CSCI 3390 (Directed Study (Java)):
Useful Links and Other Resources

(This page is not being actively maintained, so some links may no longer be valid.)

Useful links

Online API from SDK (version 1.2, corresponds to version installed on department Linux machines).
Complete online documentation from SDK (local copy, only available from Trinity domain in order to comply with Sun's copyright restrictions).
Online API from SDK (local copy, only available from Trinity domain in order to comply with Sun's copyright restrictions).

Sun's Java home page.
Sun's tutorial on Java.
Sun's Java Developer Connection, including among other things the "bug parade" of known problems with Sun's JDK. You have to register, but it's free.
Java white papers describing Java's design goals.
Microsoft's Java home page.
JavaWorld online magazine.
Java Programmers FAQ. Unofficial and sometimes opinionated, but often useful.
Java Glossary. Unofficial but useful.
Code Signing for Java Applets.
Java reference page (from O'Reilly, courtesy of Aaron Konstam).

Usenet newsgroups comp.lang.java.*. If you're not familiar with Usenet news:
- Netscape's Web site has a primer on Usenet news, including directions for reading news with Netscape. Do read the "read this first" pages first. Many other programs are available for reading news, depending on your environment, but this is one place to start.
- You can also use Deja News to scan archived Usenet newsgroups.

Any bookstore that carries technical books will have a wide variety of books on Java. Here are some to consider.

The Java Programming Language (Second Edition); Ken Arnold and James Gosling; Addison-Wesley; 1997. Gosling is credited (on the book's back cover) as the creator of Java, so this is pretty authoritative and generally seems very solid, if limited in its coverage (very little about most of Java's library classes).
Thinking in Java (Second Edition); Bruce Eckel; Prentice Hall; 2000. This book is another introduction to Java for people with programming background. It also talks sensibly about object-oriented design. The whole book is available online at the author's Web site.
Java Swing; Robert Eckstein, Marc Loy, and Dave Wood; O'Reilly & Associates; 1998. This looks like a good extensive book on the Java GUI libraries, one of whose authors (Eckstein) is a Trinity graduate.
Java in a Nutshell (Third Edition); David Flanagan; O'Reilly & Associates; 1999. The O'Reilly Nutshell books seem to be very popular, and this one contains a hard-copy version of the Core API specification. I recommend against buying something like this unless you're confident that you'll use it a lot before it becomes obsolete. A previous edition is available online locally, courtesy of Aaron Konstam.
Just Java 2 (Fourth Edition); Peter van der Linden; Sun Microsystems Inc.; 1999. This book is also an introduction to Java for people with programming background. An interesting feature is the "Some Light Relief" sections in each chapter, which live up to their name.

There are many books on object-oriented design. One that's mentioned time after time is the following.

Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software; Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, and John Vlissides; Addison-Wesley; 1995. This book has been very influential and is highly regarded. It's not easy reading, but it's probably worthwhile for those who are serious about doing good object-oriented design.