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Java Java Objects (Retired) Meet Objects Welcome Back

Liron Tal
Liron Tal
4,825 Points

Intellij Eclipse and other Installations

Hi all,

maybe it's a little early to ask but I'm a little worried. I see in the forums and videos that you guys talk about Intellij, Eclipse, REPL Github and other platforms, IDEs and tools.

As for a beginner like me, I have no idea what and how to install, pros and cons, and this is quite disturbing, because programming here is quite nice and easy, but we do need programs for the real world to program on our own.

Is it too early to ask for exact and simple guides on what and how to install things to become a dependent programmer somehow?

It's really important for me, and I believe that is one of the reasons I chose Treehouse in the first place.

Please let me know if I'm getting ahead of myself :)

Thanks all! Liron

2 Answers

I see you are linked to a Java course, where coding occurs in a Treehouse-provided work space or console. Eclipse is a development environment for Android, which is based on Java. But the console is fine for learning Java itself. And quite frankly, if you want to learn Android, it's really best to learn Java first. So you don't need to know about Eclipse to learn Java, which is key to using Eclipse in the first place.

But to go to your question, if you're interested in Android there's a Treehouse course called Android Tools which introduces Android Studio (a development environment based on IntelliJ that replaces Eclipse as the standard), Ginnymotion (a versatile device emulator) and Github (version control, as Ricky explained above). The course explains how to obtain, install and use these tools, and how they can benefit even beginning developers.

I am myself a beginning developer still overwhelmed by all the tools and languages; I imagine I will be overwhelmed for quite some time yet. The beginning Java and Android courses on Treehouse are quite good for people like me with ZERO programming experience. I also found the introductory console and git courses quite useful. In every case, you work with the tools you need to accomplish the task at hand.

To be honest, I wish at this point I could do MORE work in basic Java, on the console, so I can better understand what's happening with Android in Studio.

There's a tremendous amount to learn here. I agree with Ricky -- go slow and just learn to use the tools you need to do what you are trying to do right now, ie, Java. The learning you are doing now in the Treehouse workspace is critical for everything you will do in Android. Learn this stuff well and Android will make much more sense.

Ricky Catron
Ricky Catron
13,023 Points

It is never to early to learn new things but be careful how much you put on your plate at once. This is a big field and you can't master it all, especially not this early. Stick with what you need.

Starting out all you need for Java is: A text editor: NotePad or NotePad++ SublimeText etc Having Java installed

Make a more complex project? Get an IDE to help speed up work and make it more manageable Eclipse Intellij

Need to share work with others or just have control over versions of your project Version Control: Git Mercurial Hosting Version Control:
GitHub BitBucket

Just keep it simple and work with what you need try not to get caught up in buzzwords and trends until you really need the things they provide. While having cutting edge tools might help some people it will over complicate your education for now. Everything in its own time. This doesn't mean don't try new things it means don't try them all at once or for the wrong reasons (aka NEW AND SHINY)

Goodluck! --Ricky

Liron Tal
Liron Tal
4,825 Points

Thank you very much Ricky for your support!

However, my question goes directly to Treehouse, I need guides, documentations and videos on such installations, am I going to study such things in my course or not? Or is the course limited to the language itself only?

I'm looking forward to create a real Android App, and I'm going to need more than Treehouse Workspaces.