The only way I ever learn how to use something is to use it outright and not by code examples.  Just doesn't work for me that way.  So I went out and bought "The Complete Reference - Java Seventh Edition" -- it was the only one that had a beginners section, without the "ok, this is a computer".   Just flipping randomly, chapter 11 covers multithreading ooo,  that'll be fun. Chapter 17 covers the Java.util : the collections framework...25 deals with images, fun.  29, "Intorduction to Swing".  Hmm. 

----- Consider items from here on down my notes. ------

I've kinda skimmed over chapter 1-7 so far and I'm on chapter 8.  So far, the syntax is almost 1:1.  Console.WriteLine("string") == System.out.println("string").  Another syntax difference is inheritance.  Inheritance in Java is called "extends".  For instance in C# ...

Public Class Class1{ }

Public Class Class2 : Class1 { }

Class2 would inherit Class1.  In Java, its similiar but different...

class Class1 { }

class Class2 extends Class1 { }

Not that bad, very easy so far.  Method overriding seems to be exactly the same, no difference there.  Same goes for making abstract classes and methods.  There is however a "final" keyword that inhibits overriding.  "final void SayHi();" would stop any inheriting class from overriding that method.

Chapter 9, Packages and interfaces -- Packages are like using includes/usings statements.  I -think- they're DLL style items like in .net, you add them, give a reference in your app, carry on.  Using statements are slightly different (more C/C++ style) -- import java.lang.*; for instance includes everything in the java.lang namespace and like C# you can use a fully qualified name if you wish, such as java.util.Date.  Interfaces are the same too...

interface CallBack {
     void callback(int param);
}

An interesting bit - "you should be careful not to use interfaces casually in performance-critical code" because of the overhead to create the objects.

Imagine that, there's a Try Catch Finally, exactly like in C#, even with the multiple Catch statements (say IOException and Exception).  Same with throws AND threading.  Wow this is becoming annoying, there's even a thread.Join (that means "wait for this thread to complete").

With that, I am stopping @ page 285.  I'm keeping my false sense of empowerment until tomorrow or ...sometime soon.