Best/quickest way to learn Java for a seasoned .NET/C# and C++ developer [closed]

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What is the quickest/easiest way to learn Java for a seasoned .NET/C# (more than 7 years) and C++ (5years) developer.

When I say to learn Java - I mean being able to write applications in a "Java way" using base classes library + where needed using a popular Java libraries (it is great that so many of them are open source).

I know that Java development comes in a lot of flavors - enterprise applicatons (Java EE), mobile devices (Java ME), objects hosted in application servers (to my knowledge Java has a buch of these) - however at the moment I am interested in a general Java development - may b开发者_JS百科e with a some emphasis on a integration projects/enterprise development.

So basically - I am a strong, passionate about technology, proud to be a senior C#/C++ developer with a dozen years of experience who wants to dedicate a month-worth (may be more) of evenings to learn to effectively program in Java environment.

Having said that I don't mean I am switching from .NET/C++ to Java - but I would probably have to spend 30%-50% of my development time developing/supporting/whateverstageintheSDLC in Java.

Thank you.

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1. I suggest starting with The Java Language Specification. I don't think there is any quicker or more comprehensive way of gaining an understanding of the language for a seasoned programmer.

2. Followed by Java Collections Tutorial.

3. Followed by java.lang.* and java.util.* classes, interfaces and packages.

This will give a good basis for learning and understanding any other branch of Java as it becomes necessary.

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I would take a completely different approach to reading books upfront. Simply download an IDE and get coding. The netbeans tutorials tend to get you up and running with a variety to technologies very quickly.

If you can code C# then you should have no problem getting something up and running.

Once you have some code up and running that is when you would then dig out the likes of effective Java.

Karl

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Effective Java should be in every Java developer's bookshelf. It focuses not so much on performance as one might think from the title, but rather on how to program Java idiomatically, which becomes subtly different from following the idioms of C#.

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Perhaps one of the best ways would be to get a copy of Bruce Eckel's Thinking in Java.

Much more than simply covering the syntax of the language, this book goes into the background - as the title says, "How to think in Java" so you can write pure Java code, not C# (or C++) code using Java Syntax.

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I m only speaking for java web app development: i think its going to be quite similar to how you might've done it in C# using ASP.NET, except you don't get the visual drag and drop GUI creation using visual studio. The basic concepts are pretty much the same.

As for libraries, there are a million and one in java, and only time will help with those. But it'll help knowing the common ones, such as apache commons, google collections, spring, hibernate. It might help you get started if you start with something like Appfuse, which is a full java RAD web app framework that munges together all the above common frameworks.

On the build tools side, there are ant and maven as the major players. I prefer ant over maven personally.

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Ordered list:

1. Thinking in Java;
2. Core Java, Volume II;
3. Spring reference;