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Thread: Can someone help me get started?

  1. #1
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    Default Can someone help me get started?

    Hey, I am new to the world of programming; however I do know some of the basics. I took a programming class in college, unfortunately I didn't give it too much attention. Now, I really want to learn more about programming. In my college class, we used Java as our language, and we used BlueJ to write our classes and methods and such. I dl'd BlueJ to my computer however I've had problems with it finding Java to get it to run. I was wondering if you guys could help me get started with a good program to use. I'm not looking for anything to fancy, just some program I could use to learn the basics of programming.

    Also, what is the advantage of learning Java over other languages? Should I invest some time in learning other computer languages as well?


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    Default Re: Can someone help me get started?

    I suggest you pick a language and focus your efforts on understanding that one language before you explore other programming languages. With that said, Java is a perfect language to get started. One good place to start is the Java Tutorials from Sun.

    Personally, I have never used BlueJ so I cannot give you any insight on it. I've used both Netbeans and Eclipse, but I mostly use Eclipse now. Both IDE's are really good, but over time I have preferred using Eclipse.

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    Default Re: Can someone help me get started?

    You say Java Tutorials from sun? Actually, the problem I had with BlueJ is that it said I needed the latest version of Java (JDK) or something like that. I tried downloading it from sun, and I thought I had it. I got to the register screen, however for some reason it wouldn't let me register. I just skipped that and tried to open BlueJ up because I thought that I had the latest version of JDK downloaded. Do you have any idea of what might be happening?

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    Default Re: Can someone help me get started?

    In all honesty, there really isn't a single "best" programming language to go with. That's why there are so many of them. Of course, there are a lot of pretty bad ones, but most used commonly today are pretty good. It all depends on which you prefer, what you intend to write, and how you want to write it.

    plusses of using java:

    extremely portable
    large api

    negatives of using java:

    slight performance issues (you won't notice unless you're doing something extremely performance related, and it's not even that much now)
    Inability to interface with hardware directly
    Strict syntax (depending on who you are, this is either a positive or a negative. Personally, I think it's a positive, but I know for beginners it's definitely a negative)

    I've never used blueJ, so I don't think i'd be much help getting you set up. However, I would strongly recommend Eclipse It's powerful, easy to set up, and from what I've heard much much more powerful than BlueJ (though, for beginners these features probably won't come into play, but it's nice to get use to the IDE)

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    Default Re: Can someone help me get started?

    Ok, I'll give Eclipse a shot! Thanks for the answer!

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