works. To be honest I've enjoyed studying the design of the classes itself. See all the method implementations, the different constructors... etc. Sure, I could have looked all this information up on the official JDK documentation page online, but it felt more natural and easy doing it in an IDE.

just my 2 cents on the subject.

Thank you for the tips, I will try them.

P.S. I have really enjoyed your book "Java in a Nutshell" 6th Edition. I've read it several times while I was studying for the OCAJ8, and it will be a good reference for a long time to come.

Thank you for your reply and hints. I do indeed use a 3rd party tool, namely Pentaho Data Integration. Although some of the code is written by me, the actual mechanics of the tool are out of my hands. I only relay on suggested setting in the manual. But I usually like to get my hands dirty and would feel much better if everything would be under my control

At any rate, I look forward reading your book. Optimizing Java, any aspect of it, is always welcome and a good skill to have.

Thank you.

Hi,

I am wondering if this book will help me tune long running java processes (get rid of our-of-memory issues). More specifically, I am interested in JVM tuning, when I am not in control of the actual java code running.

Thanks.

Good to see you here.
Welcome.

Campbell Ritchie wrote:40 hours is a lot. Does that affect the rest of your life?
I have seen the book and it doesn't make any assumptions about how you study.

Yes, 40h/week was a lot. But I pushed myself in the last month so that I don't have to postpone the exam (it was already pre-booked). It did affect my private life, but not that much. My wife was very supportive. The result was success, but I was totally burned out afterwards. The vacation I had was a welcomed change

Hi,

I see that your latest book still covers Java 8. yes, the OCP exam is still covering that topic, but I guess in the near future they will jump to a higher version. Are you not afraid that the book will soon become obsolete? Do you have any inside information from Oracle regarding certification version coverage?

Thanks.

Hi,

I am glad you are releasing this book now, as I will soon embark on my journey to obtain OCP.

I've recently got my OCA certification and my study rhythm wasn't optimal. I've started slow (8-10 hours a week) but after 1-2 month I've realized it's not enough. So I've started to push myself, and I've ended up studying ~40h pe week in the last month before the exam. What would you consider a normal study rhythm, and does the book help you keep up with it?

Thanks.

Welcome.

I am looking forward to read the book and study for the OCP.

cheers.

Awesome. Thank you!