Java, Where To Start?

I'm a web developer who has design and programming experience. So, VB, ASP, PHP, Coldfusion, Perl, even C and C++ I have in my belt. I also use Dreamweaver and/or do a lot of my HTML/XHTML/JavaScript coding by hand. So, the DOM, DHTML, etc, all good to me and even OOP thinking and design I have when I code. And I even have MySQL and other databases, again, not an issue here. So, my weak point is — Java — I see so many jobs out there with J2EE, Hibernate, Eclipse, Netbeans. Beside the obvious, which is to learn Java the core language, I don't know where else to go from there. There is so much! What should I read? in what order? What software do I require? UML? Swing? I mean, what is the curriculum required for someone to say they are a solid Java developer? Even assuming I have to go through Java itself, what are the good books out there?

Comments

Groovy

[mgkimsal2]

I'd suggest starting with Groovy (http://groovy.codehaus.org/) then perhaps move in to Grails (http://grails.org). Groovy is a dynamic language that runs *on* the JVM, and can co-exist with native Java code, but requires far less boilerplate code to get anything done. If you're coming from a dynamic language background, Groovy will be a bit easier to understand.

This will allow you to get involved with Java technologies without as steep a learning curve as you'd require if you were doing it 'from scratch'. You can incorporate as much 'other' Java tech as you want as you go along, but you'll be up and running fast with Groovy.

http://michaelkimsal.com/blog/grails-for-php-developers/grails-for-php-developers-part-1 is few part series on did on Groovy and Grails for people coming to it from non-Java backgrounds. Never quite finished the series, but it's someplace to look to see if it's something to investigate further.

Good luck!