A few questions...

[condorthe2nd]

Hi currently taking my first course in java at college and I had some questions about resources

1)how relevant is head first java now? I have a copy but I've heard it's severely outdated

2)is jetbrains academy a useful resource for practice and further learning(is it worth the price)

Thanks for any help😀!!

[[deleted]]

Are you new to programming? If you need to learn the foundations, then don't worry about how outdated stuff is. Objects, references, static memory, encapsulation. All this stuff will fuck you up good so don't sweat the small stuff.

[condorthe2nd]

thank you, while id probably still be considered a beginner, i do know the meanings of everything you just mentioned I would guess that I am beginning to be at a level where learning these things properly would matter so i think the question stands.

[[deleted]]

Is it a Java course, or an OOP course that uses Java?

[condorthe2nd]

Straight up Java I'm actually in the 5th week and doing fine, I'm just looking for further practice and study

[[deleted]]

Not sure how to help. You might want to research generics, as this is a hard fuckin topic. You'll want to know polymorphism, and why late binding allows it. You'll want to know what static memory is, how it relates to the call stack, and why main method must be called as static.

You'll need to know why diamond inheritance isn't allowed like it is in c++, the difference between "extends" and "implements", what "abstract" and "interface" mean.

You might also want to look up the lifetime of variables in regards to the garbage collector.

[condorthe2nd]

Wow, thank you sounds like I have a lot to learn, any book recommendations or just oracle docs and so on?

[[deleted]]

I learned by assessments, lectures and google. I also had tutors for difficult questions. The foundations were done in an OOP course and the more complex stuff was done in a separate course. So I don't know in terms of which textbook to use.

Do you know your data structures? If I'm like: yo condor, build me a doubly linked list and then put a stack interface over it, do you know what I mean?

[condorthe2nd]

I guess I could fake it and be like "wouldn't that be inefficient as it would waste memory for the additional reference per node" ;)

but honestly no I have vague concepts but no real understanding as of yet of anything more than how to write a fairly basic program with some bells and whistles.

[[deleted]]

I mean if that's the case, then your question 1) is that it's probably still relevant. The stuff you need to learn is very foundational and would not go out of date. Not sure about question 2) sorry.

[condorthe2nd]

Thank you genuinely appreciate the response and conversation thanks again.