Recommendations on learning Java

My wife who is not a programmer by any means is taking a web design class. In this class, they have two chapters on Java. (she tells me, i haven't see the text book). I assume it's really java script.

Can you point out any online resources on learning how to program in Java script assuming that you know little to no programming?

I know how to program and could help her with the concepts, but I've mostly done VB lately and have never even seen Java.

MilesArcher
Friday, May 21, 2004

You know that Java and JavaScript are completely different beasts, right?  So which is it?

5v3n
Friday, May 21, 2004

His wife told him that it was Java, but he thinks its really JavaScript. Seems like he knows the difference between the two - but probably his wife or the instructor doesn't. :)

Just look into that book, you should grasp it quickly. Otherwise there are resources on the Internet (including MSDN) from where you can learn JavaScript. You can at least help your wife with cut-and-paste JavaScript programming - this is what most web developers do.

Green Pajamas
Friday, May 21, 2004

http://www.javascriptkit.com/

Green Pajamas
Friday, May 21, 2004

If you want to hurt yourself silly (in terms of time budgets) you might want to give something like Thinking In Java a try.

Li-fan Chen
Friday, May 21, 2004

But only read "Thinking in Java" if you're looking for Java.  It's not helpful for JavaScript.

Again, Java and JavaScript have almost NOTHING in common.  They're about as similar as COBOL and Python.  (They kinda look the same on paper, which is how they ended up with similar names, but they're really VERY different languages.)

Ryan
Friday, May 21, 2004

Thanks GP, javascriptkit looks like the right answer

MilesArcher
Friday, May 21, 2004

If you just want a simple tutorial, check out:

http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/programming/javascript/tutorials/tutorial1.html

Otherwise, for the purposes of her course, whatever is in her text book will probably be fine.  If she's in a class, then she's in the same boat with at least 10 other people who know nothing about scripting, so I imagine the instructor has taken this into account.

If she needs help from you, just read the chapters out of her book, then explain it to her in human-terms.  If she isn't a programmer, she probably won't want to be clunked over the head with lots of books and websites on programming...

Joe
Friday, May 21, 2004

This isn't free, but there are two books I highly recommend. The first in Sams' _Pure Javascript _ and the second is the Javascript bible. Both are great references with (usually) good examples of all the functions, etc, you can do.

There is also Doc Javascript:

http://www.webreference.com/js/

But he gets into some isoteric stuff there.

Yahoo! has! a! good! javascript! mailing! list!

CF
Friday, May 21, 2004

the wrox javascript book is ok, some code errors in printing, but I used it and it helps.  It also has stuff on the BOM, DOM, DHTML, and some good appendixes.

Grover
Friday, May 21, 2004

Apparently the instructor doesn't have a clue and the students don't understand so she just passed out the answer for the two chapters.

MilesArcher
Friday, May 21, 2004

This books http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/hfjava/chapter/ is following a new teaching method. Look at the two sample chapters at the above mentioned site. And then you could check out the reviews here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0596004656/qid=1085264803/sr=2-2/ref=sr_2_2/002-5136879-4780857 and here http://books.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/07/16/165207&mode=nested&tid=108&tid=126&tid=156 (this one is more comments to the new teching method)

I think it's suited for people who are not interested in reading text after text with no real life examples.

blaZiT
Saturday, May 22, 2004

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