Articles on javachannel.org are going to start using Odersky’s “Scala Levels” as tags for new content (with old content being rated as they get maintained over time, possibly).
The levels are in two groups: A1, A2, A3, and L1, L2, and L3. The “A” stands for “application;” the “L” stands for “library.” Put simply, the features that tend to be found in applications and libraries are different; an application can prefer concrete types, whereas a library tends not to (if able); the skills and knowledge for writing applications or libraries are different.
An A1 programmer is a beginner at Java; an L3 programmer is expected to really know the language and its features well.
The skills are grouped like: A1, A2/L1, A3/L2, L3. The idea being expressed here is that before you should design a library, you need to be moderately skilled at Java – a beginner shouldn’t bother worrying about expressing ideas in a library.
Odersky actually grouped concepts for Scala in each level (for which he’s gotten some scathing criticism from Tony Morris, for example); eventually, I’d like to have the same kind of groupings for Java, if only to establish a baseline (which is what Odersky was doing, and what Morris apparently missed, in his quest for overreaction. Tony’s a brilliant guy, but like so many other brilliant people in this field, he’s desperate to find points of contention, and then wring them dry. Astute readers might note that Tony’s critique has no way through which to offer commentary…)
So: What you’ll start seeing is tips on javachannel.org being grouped by these levels by tags; the higher the level, the more complex the content is.