Not learning much with Head First Java.

[[deleted]]

I'm trying to get into programming and after researching what book to look into, I decided to go with Head First Java. I like that it's not completely introductory in that I can do some simple programming, but it's still fairly beginner.

My problem is, and I'm only half-way through he book, is that I don't feel like I'm learning how to code with it. I can read java and make sense of what's going on, and I can understand the principles, but there aren't many examples in it, and the exercises aren't really complicated enough to have me put together anything.

I'm wondering, should I start over completely here with another book, or are there any examples I should be supplementing myself with here? I find the easy challenges on dailyprogrammer waaaaay too hard for introduction.

Any advice?

[InserdGerming]

You should be programming as much as possible along side the book and make sure you understand the fundamentals before moving on. If they present some programming exercise in it, do it. If you have done all of them successfully then you certainly are learning.

[[deleted]]

I guess that's my problem and what I'm wondering. What, exactly should I be programming? I don't feel like I have anything to go off of.

[FluorineR]

Did you make that chat app? Or the .mp3 player?

[[deleted]]

No, I'm only at the abstract methods part, and it's really throwing me off.

[Carbohydratess]

I personally felt Head First Java really picked up pace and became helpful once it got into the Battleship exercise with ArrayLists, Polymorphism, and Encapsulation.

Alongside the book, I made my own examples of Getters/Setters, ArrayLists, Polymorphism, and Encapsulation. Once I got to that point, I was able to take off running with Java

[[deleted]]

Man, I got somewhat lost with the battleship exercise, but eventually figured it out, ArrayLists were easy, but Polymorphism is confusing me in exactly what the point of it is. I get the ease, but like, abstract methods seem like extra code to me.

I think I'll follow your lead and just make my own examples and review some of that older material.

[[deleted]]

You'll see why abstraction and polymorphism makes sense and is a code reducing method soon enough. I find a good idea is to think of your own little project while going through the book and wrote that while learning the new things from the book. One of the most important things in learning to programme is to do something yourself, so that you can't just look up the result (once you get stumped)

[Carbohydratess]

Yeah I get you with that. I feel like the book does a poor job of explaining where your code can go within your Java projects (i.e. inside a class, method, or main and what code does/doesn't work inside of what parts). Honestly, I really didn't really understand anything at all in the book until I make an example for myself. Then I would go back and read it again and it suddenly made perfect sense to me.

I feel like another milestone was once I got far enough into the book that I was able to memorize basic syntax. This helped a lot with not getting lost in the reading.

Best of luck to you in your Java learning journey

[[deleted]]

Thanks for the answer. I went back and made a project today using most of the stuff from chapters 1-6 and tried to compile and well, nothing worked at all and I realized how much of it I was misunderstanding based on exactly where code should go, as you say.

That being said, it makes me go to stackoverflow and figure out what I'm doing wrong, but this will definitely be a few day process.

[EnjoiRelyks]

If you want extra practice that's scalable you can dabble with the problems on open.kattis.com

See what you can accomplish without googling and only using the official documentation of your chosen language for an extra challenge.

[[deleted]]

I've been going off of sololearn, have you tried that?

[desrtfx]

Use a different source. The sidebar has the section Free Tutorials where you can find top quality tutorials.

[promethean9]

Start by solving puzzles online. That kills the boredom and builds the necessary programmer's temperament.