Learning java with no programming language experience, where to start?

[talentdeficit]

what software are you using, if you don't mind revealing that? although it may say it requires java for plugins, it probably really means your plugins must use the software's API which is probably java only and must run on the jvm (java virtual machine). this probably means you can use jython (a python variant that runs on the jvm and can interact with java APIs) or jruby (the same for ruby) or even something like rhino (javascript running on top of the jvm rather than in your browser) or scala (a functional actor model language that runs on the jvm).

personally, i would start with rhino if it's possible, as javascript is well designed and documented and you can do useful things with it almost immediately upon starting to learn it. it's also vastly underrated as a programming language.

learning java is silly, as you're forced to learn OO, static typing and exception handling when it's pretty likely you don't need any of that.