Java, lol

I was told by a game developer at this seminar that if I want to learn how to program games, a good way to start is with Java and making cellphone games. I plan on learning C++ before Java anyway but around how long would it take a newbie to learn Java or when would it be a good idea to learn Java if not at all?

>>47
This post is made of win. I've never even heard of a large scale game written in Python, let alone a commercial one. If you pythonians think you can do anything in it, then link me to a large scale high-performance 3D game.

For you anti-Java zealots, YES, JAVA SUCKS, WE KNOW, but it's simple enough to easily learn OOP, and it's similar enough to C++ make a smooth transition when you want to build a real project. I'm so sick of getting a flood of "oviously u'v never programed real apps lol" every time we recommend Java to someone interesting in learning. Yes, we know, you're not supposed to program real apps in Java. Jesus christ.

As far as learning optimization structures, if you're a person who likes to learn by example, there are a lot of open source high-performance 3D engines out there from which you can learn. Irrlicht, Lightfeather, OGRE3D, Crystal Space, etc. I recommend starting with Irrlicht, and from there you can move to a more serious engine or start writing your own.