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It's hard to find any language that has better online documentation than Java. Java as a language is dominant in universities (for debatable reasons) and in av

by jbooth 14y ago

It's hard to find any language that has better online documentation than Java. Java as a language is dominant in universities (for debatable reasons) and in average-boring-industry shops and at high-scale shops, both for very good reasons. There's going to be a lot of books sold because of that.

famousactress 14y ago
s/good reasons/unsurprising reasons/
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
umut 14y ago
perfect reply, definitely agree with the points stated... For a scrappy startup, it may not mean much since it is verbose and idioms are a bit ugly-ish at first. But as startups grow into real businesses, the developer productivity and maintainability versus performance makes Java one of the best options available today. JVM is really one good piece of software and against all the preconceptions, java is a really nice language to build large scale systems... // been a java developer for around 10 years, and any other language i have used (a lot of them) disappointed me in one way (productivity) or another (performance)
irahul 14y ago
> It's hard to find any language that has better online documentation than Java. I don't see how http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/ http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/ this is better documentation than http://docs.python.org/library/random.html http://docs.python.org/library/random.html or http://perldoc.perl.org/perlretut.html http://perldoc.perl.org/perlretut.html Java docs are mostly a dump of class hierarchies with some comments documenting the functions. Python and Perl docs are written as user guides compared to Java api dumps.
- RodgerTheGreat 14y ago
  In addition to the API documentation, there's the "Java Learning Trail", which is a set of step-by-step tutorials with numerous screenshots and tons of example code: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/java/index.html http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/java/index.html Additionally, if you actually page through the Java API documentation, many packages contain overviews describing rationale and how everything fits together- hardly a "dump of class hierarchies with some comments". For example, http://docs.oracle.com/javase/1.4.2/docs/api/java/awt/doc-files/FocusSpec.html http://docs.oracle.com/javase/1.4.2/docs/api/java/awt/doc-fi... Personally I think having both a tutorial and browsable API documentation is preferable to dealing with unstructured prose for everything.
  - irahul 14y ago
    > In addition to the API documentation, there's the "Java Learning Trail", which is a set of step-by-step tutorials with numerous screenshots and tons of example code: If you are already a programmer, you will be able to complete this tutorial in less than 2 hours http://docs.python.org/tutorial/ http://docs.python.org/tutorial/, and can start programming Python. Want to learn Perl? http://www.perltutorial.org/ http://www.perltutorial.org/. This tutorial thing isn't something that is unique to java, and personally, I find the Perl and Python versions higher quality compared to Java's tutorial. > Personally I think having both a tutorial and browsable API documentation is preferable to dealing with unstructured prose for everything. Unstructured prose for everything? What are we talking about? How is http://docs.python.org/library/random.html http://docs.python.org/library/random.html (description, methods and usage, example code) unstructured prose? When it comes down to which doc is better, it comes down to personal preference. But Java has the best online documentation is far from the truth.
- jbooth 14y ago
  I'd compare your python link to http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/util/Random.html http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/util/Random.ht... rather than the doc root.
  - 14y ago

by jbooth 14y ago

famousactress 14y ago

s/good reasons/unsurprising reasons/

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

umut 14y ago

perfect reply, definitely agree with the points stated... For a scrappy startup, it may not mean much since it is verbose and idioms are a bit ugly-ish at first. But as startups grow into real businesses, the developer productivity and maintainability versus performance makes Java one of the best options available today. JVM is really one good piece of software and against all the preconceptions, java is a really nice language to build large scale systems... // been a java developer for around 10 years, and any other language i have used (a lot of them) disappointed me in one way (productivity) or another (performance)

irahul 14y ago

> It's hard to find any language that has better online documentation than Java. I don't see how http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/ http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/ this is better documentation than http://docs.python.org/library/random.html http://docs.python.org/library/random.html or http://perldoc.perl.org/perlretut.html http://perldoc.perl.org/perlretut.html Java docs are mostly a dump of class hierarchies with some comments documenting the functions. Python and Perl docs are written as user guides compared to Java api dumps.

RodgerTheGreat 14y ago
In addition to the API documentation, there's the "Java Learning Trail", which is a set of step-by-step tutorials with numerous screenshots and tons of example code: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/java/index.html http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/java/index.html Additionally, if you actually page through the Java API documentation, many packages contain overviews describing rationale and how everything fits together- hardly a "dump of class hierarchies with some comments". For example, http://docs.oracle.com/javase/1.4.2/docs/api/java/awt/doc-files/FocusSpec.html http://docs.oracle.com/javase/1.4.2/docs/api/java/awt/doc-fi... Personally I think having both a tutorial and browsable API documentation is preferable to dealing with unstructured prose for everything.
- irahul 14y ago
  > In addition to the API documentation, there's the "Java Learning Trail", which is a set of step-by-step tutorials with numerous screenshots and tons of example code: If you are already a programmer, you will be able to complete this tutorial in less than 2 hours http://docs.python.org/tutorial/ http://docs.python.org/tutorial/, and can start programming Python. Want to learn Perl? http://www.perltutorial.org/ http://www.perltutorial.org/. This tutorial thing isn't something that is unique to java, and personally, I find the Perl and Python versions higher quality compared to Java's tutorial. > Personally I think having both a tutorial and browsable API documentation is preferable to dealing with unstructured prose for everything. Unstructured prose for everything? What are we talking about? How is http://docs.python.org/library/random.html http://docs.python.org/library/random.html (description, methods and usage, example code) unstructured prose? When it comes down to which doc is better, it comes down to personal preference. But Java has the best online documentation is far from the truth.
jbooth 14y ago
I'd compare your python link to http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/util/Random.html http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/util/Random.ht... rather than the doc root.
- 14y ago