tags:

views:

590

answers:

13

I am a registered Student at a university in Switzerland, thus I know that programming is part of Electrotechnik (electrical engineering), the field I am going to take.

How can I learn programming with Java with easiest way, and without help by others?

I tried it through learning books, but I found it not easy, especially to do it alone.

+5  A: 

Try the Java Tutorial. It will walk you through actual examples, with code that you can try out in various IDEs. I usually find that easier than reading a book.

DNS
+1  A: 

What books have you tried so far? When I started someone recommended to me "Sprechen Sie Java?" my Hanspeter Mössenböck which actually worked pretty well for me back then (having written not a single line of code before starting with Computer Science).

Horst Gutmann
+8  A: 

Grüß, Thomas, if you haven't learned any programming it may be a little hard to start, but the Sun Java Tutorials are a good place to start.

Charlie Martin
"Grüezi Thomas" or "Grüß Gott Thomas" would be the correct greeting :)
Ludwig Wensauer
Mensch, i schprik Bad'sch. Schweizaerdeutsch kenn i' ni'. ;-)
Charlie Martin
+1  A: 

You could try a free course at Javapassion.

kgiannakakis
+5  A: 

Head First Java is good, if you can get past the style. Some people like it, others hate it (I haven't found anywhere in between). The funny part is the ones that like the style are the people who have more experience I find (not 100% true) but the book is aimed at those with little experience.

If you like the style it is a good book, if you hate the style, there are others, just let use know (as others have asked), are you 100% new to programming and if not what other languages do you know. Also what part(s) of the langauge are you having trouble with in particular?

TofuBeer
+10  A: 

For someone that knows nothing about programming, just reading tutorials will not do it for you. It would be good to download an editor and actually write the programs with any tutorial you use.

The thing about programming, the more you actually write the better you get at it.

TStamper
A: 
  1. Get yourself set up and complete a "Hello World" tutorial, there are so many all over the next.

  2. Once you know you can compile a Java program and view the output. Think of a small program. It might something as simple as converting Celcius to Fahrenheit and vice versa. Build that, using Google and whatever other resources you need to to find what you need to do. Once you get that running, think of something more complicated. Build that, keep doing this for a little while.

  3. By building real apps, that give you something you want you will be much more motivated and you will understand what you are doing better because all the curly details haven't been solved for you the way they are in online or book tutorials. You may not use the most elegant design but you will learn more.

However at some point you will need to start to delve into books about Object Oriented architecture etc. but for now just jump in and force your brain to learn.

Ankur
A: 

Another vote for actually doing some coding here. If you don't like the exercises in books then try programming something you're interested in personally. In my quest to learn C# I'm writing a program to correlate and display photos and GPS tracks and as a spin-off I'm trying to write a 3D graph component in WPF. Having a real problem I'm actually interested in makes a big difference to me, you can get a bit tired of implementations of bank account classes and vehicles.

Ian Hopkinson
+4  A: 

In fact you have to learn two things, programming and Java.

I would recommend the book thinking in Java (Bruce Eckel), the current version is the 4th edition but you can download the 3th revision for free...

pgras
+1  A: 

Another option for you if want to get a jump on your studies, you could go through the open courseware from M.I.T. For example, the Intro to Java Course.

Kevin Williams
A: 

Take a look at BlueJ. It was designed to teach Java

Fortyrunner
+1  A: 

Try the FREE book Java Programming for Kids, Parents and Grandparents by Yakov Fain

Aries McRae
A: 

I recommend the Stanford course CS106A, which is available for free to download, and can also be found on iTunes. It's a great course, and the teacher is very enthusiastic:
http://www.stanford.edu/class/cs106a/

I agree with others that the Sun tutorials and the Thinking in Java free book are excellent, however, I don't think they can replace a video for someone completely new to the field.

JDelage