title: Core Java link: https://onemoretech.wordpress.com/2008/08/26/core-java/ author: lembobro description: post_id: 462 created: 2008/08/26 02:20:07 created_gmt: 2008/08/26 02:20:07 comment_status: open post_name: core-java status: publish post_type: post

Core Java

Well, the time has finally come to knuckle down and learn Java.

My weapon of choice has been chosen. The two volume Core Java series by Cay Horstmann and Gary Cornell.

Just started with the first of these, Core Java. Volume 1, Fundamentals (8th ed., 2008), which covers object oriented programming and other basic concepts of the language. The second, Core Java. Volume 2, Advanced Features (8th ed., 2008) covers more complex topics, like network and database access.

Of course one of the first things I had to do on the machine where I’m running the labs (the O/S being 64-bit CentOS 5.2 Linux) was rip out the Red Hat (er… the upstream “prominent North American Enterprise Linux vendor”) supplied openjdk and eclipse packages, because the compiler wasn’t producing the expected results (I think the issue is with the version info returned by openjdk). This was going to be necessary eventually anyway. since openjdk does not yet support signed applets and other advanced features I’ll want to experiment with. Although installing it isn’t a big deal, I already had a copy of the latest stable Sun 64-bit JDK 1.6 installed (1.6.0_07) symlinked to /usr/java/jdk, I had to reset my JAVA_HOME to that path and reconfigure alternatives to use $JAVA_HOME/bin/java and $JAVA_HOME/bin/javac.

One “program” note :-). Apparently there’s a bug in the VM of the “stable” releases of Sun’s Java 1.6 (current is 1.6.0_07) that causes Eclipse, the IDE that Core Java uses in its examples, to crash when it’s first run by a user on Linux. The solution is to start it for the first time with the environment set to use the latest Java 1.5 (another way that I stumbled on through sheer luck was launching with the env set to Java 1.6 while the openjdk 1.6 libraries are still installed — apparently the bug has been fixed in the open source openjdk!). This is supposed to be fixed in the latest development version, 1.6 Update 10 RC (Build 27), which is not recommended for production use at this time (RC being for “Release Candidate”, a sure sign there may still be other issues to iron out).

Copyright 2004-2019 Phil Lembo