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Hi peeps, I am a powerbuilder developer for 10 years and is planning to shift to a new technology since the market demand for my skills is slowly becoming less and less. Most companies utilizing this technology are migrating to another platform (JAVA or dotnet). I had a short course in MS.Net some 4 years ago but was not used in any industry. I cannot practice on my laptop because the OS is in Vista. To make the story short, I wanted to study JAVA but I was wondering which or how to start? It seems that under the category of JAVA, I still need to choose a particular specialization. 1> Which JAVA IDE tool do I need to install? 2> Any ebooks for beginners? 3> Can I use MS Access as training database? I hope you can help me on this as I am very eager to retool. Thanks in advance. |
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I hate to break it down to you, but from my initial impressions of powerbuilder, the powerbuilder tool is a sophisticated UI program builder application and many of the common "groundwork" stuff are kept away from your development. I am not sure if there is a similar way to develop for the Java stack. The Java IDE that you are looking for may be Borland or one of those things the people talked about here http://www.theserverside.com/news/thread.tss?thread_id=31121 In college, we used BlueJ to build the basic objects or classes. What this is is actually just a way for you to conceptualize the classes, not the actual UI of the application. I am not sure if there are freeware out there to convert a powerbuilder app into java applications, but hey, i'm sure googling something might give insights about the many differences between java and powerbuilder. The most popular IDE I've heard of and actually used (for php, there's the pdt project anyway) is Eclipse. You can also try others (just a simple texteditor like textmate for example) but I think Eclipse helps the most in "packaging" your classes, it just is a very mature technology for debugging, and making java apps. Goodluck, actually I haven't delved into Java much in my career yet, mostly because our knowledge is mostly on .Net and we all mostly use Windows. So I would suggest as an alternative, don't bother with Java, just go study instead the newer versions of the Visual Studio.NET stack/framework. But IMHO, Java is still one of the popular choices for apps development (esp. if portability is an issue). |
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I am using Oracle JDeveloper which is free to download from oracle. I've used Netbeans and Symantec Visual Java before. I could say that JDeveloper is simple and straight forward. It also follows the core programming of Oracle. You can explore the Oracle ADF for JDeveloper. From basic to novice, JDeveloper fits your needs in Java programming. |
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I'm currently using NetBeans and BlueJ. I use the latter for class definition, its very lightweight. And the former for UI design and other stuff. I'm using Eclipse for Android development as well. for books or references, I strongly suggest, Head First Java and then move Head First Design Patterns. happy coding! |
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For beginners, I'll recommend Notepad++ for the IDE! ehehe, though it'll be difficult to use, it would give you a deeper understanding on the intricacies of the programming language, from simple compilation, to setting of configurations i.e. classpaths, etc Java is an Object Oriented Programming Language, so I believe you should learn it hand in hand with OOP concepts. learning the language per se, won't be that difficult. what would really matter is how deep you understand OOP, and if you really capable of using it, in solving software implementation problems... for books, Deitel Java Books, to get you started. Grab, the Java Dep API for reference. |
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If you know oop then go ahead. READ -> WRITE -> EXECUTE |
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For me I would recommend Eclipse IDE. I like Netbeans but I'm not that comfortable having different projects in a single window but ofcourse if you really want a deeper understanding on how a java program is compiled and run, then start with Notepad++. For ebook/book I recommend Java How to program by Deitel & Deitel because it's very straight forward and all the things you need to learn are well discussed. There are also many exercises and case studies for you to practice. If you prefer video tutorials try: http://www.sharmanj.com/Core_Java/Core-Java-Tutorial-Introduction.html It will give you a very good introduction to Java For the database I recommend learning MySQL/PostgreSQL directly since I think you will be working with one of these in the future so I think it's better to start early. Hope it helps. Cheers! |
Thank you all for the prompt reply. I will surely try all your suggestions. I agree with redshift, since powerbuilder is a 4GL programming tool as compared to JAVA (which is 3GL) it will require a big adjustment on my part especially with the coding concept as I am used to the drag-drop/event driven environment.
@redshift, will there be any issue with Vista OS if I install the MS.Net framework and play around with C# / MSSQL Server?
afaik, no issue at all unless you aren't the administrator on the PC. it should all install just fine really.
Actually, I have a perfect recommendation for you
http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/lightswitch
Though this may not be "development" - it's an easier way to get used to the .Net microsoft set of tools. It's much like the MS Access interface. According to microsoft, you could then apply C# stuff by customizing your application with VS C#.NET. I think lightswitch can be considered 3.5GL. (still some coding, but that's your choice)
@alphaprime, you may post the Vista/.Net/C#/MS SQL comment as a new question so as too keep this thread to its topic. =)
@randell, noted.
On installing .NET framework on Vista, I think it comes pre-installed with any Windows OS. Check folder C:WINDOWSMicrosoft.NETFramework on your system. Then check the sub-folders which contain the version of the C# compiler. For example, in mine there is a sub-folder v2.0.50727 and inside there is a csc.exe which is the compiler.