Mailbag: What’s the best way to study Head First Java?

Dear David,

Should I bother writing each and every code piece from Head First Java while I go through it? Is understanding the concepts enough for now? If I start writing all code, I cannot possibly finish 10 pages a day (especially after the first 100 pages when that Simple dot com game thing appears).

Sincerely,
Speed Racer

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Dear Speed Racer,

I’m going to be totally honest with you.

When I read Head First Java I didn’t write a single line of code in it.

I did, however, do every single challenge/puzzle in the book. I literally pencilled in all my answers on the pages themselves. This was critical to my understanding.

Do you need to write the code for all the examples in the book to learn? No!
Will it help if you write the code? Yes!
Is it efficient time-wise to write the code? Generally no!

What you want to take away from Head First Java is basic coding syntax and object oriented principles. If you do all the coding samples in the book, you’re going to spend a somewhat frustrating amount of time setting up and debugging your Java environment, which is mostly irrelevant to coding in Apex.

Just make sure you don’t gloss over things so much that you’re totally lost when trying to start actually code, which is a common occurrence!

Hope this helps!
David

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