D vs Java as a first programming language

[Chad J]

Nick Sabalausky wrote:
> "dsimcha" <dsimcha at yahoo.com> wrote in message 
> news:gbrvb5$cdt$1 at digitalmars.com...
>> == Quote from Christopher Wright (dhasenan at gmail.com)'s article
>>> Sean Kelly wrote:
>>>> The typical approach to this tends to be "just put this stuff in the
>>>> file and ignore it--I'll explain it later.  I never understood why this
>>>> is considered a good teaching method :-)
>>> Because it lets you create toys without understanding, and thus gets you
>>> interested without you expending significant effort.
>> Agreed, though I wouldn't necessarily phrase it in a way that smacks of
>> intellectual laziness.  Personally, I've always felt that I learn much 
>> more
>> quickly and much more thoroughly when I get to try to do something 
>> (preferably
>> useful) with my new knowledge as I'm learning, even if my understanding is 
>> fairly
>> shaky, rather than being forced to learn all the 
>> minutiae/background/theory before
>> trying to use any of what I've learned.  For example, I would *never* read 
>> a book
>> about a new programming language cover to cover before trying to write 
>> something
>> in it.  I would probably skim the first chapter or two, try to do a 
>> project in it,
>> use the book as a reference, and then read the book cover to cover later 
>> to learn
>> some better ways of doing things after I'd gotten my hands dirty a little.
>>
>> I feel that once I've actually tried to use a new piece of knowledge, I 
>> have a
>> *much* better idea of what, specifically, I still don't get, and can ask 
>> much more
>> intelligent questions than if I'm forced to learn large amounts of stuff 
>> passively
>> from lectures/books before getting my hands dirty with any of it. 
>> Furthermore,
>> learning this way also makes it much easier for me to see how things fit 
>> into the
>> bigger picture.  Not sure if this is universal, or just a personal 
>> preference.
> 
> I'm not sure if that's universal either, but I suspect that it is (excapt 
> maybe for some rare fringe cases). At the very least, I can say that my mind 
> works that way too. 
> 
> 

Same.
I don't even use books very much, if at all.
Examples + reference material + experience.  It seems to be my killer 
strategy.