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Summary - Thomas Davis recommends four books that will provide you with what it takes to excel in Java development. The books extend beyond the basic syntax and semantics of Java to provide you with a comprehensive understanding of object-oriented programming. (1,200 words)
In this article, I present a treatise on the subjects that separate the rookies from the pros in Java development and a reference to the books that will help you cross that line. This is not a book review under the guise of an article. This is your ticket to the next step in your career development.
Java is a programming language. It is also a tool, and a tool in the wrong hands is useless, sometimes even dangerous. Knowing only the syntax and semantics of Java does not a programmer make. A programmer must also know and understand intimately the environmental paradigm, which in Java's case, is object-oriented design. It is not enough to understand what an object is, what an interface is, how objects implement interfaces, ad nauseam. A programmer needs to know the mystic ways in which those rules and relationships can be combined into flexible, reusable, and scalable systems. The books that I discuss here will give you those lessons and enhance your career as a Java developer. Ironically, none of them contain the word Java in their titles.
Note: URLs for all books discussed in this article can be found in Resources.
Design patterns
To paraphrase the book Design Patterns by Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, John Vlissides, and Grady Boocha (Addison- Wesley, 1995), a pattern describes a recurring problem and proposes a reusable solution. Patterns simplify your job by helping you avoid the pitfalls of memory limitations via object sharing -- with Flyweight, for example -- or create a swapable integration with third- party libraries such as Facade. Design Patterns details those two patterns, plus a score more, and provides code examples and easy-to- understand diagrams. Although the code samples are all in C++, the syntax sufficiently...