Any suggestions on good online courses to learn java quickly?

[mifd670]

Hi!
I am new to this forum and new to the FRC league, and I wan’t to become a programmer on my team. Does anyone have any suggestions on online programs that teach java script, and one that teaches it in a way I can learn it fast?

Thanks for the help!

[retrodaredevil]

So first you have to decide if you want to learn Java or JavaScript.

Since you’re here for FRC, you’re probably talking about Java. Code academy is pretty good https://www.codecademy.com/

[mifd670]

@retrodaredevil

Java

Thank you!

[soogyo]

Khan Academy is really good

[acastagna]

I recommend W3 schools to my students.
https://www.w3schools.com/

[ExploitSage]

I have a selection of general Java resources in my Resource Compendium document, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jcBLAyJ3iTbsYSnWMVWqHaK8uywGTaTjF98eY_xxpl0/ .

There are also a bunch of FRC specific resources, but with a new Command Based Framework released this year, most are out of date for the new framework, meaning the only reliable sources of info for it (for the moment) is the https://docs.wpilib.org site.

[NathanCS10]

Before you begin, some things you should keep in mind: http://norvig.com/21-days.html

A great, simple beginners guide I personally recommend: https://www.learnjavaonline.org/

Codeacademy is great too although some things are behind paywalls: https://www.codecademy.com/learn/learn-java

Some excellent practice problems: https://codingbat.com/java

If you’re a real sadist you can look at oracle’s documentation, some good stuff on OOP which might be useful: https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/java/index.html

Honestly though if you’re jumping directly into programming robots, focus more on learning how to program using WPILib (the robot programming libraries FIRST provides), because that’s a whole nother thing in itself: http://docs.wpilib.org/en/latest/index.html and http://docs.wpilib.org/en/latest/docs/getting-started/getting-started-frc-control-system/index.html . Heck, you might even want to start here; you could definitely learn Java through the process of robot programming and learning to program robots first will probably be more useful when you’re in a crunch for time.

And some of the best ways to learn programming is by looking at examples, so here’s wpilib’s: https://github.com/wpilibsuite/allwpilib/tree/master/wpilibjExamples

[UnofficialForth]

One of the most amazing Java books I have read to data is “How to think like a computer scientist”. It was written by a teacher who was frustrated with the complexities of normal coding books and decided to publish his own free book. It’s now been translate into many different coding languages.

Heads up though. There is only is really only one way to learn CS quickly, aka in 21 days.

(Comic by Abstruse Goose)
You have to keep willing to keep writing code everyday and get the experience of writing to truly learn it. Like learning any natural language, like Spanish, you actually have to sometimes “just do it” until you’re good at it. I would highly suggest focusing on writing clean understandable code that is well commented first, then learn about objects and methods.

Finally, take a look at this thread that I wrote to get some direction for writing code as well as teaching it. You (aka highschool students) are really motivated to work, you just sometimes need a little direction into what to work on. That may help to get a game plan. Feel free to PM me if you would like any help from 1646 with code. Good luck!

[hpeyerl]

One of our mentors did a series of Youtube Videos last year:

FRC Java Tutorial – WPILib 2019 Command Based Framework - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64hPDvphcfA

Edit: you might want to come back to this after you’ve done some basic Java learning.