/home/karlrees/public_html/gallery2/bla
/home/karlrees/public_html/gallery2/bla
/home/karlrees/public_html/gallery2/bla Java session one | Wayne and Rebecca Madsen

Java session one

wayne's picture
package ralph;

/**
* My first java file.
* @author wayne
*
*/

public class TheCode {

/**
* @param args
*/
public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.println("monkey " + getNumber());
System.out.println(getNumber());
}

public static int getNumber() {
return 3;
}

}

This was my "first" written java class taught to me by my wife, Rebecca.

I am an artist. Or a non-artist. Or whatever. My wife got her master's degree in computer science and programs full time in java programming language for Magma Design Automation. When we moved out here, she specifically wanted a job that used java because it is her favorite computer language. Me? Besides my brief career in programming with actionscripting for flash presentations to children, I don't understand anything about computer programming.

My last "real" job was designing flash language tutorials. Six months before I left the job, they installed flex 2.0 on my computer at work and asked that I start programming my activities in flex. I spent 6 months hating work because I couldn't teach myself flex. The funny thing about learning anything in today's world is that it should be all on the internet. I strongly believe that everything is on the internet - all information exists somewhere in digital form and can be transferred through bits, insignificant ones and zeros. However, as I have found, it is next to impossible to find anything anymore because the internet has become so massive and the search algorithms for major search engines are outdated beyond resolving the burgeoning world wide web.

I realized that the only way to learn anything is by going back to the most basic elements of learning - passing information from one person to another. The personal touch. It has become out-of-style in the information age to get information directly from one person, but I am realizing that it is essential in order to learn anything. I'm not just talking about the personal touch in a physical realm - one of the greatest beauties of a digital world is the non-presence of others through digital means. I am hoping that this experience I am putting myself through can be a part of myself - my learning - which I have plugged into the internet and exists as a personal one on one learning process which might help others.

Realistically, I don't expect anyone to learn anything from this documentation. I do, however, expect to get something from it besides a better understanding and ability to program in java: I just want to understand what my wife is talking about when she explains her job.

My head hurts after today's session. I think I understand what classes are now. I vaguely knew what objects were before. I am still frightened by trying to find code to do what I want. Rebecca told me that what I need to do is first decide what I want to do in java and then work backwards to learn how to do it. That seems easy enough. I'm used to the way things were in flash coding: I knew a good chunk of the commands that existed so I could easily call them to memory to write my code.

Session one:

Set up eclipse. This is easy to do on both windows and linux platforms. We had some problems getting java 5 working on eclipse in linux. We're still working on it.

Create a project. I named my project "helloworld" because that was the name of the exercise. The java libraries are loaded into this project.

Create a package. I remember strange names. I named the package "ralph." See attached files for .class and .java files.

In the package, create the code .java file "TheCode." Make a main method "public static void main..." within which we call a method from the java library.

System.out.println("whatever your message is")

[see the code at the beginning of this post]

The video follows our session; I learned how to print "monkey."

Now my cat wants to play. I don't have time for this. But in order to make "better quality time" for my wife, I need to do this.