Welcome to the Java Programming Forums


The professional, friendly Java community. 21,500 members and growing!


The Java Programming Forums are a community of Java programmers from all around the World. Our members have a wide range of skills and they all have one thing in common: A passion to learn and code Java. We invite beginner Java programmers right through to Java professionals to post here and share your knowledge. Become a part of the community, help others, expand your knowledge of Java and enjoy talking with like minded people. Registration is quick and best of all free. We look forward to meeting you.


>> REGISTER NOW TO START POSTING


Members have full access to the forums. Advertisements are removed for registered users.

Results 1 to 6 of 6

Thread: Advice

  1. #1
    Member
    Join Date
    May 2013
    Posts
    165
    Thanks
    58
    Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post

    Default Advice

    I've been learning java for around a month now, I've used mybringback tutorials and beginner newboston tutorials on youtube alongside many online websites and some books. I understand many of the concepts though I'm getting to a point where I feel I need to start working on some project of my own to get a firm hold of the basics so I can move on, most tutorials on the net at this stage teach some game programming or simple maths problems. Do the users have any other ideas of projects I could have a go at. I don't really have much of an interest in game programming or particular math problems, security is something I find interesting though this requires advance knowledge of languages.

    Thank you for taking the time to read my post.
    If you feel I should stick it out with some game programming please say.


  2. #2
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    May 2013
    Posts
    20
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts

    Default Re: Advice

    Game programming has a limited market to my knowledge. When I was in school, our instructor had us do a painting project similar to MS Paint where we created circle, ellipses, etc. and learned how to identify where the mouse was clicking to "adjust" an object. It was fun, yet challenging for me; I started coding in 1984-1985 when OOP wasn't really in fashion.

    When it comes to security, it depends on what you want to do. Personally, I like learning reverse engineering (assembly code) because knowing assembly is a gateway to understanding everything in computers and networking. If you enjoy security, there are websites that you can learn hacking (legally) like hackthissite.org, overthewire.org, and smashthestack.org; they deal with knowing javascript, C, and other languages. Hope this helps. Good luck!

    Reverse

  3. #3
    Administrator copeg's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    US
    Posts
    5,320
    Thanks
    181
    Thanked 833 Times in 772 Posts
    Blog Entries
    5

    Default Re: Advice

    Do the users have any other ideas of projects I could have a go at. I don't really have much of an interest in game programming or particular math problems, security is something I find interesting though this requires advance knowledge of languages.
    Although you mention not having an interest in math problems, I will mention the idea of Project Euler - math oriented but great exercises. If you don't know much about data structures or algorithms, both are key learning elements. For instance how to create a linked list, a tree, or a graph, how to traverse each, and when to use them. Beyond that, there's so much more. User interfaces, web programming, design patterns...how about create your own project? If you can't think of one, perhaps search an open source repository such as sourceforge or github for either ideas or just simply projects along the lines of your interests, download the source, and look through the code

  4. #4
    Member
    Join Date
    May 2013
    Posts
    165
    Thanks
    58
    Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post

    Default Re: Advice

    Thank you guys for taking the time to respond.
    reverse-sounds fascinating, I'll be sure to check out the links, at the moment I really need to learn Java as I'm going to study the language in university, though in the future I'd love to learn assembly and reverse engineering.
    copeg- I have always thought of data structures and algorithms as an advanced topic, I've learnt about algorithms in the past though at first I really need to practice basic java in a project. I'll check out project euler.
    Do you think copying someone else's code and project will help me become better at reading and writing code.

  5. #5
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    May 2013
    Posts
    20
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts

    Default Re: Advice

    Quote Originally Posted by keepStriving View Post
    Thank you guys for taking the time to respond.
    reverse-sounds fascinating, I'll be sure to check out the links, at the moment I really need to learn Java as I'm going to study the language in university, though in the future I'd love to learn assembly and reverse engineering.
    copeg- I have always thought of data structures and algorithms as an advanced topic, I've learnt about algorithms in the past though at first I really need to practice basic java in a project. I'll check out project euler.
    Do you think copying someone else's code and project will help me become better at reading and writing code.

    Copying someone else's code will help you become better at reading, but limited at writing in my opinion. I did that for my Java course and it DID make it easier, then it was the tweaking to make it work for the code I was doing (at times tricky). The one problem is that when you don't practice writing and you do an exam, you won't have the practice to pass your exam. I found out in a military training course when we learned Perl that knowing the syntax when it came test time was EVERYTHING and so I practiced coding after school to the point of where someone would ask me to write a short program and I could code quickly and accurately. Hope this helps.

    Reverse

  6. #6
    Administrator copeg's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    US
    Posts
    5,320
    Thanks
    181
    Thanked 833 Times in 772 Posts
    Blog Entries
    5

    Default Re: Advice

    Quote Originally Posted by keepStriving View Post
    Do you think copying someone else's code and project will help me become better at reading and writing code.
    Writing code is the best way to practice writing code, and will always help you become better (and in my experience writing code is much harder than reading code). Reading code may give you ideas towards the goal of writing more code - my advice above was intended more to steer you in a direction that will spark ideas and help you create your own project, how you may wish to undertake it, ways in which you can problem solve, standards for writing code, and in the end write more code.

Similar Threads

  1. Need some serious advice
    By Rituparna in forum The Cafe
    Replies: 4
    Last Post: September 25th, 2013, 08:26 AM
  2. Hello, need some advice.
    By mango7777 in forum Member Introductions
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: June 15th, 2012, 08:10 AM
  3. need for some advice
    By kasiopi in forum AWT / Java Swing
    Replies: 6
    Last Post: January 26th, 2011, 10:34 AM
  4. A little advice please:
    By SDKC in forum Java Theory & Questions
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: December 8th, 2010, 08:15 PM
  5. i need some advice ....
    By mdstrauss in forum Java Theory & Questions
    Replies: 8
    Last Post: July 24th, 2009, 02:29 PM