在45天内（或左右）从PHP / Ajax切换到Java

Question

Because of the nature of new project we are about to start, I need to get into Java world rather quickly.

I have about 8 years of PHP experience, and about 3 year in Javascript. (CI, Kohana and my own MVC framework)

I have solid knowledge of OOP (as much as you can get from PHP/JS and little ActionScript & python here and there)

So instead of learning from scratch, i was thinking to grab some web framework (at the end, project will be web based) and learn java along the way. Java code it self don't seam too strange, and i have solid experience with MVC in php so the whole concept makes sense to me.

So I'm looking a list of instructions on how should I learn Java.

(and not to spend too much time on things that are not so important)

Also you can suggest framework, from what i seen, struts looks nice, spring too, but it seam that it have too much XML configuration...

Answer 1

Start with a good book. I always found Thinking in Java pretty good, besides there is a free online version available. Skip the things you already know. Well you probably know what an object is and so on...

Next thing learn to use a good IDE. Have a look at Netbeans, IntelliJ IDEA or Eclipse. Java without a proper IDE is useless.

If you transit from PhP you are probably going to develop some Web applications? This is a steep learning curve. JavaEE is big, complex and it takes a while to dig into all those frameworks. Propably you end up saying "Why is this so complicated, I can do it much easier in PhP". You will be right about that.

Can't give you a good recommendation about the frameworks that are suited best for you. We use Seam + Richfaces. Not that hard.