Online Java resources

Steve mentioned Java Ranch to me at the weekend. He's in the throws of learning Java right now, and he says that he's found it a very helpful site. Bravo them!

While the Python community remains peerless, I have found a number of good Java online resources. I thought that I'd mention my list of irreplaceable sites...

The Java world is a fast moving one. If you want to keep up, these sites are worth a visit every now and again. Or daily, if you are as sad as I am. ;-)

• Erik's weblog. Regularly updated, this is Erik's take on what's important in the world of Java.


• java.blogs. This aggregator covers hundreds of Java weblogs. A bit hit and miss, 'cos many people havn't set up a Java specific feed, so there's really too much non-Java related stuff here. Nevertheless, worth a look every now and again - especially the Popular Entries section.

There are a few very good Java books available, and bloody hundreds of rubbish ones. A list of good Java books is really another post altogether, but a couple of book related online resources require a mention.

• Thinking in Java. Still the best intermediate level Java tutorial, available online for free!


• Collected Java Practices. This is almost (though not quite) an online version of the excellent Effective Java.

A few places publish regular short, specialised articles on various Java subjects. I look at these sites every now and again to see if there's anything I'd like to learn about. I also search them if I need to do something I've not done before, 'cos if there is an article on the subject, it can save a ton of time.

• O'Reilly onJava


• IBM developerWorks


• Java World

Sun themselves have a couple of interesting new sites. The jury is still out, but they are worth watching.

• java.net


• Java Today

Lastly, there are a couple of sources of software that you should keep in your favorites list. There are loads of places to go, but frankly, 90% + of the OSS software that I use comes from one of these places.

• IBM Eclipse. My IDE of choice.


• The Jakarta Project. Tomcat, Ant, Velocity, the list goes on and on. Without Jakarta, the Java world would be a poorer place by far.


• JUnit. Unit testing the XP way. You know it makes sense.


• JTOpen. Steve will want this, even if most don't. It's IBM's iSeries library. Not cool, but it works.

And don't forget Usenet - comp.lang.java and subgroups are a rich lode.

Which other essential sites am I missing?

Posted to Java by Simon Brunning at July 07, 2003 12:07 PM