Begining java

I satarted learning java from "head first java 5th ed"
It got pretty complicated for me after few pages.
I havent got any background in programing.
Should i start with another language?
Any recommended books/online courses?


**Im studying java in order to create android apps.


Thanks!!!

You are reading one of the must books for beginners.Try reading it with full effort, and even if you don't understand any particular topic, feel free to post here.This forum is the most friendly place for programming greenhorns

You can also look for your doubts on stackoverflow

orr surkis wrote:I satarted learning java from "head first java 5th ed"
It got pretty complicated for me after few pages.

You can always ask specific questions here.

I havent got any background in programing.
Should i start with another language?
Any recommended books/online courses?

Java is a good language to start with and Head First Java is a good book to start with. There are of course other resources.

Sachin Tripathi wrote:You can also look for your doubts on stackoverflow

Yes, but to be honest, in it's current incarnation I would strongly advise a newbie to not post there.

At all. Even if prefaced with "I'm a newbie...."

Stackoverflow used to be a wonderful place, albeit terse and to the point (which was part of the charter). But now it's gone entirely overboard with pedantry and plain old rude and pile-on behavior. Sure, it have an enormous membership, but it gained it by catering to the very worst in human behavior, not the least of which being an abusing sense of power.

Yeah,I too have witnessed many such incidents where op has been mocked for his easy question.
But here we try to be as helpful as much possible.
The tagline of beginning java forum itself implies ,what I am trying to say.

The only reason behind suggesting stackoverflow is that,it proved quite helpful to me,
and op sounded very much curious to know other places to refer,for his doubts(other than coderanch, as he was knowing this already)

Sachin Tripathi wrote:Yeah,I too have witnessed many such incidents where op has been mocked for his easy question.
But here we try to be as helpful as much possible.
The tagline of beginning java forum itself implies ,what I am trying to say.

The only reason behind suggesting stackoverflow is that,it proved quite helpful to me,
and op sounded very much curious to know other places to refer,for his doubts(other than coderanch, as he was knowing this already)

Sure, gotcha. You can get good information from SO, just be sure to never join unless you're up for terrible treatment.

I might also add something else that worries me of late: The lure to cut-and-paste your way through life is never stronger than with stackoverflow. As a newbie, you should be careful to try to learn and not use it as a crutch. And if you do use them, be sure to read through the comments, because that is where the greatest information lives (so long as you can wade through the pedantic rude BS that someone somewhere is certainly dishing out to the original poster there).

Ironic that they downplay the commenting. Probably because it resembles a forum, and forum is what they routinely try to distinguish themselves from.

I would caution you against making the mistake that learning a language is learning to program. The language is the tool, but programming is the action, you are just using the tool, but need to know how to program to use the tool:

There are many structures that you need to learn; learn them. They are the core to programming--loops, conditionals, and etc. You will need to learn Object Oriented Programming Theory how do an analysis of what needs to be done and be able to logically lay that out in an OOP construct.
You have a few methodologies that go along with all this on how to do the analysis, back in the day, and still true today you need to look at a "top down" analysis and learn how to do "bottom up" programming and when exceptions or modification to those processes are appropriate.

So, in short, there is a lot more that you need to learn than Java, therein, is probably your frustration. Too many people pick up a book and think I am going to learn a programming language and then I will be able to program--but that is not the case.

Be patient, by the time I was out of college I had learned to program in 16 different languages from assembler to LISP and had picked out the strengths and weaknesses of each, but the languages were just tools and each time we looked at a language we did so in regard to how it supported programming. Learn what is being presented on the pages of the book you have, it is a good one. There are also several tutorials that will help you learn the language, but you still need to study the programming concepts and apply them--that is learning to program.

orr surkis wrote:
Any recommended books/online courses?

Yes. But I can't remember the name of it Any Android course on edx.org or coursera.org would be by a major university and very good (and free). The one I took, I learned several things I didn't know already and I'd written maybe a half dozen Android programs. Very easy when you get led by the hand in a class. Even setting up the development system can be a task. After the course I'd get a good book to use as a reference -- I'm sure some will be suggested there. I'd also take good notes in class if I was serious.

Your personal preference will let you know what reference you want to use as reference while learning Java.
I mean do you like books? or you like video tutorials? or you want you learn from somewhere, where the code and theory goes together.
Here's is some Java learning resources-

Derek Banas

Marcus Biel

John Purcell

Barry Burd

As you mentioned Android is your target, so after you make your hands dirty with java you can try Slidenerd and Udacity.