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(NOTE : I have read previous threads about this topic, most of them seemed to be dated. Please keep this in mind when responding)

I’ve decided to go ahead and learn Java (more specifically using Eclipse), I’ve tried to start in many different places but have not had any luck.

I purchased a book that was supposed to start from the beginning, but a good deal of it just went over my head. I’ve also installed JDK and Eclipse.

Do you guys have any additional tools or resources that may help me?

Thanks in advance

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I took Java in college, and having an instructor is infinitely better than trying to follow a book or online tutorial at your own pace. If I recall, we just had projects to complete each week (simple programs at first, later ones built on previous assignments) and we had a lab scheduled where a TA would help us, if we needed it. You may be able to find a community college or other technical training school in your area that offers night school classes for Java. My coworker has taken a similar course in Android programming (pretty much Java) and was able to write his own widget to show Bitcoin prices as well as a “space invaders” style game afterwards.

Another thing that I’ve noticed is that you’re more likely to stick with it and teach yourself if you have a clear goal in mind. Once you finish your book and still don’t feel like you have a good grasp on the language, try to write simple programs in Java and then go online to troubleshoot your errors. Once you have a few actual projects in mind, then learning the language will just be a step along the way to writing the program, and not the actual goal.

I’m not a programmer, and those are just my two cents.

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Oracle offers some basics: The Java™ Tutorials

You can also get hands on learning with Robocode: http://robocode.sourceforge.net/

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Thanks for the reply, the tip you gave me has given me an idea. Let me add that I was originally trying to get into Android programming, so I suppose I’ll try to get a “barebones” sample version of what my application idea is.

Thanks again!

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Javabat for really easy puzzles (< 10 lines of code) http://codingbat.com/

Sphere Online judge http://www.spoj.com/ for more complex problems.

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This sounds like a good idea. Do the tutorials to learn the different types of loops, how to do Case and Ifs, scope of variables and classes, how to overload variables, etc. I think that most people get there and then stop because they don’t get the same feeling of accomplishment writing “Hello World” than they would have gotten if they had actually tried to figure out how each of these concepts would actually apply to the program they want to write.

Once you have a good start on your program, you’ll know which subjects to learn further. I think it will be much easier to port or rewrite your existing program to work under Android once you have a working model in pure Java.

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Codecademy.com has some good stuff on Java…

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http://www.tutorialspoint.com/java/

I prefer all of the tutorial sites like TutorialsPoint, W3Schools

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If you’re talking about Java for the browser (applets) then I will slap your hand.

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For me personally, the “best” way to learn a language is to take an existing project in that language, and then try to build it myself with some modifications.

I find that the big sticking points in learning most languages are usually not learning the keywords and syntax, but learning the little quirks of the build environment, the common noob errors, the missing libraries, the incorrect environment variables, and the various other gotchas.

I still suck at Java, but not as much as I did before.

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Sign up for free online courses at EdX or Coursera?

https://www.edx.org/course-list

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No Java there at all…

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No Java on that site either.

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I’m a fan of O’Reilly’s “Head First Java”

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If you are not familiar with programming already and object oriented programming, I would probably start with a language other than Java and then switch to Java. I find that much easier. Java has so much “baggage” and power that it can be daunting to attempt to learn Java while attempting to learn to program at the same time.

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That’s a polite word for it…

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:slight_smile: It’s a huge, awesome language with impressive libraries and capabilities. But boy is there a lot to learn!

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sed ‘s/javascript/ECMAScript/g’ theinternet > theinternet

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My college pushed Java on most people with no programming experience because they thought it was one of the easiest object oriented languages to learn, compaired to C++ or something. What language would you recommend instead of Java?

I learned to program in Pascal when I was in high school, and the whole time I was thinking to myself, “why do we have to learn a dead language?” However, in retrospect, it doesn’t really matter which language you’re using because a lot of the fundamental concepts are universal across all programming languages. Having Pascal experience let me teach myself to write programs in Visual Basic, and the skills made my introductory Java and VBA classes much easier on me.

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Tee hee. The number of people who confused Java and JavaScript is staggering. Considering how common both technologies are it is amazing that they are so poorly understood. Especially when everyone uses JavaScript continuously all day now (like on this site!)

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