Hello Cay and Gary. Welcome to the JavaRanch. Thank you for visiting us.
I learned
Java by studying Core Java I & II. This prepared me for The Java Programming Language by Arnold, Gosling and Holmes, which prepared me for the JLS.
For two semesters I read the class notes and worked the homework assignments posted online for CS151 (OO Design), which Cay teaches at San Jose State University. Then I studied Cay�s OO Design and
Patterns (which teaches OO concepts using examples written in Java).
I would highly recommend this path to anyone else learning Java.
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Cay, I have a question for you that is not about Core Java I & II. Maybe we could say it is about Why Java and Why not Lisp or Scheme or ML?
By accident, I wandered into the world of Scheme: SICP (Abelson etc.), EOPL (Friedman etc.), HtDP (Felleisen etc.), comp.lang.scheme. Is it important for practicing programmers (in contrast to computer science researchers) to learn functional programming and a language such as Scheme or ML? Will this help us to be better programmers?
Is the lambda calculus something everyday programmers should learn?
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I hope this book promotion for Core Java will help to make more people aware of your very helpful books for learning Java.
Best Regards, Marlene Miller
[ November 18, 2004: Message edited by: Marlene Miller ]