null Posted May 21, 2004 Report Share Posted May 21, 2004 I'm considering taking a java course for one of my electives. What former programming experience I have is with COBOL, and a few other non-OO languages. I bought a couple of java books, but I have to admit that it looks a hell of a lot different than what I am used to. I took a VB course (introductory) last year (required for my IT degree). Although VB may be considered OOP, I breezed through the course with an easy A. I thought it was pretty mickey mouse.... I don't want to take any of the advanced VB courses. Do you think I will have trouble with learning java from scratch, without knowing OOP at all.. ? For my other elective choices, I think I will choose among some various web design/development courses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phunni Posted May 22, 2004 Report Share Posted May 22, 2004 VB is NOT OO - although it does have objects in it. Java in itself is not complicated - but OO concepts can be difficult to get your head around if you're used to a procedural background. It's just a case of trying to get used to it which simply takes time. I say, go for it. If you have any questions feel free to ask me (my job is to teach Java) and I'l lsee what I can do - no guaruntees I can answer though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fred_the_fish Posted May 22, 2004 Report Share Posted May 22, 2004 Java is probably the easiest for learning OO.... well thats my opinion anyway :P It is simple and straight forward, when you have got your head around it. I don't know what books Phunni would recommend, but when I started learning it at Uni, we were recommended Ivor Horton's "Beginning Java 2" from Wrox press. I'd say its quite a good book - I learnt from it, but I don't know what the new version is like (my copy is for JDK 1.3). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phunni Posted May 22, 2004 Report Share Posted May 22, 2004 As far as books go - I'd leave it a little bit until books come out for 1.5 - there are quite a few nice, but major changes. Actually, while I think about it, it might be worth asking if the course will cover any of the new stuff in 1.5 - it's not particualrly complicated (although getting your head around the polymorphic implications of generics is good fun*) *when you can understand this sentence, you have very little else to worry about Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fred_the_fish Posted May 22, 2004 Report Share Posted May 22, 2004 Oooo don't go scaring him!!! Phunni - have you found 1.5 to be faster than 1.4? On my machine, it appears about 15% faster under linux, but when run in XP is actually slower! And I don't think my uni are doing anything specific with 1.5 - think they intend to wait until it pasts testing, and that will be after my graduation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michel Posted May 22, 2004 Report Share Posted May 22, 2004 If you're studying for an IT-degree, I would recommend it ... I'm only a student myself, but I think that some knowledge of OO-design is helpful, certainly if you're going to make software I think. Anyway , I live XXX miles.kilometres away from you ...depending where you live :D. I also first learned procedural programming .... and then OO. I wish you luck if you're going to follow it (nothing bad meant). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phunni Posted May 22, 2004 Report Share Posted May 22, 2004 Oooo don't go scaring him!!! Phunni - have you found 1.5 to be faster than 1.4? On my machine, it appears about 15% faster under linux, but when run in XP is actually slower! And I don't think my uni are doing anything specific with 1.5 - think they intend to wait until it pasts testing, and that will be after my graduation. To be honest I haven't loads of time with it - certainly not enough to make a speed comparison. Recently, a client wanted some training on the new features so I had to spend some time playing with it (on XP :( ) and I was really impressed with generics and the new for loop. Most of the work I do is fairly critical, so I'll probably wait till it's stable before really using it - although when it is stable I'll get it straight away! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
null Posted May 22, 2004 Author Report Share Posted May 22, 2004 I think this course will be not too cutting edge in term of new java things. In fact, I have been holding off a couple of months waiting for the course to be updated to a newer textbook. The textbook it is being updated to is about 9 months old, so I suppose it would be on java 1.4. Since this is an elective course, it will mostly be programming applets. I don't expect a real hard-core course. I am a Information Technology major, not a Computer Science major - and as you know, CS classes are much more programming oriented. The only programming classes available at this school are the one java course mentioned above, and several VB courses - intro to advanced, and several C, C+, C++ courses. C courses are not required for I.T. majors, if fact the only programming required for the I.T. degree is the Intro to VB - which I took and got an A. I've been going thru the Sun java tutorials on their website, and I own a few books, which cover java 1.4. I installed sdk 1.4 as well as Eclipse. And also I have TextPad - which came with one of my books. I do have a "procedural brain". I did very well way back when I took COBOL courses. I guess I will take the course since it looks like I will have my own java tutor: If you have any questions feel free to ask me (my job is to teach Java) how can I turn that down ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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