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

[Keepitsimple]

I would just buy this from somebody competent. There is really no point learning java if you only need a few apps.

[Duke]

My comments on things people have said here:
<ul type="square"> [*]Code Complete: Decent if part of your goal is to work well within a large development project. For you, I think the book sucks. There are far better books for "thinking like a programmer." "The Pragmatic Programmer" is an example of such a book.
[*]Scheme: Sucks. If you want to expand your mind, learn Python. Then find some books about functional programming, and use the aspects of that available within python and explore that area.
[*]Java Learning: Use the internet, and don't even buy a book. Start by following basic tutorials, and then find sample code that does certain things. Figure out how it's doing what it is apparently doing. The easiest way to learn something is to see code that does something similar. Eventually you'll figure it out. [/list]

[Duke]

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What would be a good first language these days? I learned on BASIC and Pascal, then learned C, Java, and specialized nerd stuff (Mathematica/MATLAB). None of these seem like an optimal choice; though Java didn't seem bad at all when I learned it, I already had a very solid basis in programming and only needed to focus a bit on picking up the OOP behavior, and if you're trying to do both I imagine it could get ugly. (EDIT: Oh yeah, and duh, I more or less knew C already. Trading C's memory management for Java's more than made up for learning the basics of OOP, so easiness all around.)

I'm interested in learning Python, and have started reading up on it, but need to find a good project to work on to learn it (really to get me interested enough to spend my leisure time learning to code rather than reading or drinking etc.)

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I used python to write a chat bot a while back. It saved me hours that would normally have been spend responding to stupid comments.

[darkcore]

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God I hate Scheme. I can't believe someone else has even heard of it.

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if heard of it. it was part of my "coding 101" at university. and you are right on. it sucks hard. stay away if you can.

@op
there are already many good points made in this thread. but to give you a fitting advice on "apps that assist you in your everyday work" it would help to clarify what you expect from that exactly.

if you want to learn a coding language i'd suggest: don't start with any oreilly-books. don't get me wrong, they are great. but they are not aimed for starters. read a "java in 21 days"-book or do a "java for dummies" online course. and then switch to the "real" books. it saves you from unnecessary worries because you then know the basics the intermediate books take for granted.

phyton is a good starting point and a pretty neat and slick language that can help you out on many things. and if you just want to have a helping hand in your office, it is probably better suited as java.

and elance is a good option if you are only interested in getting a useful app, but do not really want to learn how to code.


if you are not really interested in learning how to programm an app, i'd say it is better to outsource the coding and get someone to write you some scripts that do the job. learning to code is not extremly difficult. but it sure is cumbersome and time consumptive.

[ArturiusX]

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I would just buy this from somebody competent. There is really no point learning java if you only need a few apps.

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It'll be ongoing, and its something I need to code myself. Difficult to explain, but just take my word for it, I'd get someone else to do it if it was at all possible [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[Peeda]

I'm gonna second Python a choice for just banging out some small apps. Theres a decent free online book called dive into python at diveintopython.org but maybe that might be slightly too advanced for you.

Don't bother with Java I'd think. The bad thing about Java is that its relatively fickle and requires you to jump through tons of hoops and write down tons of extra "boilerplate" code. You're not going to understand why you need to do all these weird things till you learn a bunch of higher level concepts so the first one or two months of using Java will sort of be a confusing haze. Java is also a bit tedious.

With higher level languages like Python stuff tends to "just work" more and you can sort of just copy and modify stuff easier by googling for examples, and also get more instant feedback since you don't have to compile.

[ArturiusX]

Thing is, I need to learn java, there's no other option [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[gumpzilla]

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Thing is, I need to learn java, there's no other option [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

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Why not? Can you expand?

[turnipmonster]

if you need java specifically then just sign up for a class. you can learn it on your own, but a class will make the process a lot more straightforward and you probably won't waste as much time spinning your wheels.

also, read up on object oriented programming concepts here . understanding this stuff is essential if you want to have a good grasp of how stuff works in java.

[Duke]

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Thing is, I need to learn java, there's no other option [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

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Why not? Can you expand?

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I thought he said that he wanted to hook code in to some other application that only supported a "java-like" language.