Are you a student trying to learn the Java language or a
professional seeking to expand your skill set? If you are feeling a
bit overwhelmed by the breadth of the Java platform, here are a few
suggested learning paths to help you get the most from your Java
learning experience.
New To Java
The following trails are most useful for
beginners:
- Getting Started – An
introduction to Java technology and lessons on installing Java
development software and using it to create a simple program.
- Learning the Java Language
– Lessons describing essential concepts such as classes,
objects, inheritance, datatypes, generics, and packages.
- Essential Java Classes
– Lessons on exceptions, basic input/output, concurrency,
regular expressions, and the platform environment.
Building On The
Foundation
Ready to dive deeper into the technology?
See the following topics:
- Collections –
Lessons on using and extending the Java Collections Framework.
- Packaging Programs In JAR
Files – Lesson on creating and signing JAR files.
- Internationalization – An
introduction to designing software so that it can be easily be
adapted (localized) to various languages and regions.
- Reflection – An API that
represents ("reflects") the classes, interfaces, and objects in the
current Java Virtual Machine.
- Security – Java
platform features that help protect applications from malicious
software.
- JavaBeans – The Java
platform's component technology.
- The Extension Mechanism –
How to make custom APIs available to all applications running on
the Java platform.
- Generics – An
enhancement to the type system that supports operations on objects
of various types while providing compile-time type safety.
Cherish the Client?
If you want to focus on developing Java based desktop solutions
and rich Internet applications, see the following topics:
- Swing – An introduction to
the Swing GUI toolkit, with an overview of features and a visual
catalog of components. See below for a more comprehensive tutorial
on Swing.
- Creating a GUI with Swing
– A comprehensive introduction to GUI creation on the Java
platform.
- Deployment – How to
package applications and applets using JAR files, and deploy them
using Java Web Start and Java Plug-in.
- 2D Graphics – How to display
and print 2D graphics in applications.
- Full-Screen Exclusive
Mode API – How to write applications that more fully
utilize the user's graphics hardware.
Fervor Over Server!
If you are interested in acquiring skills important for
middleware, server-side, or web application development, see the
following trails:
- JDBC Database Access –
Introduces an API for connectivity between the Java applications
and a wide range of databases and a data sources.
- JMX – Java Management
Extensions provides a standard way of managing resources such as
applications, devices, and services.
- JNDI – Java Naming and
Directory Interface enables accessing the Naming and Directory
Service such as DNS and LDAP.
- JAXP – Introduces the Java
API for XML Processing (JAXP) 1.4 technology.
- RMI – The Remote Method
Invocation API allows an object to invoke methods of an object
running on another Java Virtual Machine.
- Concurrency
– The Java platform has APIs to help you develop
multi-threaded programs.