As you want to go for Java, don't look into other languages as they said already. But may you still want to learn something "easier" first, Python may be a good start. This is one of the courses I did for Python and it could be a good start if you choose that way. https://www.coursera.org/course/programming1 Others: https://www.coursera.org/course/pythonlearn https://www.coursera.org/course/interactivepython Though as you probably want to make mods for Minecraft and thus need to learn Java I'd say you watch videos from for example TheNewBoston, https://buckysroom.org/videos.php?cat=31 Or maybe this text tutorial would be more appealing? It's all up to your learning preferences. http://www.tutorialspoint.com/java/ That's how I got further into programming in Java I think. At least those should teach you the basic concepts and then eventually you can go on with the intermediate series and finally start doing some modding. Something that might help out is to not copy paste and edit code to get your desired result but to think about what you write and look through the Minecraft and Forge code to see all the things you can do. Knowledge of Java would really help you with that and you'll be able to understand WHY things work rather than that things work. And in the future once you get a good understanding of Java and the core programming things you may want to look up things as: http://interactivepython.org/courselib/static/pythonds/index.html Which might help you improve your programming, I'm not sure if this link is useful as I haven't read it yet but I'll read it myself tomorrow.
i rec0mend https://www.processing.org/ it is in java but with a lot of libraries so u lear the syntax and such and basic forms and the libraries can be used to make other programs with "real " java as you step your way in to it and it has a free book and such (its what my collage is using along with one called "the nature of code by the same guy but its the advanced one for after this one
Maybe Python or Lua? Lua's similar to Java in the way it's structured IMO, and it's pretty useful since it's used in many games, plus ComputerCraft/OpenComputers! Coursera is pretty good I've heard, my friend learned Python from there and he's always raving about it. I guess the courses are free and structured like a mini college online course.
got bored clicked random chapter and broke it in 5 seconds technically correct the best kind they wanted you to edit a bunch of values to make success output but dont actuly check to see if you delete everything and leave only the line: System.out.println(Success!");
PYTHON PYTHON PYTHON PYTHON PYTHON PYTHON PYTHON PYTHON PYTHON PYTHON PYTHON PYTHON PYTHON PYTHON PYTHON PYTHON PYTHON PYTHON PYTHON PYTHON PYTHON PYTHON PYTHON PYTHON PYTHON PYTHON PYTHON PYTHON PYTHON PYTHON PYTHON PYTHON PYTHON PYTHON PYTHON PYTHON! In all seriousness, Python was my first langauge, and its still my favorite(Yes I can fluently program in java). It has a lot of nice features that many other languages don't have. Its also a great starting place because they don't throw as many things at you at once(You don't need the "public void static main(args [] String)" stuffs).
I'd honestly say that python might not be the best first choice. A language with at least strong types is important for a beginner, I'd argue.
Python is strongly typed... Are you think of it being more free flowing? While Java, C, C++, C#, etc. require structures, class, etc? I see what you mean. Python has classes, objects etc. Its just a lot less formal. Plus, it teachs proper formating!