Below are some links to resources I thought might help if you're completely new to programming.

An Important Thing to Keep in Mind: Like many subjects, passive learning doesn't work with programming (similar to Math). If you don't practice, it doesn't matter how many videos you watch, you will have a lot of trouble programming. This is something we all go through, so don't feel bad. Make sure to do all of your struggling early on so that you can focus on learning the more important details later. Practice, Practice, Practice!

Using the Command Line (cmd/terminal): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XgBd6rjuDQ

While most programmers use and IDE (Integrated Development Environment), these are usually just graphical interfaces that replace command line arguments that you would normally use. If you've never used the terminal before, now's the time to learn. This will be helpful later on when we want to compile and run our java code, and even if we don't interact with them on a day-to-day basis, it is a must know for any programmer.

What is Java?

There are many programming languages out there: Java, C, C++, and Python are all examples, and this doesn't even scratch the surface. For our projects, we will be using Java as it is supported for FRC Robotics programming, is simpler than C++, and arguably better supported in FRC's framework. Below is a link to a video that introduces java as well as an article:

- Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAtkPQO1FcA

- Article: https://blog.hubspot.com/website/what-is-java

Download & Install Java: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/how-to-download-and-install-java-for-64-bit-machine/#

Before we can execute Java code, we'll need to install a Java Compiler. This will take our human-readable code and turn it into something the computer can understand. The above link will take you to a video that goes over how to install Java on Windows.

*This can be tricky, so let me know if you have any trouble installing Java and we'll go over it in one of our meetings.

Practice, Practice, Practice!

The following links are to various resources to help you practice: coding problems, videos, etc.

- Coding Bat: https://codingbat.com/java
  - This site is nice as it gives you bite sized problems to tackle at various levels. Use this once you understand what variables functions are.
- Java Videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIrMbAQSU34
  - This guy does a good job with most introductions to various programming related topics, so I trust he will give a nice and easy demo to Java here.
- Code Academy: https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwj98b_skuL_AhUTmlsKHR6KDqUYABABGgJ5bQ&ohost=www.google.com&cid=CAESbeD23QpPhadoIXlIaPoQ_1QFq0FD8l_OiwMOM1Gtm4EAYNZdoN6Lpun13sTrGZ1fjrEBPmXRIkzRs4yfkjvHDIa1qjPOzvF8Ccn0bHbV83zV5NP26w9mB2Yi5eWQqYYguOkPqCPalS8R1O2RfcY&sig=AOD64_07dlvWpgW7ZIdv-lTnI3amJbj5mg&q&adurl&ved=2ahUKEwjo7bXskuL_AhUnkYkEHabrBHoQ0Qx6BAgGEAE
  - Code Academy breaks down java learning into pieces to interact with.
- Java Online Compiler: https://www.jdoodle.com/online-java-compiler/
  - You can use this site to write Java code without having to deal with installing anything (although you should try to install Java and only use this if you can't get it to work).