Hello, I've taken JAVA programming classes and have had to withdraw because I haven't any JAVA programming or any programming experience - and for the most part, the professors geared the course to those who have had it. I've decided that I'm not going to let it rest and am now reading a very simple book, geared for hard-headed non-programmer types like me. The title of the book is JAVA Programming For The Absolute Beginner by Joseph Russell. Mr. Russell takes me by the hand and leads me down the path of programming. Programming doesn't come easily to me, this books simplifies things so that I can understand them. I know Michael, that you say you are experienced - JAVA will come easier to you - I have both books mentioned below and they did help a little, the Head First book especially. You might also consider JAVA How to Program by Deitel. My comments above are for those who are not programmers but want to learn JAVA and need a place to start. Always, Nic Cecchino Mr. Nicola J. Cecchino, MLS Assistant Librarian for Reference and Technology George T. Harrell Library, H127 Penn State College of Medicine Milton S. Hershey Medical Center 500 University Drive, PO Box 850 Hershey, PA 17033-0850 Email: [log in to unmask] AOL/AIM: CraZLib Phone: 717-531-8630 http://del.icio.us/ncecchino/ FACEBOOK: http://psu.facebook.com/srch.php?nm=nic+cecchino HARRELL WEB: http://www.hmc.psu.edu/library/ >>> Peter Kiraly <[log in to unmask]> 11/23/2007 4:04 AM >>> Hi! If you are a visual type, I suggest O'Reilly's Head First series. If you are looking for a good foundation, Ivor Horton's Beginning Java 2, JDK 5 Edition (Wiley, 2005) (The current Java is the JDK 6, so it isn't the freshest, but it's a good book). There are some good books on Java for different learning strategies. This is for newcommer: Java for Artists. The Art Philosophy and Science of Object Oriented Programming (Pulp Free Press, 2006), this one is for preparation for exams: SCJP, SCJD - Complete Java 2 Certification - Study Guide, 5Ed (Sybex, 2005) - but I thing its a good one for learners. About Eclipse i didn't read book, just the manual of the Eclipse. But if you prefer books: - Professional Eclipse 3 for Java Developers (Wrox, 2005) - Eclipse Step by Step (MC Press, 2003) There is a book about using PHP in Eclipse PHPEclipse: A User Guide (Packt Publishing, 2006). About Lucene there is only one book: Lucene In Action (Manning, 2005). As i remember in a conference presentation Erik Hatcher said that the next edition will cover Solr as well. (The sad thing, that the Lucene API changed a lot since 2005, so the most examples in that book don't work with Lucene 2.2., so you should check the refresh API if something don't work.) Java tool: sorry I remembered not the correct situation. There is a java tool, but it use the HTTP methods to manage index. I remembere that it was quicker that using PHP, but you should check. There's a short tutorial: http://lucene.apache.org/solr/tutorial.html ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Lackhoff" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Friday, November 23, 2007 7:44 AM Subject: [CODE4LIB] Suggestions on JAVA / Eclipse learning > Hello again, > > as mentioned in my previous post about SOLR I want to learn at least > some JAVA basics. > I have some programming background, including object orientated > programming. So I don't need stuff like "what is a variable" or "what is > inheritance" but I have never written a single line of JAVA code. > > If possible I would like to combine this learning with some introduction > to eclipse. It has the advantage that I could do all my development work > with it (since there are also plugins for Perl, HTML and what you can > think of) but all I found on Eclipse was for developers with a JAVA > background. So it would be ideal to learn both in one go... > > Any suggestions for books or online resources? > > Thanks > -Michael >