How to learn programming

[spokenrope]

If any of you guys were wondering how this turned out for me, it went very well. I was offered a job with the company, and I start on June 18th.

So, from here until then, I'd like to learn as much as I can about programming in Java. True, the job is a programming training position and no experience is necessary, but I would love to learn as much as I can before I start out.

So, if you have any books, methods, or words of wisdom that you'd like to share with me, I'd certainly appreciate it.

 

[Sinkhead]

I'd help you but I do PHP, not Java.
I hope it works out well for you

- Sam

 

[FAST6191]

My knowledge of Java is non existent (I do not even know basic syntax) however when I am learning a new language or refreshing myself on an known language I do the three basic things:
file I/O, make a tool to cut up files, open them, invert the bits whatever as long as it alters the file and saves the results.
Maths: tie it into the one above and make a hash maker/encryption (make your own or use a known one), or just do something with some maths (rudimentary spreadsheet is a good one)
GUI/ display: Java is all about the end user it seems, make a GUI (be it a frontend to a command line app or something you already made) or something to display a shape (tie it into the maths part and do circles, superimposed shapes: it does not matter).

Some reverse engineering (as a thought exercise get a simple open source app or a section thereof and write your own version: the look at the source and see where you differ, they might have a better or they might have a worse section but you will learn something) along with expansion of an existing app is worthwhile (write a plugin if you want but adding a new function probably better) but save it until you have a little bit of experience or chances are you will cause more headaches than it is worth.

A final word which will likely not apply right away, an application may be one of the best things ever but unless you document it well then it will never be better than average (even with the fanciest GUI).

 

[Costello]

if I were you, I'd try to get familiar with the IDE your company uses (Netbeans, Jbuilder...)
if you don't know which IDE they're using, try all the big ones!
The 3 main ones are, in order: Oracle, Borland JBuilder, and Netbeans.
A good knowledge of the IDE will help you get started.
If you don't know anything about the language itself, just follow tutorials... I guess!
I don't know any good english website for that though.

edit: oh and also, if you don't know what the heck "IDE" means, this will be very useful
FYI it means "Integrated Development Environment"

 

[sirAnger]

Costello you forgot Eclipse. I work heavily with Java and couldn't go without it.

Congrats on the job, though. As for learning how to program, two years of high school programming classes and four years in college did the trick for me. I suspect you want an expedited process though.

O'Reilley makes a really good Java reference book. That and Sun's documentation helped me a lot in classes. Make sure you know if you're going to be programming in 1.4 (or less) or 5.0 (or greater) cause Sun added a LOT of really neat stuff to 5.0 (so much they changed the numbering scheme).

 

[Issac]

Well... I use Jcreator LE... and it's awesome.. and free!

I don't know where to start... Do tutorials... there should be a lot out there..
don't be scared to fail....

Just start by learning simple things, like:
System.out.println("string" + variable);
going on to "if"... (if cases? what are they called?)
and loops!

I've been programming 3D computer graphics in Java the past couple of months... which isn't all that hard if you have a base to go from..

but any way the documentation is your best friend, followed by Google..:
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/

also, in here I got some things I made in school..
they could be good to look at as references, and maybe edit them to see differences and things...

http://www.student.itn.liu.se/~timla177/JAVA/

in the folders Lab3 and Lab4 I got some really good examples with classes and external files (read and write)

and "nya miniprojektet" is the final example we did... very good thing to look at perhaps

 

[imgod22222]

Flash is like JavaScript or Java? I always forget. If i were you, though, I'd get familiar with the IDE as previously stated. I am trying to get 3 jobs using flash to create websites for 3 companies. I've been working heavily with Flash 8 for the past year (in a class) and even though some things require actionscript, a great deal of my work (graphics, animations take the most time, i don't spend alot of time debugging, like most other programmers) is spent working with the IDE and not the code.

You're getting a job as a teacher, if I'm not mistaken, right?

 

[Kyoji]

Flash is like JavaScript or Java? I always forget. If i were you, though, I'd get familiar with the IDE as previously stated. I am trying to get 3 jobs using flash to create websites for 3 companies. I've been working heavily with Flash 8 for the past year (in a class) and even though some things require actionscript, a great deal of my work (graphics, animations take the most time, i don't spend alot of time debugging, like most other programmers) is spent working with the IDE and not the code.

You're getting a job as a teacher, if I'm not mistaken, right?

Hah, I find anything I do in Flash is the exact opposite. Actionscript lets you control pretty much any graphical element on stage-I'd rather write all the code behind something and know whats going on than to rely on say, Flash's way of handling buttons rather than my own.

On a side note, have you messed with AS 9.0 yet? They changed everything :|

 

[spokenrope]

Thanks a ton for all the help guys. I really appreciate it. I can really tell that a lot of your suggestions are going to help me out in the next couple of weeks.

I really don't know too much about what version of Java or what IDE the company that I'm going to work for is going to use. I'll probably try to find out tomorrow though. It sounds like it would prevent me from going down the wrong path a little bit.

 

[imgod22222]

On a side note, have you messed with AS 9.0 yet? They changed everything :|

Or so I've heard. I haven't gotten a copy of CS3 yet. Hard to find a good one on Demonoid. >

 

[Kyoji]

On a side note, have you messed with AS 9.0 yet? They changed everything :|


Or so I've heard. I haven't gotten a copy of CS3 yet. Hard to find a good one on Demonoid. >

I played with it for a bit...it wouldnt let me append actionscript to a button on stage..so I just quit and went with AS 8.0

 

[pikachucrackpipe]

what type of java environment will you be using?
and basically i used trial and error along with googling what i don't know
sometimes we get to go to seminars and you can learn more there.

but i do oracle mostly

what kind of company is this you're going to be working for?

 

[Psyfira]

Sun's Brewing Java tutorial
It's somewhat old now, but great for starting out. It's written for beginners so it explains everything well. But bear it's age in mind if you do read it, there may be better ways of doing things now since it was written.

Skip section 3, I don't think anyone uses applets anymore. *prepares to be lynched if she's wrong*

 

[spokenrope]

what type of java environment will you be using?
and basically i used trial and error along with googling what i don't know
sometimes we get to go to seminars and you can learn more there.

but i do oracle mostly

what kind of company is this you're going to be working for?

It's a life insurance company. Jackson National Life in Lansing, MI. It's their corporate headquarters, so the place is very swanky.

http://www.jjr-us.com/JJRNaturalResources/...asp?pn=251&pt=1

And as of right now, I'm not sure what environment I'll be using. In fact, I'm not completely sure that I know what an environment is. It seems like a package that lets you just write, compile, and run programs. Is that right? The first book that I got on Java had me writing out my programs in WordPad, and compiling and running them in DOS.

 

[Psyfira]

In fact, I'm not completely sure that I know what an environment is. It seems like a package that lets you just write, compile, and run programs. Is that right?

Spot on

They do other useful things too, including highlighting keywords (making the code easier to read), and have "debug" modes that let you run the code line by line to help track down errors. It's good to learn the blood-and-guts notepad way for small programs.

 

[pikachucrackpipe]

i doubt you'd be compiling in a dos environment at your work. maybe a unix or linux shell but i doubt dos.

 

[Foolio]

I would consider the "environment" to be the OS you are developing on, the version of Java you are developing with, stuff like that. The IDE handles all the syntax highlighting, class and method auto-complete, debug functions, etc. I see nothing wrong with writing code in Notepad (although I prefer vi) and compiling in a DOS window when you are first starting out. A good IDE is definitely recommended when you're more familiar with the language and working on large projects, but it's not necessary when you're just getting your feet wet with a language.

FWIW, the company I work for does all our Java development in Eclipse (http://www.eclipse.org/), which is free and works really well. There are TONS of plugins that will let you do just about everything you would ever need in all aspects of Java development.

Most of the developers I work with run Windows on their desktops where they do their development. We run Solaris on our servers. The nice thing about working with Java is that we can develop on whatever OS we want and it should still work when we deploy it to the Solaris boxes.

Good luck with the new job. Java really is a pretty nice language to use these days so I hope you have fun learning it.

 

[sirAnger]

going on to "if"... (if cases? what are they called?)

Conditionals.

 

[Psyfira]

I would consider the "environment" to be the OS you are developing on, the version of Java you are developing with, stuff like that. The IDE handles all the syntax highlighting, class and method auto-complete, debug functions, etc. I see nothing wrong with writing code in Notepad (although I prefer vi) and compiling in a DOS window when you are first starting out. A good IDE is definitely recommended when you're more familiar with the language and working on large projects, but it's not necessary when you're just getting your feet wet with a language.

Quoted for truth, for the man speaks the truth (well except the vi part)

The IDE and Environment are different things, hm maybe I'm starting to get why the industry deems me as unemployable...