Jonsjava |
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step”. My favorite quote, hands down. That quote is also applicable to programming, and learning how to program. You already have a basic grasp on how to program, so the simplest approach, in my opinion, would be for you to learn an easy language, like PHP. It took me a week to learn PHP, and I’m still learning all the higher-level parts of that language, while moving on to other languages, like C++ and Java. The great thing about PHP is this: You can find tons of sights that teach PHP, plenty of open-source programs that you can dissect to learn more about PHP, and then when you write it, you can run the script right there, and see how your code works vs. how you intended it to work. You don’t need a compiler for PHP, seeing how it’s an interpretive language.
That’s my 2 cents worth.
Michael Morisy |
Jonsjava is right, PHP is a good way to warm yourself up and get back into programming in general, but Java is friendly enough that if you just want to be able to put it on your resume, you probably don’t need to learn PHP.
The best method for gaining Java competence really depends on what kind of learner you are, but for me, shelling out for a book really helped. All the information and almost infinite tutorials are available on the web, but I liked having nice, consistent information in dead tree form. YMMV.
As for book recommendations, that really depends on your style of learning. The Head-First series I’ve found is really easy, with a good mix of tips, tutorials and exercises. I definitely recommend getting something that is heavy into having you code, but there’s plenty of books out there like that: Just browse Amazon and pay attention to reader comments to find the one that’s right for you.
Edtittel |
As a regular IT certification and career “expert” for TechTarget, I’ve been asked to weigh in on this question. Let me begin by observing that the advice and information already posted here is right on the money, particularly with references to W3Schools and ProgrammingTutorials. To those great resources, I’d also add: the following for JavaScript:
1. <a href="http://www.javascript.com" rel="nofollow">www.javascript.com</a>
2. <a href="http://www.webdeveloper.com/javascript" rel="nofollow">www.webdeveloper.com/javascript</a>
3. <a href="http://www.hotscripts.com/javascript" rel="nofollow">www.hotscripts.com/javascript</a>
and the following for the Java programming language:
1. Sun’s “New to Java Programming” Center: <a href="http://java.sun.com/new2java/" rel="nofollow">http://java.sun.com/new2java/</a>
2. <a href="http://www.learn-programming.za.net/learn_java_programming.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.learn-programming.za.net/learn_java_programming.html</a>
3. Marshall Brain’s “How Java Works”: <a href="http://computer.howstuffworks.com/program.htm" rel="nofollow">http://computer.howstuffworks.com/program.htm</a>
I’m of the opinion that with what you know, you can probably dig right into both Java and JavaScript and start learning and doing productive work reasonably quickly.
Best of luck in your career development efforts.
–Ed–
Career development, Networking, Programming Languages, Scripting languages, Java, C, C++, Perl, HTML, Visual Basic
I got my bachelor's degree in electronics and communication engineering and continued to get my master's in networking. When I started applying for internships, I found that most of the companies require Java, C, C++, Perl, HTML and Visual Basic, but I only have C and a little bit of C++ programming skills. I don't have any certifications. I don't know Java, and I have no experience in scripting languages. How do I fill the gap? 
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