I first learned java on Eclipse and still use Eclipse for work today. It is very easy for a beginner to work with because you can ignore all the advanced functions and just use what you need.
Okay first you obviously want to install eclipse and the JDK:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html (Download JDK)
http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/ (Eclipse IDE for Java Developers)
When you first start it up you'll see something like this and possibly something asking about a workspace location:
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Now I remember when I first started out I just said to myself what is this shit. The trick is just to close it and get to the workbench. If you are asked to specify a workspace just pick a sensible location. The default it suggests is probably fine. A workspace is a bunch of folders that contain things like:
- Eclipse settings/preferences
- Your projects
For example if you were doing work at school and at home I'd have my workspace on a USB drive and point eclipse to that workspace.
Onto the next screen.
Your workbench should look somewhat like this. Your package explorer on the left, editor in the center and console down the bottom.
If you want to write some code the first thing is making a new project. Right click on some blank space in your package explorer and go to new > java project.
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Fill out the project name and hit finish. You can ignore the rest of the advanced options.
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Now we want to make a class. It's important to always make sure your classes start with a CapitalLetterLikeThis and that the class name share the name of the CapitalLetterLikeThis.java file.
Right click on the src folder > new > class.
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Name the class HelloWorld and hit finish. You could also optionally tick the auto main method generation but that's just lazy
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Here you can type your code into the editor. I just did a simple "hello world". Once you are done and providing there are no syntax errors you can hit the "play" button to run your application. The output will appear in the lower part of your screen in the "console" tab.
If you manage to create a program that goes into an infinite loop you can hit the stop button to terminate it.
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That's pretty much it for my simple Eclipse tutorial
I'll give you one last tip though. Since you'll be writing a lot of console based applications in the beginning you'll have to write System.out.println a lot and as you can guess this is pretty annoying. Luckily Eclipse is awesome. You can just write the shorthand version "sysout", hit CTRL+Space and Eclipse will do the rest.
Hope this helps. I know other people suggest Netbeans but I've never liked it. I found Eclipse is easier to get started with and more flexible in the long run.
Edit: spoilered big images cause my post ended up way bigger than I expected D: