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unsure of where to start

 
Greenhorn
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Hey guys!
Im about to start my journey on learning java. Only problem is that i feel very unsure of where to start so im kinda looking/asking for a mentor, otherwise general advice would be greatly appreciated!

Anyhu i just got the book Head First Java 2nd Edition but it says if you have no programming skills walk away (i have no skills yet) so im thinking of doing that oracle hello world trail thing. Is this a good idea or shud i rethink my first steps as to me they are crucial.

Thanks a ton!
 
Greenhorn
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hello new guy! (Russell) I'm also pretty new over here. i just started 1 month ago or something.
the best way to start is doing stuff. try the examples on the book. try to understand, if you dont understand something, look for it in the InterNerd. (>.<)
i'm pretty sure you will do it fine. just start in the fundamentals , and follow the book.

nice year!
 
Russell King
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Thanks for the input buddy! I dont reall know where to start practically speaking. But then again ive only JUST started. Ill keep this updated of my progress and mebe get more feed back when i give more imfo of my needs
 
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Russell, I would say that Oracle's "Getting Started" trail is a pretty solid place to begin. I would recommend that you skip the NetBeans IDE for now and work through the Command Line based tutorial for your platform (Windows or *NIX/Linux). IDE's are a great tool but when you're just starting out it's important that you learn exactly how your code is organised, compiled, and run from the command line.

Keep an eye on your Head First Java book while you're going through the Oracle trail because the more comfortable you become with writing and running Java code you'll find the book will start to make a bit more sense. The key is to just get stuck in. Do the exercises and examples yourself, explore them, learn from them. Don't be afraid to get it wrong, that's when we learn the most.

And lastly, if you get stuck with a particular problem then there's always plenty of good helpful folk here on the Ranch who will be willing to help you out.

Happy coding!
 
Russell King
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I just wanna ask for ppls personal opinion on this.

So it is important to commit certain things to memory (like what a method is and that curly brackets).
Do you think its important to commit the primitive data types to memory as well?

What other "basic" conepts shud a new beginner learn by heart?
 
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Welcome again

Russell King wrote: . . . Do you think its important to commit the primitive data types to memory as well?

No. When you need them, you will learn them. In fact as a beginner, stick to 4 primitives:
int double char boolean
Forget the other 4 for the time being.



What other "basic" conepts shud a new beginner learn by heart?

The 3½ kinds of iteration, the 3½ kinds of selection, writing backwards (see links in this post), and working out why I try to get everything into 3½ categories
Encapsulation: make all your fields private and provide access only via appropriate methods.
The most important concept and the one which seems to cause most difficulty is that you should create an object for (just about) everything.

And it is, “should,” please, not shud or ppls.
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