Aspiring Java Man here -- wish me luck!

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

I'm trying to convince my company to pay me -- or at the very least let me pay back in loooong interest-less installments -- the Java Developer courses and certification exams. I see great internal demand for that and that's a nice chance for professional growth.

Vibz pleez! O8) :donut:

[demnan]

1. Good luck!

I've had some of those courses myself. I got them when I worked for a larger company that provided good benefits. Learning Tree is so expensive and I never used them for practical application which was a shame. Now I am still doing Cold Fusion, but there seems to be less of a demand for that. I took several community college courses too (one in beginning Java, one in Applets)

J2EE is the only way to fly these days so I wish you well!

[TlalocW]

2. I'll have a Venti...

Uh, vanilla mocha thingy.

Oh, not THAT kind of Java.

TlalocW

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

3. When I saw my own post I thought...

...people would be making jokes about me inhaling a fossil. Oh well.

[cheezus]

4. Focus on J2EE and server side/middleware stuff

that's where java seems to be going. You can use it to develop cocoa apps for OS X, but normal cross platform awt/swing apps always seem to suck.

edit: I forgot the most important thing! GOOD LUCK!!!! :bounce:

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

5. That's the idea! And thanks for the vibes!

http://training.sun.com/US/certification/java/java_busj23e.html

[cheezus]

6. are you already a programmer?

if so, familiar with object oriented programming?

Java's a fun language, and it removes a lot of the frustration from coding (shit like memory allocation and whatnot)

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

7. I program in C since the Reagan administration

And took the time to study some C++ and Java on my own, but ended up never using any of those for anything.

[cheezus]

8. once you get your head wrapped around doing things the OO way

you'll love it. It's a lot faster to do a lot more than it is in C. But make sure you "get" object-oriented manner. Java will let you program in a mostly procedural way, and it's somewhat of a trap for experienced C programmers who want to keep doing it the same way.

But man, Java is a joy when you do it the java way :)

[Kellanved]

9. I second that

Have a look at Gamma et al: "Design Patterns".

It gives good initial insights on how to use OO. (using conform redeclarations and polymorphisms).

Of course many of the G4 patterns become obsolete with AOP :evilgrin:.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

10. I'm ignorant.

G4 patterns? AOP? What's that?

[Kellanved]

11. G4 = The Gang of four

Gamma, Helm, Johnson and Vlissides; the Authors of the "Design Patterns" book I mentioned.

AOP is Aspect Oriented Programming, which might be the "next big thing". Most of my research is about AOP and AOSD, so it was a shameless plug...

Basically it is about new ways to influence the program flow, making code more elegant and shorter. Many AOP languages allow influencing existing code as well, in the hope to make existing programs better maintainable.
The downside is that AOP programs can be very hard to understand and that so far all AOP languages are experimental.
http://www.objectteams.org
http://jac.aopsys.com
http://eclipse.org/aspectj/

Sorry about not being very clear initially, it is completely my fault. Nobody could be less ignorant than you. :yourock:
It's just the Champions League Final taking up most of my attention.