Programming for College - Java

I did not learn Java until I transferred from Central Community College-Columbus in Columbus, Nebraska to the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.  I finally hadto learn it when I took CSCE 155, or Computer Science I.  I also did not take into account that I was changing from the small classroom environment to the university environment.  That is a large classroom environment.  I thought that learning a new language would be easy.  Well I was wrong, it was harder than I thought.  My professor couldn’t help me personally as he was busy with the Honors program, as well as trying to teach classes.  His TA was unavailable to the regular students.

Now the professor did give good hints, and links to tutorials, as well as recommendations for programs.  One program that he recommended was jGrasp.  It was an Integrated Development Environment, or IDE, for Windows and Mac.  It allowed for us the student novice programmers to write, debug, and run Java programs and applets.  This program can be found at the jGrasp home page, http://www.jgrasp.org/, for download.  This program is available in Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems.  It is a cross platform IDE.

I still ran into problems, as I still was not used to the large classroom environment.  On top of this we were not allowed to collaborate on homework assignments, as that was considered cheating. So there I was treading water near a whirlpool.  I read the textbook, and the more I read, the more confused I got.  That is until I found Java for Dummies.  It helped me out a great deal.  Then I started looking for tutorials on the internet.  I found a lot.  I would suggest just googling Java programming tutorials, will find a great deal of tutorials and resources.  Even if you have to come up with an original program, but you can use the tutorials to show you how to go about writing the program.  I will suggest another book, Thinking in Java by Bruce Eckel.  It is an outstanding book, and would recommend it to any professor who intends to teach Java Programming.  The bonus is that you can actually donate the book for free from Bruce Eckel’s Webiste. First, Second and Third Editions are available at http://www.mindviewinc.com/Books/.  there are other free programming books available too.  PDF versions in zip form are available at Planet PDF which is this URL:  http://www.planetpdf.com/developer/article.asp?ContentID=6632

It is outstanding book, and if you get confused try finding Java For Dummies.

>

Also try this site for free online ebooks on Java

>

http://www.onlinecomputerbooks.com/free-java-books.php

I hope that these links will help, as thet have helped me.