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Java Coffee Break

Free Java Tutorials Anyone?

Dateline: 08/23/97

I've been finding more and more tutorials lately, and thought I would do a feature on them. As a result, I've reorganized my tutorial resource list somewhat. Please let me know what you think of the changes.

If you are interesting in just using other people's applets, there are three tutorials I found recently that show you how to setup an applet within your HTML page. No programming required for them.

• So You Want A Java Applet, Huh?
• So You Want Advanced Applets, Huh?
• So You Want A Pop-up Link Box, Huh?

On the other hand, if you really want to get your feet wet with Java, several resources are available to help you get started.

• The Java Tutorial (Sun's)
• Baldwin's Introduction to Java Programming
• Introducing Java - Your First Applet
• Java Programming in Five Easy Lessons
• Inheritance

Some start to get a little advanced, and are highly focused:

• Abstract Window Toolkit
• Baldwin's Intermediate & Advanced Java Programming
• Calling IFC-Based Applications from JavaScript
• JavaServer Servlet Tutorial - Also see Inside the Java Web Server for a related story.

• Networking in Java

While not of a tutorial nature, the Integrating JavaBeans with CORBA slides do discuss some of the issues involved in connecting the two.

Also, Bruce Eckel's Thinking in Java book was updated again recently. Up to revision #9. And, a new issue of McCluskey's newsletter came out: featuring BitSet and ScrollPane.

Tools/News Watch

The big news this week was about Corel's decision to refocus their Java plans. They've been working on a Pure Java office suite, that caught enough eyes to be nominated for a JavaWorld Editors' Choice Award. Depending upon whose article you read will determine your opinion of what Corel is going to be doing with Java in the future:

• Computer World
• ZDNet | ZDNet News Channel
• News.com
• Ottawa Citizen [8/19 | 8/20] (Local paper for Corel)

The JavaBeans Directory is now online from Sun. Find your beans by product name, company, or description.

Frustrated by JDBC yet? Check out Sun's latest product: Java Blend.

In JavaWorld, Bill Day offered his opinions of the Java Media API information released at Siggraph97. If you didn't make it to the show and are doing anything graphically oriented, be sure to read the article.

Stories about Java 1.2 are starting to come out. This one from ComputerWorld.

I reported a couple weeks ago about the latest Addison Wesley book becoming available: The Java FAQ. I've finally had a chance to look at it. First, you can get all the sample code online, as well as see the questions (but not the answers). Now for the opinions: The format is good for a FAQ book; it follows the example of The C++ FAQs by providing a short answer first, then going into a more lengthy explanation. While the book contains both Java 1.0 and Java 1.1 content, it does not cover any packages that are brand new to Java 1.1 (beans, rmi, security), except for those that update 1.0 functionality (events). [There are also some places where an answer wasn't updated properly for Java 1.1 (Q5.20).] Also, the book is not meant to be read cover to cover. It is good though. If you like a book that you can pick up, look in the index, flip to page, and get an answer to something like how do I? or why does it?, then The Java FAQ is a book to get (only $27.92 from Amazon). If you already have a half dozen decent books, including the new Java 1.1 versions of them, then you probably don't need it though.

Other Tidbits

Get a free Java Class Libraries poster (the JavaSoft Series one) at your favorite technical bookstore. Or, just get a rebate on your SuperCede purchase. Also, keep your eyes on PC Week Online for the official Java Internet Business Expo reports. If the preliminary press announcements are any indication, lots of news will be coming out of the show this week.

I'll be back next week with more things to do and places to go. If you have any questions or topic suggestions, let me know or submit feedback. See you next time.

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