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Is it appropriate to learn and use the ACM package for JAVA?

Right now I'm watching the Stanford's channel in youtube, and to be precise I'm watching the Java lectures by Professor Mehran Sahami. I already have some level of theoretical knowledge of Java but I find these lectures very interesting but there's one thing that confuses me and I want to clarify it before going any further.
In the examples there are a lot of differences from what I've seen so far in the books I've read and even in the original documentation of Sun. In these lectures the main method is as it seems public void run() insted of public static void main(String[] args). For console output he uses only println() instead System.out.println() and I suggest that going more deeply into the Java language there will be even more differencies from what I would call "the standard syntax."
From what I understand all this come from using the ACM package and I really don't know if keep watchng this will help me or just gonna confuse me more. Is this ACM package of some practical use? Does it make the Java syntax a lot more different than usual so I could end up with bunch of useless commands? Do you think it would be better to leave these videos for now and come back later when I can get use of the useful information and be more aware of the outdated stuff or the difference is not that big?
Thanks in advance
Leron

I don't think it's going to get in the way of learning Java. It provides a framework within which your code will run, much as do Java applets, Swing, Android, or some other framework. It will not be the same as vanilla Java, but the ACM package is well documented. Once you master the basic concepts, learning the extra stuff you will need to wean yourself from the ACM package won't be hard at all.

As long as you recognize the differences between the "shortcuts" provided in the ACM code and the standard syntax, I don't think there's any inherent harm in following these lectures. I've heard some decent things about the series, and if your goal is to learn the basics of the language (or fill in gaps in existing knowledge), then I think it's a fine resource.
On the other hand, I have never seen the ACM libraries used outside of an academic setting. Personally I only used them once, on a single project for a single (non-required) class while I was persuing my undergrad degree. If you're already familiar with the language, and know the basic concepts, I'd look for more standard tutorials that don't make use of esoteric or specialized code bases. For the most part, the ACM libraries seem to contain shortcuts and a standardized framework to aid in teaching (and learning) core concepts rather than worrying the exact syntax or any quirks that might be present in the language.

If I want to summarise it, I would say that the ACM Java Libraries main goal is to make you free from the syntax to help you focus on the concept.
The ACM Java Library package is an excellent tool to introduce programming concepts to newbies. As you can see the lecture's title is Programming Methodology and not Programming Java.
Hope it clarifies

I'm in this exact same situation. Rather than learning ACM, which I'm not going to use anywhere else, I decided to do the assignments using current Java technologies, for example doing the graphics portions in JavaFX. Of course this might not be the best approach for absolute beginners, who may find it easiest just to stick with ACM.
In case it helps, I'm putting my coursework in GitHub:
https://github.com/bmaupin/coursework/tree/master/cs106a-stanford
For example, here's the Target assignment: https://github.com/bmaupin/coursework/blob/master/cs106a-stanford/Assignment2/Target.java

Alternative to Java3D

Colleagues of mine are using Java3D for visualizing results of finite element simulations. The problem is that Java3D seems to be somehow dead, and it is a pain on OSX. This is one of the reasons we are looking for alternatives.
Quite a lot of work has gone into our current implementation based on Java3D, so the question is how much effort it would be to move away from Java3D.
JOGL is one option, but looks like a lot of work.
Has anyone suggestions for alternatives? Any experiences with such a migration?

JOGL provides a direct access to OpenGL functions. These functions are mostly low level draw functions, and you have to deal with the 'state machine' nature of OpenGL while you are programming.
Java3D abstracts this state machine. It allows you to define a tree of graphic objects, placed in a virtual scene, and rendered by a camera. The manipulation of these graphic objects is easier with such a tree structure. Then, it's up to Java3D to walk through this tree and call the OpenGL drawing functions.
This kind of library is called a scenegraph. There are many scenegraph libraries in java, some are implemented on top of JOGL. I don't have a list, but this keyword will help you in your research.
In our project, we tried 3 or 4 different libraries, but no one filled all our requirements. We ended writing our own scenegraph library (on top of JOGL).

jMonkeyEngine, Ardor3D, jPCT or Xith3D are much better options these days.

JOGL is indeed a good option. However, it's simply a wrapper library for OpenGL. That means you'll still have to do a lot of the legwork yourself. If you're comfortable with that and it suits your needs, it's not actually all that difficult. But it might be a bit time consuming and not knowing your current code-base I don't know how easy the transfer is.
You could however go for an engine which might use JOGL. Something like JMonkey Engine to purely name an example. If you look, you'll surely find some others. Have a look at those, their ease of use and their functionality to see what best suits you. They probably won't take all the work away from you, but they might make it a bit easier.

See also this Java 3D forum thread : Java3D viability questions... https://forums.oracle.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=2150209&tstart=15
August, InteractiveMesh

I use JOGL 2.0 (which is a low level Java binding for the OpenGL (and OpenGL-ES) API. I have recently helped someone to revive Java3D. Now, it relies only on JOGL 2.0 and it works better, especially on Mac OS X. You can find the source code here:
https://github.com/hharrison/java3d-core
Let's have fun. It is actively maintained anew ;)
P.S: I wrote a detailed article to explain how to use the very latest version of Java3D (1.6) here.

Flash animation-like 2d graphical library for C++ or Java

I'm looking for a good (hopefully free) 2d graphical library in C++, or in worst case, Java, which helps create the look and feel of Flash animations, the typical ones you can find in most flash games.
The best would be if it provided most of the features and easiness of Flash animation programming, like layers, or even collision detection, etc., without all the micromanagement of pixels typical for opengl. Of course, it can be built upon opengl...
Edit: interactivity is important, it might not been clear in the first description. So I'm not aiming just for an animation, or presentation. A good collision, gravity, etc. system is very much welcome, as are good GUI widgets.

Checkout the new ForPlay from Google.
It compiles to java, javascript, android and more.
Edit: Moved and name changed to PlayN
There is also a stackoverflow tag

Potential ideas:
Processing has been used to make some very good visualizations.... depending on what you want to do this may be a good option.
JavaFX was designed as a framework for building Rich Internet Applications (a bit like Flash). I think it has a lot of the Flash-like features you are referring to.

I don't know if this is exactly what you're looking for, but you can take a look at SFML.

starting Java 3D

i wanna know what is the best way to start coding a simple 3D ... (with java)
like a man walking around ... i know it's not so easy , but i believe it's not impossible :D
so .. is there a recommended tutorial or something???

Two suggestions:
Start with something like jMonkeyEngine. Lots of great tutorials on their site using their scenegraph API. It's where you want to end up eventually anyway, IMHO.
NeHe Productions: OpenGL Tutorials. These are great because they give you a lot of OpenGL info and instructions. Note that all the code in the tutorial is C however, at the bottom of the tutorials are links to ports of the code to various platforms and languages, including Java.

You could start with Java 3D API or Java OpenGL (JOGL).
I think, if you want something like OpenGL then you should consider about JOGL

The best way to start is to find out a good and free 3d game engine. You should know something about 3d graphics: basic transformation, how to work with matrices (specially multiply order), etc.
I can recommend you Lightweight Java Game Library, Ogre3D for Java or even jMonkeyEngine. Later you can try to use OpenGL directly - its easy to learn, multiplatform 3D graphics library.

For better understanding of the scene graph-based and Java3D programming I recommend you to read this tutorial. It helps me very much

Java (2D) animation library

I'm creating (for a semester project) a Java desktop application. The aim is to provide a rich and intuitive user interface. I'm now looking for Java cross-platform library that works with Swing and provides animations (moving, resizing, rotation, color/alpha change and other 2D stuff).
Basically, I'm looking for an equivalent of CoreAnimation in the JavaWorld.
I found Trident, but have no experience with it and no development seems to have taken place since mid-2010.
Does anyone of you have experience with Trident or can recommend a library that fits what I need?

Hi
I have no deep knowledge of this but I had a look at trident a year ago and it looked well designed, feature complete and stable.
I would go with that one if you find nothing better. You have to browse the blog of Kiril at pushingpixels.org to get some additional good examples.
Have fun,
- Rossi

Use libgdx awesome library!!