Alot of research but yet to start

[tim gallagher]

hello.

For around two months i have been researching and paper-based prototyping a java program i wish to create using jbuilder. I have a good few articles,source code examples,forum browsing,tutorials but i am having great difficulty actually getting anything to work.

I wish to create a gui that contains an area for a box of 20x20 tiles. I believe i have to use "int width height" etc. I wish to assign values to each tile (eg an identifying name 1 - 400 (tile1,tile2 etc), 5 sets of values 1 - 100, an image to represent each tile eg green/blue). On top i wish to place buildings/roads based on the 5 values. I believe to so this i use "vector nodes". Please note it is much more complicated than i am explaining but i really just need to be able to make a start so i can do the rest my self.

Can anyone direct me or help me on creating a basic grid, with each tile having a random value (1-100 - called value1), with value1 determining the color of each tile (eg if value1 > 50 then color.red)?

I am quite frustrated at having alot of information (i can post what i have/where i have looked if necessary) but not being able to start.

thanks in advance and i hope someone can help,

tim.

[tim gallagher]

i forgot to add this.

i do not understand how multiple files work for a single java program.
Can anyone explain this to me?

as far as i can tell, in order to make a program run faster, you program different classes in a new file, and in the main file you "link" to these external files to open them and run them.

tim