Re: Java for RPG Programmers, 2nd edition still useful?

On 2/3/2015 4:50 PM, Dan wrote:

My new workplace has the 2nd edition (published in 2002), complete with
CD-ROM.

From the book: "...you should get the JDK for Windows from

www.java.sun.com/products (follow the link for Java 2 SDK)." Obviously,
this is obsolete. The link took me to Oracle's website, and I'm not really
sure where to go from here. I'm guessing all of the software on the CD-ROM
is obsolete; it includes:
* Eclipse SDK Release 1.0 for Windows
* IBM Toolbox for Java
* IBM Java Runtime Environment
It looks like the Toolbox is available for download from IBM.
Also, http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/java/jdk/ appears to have the
complete package.

As you can tell, I'm a bit confused as to what I should download and
install. Any advice for a Java noob?

Can't speak about the book; never did get a copy. Generally speaking, I
personally don't use any tutorial material prior to Java 5, although
this book might have some interesting bits on the IBM Toolbox that you
might not find elsewhere. For learning basic Java, I definitely
recommend a more recent tutorial series.

Grab Java 7 or 8 from Oracle. You want the Developer Kit (SDK)
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jdk7-downloads-1880260.html
7 is near end of life but you might find more tutorial material for 7...

Grab Eclipse
https://eclipse.org/downloads/packages/eclipse-ide-java-developers/keplersr2

Grab JT400 (the open source Java Toolbox) http://jt400.sourceforge.net/

There are a lot of Java tutorials; here is the one from Oracle:
http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/

There is honest debate over whether starting with an IDE is better or
worse for a beginner. I learnt Java (if it can be called that) the hard
way: text editor (Notepad++), tutorials and the school of hard knocks.
The classpath hasn't killed me yet, but it's still trying. I've learnt
a lot about folder hierarchies and package names and I think it's nuts
but I 'get it' because every time I messed it up I got slapped.

An IDE handles much if not all of the implementation details like that.
Which is really nice. Of course, it's a new workflow to learn, which
isn't hard - especially if you choose tutorials that use Eclipse.
Eventually, you'll be doing Java coding that is much easier in an IDE
than by editing individual .java files and executing manual javac
commands. Then you'll be learning the workflow anyway, so all you get
out of delaying is the school of hard knocks slapping you around.