Also, a book I’d recommend is the wonderfully cheesy (but actually pretty damn well written and easy to understand) Head-First Java.
http://www.amazon.com/Head-First-Java-2nd-Edition/dp/0596009208
It’s very fun to read, it’s the only programming book that cracked some jokes that make me actually laugh out loud. It’s pretty funny when your wife looks over at you because you’re laughing while reading a programming book.
If you are new to java I recommend you download the the book “Thinking in Java” by Bruce Eckle. You can download it for free. Its a great book and introduces the concepts used in java programming in one of the most logical ways I’ve ever seen.
j.
Also, code a lot and don’t be worried if you get frustrated! I assume you haven’t programmed before, and that’s why you’re asking this question, so disregard my post if you have programmed! But programming is one of those things where you have to get into the mindset of it. Your brain has to interpret issues in a certain way and then solve them. Many people can do it, but they can’t do it well and programming turns them off. Just stick to it and keep coding and eventually it’ll be a piece of cake!
[h2]Just some general thoughts:[/h2]If there’s one thing you shouldn’t do, it’s jumping straight into game development. For a start, learn the language. Use whatever works for you. To counteract what other people recommend, I personally don’t think that watching videos is a good way to learn, as all you’re doing is copying and pasting/reading the code that is written. People generally make a lot of mistakes in their videos and teach you bad practices. That said, keep an open mind. They’re useful for getting a basic idea of some programming concepts.
What worked for me was reading The Java Tutorial, Googling things that I didn’t understand, and just writing programs that did some simple calculations. After I felt confident enough and I’d learnt a good bulk of the language, I started exploring game development and learnt the rest of the language from there.
[h2]2.[/h2] https://www.eclipse.org/
Have you ever programmed before? Java might be a tough first language, it has a strict syntax. But if you can learn java as a first language im sure( because of that strict syntax) it would promote good practices.
What made you choose Java?
If it means anything, I am an example of your argument. Unless you consider webdev code (HTML, PHP, etc) a “programming language”, Java is my first programming language.
If you have not programmed before I would recommend to start without IDE. Only a simple text editor and command line to learn the basics. THEN, after several months, pick up Eclipse and learn it. THEN make some games.
i dont know how many times ive said this but youll learn more about thenewboston’s life than programming
This advice only works for people unable to detect their own crutches. 
Starting with notepad is just silly, when an IDE in itself can help you along by telling you what you did wrong. It’s a time waster to use notepad and do it all manually, you’ll end up spending hours trying to figure out you forgot one semicolon or a bracket brace.
If you’re too dumb to be able to learn from your mistakes when the IDE tells you that you made them or just and/or just let it “fix your code” for you all the time, you shouldn’t be programming in the first place.
You may learn a lot more about his life than programming, but you learn a lot more programming than you do with most of the other tutorials out there. He goes very slow, and explains everything in exacting, easy to understand detail. The only reason I could see people failing to learn with TheNewBoston is they’re too impatient to actually watch all the videos in the series and give them their full attention.
I do agree with your first point, Ray. However, I understand where JVallius is coming from. Learning how to run and debug your own project without using an IDE is certainly a useful skill you might need someday, but a few months is very much far too long. Maybe spend a couple days learning how to do it, and then just stop doing it because honestly I have no idea why you would never have access to an IDE.
I do disagree about theNewBoston though, he is ok at teaching but really you can learn everything he talks about in a quarter of the time. The only reason I like him is because he seems to be a really smart person, and he has a wide range of tutorials on youtube. He’s a nice way to get started when you want to learn a new language without buying a book, but don’t expect him to teach you the full language. Actually, you as the watcher shouldn’t actually think he will, because he won’t. For learning a little bit about a function here or there, he’s good. But if you actually want to learn something larger than a snippet of code he’s not. And yes, he rambles too much.
Yeah, I agree TheNewBoston can be painfully slow sometimes. But I think he’s great for your “first run through” when you really are a blank slate and have no fricken clue. I think the reason he seems slow to us now is because we already understand these concepts, we’re more or less looking for refreshers, and we don’t need 10 minutes to explain 2 lines of code.
But when you’re first learning, it’s really nice. Even things as simple as explaining want an “int” and “String” is, is critical to complete newbies who really don’t understand the basic structure of programming. For example, his videos were really the only ones that easily explained to me what inheritance, arrays, while loops and some of the more beginner-intermediate stuff is and how they actually work back when I was a nooblet.
He’s great for blank slates who need spoonfed, although I agree he is painfully slow for those of us who just want a refresher. For example, I watched one of his videos a few weeks ago because I brainfarted how to do something pretty basic I just don’t do often, and half the video I was thinking “Just get to the point!!”. But when I watched the video the first time I didn’t feel that way at all. I was glued in, following every word.
he’s a Jack of all trades, master of none
…and that matters because? 
He’s not trying to teach people how to become super-java-programmers, even his final videos are still in the realm of “basic”. He’s just teaching us the foundation. 
No, Agro meant that he himself is a master of nothing he teaches. Sure, he might know about the subjects, but I seriously doubt anyone would consider him a master at anything yet. He’s a smart man, but I think he is a information regurgitator. It seems he learns fast, breaks it down into small learnable chunks and then passes on what he has learned to his fan base via those chunks of, well information.
It has nothing to do with how he teaches, it has everything to do with the man he is and what he has to decide what to do with his life.
Very true, that’s probably exactly what he’s doing too. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of the information in his own tutorials he completely brain dumps after the video series is complete. Nothing wrong with knowing a little bit about everything, but eventually you have to ask yourself “what is he GOOD at?” and the only thing that comes to mind is “teaching introductory course in basically everything”. I guess you could attribute his skill set to basically being an middle school substitute teacher who can functionally do the introduction level courses of everything, but he’d be screwed if he had to teach a college course.
I used to promote the newboston’s channel, but now looking back at what it taught me, I really recommend you do not learn from his videos. As Agro said, he talks about personal life a bit too much and he teaches you bad practices, like naming variables completely random, unrelated names. Basic stuff that can grow into a bad habit. There isn’t a doubt that he is a very smart person, but I personally would not recommend him. Other than that I think everyone else has everything covered.
Yeah, just let me re-iterate. Code a lot! The more you code the more you’ll learn! As many famous coders have said, (or at least one coder, because I heard it from someone famous!) stop thinking about the code and just write it, you’ll learn a lot more and you’ll have the great sense of pride when your project is done 
None of us are perfect, however, so don’t worry if you stop coding for a while after you first start. I did it, I took around a half year break and came back to it and have yet to go a day without tinkering at least a little with my code!
Good luck
wait… you mean that I shouldn’t name all my classes some variation of "Food, “Tuna” or “Dog”?! (kidding of course)
This topic is getting derailed now, but I really have to say to this day those names still crack me up He is a funny guy, I would be really interested in actually meeting him in real life!