How much Java should you know?

You don't need to learn everything about Java to develop models in ArtiSynth. This page suggests what parts of the Oracle Java tutorial you should focus on. The Oracle tutorial is located at

https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial

For ArtiSynth development purposes, we recommend studying the following topics under "Trails Covering the Basics":

• Getting Started

The tutorial suggests using the NetBeans IDE (integrated development environment). Most current ArtiSynth users work with the Eclipse IDE, and Eclipse is the IDE discussed in the ArtiSynth install documentation. However, you can use any IDE you like.

• Learning the Java language

Try to learn everything here, except for maybe just skimming the Generics section, which is likely to be more difficult. You should know enough about generics to understand what it means to qualifier a generic class with a type (e.g., ArrayList<Point3d>, ArrayList<Matrix>).

• Essential Java Classes

Study the sections on Exceptions and Basic I/O.

• Collections

Study the Introduction, Interfaces, and Implementations. The only collection class that you really need is ArrayList<>. HashSet<> and HashMap<> might be useful too for efficiently building more complex models. Trees and Deques you almost certainly won't need.