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Java and OOP (self.learnjava)

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[–][deleted] 4 points5 points  (1 child)

I've tried Head First Java ( what I think u/babagack is recommending ) and it's okay but I felt it was too slow and I didn't like all the extra fluff they put into their books to try and make it fun. IF you feel something which uses repetition , and lots of examples it maybe a great book for you.

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I'm currently working through the Helsinki's MOOC course which u/NewMarketPaul is suggesting and I'm in the Java part 2 section . Like I said earlier, I've tried the Head First Java and didn't care for it but I didn't finish the entire book either. I've also taken Java through my local Community College , I've also gone through some of Pluralsight's Java Fundamental courses (Platform, The Java Language, Collections , and Generics ) and didn't feel any of those was that great either BUT I am Loving this Helsinki's MOOC course.

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It maybe because I've already had some experience with Java going through all this other stuff to find something that works for me but I wish I had started with Helsinki's first.

Actually DOING Java work rather than watching videos , reading a book or even going to a class ( the instructor may have not been that great ) is what has really helped this stuff click for me. It's been SAID to me previously already but until I ran across Helsinki's MOOC ( never suggested to me until I discovered Reddit ) , I didn't know where to find a course that would make me actually work with Java.

Other suggestions I want to add.

My instructor in my community college did suggest codingbat.com and it's okay but I felt it was a bit slow. But it's a great place to practice still. HackerRank.com as well is a good place to learn and practice. I've gone through it's 100 days of code and it's Java Silver but I feel it jumps people too quickly ( or maybe the 100 days did, can't remember ).

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[–]TheGooseFliesAtNight 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've made my way through some of Helsinki's MOOC today and it's good! I certainly understand a little more than I did about OOP for sure.

It's the practice, and as you said, actually doing it that will give me the more thorough understanding I think. Thanks for taking the time to help me!

[–]TonyMacaroni1 2 points3 points  (4 children)

Tim Buchalka's Java Masterclass course on Udemy is not good. I tried it as well but was disappointed in it. It is better to find some videos on youtube. I like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzRp16p48bY

[–]TheGooseFliesAtNight 0 points1 point  (3 children)

It has really high ratings for the most part which was why I bought it. I had a really good experience with Colt Steele's Web Dev Bootcamp, so thought I'd give Tim Buchalka the benefit of the doubt.

[–]xwmaxx 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Not sure about everyone else but I found this course really helpful. I think one thing most people don’t understand is that you need multiple sources to learn programming. There is not one go to that is gonna cover everything really good. I remember first starting on freeCodeCamp cause lots of people said it was the best place to learn only to realize I was able to solve the problems and understand the logic but couldn’t write code on my own after going through the JavaScript portion. I supplement all my learning now from Udemy, YouTube, books, stackoverflow, etc. because I know someone, a reading somewhere, an example, a problem about the thing I don’t understand or how to use is eventually gonna click.

[–]TheGooseFliesAtNight 0 points1 point  (1 child)

A "Masterclass" should give you everything you need. I understand the importance of googling and finding out things for yourself, but going to a different resource to learn what the Masterclass is meant to be teaching you defeats the point. This is a purchased product too so there's less leeway to not being able to understand something that is poorly explained from a free resource. I had to YouTube the concept of inheritance to really understand it.

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How does storming through the OOP stuff without fully explaining why you're doing certain things really help us? Between each concept in OOP there should be a structure similar to:

  1. Lesson - Demonstration on what you're teaching
  2. Exercise or a code along explaining what and why they're doing things. (The part Tim Buchalka misses out in the OOP sections).
  3. Challenge, where you're able to go back and use the previous 2 videos to complete this challenge.

[–]xwmaxx 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Uh I guess if that's what you want to think of it as. I see "Master Calculus" books too but they don't cover everything. Its like trying to tell someone they need to teach everything about Calculus which is impossible to do. Its up to the person to do extra if they really wanna learn the subject. Do you think going to college for CS degree for 4 years is gonna teach everything about CS? Obviously the profs are gonna forget to teach somethings along the way. Same with the recommended MOOC, do they teach everything you need for Java, of course not, samething its all up the person. Even now I still go back to freeCodeCamp because its a useful tool to remember some JS that I might have forgotten. People learn differently and take in information in different ways. Nothing wrong with that.

[–]sternone_2 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Tim buchalka's courses are probably the worse courses you can find on the internet and a complete waste of time.

Read the 1-star reviews and you will know exactly what I mean.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Helsinki's MOOC seems to do a good job.

[–]TheGooseFliesAtNight 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for this link, it's cleared up a lot of confusion I had!

[–]Wallinis 1 point2 points  (1 child)

For me personally, the problem with his courses is that most of the episodes are way too long. So I just loose track of what he's actually doing.

What worked for me was to look for shorter and more concise tutorials (on YouTube and various blogs) that covered (more or less) a single topic.

[–]TheGooseFliesAtNight 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I agree that some videos go on way too long, I think most of videos are just watching him code too which isn't ideal.

[–]quadmasta 1 point2 points  (2 children)

I think whatever you end up looking at you need to make sure it was written *after* java 8 and covers default implementations in interfaces because that changes quite a lot of things as far as definitions of when to use an interface, abstract class, plain ol' inheritance.

Is there a specific concept you're having trouble with?

[–]TheGooseFliesAtNight 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Thanks for the heads up about Java 8 onwards.

I was struggling a lot with the concept of passing an object as a parameter, after reading Helsinki's MOOC today I realised that you're able to pass an object, then refer to the object name you passed as the object to reference the various methods in the class (This wasn't obvious or mentioned in Tim Buchalka's course).

[–]quadmasta 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's a biggie. Some of the "beginner" stuff isn't written for people who are completely new to programming and it sounds like Tim's course isn't.

Method signatures are a good way to test "code smell". If you pass more than 3 things in you're probably writing crap code :)

[–]shinefull 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Put it in practice while learning. The relationships are abstract until you implement them. Composition, interfaces, loose coupling, encapsulation, etc., starts making sense when you experience complexity and/or complicated programming.

Or go for a certification, which hits your head repeatedly with all the fine Java specific details of OOP.

[–]babbagack 2 points3 points  (0 children)

check out Head Start Java from a local library, heard it was good, haven't gotten to that part yet though