Resources : Essential Java resources by DeveloperWorks

Web sites and developer Web portals
The Web has clearly changed the nature of shared material and publications (and it's not lost on me that you are reading this right now on the Web), so it seems reasonable to begin the survey of key Java resources with key Web sites and developer portals that every Java developer should keep an eye on.

In many cases, the value of a Web site and/or developer portal is not just in the resources offered or the articles posted there, but also in the community that surrounds that portal or Web site. The days of the static Web page and file download are quickly fading into the background behind the more "active" model of forums, threaded articles, and interactive discussion between not only the developers who frequent that site and make up its community but also the community members and the owners of the portal. Just as technology evolves and developers must evolve to keep up with it, a portal must evolve to keep up with the changing needs of its community; having an open relationship with its community is a critical component to keeping a portal vibrant.

The list of Web sites (with URLs):

• java.sun.com
  This is the place from which the JDK originates and is often the first site that Java developers go to download a copy of the JDK and documentation. But beyond that, it is also a good source for information on the entire Java platform, including a very rich section on the JVM itself (Hotspot), which describes the internals of the JVM to a surprising depth.
• java.net
  The Java.NET site is a smorgasbord of open-source projects, documentation, blogs, wikis, news, and other community resources. It's a motherlode of information on Java technology, possibly too much. For all that though, cruising through the list of projects can lead to some real gems such as the FEST-Swing project, which aims to create a "fluent interface" for building Swing applications, making them vastly simpler to create unit tests around.
• InfoQ
  Created by Floyd Marinescu, founding editor-in-chief of The ServerSide, InfoQ differs from many of the other resources listed here in that it is explicitly technology-neutral, covering not only Java code but also .NET and Ruby and offering great coverage of agile approaches and insights. Though the commenting community on InfoQ isn't as large or as diverse as that of TheServerSide, the discussion is usually more tame and less hostile.
• TheServerSide
  Often called "the the Slashdot of Java," TheServerSide was the first place that enterprise Java topics were openly questioned, hotly debated, and aggressively pursued. Some of the earliest thoughts around lightweight containers (as typified by Spring) occurred here and many of the individuals now considered to be "thought leaders" in the Java community emerged here. Although more recently the debates have sometimes taken on the character of shrill shouting matches, TSS will always be the original home of much of what turned into the Java ecosystem we now live within; as such, it will always be a source of information, historical if nothing else.
• DZone
  DZone began life as a resource for Java developers, but more recently has begun to branch out into the other technology sectors, including .NET and Ruby, as well as several other topical "zones" of coverage. As such, while it's possible for the Java developer to focus entirely on just the Java zone, some cross-pollination does occur and it's the wise developer who will take advantage of that.
• IBM® developerWorks
  If you're reading this article, then you've already found dW. In the interest of full disclosure, I must note that I have contributed articles other than this one to this site, but I can say with integrity that dW stands as a great resource for articles and material on Java coding and the JVM. In particular, be sure to check out Java theory and practice, a long-running series by Brian Goetz, which includes a three-part description of the JVM garbage collector that introduces the core concepts of GC in a surprisingly approachable way.
• IBM alphaWorks
  alphaWorks, sister site to developerWorks, is where IBM researchers and fellows provide the tools and technologies they believe will define the mainstream tomorrow. Organized into just under a dozen different categories, alphaWorks offers Java developers a chance to try tools, languages, libraries, and other projects that in some cases are even ahead of the bleeding edge — they're in the research stages. Note that many projects serve to prove a particular research point and then stop, leaving the project at whatever state of effectiveness it currently holds. Caveat emptor: Some projects are not open source and others don't include source. But a fair number of alphaWorks projects end up making it into mainstream, either as a supported product from IBM, as an available tool for download from some of IBM's open-source locations. In any event, keeping an eye on alphaWorks will be an eye toward where and how the Java ecosystem is evolving.
• OnJava
  OnJava is an independently run site that tracks events, blogs on conferences, and offers up various opinions on the enterprise Java world. Much of the information here can, in fact, also be found elsewhere, but this is true of almost all developer portals (including the ones mentioned above), and a developer looking to keep up with the various developments in the Java ecosystem could do far worse than to simply turn to the full list of articles on the site and start reading them one by one.
• Artima
  Created by Bill Venners, Artima has evolved into a huge collection of articles, blogs, and interviews, not all of it entirely focused on Java development, and has some of the biggest names in the Java space writing there. (Check out Bill Joy's disbelief over the complexity of the Java language after Java 5 was released and the example he uses to justify his worries — Enum<> — as a classic example.) Well worth visiting.

Note that for many of the above, taking full advantage of the site/portal will require some form of registration. As of this writing, all of them are essentially free and require a username/password login solely so they can uniquely identify visitors and an e-mail address so they can send periodic topical newsletters or e-mails. (To the best of my knowledge, all will allow you to opt out of the e-mail, but I haven't tried because I find that every so often, the newsletter tells me something I find interesting and didn't already know about, making them genuinely useful things to get in my Inbox.)

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Courtesy:- Ibm.com