Hey guys, I need help getting started programming in java. Does anyone have any suggestions as to (most importantly) a program I can use to write any program and compile it in java? And then secondary is a website that might be very useful for explaining the basics to programming?

 

Don't worry, I have already googled the second question and found something decent but I'm asking if there are suggestions as to which is the best to learn from. The first, I have no idea where to start. I don't exactly understand what the advantage/disadvantage to each program is and google doesn't really help me solve that either.

 

I'm looking for as much help getting started in java programming as possible because my teacher really isn't very helpful and I can't get it on my own. Thanks.

Are you already familiar with programming or even object-oriented programming or are you completely new to that stuff ?

 

EDIT: I misunderstood your first question, I think. I use NetBeans for Java stuff. It´s pretty much an all-inclusive solution but I don´t like it that much that I´d recommend it.

I've done stuff with MatLab but that was a lot simpler than this is...

http://java.sun.com/

 

The java SDK has a "compiler" and virtual machine.

 

You may wish to use something like scite (http://www.scintilla.org/SciTE.html) for editing IIRC it can be setup to compile and run in the same window quite easily.

 

As for documentation, back to the sun website...

 

http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/

I looked at scintilla klaynos...thanks. But I still can't figure this all out. Maybe it's just me, maybe it's because I started with MatLab and html but why doesn't there seem to be any easy way to type in Java code, hit a button and watch it execute. I haven't found how to execute my program on any text editor yet for Java...

Although I agree with Klaynos, that you would be best learning to use the command line utilities first, there are plenty of IDEs (Integrated Development Environment) that do what you want.

 

Netbeans is one, as Atheist mentioned, Eclipse is another. A really simple one, aimed at teaching Java to students is BlueJ. Just try searching on googl e for "java ide".

This java thing is really starting to bug me. I can't figure out how to use the libraries. I downloaded netbeans to try to write a program, and I did. But it wont run because I know neither what libraries I have nor what objects are available in those libraries. Does anyone know how to find a comprhensive list of the libraries available to me (their names) and what objects are in them?

I used BlueJ for a very short period when I was just starting java and OOP, I've been using JCreator LE ever since.