Ok I have java and java editor on my computer, but I don't know how to use it, and When I do searches or withdraw books from the library. The books are worth shit. All of it is about the fact that is was a mistake that turned out good.

I had to say that cause I usualy get flamed for not doing anything before posting.

Now to my question where can I find a good book/site/anything to help me learn java. :banana:

First Off, Welcome to the forums. I have serveral ebooks on java, however i think you are looking for more of a getting started guide. Have you tryed looking at the documentation for the editor that you've installed? There will most likly be a section in it that will tell you how to make a hello world program, or at least tell you how to compile....

try looking at some of the ebooks on this site also:

http://www.freeprogrammingresources.com/javabook.html

Try this book:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...g=UTF8&v=glance

I am totally new to Java, and I found this book really helpful. It follows a narrative format, and teaches through the story of this class writing a grade calculation program. The students are all totally brain-dead, but sometimes the stupid questions they ask are the same stupid questions that you have... plus you can get the book off amazon for something like $6 (used).

It sounds like you are just needing a more exciting read. The first chapter of many books are the history of Java, and sometimes that is tough to get past. I would suggest the dummies books as they are pretty easy to get by due to the way they are written and you get good info out of them too. After that you might check out Headfirst Java as it is definately a different read. I would suggest that you start with the Dummies as Headfirst just reinforces the concepts and does not teach well. If you can get it from the library Deitels Simply Java is not that bad cause it teaches GUI from the start so the programs give you much more satisfaction and drive to continue. However it is really lacking in the reference side.

i can't post the exact URL right now, b/c of site downtime every night...

goto

java

then click on Java in the left side and then click on CSC 151.

hope this helps.

I use a book called Java elements by bailey and bailey. I also use another book called teach yourself java 2 in 30 days by sams.

Bailey and bailey is a lovely book because It doesnt teach you java in an object orientated way, I only really started to comprehend java and its principles using this book.

I can recommend *against* the book 'Learning Java' - put out by O'Reilly.

I bought it thinking it'd be as good as 'Learning Perl'.

it is NO GOOD as a book for learning the language - especially if you are also learning programming.

I discovered why later on - it used to be called *Exploring Java* - which explained a lot to me - especially it's terrible structure (terrible if you want something well paced that expands and progresses in a logical and steady manner).

Exploring Java is a much more accurate title. I am a bit surprised at O'Reilly really for doing that.

anyway - perhaps look for a good university software course-style introduction - a good text book that will teach you java in the context of becoming a good programmer - rather than just a syntax manual that goes through and gives java translations for all the stuff programmers already know how to do in other languages...

something like that (or a couple of good online tutorials ) should get you started and once you get familliar enough with the basic classes available to you the API documentation available at sun will be the reference you find yourself using 95% of the time.

(that said I have still used Learning Java a *lot* - esp for the gui stuff, and it DOES explore a lot of neat stuff - just no good for learning from in a structured or logical way)

I quite like the O'Reilly "Learning Java" but its not a good starter book, its much better to use as a reference book. Good starter books, IMHO, are Savitch's "Java: an introduction to computer science & programming" and Horstmann & Cornell's "Core Java 2"

Well yes you're absolutely correct of course regarding Learning Java.

I thought I'd better emphasise that it's not a good book to learn from despite the title (and the presigious o'reilly badge).

'exploring java' was a much better title for it, and of course I too use it lots for reference... but mainly because I now know what to look for in the index because I know enough java - or because I want to look at the gui examples to refresh my memory on the usage of the various containers or whatever...

But as far as learning books go they should be logically laid out, and expand on things in a logical manner, and not assume prior programming knowledge. ie they should teach good programming practice at the same time as teaching the syntax of that particular language. and this book doesn't do that. it seems more aimed towards people who are already well versed in C or whatever, who are interested in trying out this new language.

it *certainly* doesn't cover things in a logical way.
in my opinion you shouldn't be talking about UTF charsets and objects before you have covered things like if, for and while...

even if for no other reason than it makes it easier to find stuff... if you are looking up something complex you should find that you are on a page 80% of the way through the book. not on page 7 :P