Learning Java

[2FA]

So next semester I'm taking an OOP programming course for my CS minor that uses Java. The professor is probably one of the worst in the CS department to learn from so I wanted to teach myself Java over my summer break. I already have learned a good majority of C, Python here and there for classes, SQL, and some occasional dabbling in other stuff like shell scripting. In other words I'm familiar with programming but entirely new to OOP so I'm looking for some resources to learn from.

 

Also, would Eclipse be my best bet for an environment? I honestly don't care if I use an IDE or just a text editor and compiler, I'm used to both at this point.

[wasab]

here are my advice:

 

use intellij, it has much better error checking, correction, and autocompletion thus better for beginner coder. Your school will likely be teaching java in eclipse though

 

also, watch every single video on this playlist

 

finally, practice by building a game by following everything on this playlist and modifying the source code to tweak the game to your taste. This is probably a bit overkill for just learning java and oop to be honest but it is here if you want to like really master java. 

 

When you are done, pat yourself on the back. You had already learned way more than an entire year worth of java programming classes. 

[2FA]

9 minutes ago, wasab said:

Your school will likely be teaching java in eclipse though

You would think that but you would be wrong. This dude likes to force people to use CLI text editors in Unix (or some BSD derivative, idk), not even joking. You have to SSH to a server and use that environment. I don't care enough to force myself to that standard right now though.

 

EDIT: Also thanks for playlists.

[wasab]

7 minutes ago, 2FA said:

You would think that but you would be wrong. This dude likes to force people to use CLI text editors in Unix (or some BSD derivative, idk), not even joking. You have to SSH to a server and use that environment. I don't care enough to force myself to that standard right now though.

 

EDIT: Also thanks for playlists.

sounds like my CS professor who forced students to code iverilog circuits on a nano text editor in a terminal. 

It isn't that bad if the editor is color-coded and the project is small. You don't have to listen to the professor. you can use still IDE to code and then just copy and paste the code into an editor. 

[NoRomanBatmansAllowed]

If you're using ssh, then it's worth your time to learn vim/emacs. Should save tons of time eventually.

 

I second wasab's recommendation of using intellij on your own machine though (but keep in mind it destroys older machines with meh storage speeds)

 

And go to /r/java or /r/javahelp, they have a bunch of stuff listed in the sidebar that's pretty helpful.

[Techicolors]

check out the book Head First Java. nice introductory to OOP and Java. written in a conversational style with some humor, so it's not dry to read. although, it is getting pretty old 

[Beskamir]

C# might be easier to learn and it's basically Java but better in every way except for portability and adoption but that's slowly changing. As for an IDE get something made by Jetbrains. It's the best there is as far as IDEs go and some of them have community versions while others can be gotten through an educational license.

[2FA]

1 hour ago, ElfFriend said:

C# might be easier to learn and it's basically Java but better in every way except for portability and adoption but that's slowly changing. As for an IDE get something made by Jetbrains. It's the best there is as far as IDEs go and some of them have community versions while others can be gotten through an educational license.

Or you could reread my post explaining why I'm learning Java.