August 2, 2009 by Josh Nunn
Last Thursday was my first Java class in my TAFE programming course. I wasn’t sure how I’d go, but I was feeling quite positive going into it, because I’ve been waiting to start for so long.
It was daunting.
My lecturer was shocked that I have no programming experience going into his class (I was told I should be able to catch up), and implied it was a certainty he would have to take time away from his other students to help me out. My other classmates were also surprised that I’m starting where I am.
It left me wondering if I should wait another semester and start with Visual Basic like I’m supposed to, or take the Friday morning VB class, and work late three nights to make up the time. On the other hand, I’m kinda keen to just power forward and show everyone that I can do it.
So I’ve had a look at this weeks homework, to better gauge how I might go, and it’s pretty straight forward. I’m sure the terminology will click eventually (here’s hoping), but the actual exercises were easy enough. I’m missing the text book I need to do the reading I should do, but I’ve got the basics of Netbeans down (starting a project, creating a class), and I’ve done all the exercises I can do without the book.
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Tags: beginner, exercise, java, lesson
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August 27, 2009 by Josh Nunn
So I have neglectfully not blogged since my update during class last week. All week I was thinking I had already. When my mum said she’d read my site and hoped class would get better for me I realised the impression I had left you with was still that I had no idea what was going on, and it was all over my head.
Thankfully that is not the case! Last week I discovered that I’m right on track, I’m keeping pace with my class, and I’m thoroughly enjoying myself. Working through some problems on Monday and Tuesday night was a blast, and I’m really enjoying what I’m learning. That said I hit a roadblock when the final problem asked me to create a sort of menu system for creating and updating the details of housing units. In class last week we covered if statements, and this week loops, so I don’t feel at all bad about leaving the problem till this week, as I’m pretty sure the best way to handle the menus is with loops.
On the other hand, I’m not certain the best way to structure things. I could whack the whole code into the main method, and play it like a batch file, or I could fumble about a bit and try breaking the code into classes/methods and seeing how that goes. One way I know will work, the other is the right way… So I’ve put it off for homework this week and hopefully I’ll get enough into my head tonight to help push me the right way.
So no code examples this week. I suppose I could chuck something in here, but they’re all getting mighty long (and who’s reading it really?), even to do the simplest tasks.
Thank you everyone who’s been commenting and answering my silly questions. It’s all really helpful, and makes me feel like I’m becoming a part of the programming community!
Tags: class, code, fun, java, tafe, thanks
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August 7, 2009 by Josh Nunn
Last night was a wash Java wise. I’ll be writing another post soon, once I’ve gone through my text book, and dissecting what we covered last night. Until I do that, I’m completely lost. And not because I can’t understand it so much as the delivery was all over the place.
My lecturer complained a couple of times that the text and notes go into complicated areas that if he were to teach it, would not be covered yet — which is fair enough. But then time and again he himself would veer off into areas that I’m sure will be covered in a few weeks (ie. not now) and just makes things more confusing now.
And what is with using “Dog” as an example of a program? Every introduction to programming I’ve read uses dogs, cats, cars and pizza to explain classes. That’s useful for about as long as it takes for you to “get” that a class can have attributes and functions, but beyond that is completely meaningless in a practical sense. Using dogs for coding examples just makes my brain hurt, because I can’t see how you can perform arithmetic on a dog, or use a dog to perform a function for another dog. I get that it’s using simple things to explain new concepts, but to me it just clouds the issue. Give me a real example (a simple one) of how making a function and calling it generates a result, and I’ll be happy. Unless your example is int x = a+b; — that’s almost as meaningless as Dog().
I apologise if I’ve used the incorrect terms for things in the previous paragraph. I also stress that I can’t do better or think of more useful examples because I still can’t program yet. But I’m working on it. And I’m gonna’ read a chapter ahead this time, as I suspect my classmates are only ahead of me by a hair as I’m pretty sure all the questions they were asking would have been straight forward and obvious if they were reading the text (judging by the questions they asked about stuff even I knew).
Please correct me or share your thoughts about how Dog() is actually a useful thing to learn!
Tags: classes, dog, functions, int, java, learning, rant
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September 3, 2009 by Josh Nunn
Quickie:
- Last class was useless, as I forgot my USB with my current work on it so I couldn’t actually use the time to keep working on my assignment.
- I got the assignment written and handed up, but I wasn’t happy with it. I have the control stuff sorted (if, while), but not the OO-ness of Java.
- The assignment code felt bulky and wrong, and I need to split it into separate classes/methods, but just cant figure it out.
- My text still hasn’t arrived and I’m using the 2002 version. It’s out of date and the exercises are absolutely brimming over with wrongability
- There is something weird about fully understanding every example you attempt to write, and knowing exactly what the lecturer is talking about, and reading all the chapters you are supposed to, and still finding that the assignment you have to submit in a week is beyond what you know you know. It feels like the assignment was stuck into the flow of the course prematurely.
That is all. If you are a Javahackercoder and you are reading this, and you can spare a bit of your time to help explain a few things to me about making decisions about which parts of my code to create objects/methods from, I’d be eternally grateful.
Tags: assignment, class, code, java, oo, tafe
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August 13, 2009 by Josh Nunn
This week has been mad. Both my girls have had colds and one has been teething, so finding time to study between looking after them (and myself to make sure I don’t get it too) has been difficult. I’ve read my chapters, but I’m not one ahead like I wanted to be. And I’ve only done two of the five exercises for this chapter. It’s my first real OO introduction too. Until now I’ve understood “int”, “double” etc. but now we’re getting in to what has been behind the veil for me when I’ve tried to program before — how you create classes, and call them from other classes.
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Tags: java, NetBeans, Programming, Tutorials
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September 3, 2009 by Josh Nunn
It’s 9:30, so class just finished, but I left at 8. Another night of confusing information that would probably make sense if I’d read the text before hand, or wasn’t being taught by someone who’s thinking of examples on the fly and can’t finish a sentence before moving on to another concept.
Man! This text is oooooooold.I’m gonna just sit down tomorrow and current text be damned, read a whole bunch of chapters and just work on the half assed examples in the text I have. Hopefully that will keep me going. I can’t keep putting it off.
My next chapter is Methods, so hopefully that might answer some of my questions about when to use methods and how.
Tags: class, Coding, commodore 64, java
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September 23, 2009 by Josh Nunn
I may have skipped one there I think. Class was good this last week. I had a look at the example code we were given for the last hand up I did, and used it to properly break my long code into methods.
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October 29, 2009 by Josh Nunn
I lost track of what week we’re up to, and I’ve got a few updates to roll into this one, so my titles are off.
Had a major assignment and a test since last time I updated, so I thought it might be time to report how they went.
I was happy with my assignment and my grade of Satisfactory, until I realised I could have gotten Outstanding! Apparently my only mistake was to not:
Keep the instance variable on the same line as its label.
Eg in my toString class I put:
Instead of:
Obvious, but worth marking me down? Maybe I did something else wrong, but I don’t think so.
I also attempted the test which included a section on Arrays. I haven’t done any study on arrays. I was worried. But the test was open book, so I learned what I needed as I went, and even had time to attempt the merit. My result?
That’s better!So I’m pretty happy with that.
Now on to Polymorphism and Interfaces!
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