Java is an excellent language to learn. It will definatly help you somewhere in life. You should also learn C/C++ to further your programming skills. I've heard learning Java makes learning C++ a bit easier and vise versa.

Java and web design are good things to know how to do.

Personally I'm not a great fan of the Java programming language itself, or its inherent chugginess (and Java IS slow, don't let anyone's synthetic benchmarks fool you). But apparently it's the way of the future (at least according to Sun's marketing department), so I play along. =P

I know some Java and visual C++. My java class is incredible boring, but it has taught me a few things that should make learning C++ a sinch (When I decide to try to learn ALL of it. I stopped after like my 7th out of 30 day on the C++ because I was less knoledgable about computers at the time.).

I am wondering this, though... Is it true, that in Java, you have to do for(int i=0;i<=10000000;i++){} just to make the program wait? If so, I sure hope other languages aren't like that.

Nobody likes C# do they?

I do! Practically all development I do now is in C# :). And with Mono and GTK# it also works cross platform.

Kunark wrote:

I am wondering this, though... Is it true, that in Java, you have to do for(int i=0;i<=10000000;i++){} just to make the program wait? If so, I sure hope other languages aren't like that.

No, that's very wrong. Every modern language that's worth its salt has some kind of sleep statement.

In Java's case, you can use the Thread.sleep() function. It's a static method, so you don't need a thread object; just import the Thread package and call Thread.sleep(milliseconds)

Knowing how to search through the programming APIs is a vital skill. ;-) (In Java's case especially, I find that Google works nicely.)

Java is a good language to learn. Not neccessarily for game programming, though. It's only so-so for game programming unless you really know what you are doing.

I've just begun to make some complicated game skeletons with Java, and I'll tell you now, some things that are very simple in other languages are made so much harder in Java, just due to the incredible forced security of the runtime environment.

For instance, programming a full-screen game is something that will take quite a bit of work. Also, accounting for different screen orientations and layouts is something that takes quite a bit of time to learn.

Of course, you don't have to deal with any of that messy cross-platform junk, and making server/client programs is something between trivial and insanely easy.

I'd recommend it, but I'll warn you, Java is a memory hog, and in comparison to other languages, like VB and C++, it is relatively slow. You should be programming for machines running at upwards of 1.2ghz anyway, so you will have no real troubles making even simple 3D engines run quickly and smoothly.

If you are going to be making complex 3D engines, I'd learn a bit about OpenGL and try looking up some stuff on lightweight graphics packages for Java. I've heard something about a 3D package for java that is extremely lightweight and quite functional, can't for the life of me remember the name.

Anyway, if you don't have ambitions of making the next Morrowind run on a 500mhz machine, Java is for you. Plus, it's great for business and down and dirty 'net applications!

Hell Ramen wrote:

Offtopic: You find that google works nicely for everything. We should call you Google Guy. :o

I don't actually like Google, Inc. that much, and their search engine is dodgy sometimes. Trouble is, all the other search engines are worse... (slower, worse at ranking, more ads; there's always something).

Ontopic: Any programming language classes in school you should learn, it's like free credits for stuff you want to do (or, doing fun stuff for most people).

Definitely. I do all the programming classes I'm allowed to, and then some!