[PLUG] Java book
Carlos Konstanski
ckonstanski at pippiandcarlos.com
Tue Jul 14 04:54:13 UTC 2009
On Mon, 13 Jul 2009, Jameson Williams wrote:
> Date: Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:06:47 -0700
> From: Jameson Williams <jameson at jamesonwilliams.com>
> Reply-To: "General Linux/UNIX discussion and help; civil and on-topic"
> <plug at lists.pdxlinux.org>
> To: "General Linux/UNIX discussion and help, civil and on-topic"
> <plug at lists.pdxlinux.org>
> Subject: Re: [PLUG] Java book
>
>>> The best way that I've found to learn any language is to embark on making
>> a
>>> compiler or interpreter for the language, preferably in the language.
>>
>>
>>
>> Doesn't this require that you know assembly language???
>>
>> Compile to what...??
>>
>> Interpret to what..???
>>
>>
> This is not a bad idea, but linux-yug does rightly point out that the
> project is a little more involved than ideal. Instead of a "compiler" or
> "interpreter" I would say "lexical analyzer" or "syntax checker" so that you
> don't have to generate the actual bytecode. This way you can compile a
> foo.lang file and use your executable to syntax check other foo.lang files,
> and have learned a lot in the process without getting too deep into the
> minutaue of system software.
>
> Jameson
I like to compare learning a computer language to learning a foreign
language. The only way to learn it is to use it. The most likely
opportunity to use it is in everyday speech or watching the Fernseher.
Take a program you have already written in another language, and
translate it to java. In this way you can concentrate on the language
rules without being encumbered with a programming task, and yet end up
with something useful . I have done this several times in the past to
move an existing web server framework in language A to a new language
B.
If you have a perl or PHP website laying around, this would be a good
opportunity to get a Struts or Faces environment built, and learn the
java way of writing the same website. I personally like Struts, but
I'm not very with-it in today's java scene. A Struts or Faces book
would not be a bad purchase. Both are Apache projects with online
docs (as is the Tomcat web server, which you'll need for both).
Once you get the basic hang of java, your best resource will be the
online javadocs. Google for "java $version api", where $version is
1.4.2, 1.5 or 6.0. You can find online javadocs for Tomcat, Struts
and Faces too, along with most other common libraries.
Carlos
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