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

What a bad software engineer you are

[Anonymous Coward]

Honestly, all of these acronyms you can list, and yet you don't have the initiative to learn another language without posting silly questions like this?

Initiative is one of the primary requisites for a programmer. It's something you're born with or not. Second to that you need to be able to abstract the concepts you've already learned and apply them to a different technology.

Perhaps you would be better suited in some management role where you can get off on the bureaucracy and buzzwords. I honestly think you naturally tend more towards that than programming. You'll make more money too.

Re:What a bad software engineer you are

[Anonymous Coward]

Indeed, all he said was "I know X,Y,Z, bla bla bla, I know a lot of stuff, bla bla bla, I'm good, bla bla bla. But I'm too dumb to learn something new on my own even though I know all that shit I just listed."

Too bad you got scored as troll, because that's exactly what I read too.

Re:What about C#

[speedtux]

Yes, and there are even more jobs available in sharecropping and cleaning toilets than in Java programming. And there's a good chance that they would be more exciting, too.

Re:In the same boat...

[Foofoobar]

If you used your brain for two seconds and read the original statement, you'd have realized that it was two separate statements joined (hence the AND). The sentence CAN be interpreted two different ways; you and the retard patrol just happen to have jumped to a conclusion. Learn how the english language works before trying to correct someone. You sound less retarded when you know what your talking about.