Java's pretty much like an easier-to-use C++. The syntax is all very much like C, so if you've had that, you'll find it pretty easy to write procedural stuff. Java does lean heavily on the object-orientation, however, so if you don't know C++ (or some other OO language), you'll have to get used to some strange new ideas (encapsulation, inheritance, polymorphism) and some different ways to construct software. Nice features: Many of the Java development environments (NetBeans, Eclipse, etc.) now have full-featured IDEs that let you construct forms and such by dragging and dropping. Java also has automatic garbage collection, so objects declared on the heap (like using malloc() in C or new in C++) will now automatically destruct when they go out of scope. You don't have to 'free' or 'delete' them. (Of course, that can be a downside if you're not paying attention!) I find how Java programs are distributed to still be somewhat cludgy and working with their libraries is a pain, although this is somewhat offset by the large number of libraries available that have almost ANY function you might need. Performance is not too thrilling--Java is, after all, an interpreted language--but in these days of 3 GHz processors, you probably won't notice. So, learn it and have fun with it. It's useful and common, so a good skill to have.
will be taking vb 1 and intro to c++ and accounting in fall spring might take advance c vb 2 and java.
That mostly true, except that Java is not an interpreted language. Instead the intermediate code is compiled just-in-time to native code (exactly like Microsoft's CLR does it). If you don't like just-in-time compilation, you can use an ahead-of-time compiler.
