Thread: I really doing it!!!

Learning JAVA, that is! I'm 2 weeks away from officially finishing what will be the first of many JAVA college courses. I made the mistake early in the semester of telling my professor how horrible the book was, only to find out later that week that he and his brother wrote the book. Needless to say, he hasn't been to eager to help me through the semester and I've been struggling to understand some relatively simple concepts. Getting a tutor really helped but I want to know more, hence my signup on this forum this afternoon. I look forward to lurking on the boards and learning as much as I can since I'm fascinated with JAVA!

Hi kissyfurs, welcome to the forums!

Now if I had between your teacher I might have been annoyed (another know-it-all kid!) But I wouldn't have been silent. I would have confronted you by asking what, in particular, the book had done badly and - even more pointedly - how you would have done it better. (My questions would have been genuine too: seeking to learn as every decent teacher should.)

But forums like this give you an opportunity both to get answers and to give them. Ie now you can show us how you would do it better. And all within the rough and tumble atmosphere of criticism of all by all. Don't become defensive or combative because of criticism of anything you say on a forum like this: there are very experienced folk here and I, personally, depend on them to point out when I might be leading someone astray.

Again, welcome.

Originally Posted by pbrockway2

Hi kissyfurs, welcome to the forums!

Now if I had between your teacher I might have been annoyed (another know-it-all kid!) But I wouldn't have been silent. I would have confronted you by asking what, in particular, the book had done badly and - even more pointedly - how you would have done it better. (My questions would have been genuine too: seeking to learn as every decent teacher should.)

But forums like this give you an opportunity both to get answers and to give them. Ie now you can show us how you would do it better. And all within the rough and tumble atmosphere of criticism of all by all. Don't become defensive or combative because of criticism of anything you say on a forum like this: there are very experienced folk here and I, personally, depend on them to point out when I might be leading someone astray.

Again, welcome.

I'm certainly not a know-it-all, nor a kid! However, if he asked, I would have been more than happy to provide feedback. 75% of the students in the class have some type of programming experience- c+, BASIC, etc. I have none- this is the very first course I've taken for my computer science degree. While I understand that these languages are different, they do have some similiarities, or so I'm learning. Please don't assume that I already know things- I need the from scratch explanation. Don't give me 15 examples of string methods in the book like Public String replaceAll(String target, String replacement) but fail to show me how to use them or even the proper format in a program. And why, in the name of all that's holy, do you drill in a certain way to do things and then after 6 week introduce OOP. I think my head my explode!

With that being said, I love, love, love JAVA. I am fascinated by what it can do, and I'm barely scraping the tip of the iceberg. I've already ordered another book that several people have recommended and I can't wait to keep going down this track. I don't have a problem with criticism and I'm rarely defensive. My teacher told me that for one of my programs I found a very interesting solution that he's never seen before- probably because it added about 20 steps to the program! No bother, it's a learning experience. I love reading the boards and trying to understand what I'm seeing- some of it makes sense, some still looks like a foreign language. I hope that I can look to others for direction and eventually be able to proovide some as well. Thanks for the warm welcome!

Hi kissyfurs.I like you was quite skeptical about Java.Just started with it a couple of weeks ago.Been really loving it.Welcome.