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Introduction to Java Programming will provide you with a comprehensive overview of object-oriented programming using the Java language. When considering the purpose of this course, some important questions might come to mind: Why study programming? Why study Java? What is object-oriented programming? This tutorial will address these questions. First, you will learn about the reasons why someone would choose to study programming. You will examine the advantages of the Java programming language. Finally, you will explore object-oriented programming and why Java is considered an object-oriented programming language.
Programming is a creative and rewarding activity. You can write programs for many reasons, from making a living to solving a difficult data analysis problem that helps someone else solve a problem for fun. This course assumes that everyone can learn how to program, and that once you know how to program, you will figure out what you want to do with your newfound skills.
Throughout the rest of this course, you will explore what it means to think like a programmer. You will learn to foster curiosity and creativity along the way. In the end, you will be a programmer—perhaps not a professional programmer, but you will have the skills to analyze a problem and develop a program to solve it.
Computer programming is the art and science of designing and writing computer programs. A computer program is a set of instructions that directs the computer’s behavior. It might be easiest to understand what a program is by thinking about a problem that a program might solve.
Look at the first three paragraphs of this tutorial and determine the most commonly used word and how many times the word is used. While you were able to read and understand the words in a few seconds, counting them is almost painful because it is not the kind of problem that human minds are designed to solve. For a computer, the opposite is true. Reading and understanding text from a piece of paper is hard for a computer to do, but counting the words and telling you how many times the most used word was used is very easy for the computer.
Early computers required users to understand how to issue commands in a specific programming language. It was widely believed that entrance into the computer age would require practically everyone to learn how to program, but this did not prove to be true. Modern computers no longer require us to learn programming skills to perform everyday tasks.
Today, a person may choose to study programming in order to enter into a career as a computer scientist. However, there are many computer scientists who do little or no programming as part of their everyday work. If you plan to major or minor in computer science, you will certainly learn to program, but good careers in the computing field are available to programmers and nonprogrammers alike.
One of the best reasons to study programming is because it is potentially a creative and enjoyable problem-solving activity. This course will teach you how to develop well-designed solutions to a range of interesting problems. You will see and experience your solutions as running programs.
As many learners have indicated, there’s really nothing like the feeling you get from seeing your program solve a problem you’ve been struggling with. Designing and building well-written programs provides a powerful sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. What’s more, Java is a language that makes programming even more fun, because once they’re finished, many Java programs can be posted on the World Wide Web (WWW) for all the world to see!
You need two skills to be a programmer:
The “vocabulary” and “sentences” of Java should come fairly quickly to you. However, it will take longer for you to write a coherent program to solve a brand-new problem. Programming is often taught like writing. We start by reading and explaining programs, then write simple programs, and then write increasingly complex programs over time. At some point, you “get your muse” and see the patterns on your own and can see more naturally how to take a problem and write a program that solves that problem. Once you get to that point, programming becomes a very pleasant and creative process.
Thinking like a programmer involves the breaking down of a problem, or the solution to a problem, into small, unambiguous steps that a machine can carry out. It also involves understanding how the vocabulary and syntax of programming language can be used to map out and implement those steps. Different programming languages bring different strengths and tools to the process. This means that programmers will typically need working knowledge of two or more programming languages to be efficient. Learning Java as one of those languages will help you.
Thinking about your goals will help you prioritize which languages you choose to study. For example, Java is a popular choice among programmers interested in web development and Android-specific app development. Python is often preferred by programmers working in data science, back-end development, and machine learning. If you are interested in learning more about Python, consider earning credits toward your degree with Sophia's Introduction to Python Programming course.
Java is a relatively young programming language. It was initially designed by Sun Microsystems in 1991 as a language for embedding programs into electronic consumer devices, such as microwave ovens and home security systems. Java has since become one of the most important languages for Web and Internet applications. Because of its originally intended role as a language for programming microprocessors embedded in consumer appliances, Java has been designed with a number of interesting features. These include:
Let's say you are doing social computing research on Facebook posts and you are interested in the most frequently used word in a series of posts. You could print out the stream of Facebook posts and pore over the text looking for the most common word, but that would take a long time and be very mistake-prone. You would be smart to write a Java program to handle the task quickly and accurately so you can spend the weekend doing something fun.
Java is a way for us to exchange useful sequences of instructions (i.e., programs) in a common format that can be used by anyone who has Java installed on his or her computer. So, neither of us is talking to Java; instead, we are communicating with each other through Java.
There are few other languages in which a beginning programmer can write a computer game or a graphically based application that can be distributed on a Web page to just about any computer in the world. The simplicity of Java’s design and its easily accessible libraries bring such accomplishments within reach of the most novice programmers.
Program
A sequence of computer language statements that have been crafted to do something.
Object-Oriented Programming Language (OOP)
A particular way of organizing programs by dividing them into separate modules, called objects, that encapsulate the program’s data and operations.
Platform Independent
A Java program can be run on virtually any computer system platform including MacOS and Windows.
Distributed Language
A programming language, like Java, that is designed to run on computer networks.
