When comparing The Java Tutorials vs Head First Java, the Slant community recommends The Java Tutorials for most people. In the question“What are the best resources to learn Java?” The Java Tutorials is ranked 1st while Head First Java is ranked 4th. The most important reason people chose The Java Tutorials is:
Groups of related lessons are organized into "trails" so you have more guidance, based on what type of development you want to do.
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Pros
Pro Learning tracks
Groups of related lessons are organized into "trails" so you have more guidance, based on what type of development you want to do.
Pro Hands-on approach
The Java Tutorials are practical guides for programmers who want to use the Java programming language to create applications. They include hundreds of complete, working examples, and dozens of lessons.
Pro It has version-wise every concepts covered with examples
Pro Beginner-friendly
The explanations are done in a very non-technical and humorous way. This makes the book interesting to read unlike the hard core dry technical books.
Cons
Con Out of date with the language
The 2nd (and most recent) edition only covers Java up to version 5. A lot has changed in the intervening years.