Which Java tutorial to choose for a beginner in programming?

Question

Java

I read about 20 posts on Habr Q&A on the topic "Which Java textbook to choose"?

Conducted independent research.

The whole booth revolves around:

1. Head First Java - opened, tried to read, the book seems to be focused on beginners, but it's not, there is a task where you will receive an answer only after 10 pages. There are also a lot of errors in the text (really there are A LOT of them), also the 5th version of Java in 2022, the book is OLD as the world.

2. Herbert Shield, Beginner's Guide or Complete Guide - not much different, reading is not for beginners, read up to this it's not at all clear WHAT IT IS AND WHY it is, it feels like the author thinks that I had good computer science at school, or what? This is not so, I did not have INFORMATICS at all. It was to fill in a couple of columns once a month in Excel and that's it.

3. Java philosophy - several gurus on Habr Q&A advised it, but having opened the author himself, he writes that he is counting on people with experience in CS + basic knowledge of C, the old Java is also used, and the book is also ancient.

4. Kay Horstman Professional Library Volume 1 - The author himself writes at the beginning that the book is NOT DESIGNED for beginner programmers, but is addressed to professional programmers.

5. Java development methods from EPAM - 2020 book, A LOT of tasks, but written very concisely and not chewed, this is probably a good textbook after getting the Nth experience of Java for training and systematization.

For some reason I don't really want to take the course.

Can you give any recommendations, backed up by personal experience, and not "I heard from someone out there!"?

Answer 1

the book seems to be aimed at beginners, but it is not, there is a task where you will receive an answer only after 10 pages

This is done on purpose so that the beginner tries to think, and does not immediately receive ready-made answers, which then will not linger in his head.

also 5 version of Java in 2022 the book is as OLD as the world!

Java has full backward compatibility, knowledge of Java 2 is still relevant, and a beginner just needs a base, and not the most modern technologies.

Java philosophy - several gurus on Habr Q&A advised it, but having opened the author himself, he writes that he is counting on people with experience in CS + basic knowledge of C, the old Java is also used, and the book is also ancient

Nevertheless, experience shows that you can learn from it, even if you see a computer for the first time in your life.

read up to this it’s not at all clear WHAT IT IS AND WHY it is, it feels like the author thinks that I had good computer science at school or what?

Programming is hard. No textbook will fill your head with knowledge in a magical way, everything will not immediately become clear after the first reading. You will have to make an effort, read, re-read, experiment.

Answer 2

If you read a lot of books, you will learn to read books.
If you write code, you learn to write code.
No need to cross-read books and only then start writing something.
You don't need to read a WHOLE ( actually just one ) book and immediately write your big 2D game.
Write a simple program first. Simple calculator. A simple window with a button. If it's a 2d game, then tic-tac-toe or sea battle - you need to master the basic things so that there are no simple questions. Then make it harder.

And a whole lot of mistakes? I spent 2 days on a 5 minute task? Mistake 1 had to be understood at the beginning that it was "a" and not "a", puzzles of errors, etc.

Your task as a whole is not to solve this problem, but to learn how to solve them. I sat for 2 days, gained invaluable experience, including an understanding of how it works and that typos can be everywhere. And now you will most likely be able to immediately notice such typos or errors. Is that a plus?

For some reason, it seems to me that now, the easiest way is to take Herbert Shield as a basis for a complete guide, but not to read the book itself, but simply to take

It is easier for each person the way he is used to. It is definitely not necessary to read a book stupidly. You need to find your own methods. For there is no better book and no better method. There is one that is right for you. And you also need to understand that the most suitable method for you is working now, but not in a month, or one topic will go like this, another through practice, the third through video. Well, or you can do everything in one way, but spending a different amount of effort.

, and it’s normal that after reading a book you wanted to write something, before that, look and analyze how someone wrote something similar

Well, why not? Everything rests solely on time. Who has the ability to analyze, who does not. It is useful to analyze how others have written it. The joke is that to "see" someone else's code is not to look through. You need to sit down and figure it out for a long time until you delve into the logic of someone else's code. You can quickly peek at some very trifle.

But now the situation is different. You were brought to the factory and attached to the master, they didn’t show you ALL the tools and explain how they work, but the MASTER began to make a FRAME for the engine (well, what everything will be attached to) and along the way, explaining step by step the course of his thoughts

Here, based on your example, I will explain the essence.
An engine, or rather a modern engine, is such a part that many people have created over the generations. And while the MASTER will explain to you the course of all his thoughts, your life will be gone.
And the main problem is that you may have read my previous phrase, but did not realize it. Human life is really VERY short. And if it may seem to a 20-year-old student that 40 years old is already an old man, you can multiply 20 by two and suddenly realize that a young 20-year-old student has already lived half his life.
Therefore, sometimes it is worth immediately showing all existing tools IN BRIEF so that a person knows what has already been invented and can be taken ready, and then give tasks so that using ready-made tools a beginner creates a program, and does not invent a wheel, a hammer, a magnifying glass and so on from scratch .
Learn to ask the right questions. This is when you know about half of the answer. In IT, the beginning of the path is not when you choose a book to read. And when you have already written your first complex program, and after that, reading the NEXT book, you think that it could have been written much better and much easier.

Answer 3

Jamie Chan - "Java quick start", but I would recommend combining the book with some kind of course, since such literature is not a work of art to read, here one fantasy is not enough)) Practice and more is needed.