Hello everyone,
Im fairly new to
Java and Im brand new to the Ranch.
Heres my thing, I have been in IT forever and I have done a bit of programming. I have a degree in Business Information Systems which required a lot of development classes. Unfortunately I only had one class in Java. Most of my experience is in VB and C#.net, ASP.net, SQL Server. I recently started looking into developing Android apps and of course, Java is the language to use. Im on a quest to learn, I mean really learn, Java.
I really dont mind buying a good book to learn from but I dont like spending $50 for a book just to find out it is too advanced or isnt really relevant for what I want to learn (this happened to me a couple weeks ago AGAIN). So I have been searching the net to find tutorials, videos, and ebooks that will help me get going in the right direction. The key here is 'the right direction'. Here is what I have done so far:
1) Started watching YouTube videos on Android development
(This has helped by telling me that I need Eclipse and Java JDK, etc...)
2) I found the Android Development site which told me how to setup my development environment
3) I started doing tutorials from the Android development site but they seemed to become fragmented. I really was looking for something that would guide me through and entire project, beginning to end.
4) I found a series of video tutorials, 'The New Boston' -
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2F07DBCDCC01493A . I started on this but quickly discovered that I didnt know enough Java to completely understand and learn from the videos. Also, it seemed to me that the guy was sometimes more focused on making 200 videos than he was on teaching Android development.
5) I purchased a book from Amazon on Android development: It was too advanced.
6) Im serious about learning Java and Android development so I went back to the fundamentals.
a. I found a series of videos by Mark Dexter: 'Eclipse and Java for Total Beginners'
http://eclipsetutorial.sourceforge.net/totalbeginner.html. This is a great place to start because Mark teaches Java as well as
Test driven development and Eclipse.
7) Next I found a book, 'Java 7: A Beginners Tutorial (Third Edition)' by Budi Kurniawan. I found it on Amazon for like $2 (Kindle). This is probably the best book I have ever read on a programming language. This is my current focus. Once I get through this I plan to do some more tutorials to reinforce what Im learning in this book.
8) Next step: I will go back to a book I started a couple weeks ago, 'Professional Android 4' by Reto Meier. Also, I think Ill develop a resource guide to help other beginners get going in the right direction: a learning plan of sorts.
With all this said, I would be very happy to receive suggestions on resources I should consider. With so many resources on the Internet, it is very difficult for a newbie to get going on the right path.
Oh, I promise to never post this long again.
Later.
