OK dokey,

So I haven't done any coding in /years/. And the last stuff I did was in Visual Basic, so it hardly even counts as coding. I've decided that I'd like to learn some Java stuff. I've got a few ideas I want to play with, and I miss the fun of VB where you could throw something fun but pointless together in an hour or so.

Where should I start? I know no Java so far. Any books or sites people would recommend? Is the eclipse IDE any good? HELP ME TEH WIZARDS!

x

What on earth do you want to learn Java for? :?

>>I've got a few ideas I want to play with, and I miss the fun of VB where you could throw something fun but pointless together in an hour or so.

 

Seems that Java would suit that better than say C++ or whatever.

Wouldn't you be better off learning something more useful, like JavaScript?

I don't know, would I?

 

EDUCATE ME CAERBEAR!

Well it depends dunnit, on what you want to achieve. Some things just work better as desktop applications, but then again the number of things you can do on the web is expanding all the time.

 

The main reason I suggest web-oriented development is because it's easier to get started - you have everything you need to start coding already on your computer (albeit not exactly optimal for it): you have a browser and you can create text files.

 

Furthermore, the things you make can be shared with everyone, and you can get help on stuff because your source code is readily available for people to see.

 

If it's an IDE you want, try this:
http://www.akshell.com/ide/

Yeeeaaaaah, I see what you're saying. But it's not really webstuff I'm interested in (at the moment, at least). It's more just stupid desk top apps that do stupid, pointless things and make me laugh :D

That's fine :D Like I said, some things just work better as desktop apps, without being constrained by a browser window.

 

Still, if you're gonna develop desktop stuff you'll have to ask someone else though, as I've not got any modern experience with it :$

I've learnt C# recently, if you're using Visual Studio 2010 (ask Jim, or join MS Bizspark and get it for free (dance) ) then you can literally just jump in and make something fun. x

To be honest, working out what I need to download from Sun is almost proving too hard for me already :$ :$ :$ :$ :$

I considered that too, but Java has the distant possibility of being able to write stupid, pointless things that make me laugh and RUN ON MY TELEPHONE!! :O

I dare you to try downloading the Oracle database client. And actually get it working.

 

Don't feel stupid for getting confused by the Sun website. It'd bloody awful.

Hee, I agree with that being exciting. Maybe, even though you're not considering web stuff, have a look at Javascript and jQuery and ajax.etc - you'd need to have a web-design-head on to to make interfaces - but they'd run on most phones.

I'm just concerned because well, I don't think many people use (or at least, decide to start learning) Java anymore and if you're going to learn something it may aswell be something that's popular currently (I'm not really saying this for career advice, but for finding support and asking for help).

Eclipse is good, Java is shit.



Definitely don't pick Java.

Something like Scala or Groovy may be a better choice - both runs on the JVM and compile down to Java bytecode, but they (attempt to) hide all the horrible ugly bits of Java, so you can get on with writing code instead of screaming because after jumping through dozens of hoops it's still not doing what you want.

(I've not actually tried Scala or Groovy myself yet, and they might both be shit, but I've heard plenty of people say good things about each of them.)

Oh, and if you're serious about Android stuff, Scala is probably the better of the two.
(Search for "scala android" and you get details of people doing</e> it, whilst "groovy android" is more people asking how to get it working.)

I don't like Java as a language at all, it's really annoying, and I avoid it where possible.

But I'm pretty sure this is nonsense:

It's the sort of thing lots of people say about technologies that aren't mentioned regularly, or they simply don't have much exposure to, and thus assume are withering away.

Java is huge, and even if Oracle wanted to kill it off I'm not sure they could (there's too many companies like IBM, Google, RedHat, Apache, etc who are all heavily invested in it).

And certainly, if he is crazy enough to pick it, he'll have no less trouble finding help with Java than he will with C# or JavaScript or anything else.

You reckon? I know it's still widely used, but I just doubt they'd be the same sort of support online as there is for C#. There are twice as many results on Google for "C# programming" than "Java programming".

That may too be nonsense, I dislike using numbers of search results to back up an argument :D , but I still don't think there's the same number of resources.

Right, that's that settled then. You disapprove of Java, therefore Java must be good.

(giggle)

Here's some pretty lines, apparently showing job market:



Even with a grain of salt, that's a significant size, and it's rising.

(oops, that was supposed to go to you.)