Reddit reviews Big Java

I'm going to give some very different advice than everyone else here: expand what you already know. Everyone else is recommending new languages (in my opinion, it's better to know a few languages very well than to know many languages poorly) or something highly complicated (game design is a fantastic way to go, but one requires a very diverse skill set to create games solo).

Someone mentioned programming books. I highly recommend learning from books. The FAQ has a list of some particularly good ones. However, I don't recommend learning a new language from these. Knowing many languages poorly is not a very useful skill. It's far more useful to know a few languages very well. It's even easier to learn other languages when you have a strong grasp on programming, which requires focus.

But above all, languages aren't important! I recommend sticking with a language primarily so you don't have to learn a new one. You already know Java, so you can go straight into a book on algorithms and data structures without relearning the basics to a language. Don't focus on learning a language, focus on learning how to program.

Learning programming techniques instead of a specific language is far more useful to a programmer. Data structures are mandatory knowledge. Do you know how to use lists (like a linked list)? How about hash tables? What algorithms can you use to search for specific data? These skills can usually be transferred to other languages, sometimes with minimal changes.

So here's my advice: start with a book on algorithms and data structures. Introduction to Algorithms by Cormen, Leiserson, Rivest, and Stein is probably the best known book for beginners. Note that you must already know how to program. I don't know how good your programming is, so it may be necessary to first start with a book on Java to fill in the blanks from online tutorials. The FAQ should have some good advice, there. The book I used for Java was Horstmann's Big Java.

Anyway, databases is what I'd expand into next. They're not Java, but a core part of many modern programs. Thankfully, the basics are quite easy to pickup.

A book on software engineering is a good next choice, since software engineering goes over design patterns. Just how would you design a large program? Where do you start? Software engineering is crucial for ensuring projects don't become Duke Nukem's.

Beyond that, I would hope you'd have some specific interests, yourself. For example, perhaps you're interested in AI or security (etc). If you have some personal interests, they make great areas to focus once you've picked up the basics.

But for now, focus on learning to program, not just "languages".

With the New Boston I would limit it to watching just enough to get yourself started. I don't know that it's wise to use him as a major source.

He is helpful for getting the IDE installed, getting it up and running, and learning a little bit of java.

I would go with Stanford's intro programming course(in java):

http://academicearth.org/courses/programming-methodology

For a book I would recommend Big Java.

Depends on your experience. If you haven't programmed before, I think Big Java would be a good book to start with (it's the book MIT's Civil Engineering Dept uses to get them up to speed with Java). If you've programmed before, you're better off doing the official java tutorials followed by Core Java 1 and Core Java 2.

Regardless of the path you take, if you intend to do ANY kind of "serious" java programming, Effective Java is a must-read.

Finally, you'll want a good reference book. Gosling's Java Book is the definitive one, although you might prefer a book by O'Reilly.

Actually, as a recent Computer Science graduate, I agree with this quite a bit. Getting a degree in Electrical Engineering, with perhaps a minor in Computer Science, really opens a lot more doors for you. A lot of the embedded (and generally systems) development jobs I've seen/applied for recently prefer EE candidates to CS candidates -- some won't even consider CS candidates. While the web development industry is big, generally speaking if you have any experience with development you can work in the web world (especially in a junior role) but it takes specialized experience to work in the embedded/systems world.

What you DON'T get from an EE degree alone is discipline in Software Engineering, some of the things like theory of computation and algo. analysis, but if you can hack an EE degree you can pick these up rather easily. Of course, this point is likely moot if you get a minor in CS but that depends on the specific program.

Anyway, I recommend Big Java, it's what I learned on and gives a pretty solid intro. to OO development in general.

we used big java in highschool and my freshman year of college. Its pretty good. Theres a newer edition thats more expensive..but this one should still be fine.