Homework Help!

[Fyle]

Guys.. Girls?

I'm in desperate need of help with my homework. My story is kinda long so I'll try to make it short.. I took an introductory Java programming class at my university this semester. It was perfect. Lots of undergrads of about my age and all more or less noobs, just like me. I'm otherwise exceptionally computer-literate and borderline nerdy, (sometimes way past the borderline), but I'm a complete greenhorn when it comes to programming. That's why I took the class. I wanted to expand my knowledge and add programming to my skills, which would open up many new ways for me in ther wide wide computer-world. Once I got Java, I thought, I could play around with that, then venture off into learning PHP and CSS and XHTML and all that fun stuff and set up a website. That's what's always kept me from creating one. I never just wanted to use a WYSIWYG editor, because I thought of that as being lame. I would appreciate my work much more if I had actually coded the site I want to create. Anyway... I had do drop the course because of a schedule/class conflict on my semester schedule. My advisor stuck me into a level two Introductory Java class, and as it turns out that was a mistake.. the courseload was above my expectations and now I'm stuck in a devlish circle of not being caught up with the readings, going to lecture and not getting squat.. and not having turned in any homework assignments all semester. I'm just about failing the class. The only hope I have left is the few homework assignments that are left and the extra credit problems that I will certainly make use of in order to boost my grade.
I have to start showing work and since the end of the semester is nearing, all my other classes are piling up the workload to get through the material.

Now you understand the true meaning of the word "desperate" as I use it. Could someone help me out with this homework by.. well, basically, doing it for me? I know this sounds stupid and probably lame to some of you, but I'm quite desperate, and even though I'm highly interested in the class and Java, I simply have not been able to keep up with the courseload. I will sit down this week and try to concentrate all my powers and abilities on catching up with the class completely so I can follow along at least until the end of the semester. I'm only asking for this favor this one single time because the situation is really grim and I could pick up from there. It would help me tremendously, although I would understand if you would see this as "immoral" an act to do, in which case I'd be [out of luck], and for a good reason at that.

Anyway, let me know if you're willing to help. I would need this done ASAP, so if you're bored out of your mind and have nothing else to do and are good at Java programming, give it a shot. Should be a fun little mind exercise for you, while it's complete gibberish to me, as of YET. I hope to soon understand exactly what I'm doing with Java myself. That's my dream. I don't even feel comfortable telling you all this and asking for this impossible favor, but I'm left without a choice.


If you're not willing to do what I'm asking, you are certainly welcome to help me out in any other way you can think of, by providing me with free links for Java support, crash courses, tips, tricks... whatever! It's all appreciated. Thanks!



The first two problems, (this is the level at which the homework is right now. For some of you this should be a piece of cake, for others it'll be harder):

1. Define an Insurance superclass that contains the following members: Data Members • Insurance account number • Insurance policy number • Name of insured • Annual premium Methods • Set methods that will allow the user to enter the values of the data members • Get methods that will display the data member values Define two subclasses called Automobile and Home that inherit the Insurance superclass. Provide the following additional information in these subclasses: Data Members (Automobile class) • Make of automobile • Model of automobile • Amount of liability coverage • Amount of comprehensive coverage • Amount of collision coverage Method (Automobile class) • Set methods that will allow the user to enter the values of the automobile data members • Get methods that will display the data automobile member values Data Members (Home class) • House square footage • Amount of dwelling coverage • Amount of contents coverage • Amount of liability coverage Method (Home class) • Set methods that will allow the user to enter the values of the home data members • Get methods that will display the data home member values Write an application class that instantiates an automobile and home insurance object from the above classes. Include statement in the program that will exercise the object methods. 2. Define a Pet superclass with the following members: Data Members: • Pet name • Pet age • Pet weight Methods: • Display method to display pet record • Set methods that will allow user to enter the values of pet data members Define a class called Dog that is derived from the Pet class. The new class has the additional attributes of breed (type String) and boosterShot (type boolean, true if the pet has ad its booster shot, false if it has not). Be sure your class has a reasonable complement of constructors and accessor methods. Write a driver program to test all your methods, and then write a program that reads in five pets of type Dog and prints the name and breed of all dogs that are over two years old and have not had their booster shots.
[ April 21, 2005: Message edited by: Jim Yingst ]

[Michael Dunn]

>Could someone help me out with this homework by.. well, basically, doing it for me?

http://www.rentacoder.com/RentACoder/default.asp

>I know this sounds stupid and probably lame to some of you

correct

[Steven Bell]

I really think, with some help from those here, you could have that assignment written in about a day or two and have a much better understanding of Java in the process.

If you're interested in giving it a shot add a post that describes your basic level of Java. Do you know what for/if/int/String are? Can you create and compile a 'HelloWorld' class? Can you add methods to a class? ect...

[Jeff Bosch]

I have an idea: Why don't you build as much as you know how to build. Then, if you get compilation errors or unexpected results, you can post them and maybe we can help at that point.

One approach: Break your list of requirements into a checklist so that you can tackle one requirement at a time.

Good luck!

[Fyle]

Sorry for not having replied for so long.. forget the above problem. Overdue, not done.. doesn't matter

I just need some suggestions now. I've been trying to use UltraEdit and TextPad Pro.. for my programming needs, but they both have one huge deficiency: they're no IDE's. What do you guys suggest in terms of IDEs? I know of Netbeans and downloaded it once.. it was overwhelming. It's humongous.. huge thing. I'm sure it's nice, but my Java professor didn't like it that much. He just said certain users have problems opening files and it's generally not the stablest/most reliable tool out there for the purpose. The professor himself uses JPad Pro and loves it. I actually like UltraEdit a lot. It's by far the most advanced hex/text editor I've ever come across. An amazing amount of functionality. I just found out about ConTEXT (http://www.context.cx/), which is a great programmer's editor for free. It seems UltraEdit does all that and more, however. Not sure how they compare.

Anyway.. I'm on the lookout for a good IDE. JpadPro seems to be quite nice these days, but I wanted to know what's out there before I spend any money. Suggestions?

Thanks

[Fyle]

http://javaboutique.internet.com/demoIDEs/

Oh boy.. I'll NEVER find the right one. There's so damn MANY of them!

[Mark Spritzler]

Well for free, try out Eclipse.

Mark

[Henry Wong]

I was recently in a demostration for Netbeans. (Version 4.?) Prior to the session the presentor asked what IDE everyone used. I would say about 80% used eclipse.

Henry

[Fyle]

There's just so damn many of em.. this one seems interesting: http://www.getsoft.com/index.html

JPad Pro sure is a solid tool and I might consider it. I know that Eclipse is extremely popular.. why is that?

Why is Netbeans so HUGE when other IDE's come with similar functionality but are much smaller in size?

Then there' BlueJ, which one young member of my class said he's using.. boy my head's about to explode. I'm still a beginner, indeed, but I want a solid, good IDE to start out. Jpad looks good to me, but just knowing that there are so many others out there is killin me.

EDIT:
I need screenshots of Eclipse. Can't find any on eclipse.org.. what I think would be awesome is this one: http://www.jcreator.com/
[ April 26, 2005: Message edited by: Ismar Iljazovic ]

[David Harkness]

I think you're putting the cart before the horse. Maybe this is a better analogy:

Dad: Hey Timmy, wanna help Daddy fix the car?

Timmy: Yeah!

Dad: Okay, go sit in the driver's seat, reach under the dashboard, and pull the little lever that says "hood release."

Timmy: Should I use a Kraftsman wrench or will any old wrench work?

Dad: You won't need a wrench just yet. Just pull the lever.

Timmy: Fine, but I was checking out the Ford engine diagnostics kit that mechanic down at the shop was using, and it had a cool I/O interface for tweaking the fuel injection control chip. He said it wouldn't work on Chevy's, though, but that there are aftermarket I/O controllers that will attach to multiple chip designs...

Daddy: Go help your mother!

At this point all you need is a decent text editor (open file, type text, save file) with maybe a few bells and whistles (syntax highlighting, auto-indent, search and replace) and a shell. Most programs you write in the first year or so will consist of a few classes at most -- probably just one. You can use one-line batch/shell scripts to compile them.

Even if you're hell bent on using an IDE, at this stage in the game any IDE will work. The trick is going to be learning how to use the most basic features, and that's going to be tough until you've gotten more basic Java experience.

Until you understand exactly what goes into compiling a set of classes that make use of five other libraries (JARs) and packaging them up into a WAR file for deployment into a servlet container, you're going to be hard-pressed to evaluate an IDE.

So I say take a step back and take care of the basics. Honestly, did you miss the previous assignment because you were working really hard on it but didn't understand it ... or because you were choosing an IDE and simply never started it?

And don't think I'm slinging arrows from up on high; I've been there and done that, so I can speak from experience about spinning your wheels on the starting line because you can't choose a gear. In the beginning it's important to get any forward momentum you can. Then you can worry about which tool is optimal.

Good luck!

[ Yes, Timmy can spell wrench! So can Daddy! ]
[ April 26, 2005: Message edited by: David Harkness ]

[Steven Bell]

I'll echo David and highly recommend you grab Textpad. Once you know how to type, save, compile, and run from the command line, only then would I start looking for an IDE.

[Layne Lund]

Originally posted by Ismar Iljazovic:
Sorry for not having replied for so long.. forget the above problem. Overdue, not done.. doesn't matter

I just need some suggestions now. I've been trying to use UltraEdit and TextPad Pro.. for my programming needs, but they both have one huge deficiency: they're no IDE's. What do you guys suggest in terms of IDEs? I know of Netbeans and downloaded it once.. it was overwhelming. It's humongous.. huge thing. ...

That's one of the main reasons many of us here suggest that you stick with a text editor. Not only does the size in megabytes (or gigabytes) make a big difference. The learning curve for a text editor is much easier. You should focus on learning the language first and save learning about the nifty tools until after you have a firm grasp on the basics. I think David's anology illustrates this rather well.

Layne

[Fyle]

Thanks a lot for the great suggestions and the insightful posts, guys. I really appreciate it.

Now that we've established that I should better stick to a text-editor, rather than hunting for IDE's, (even though my professor may disagree. At this point it doesn't even matter. My final is in two weeks..), I have a new dilemma. I prefer UltraEdit over Textpad for now. There's one problem with that. Textpad gives me convenient access to the Java compiler, to a Run Java App option, and to a Run Java Applet option. All of that is missing in UltraEdit. I've seen many references to compiling, debugging and even code output containers within the workspace for UltraEdit in its helpfile.. but somehow the helpfile always refers to a different product when anything of that sort shows up, and that product is called UESTUDIO 05'. I've been on the devs website multiple times and never saw a single thing about UESTUDIO. What's up with that? Just the word "studio" suggests to me that it may be some sort of IDE from the developer of UltraEdit. And there we're back at the beginning of the loop... my favorite text editor needs to be UESTUDIO, which seems to be an IDE, in order to be actually useful for programming because it has built in compiling shortcuts to the Java compiler and all the other good stuff.

So we arrive at the question... what's the best text editor/programming editor? Any suggestions? I'd love to see them.

There's one more major problem I have with text-only editors. And that's the lack of real-time syntax highlighting. That's one of the best things about an IDE from my current complete-noob viewpoint. Both Textpad and UltraEdit do support syntax highlighting, but only after they recognize the extension of the document you're working on, which is only AFTER you've saved it at least once. That's rather cumbersome I'd say... I'm leaning towards getting a copy of JPad Pro, simply because it seems to be in the golden middle. It is an actual IDE, according to my professor, (whose name by the way is Skvarcius Romualdas, some of you may have heard the name before. He claimed he once had lunch with Bill Gates today lol... and that he was the guy to come up with certain standard updates to CSS or something. Don't ask, don't remember the specifics) and yet it looks just like a text editor. It really isn't anything fancy... but it has a nice code output window built-in, it has fast access buttons for compiling and running code... and, of course, it supports real-time syntax highlighting. It's the best of both words. It seems like a text editor but actually is an IDE.

I don't know, really. Do any of you have any experience with JPad? If even after the points I've made above you still feel like going with a pure text-editor remains my best option... please say so and tell me why. I'm really eager to learn these answers/your arguments.

(Again) Thanks a lot!

[Nigel Browne]

It really doesn't matter what you use, if you haven't learnt the basics your code wont work.
Stop focusing on the tool in which to write code, and start writing and running code in whatever tool you have to hand.

[Jeroen Wenting]

And learn to use the commandline.
You don't need a "compile" button and a "run" button, in fact in your situation they're harmful as they prevent you from learning to use the tools at your disposal.

[Joe Ess]

Originally posted by Ismar Iljazovic:

So we arrive at the question... what's the best text editor/programming editor? Any suggestions? I'd love to see them.

There's as many answers to that question as there are people registered on JavaRanch.

Originally posted by Ismar Iljazovic:

There's one more major problem I have with text-only editors. And that's the lack of real-time syntax highlighting.

I'm a fan of JEdit. I use it for everything but my most complex projects, where I rely on Eclipse. JEdit lets you define a default file type that it will assume a non-saved file to be. Set it to Java and you get Java syntax highlighting. It also has a compiler plug-in (among many other useful plug-ins) which highlights errors in the editor. One step above a text editor and compiler, and not nearly as complex as an IDE.

[David Harkness]

At work I use CodeWright because it's a very good, very fast, very powerful text editor. I can hook in a compiler and all sorts of tools, but mostly I use it because it's a great editor. It's not free, but I've been using it for many years now with no regrets. Now that I see Eclipse has code folding, I'll likely switch. Yes, I was holding out for one feature, but it's an incredibly useful feature in my book.

Anyway, I also use Ant scripts for compiling, packaging, and deploying my applications. I could hook my editor or any IDE into that so I could click a button or choose a menu option, but ya know what?

ALT-Tab, Up Arrow, Enter

Now the project is being compiled and packaged in a command shell window. That will work exactly the same way no matter what editor or IDE I ever switch to, so I will never, ever have to learn that trick again.

And ya know what I use at home for experimentation? Batch scripts in a command shell if the project is more than a few files, otherwise I just type the command once and pull it from the command history. Yes, that's the same key combination I use at work. No retraining or context switching.

So yes you can worry all day about choosing the right tool, or you can spend ten minutes picking a tool that will work, and work well enough for your needs. Again, wait until you have more experience to gnash your teeth over which tool will work precisely how you need it to work.

It's time to start coding!

By the way, I learned a long time ago never to work in an unsaved document. Once you've saved it, you can rely on auto-save or hit ctrl-s every so often. If it's not saved, there's that much more work needed to get it saved that you're likely to put off saving it too long, and we all know what happens when you tempt a computer with too much unsaved work.

[Henry Wong]

Another issue that you need to be concerned with is that you may not be able to choose your environment. In fact, there are projects that depend on multiple OSes at the same time. You can't depend on having a consistent text editor, much less having a consistent IDE.

On the other hand, you can really get addicted to using an IDE. I noticed that with Eclipse's "code complete", and "templates" features, I tend to have a clean desk. Without it, I tend to have printouts of Javadocs all over the place...

Henry

[Hentay Duke]

Two weeks to your final and you've never settled on a tool yet? Have you actually written and compiled any code?

Just use UltraEdit and save the document immediately (it's really not that hard). Over the summer learn to use the command line to compile and run your apps, because I'm guessing you'll be taking this class again in the fall.

Not trying to be too harsh, but come on quit waiting and making excuses and start learning to code (including compiling and running).

[Jeroen Wenting]

Originally posted by Henry Wong:
Another issue that you need to be concerned with is that you may not be able to choose your environment. In fact, there are projects that depend on multiple OSes at the same time. You can't depend on having a consistent text editor, much less having a consistent IDE.

Henry

You can. VI exists for every OS I've used with for the last 7 years, the only exception being Guardian for which there's no Java implementation possible because of the filesystem organisation and file naming requirements among other things

[Hentay Duke]

You can. VI exists for every OS I've used with for the last 7 years, the only exception being Guardian for which there's no Java implementation possible because of the filesystem organisation and file naming requirements among other things

I'm guessing what Henry meant was, not to become too attached to a particular IDE, because when you hopefully get hired somewhere they might have a different one they want you to use. I had never used WSAD much less Eclipse until I came to work at my present job. But they use WSAD exclusively and so that's what I use now.

Point is, better to learn the language than a particular IDE.

[Henry Wong]

Originally posted by Jeroen Wenting:

You can. VI exists for every OS I've used with for the last 7 years, the only exception being Guardian for which there's no Java implementation possible because of the filesystem organisation and file naming requirements among other things

"vi" is my favorite standalone editor. For some reason, I could never get into "emacs". (Don't mean to start a war here )

But "vi" does behave differently between Linux and Solaris -- just enough to be annoying. And if you are working with a grid of Windows boxes, you don't have the luxury (or even permissions) to install it all over.

Henry
[ April 27, 2005: Message edited by: Henry Wong ]

[Fyle]

Ok so just tell me this.. let's say I want to stick with UltraEdit. I'll leave Textpad installed just for the hell of it, but I'll try to stick with UltraEdit. Now.. how can I compile code, run compiled apps, and/or run applets easily without having those commands available from within the text editor itself?

I've done all that before.. compiled, ran.. tested.. but I've always had the tools available in the app in one way or another. Now that I'm settling on a text editor that doesn't have that.. how do I do those things?


THanks

[Hentay Duke]

Try having a look at Sun's tutorials, or really any beginning "Hello World" type tutorial will probably go through compiling and running from the command line. It's really very easy once you understand a couple things like Classpath. And really you need to understand these things before you go too much further.

[K Riaz]

Here we go again, another "hello will you do my homework please thanks" person. You fit all the attributes (single figure posts, recent joiner, long first post, copy/paste assignment, the kind approach to getting people to do your work and regular replies). This may sound harsh, but...

Originally posted by Ismar Iljazovic:
Lots of undergrads of about my age and all more or less noobs, just like me. I'm otherwise exceptionally computer-literate and borderline nerdy, (sometimes way past the borderline), but I'm a complete greenhorn when it comes to programming.

I have never heard of someone calling themselves a "geek" or a "nerd" if they were not programming gurus, or near to one. These people were writing software from age 11, and wrote a database for a local dentist before even reaching college. Stop dreaming. If you cannot program, you are just another wannabe enrolled on a CS course. If you were a "nerd" (as much as I hate to use the term, as it somehow has a "degrading" feel to it), you would have finished the assignment weeks before the due date. For someone who is spending valuable time looking for an IDE (never mind doing the actual assignment), I think you are far from classing yourself which such "guru" status. Did you not ever write any code during the whole class during the semester? Most students have their programming environments setup after week 1. Seems like you have been found out.

Originally posted by Ismar Iljazovic:
Could someone help me out with this homework by.. well, basically, doing it for me?

No, I would rather see you fail the unit and repeat it. You have made no attempt to solve the problem, no questions on how to structure it or any algorithms, no code posted for us to view and offer input, no Java exceptions to solve, nothing on data structures or refactoring the code, absolutely nothing (still a "nerd"?). Seeing as you are in the batch of tomorrows programmers (god forbid), I would not want to work with someone who passes off other peoples work as his or her own, too lazy to solve it for themselves.

Happy coding.

[ April 27, 2005: Message edited by: K. Riaz ]
[ April 27, 2005: Message edited by: K. Riaz ]

[Adam Vinueza]

What Hentay Duke just said. IDE's are great for making your life easier, especially when debugging, but there's no substitute for understanding the basic commands. It's a part of basic Java literacy.

[Fyle]

Point taken Riaz. I agree. By calling myself a "nerd" I meant more the type that generally is into computers and technology. All you've said is true and I have nothing to counter it with. I'll openly admit it: I'm lame.

I'm trying to put my energy into pulling the best I can out of the class, and I've had the problem of not having been able to start the class on time due to the schedule conflict in the beginning of the year. I missed the first 3 lectures which covered the very basics of Java, and from there on was never able to completly catch up with the reading. I've always had a deep desire to learn how to code and now that I've had my chance it was destroyed from the get-go by my inability to catch up with the classwork... after all, I had 4 other classes to worry about and struggle with. I know that it was stupid of me to make this kind of post, but now that the post has evolved into something better I've actually learned a few things and have found out some very useful things. I very much appreciate the help I've so far received and will try to make use of it in the very near future.

Nothin much left I can say... I agree with all your accusations and admit to them. And I apologize for even having had the thought and incentive to make such a post.

[David Harkness]

Ismar, you've shown enough understanding and desire to move past your initial faux pas that I'm willing to forgive and move on, and I think mostly we all have. K. Diaz, you might want to skim the middle posts to see if you feel the same. While all very valid points, as Ismar conceded, he's changed his tune since then and is making an ernest effort to recover as much as possible.

That said, yes I think following the basic initial tutorials will get you going. You may have to accept that this class is a burn this semester, or you can talk to your professor. I have found professors to be more than workable if you approach them as people and don't try to pass off your mistakes as someone else's fault. But if you're serious about learning to code, there's no time to worry over retaking one class.

Compiling and running a single class for an assignment can be quite easy. Here's an example from one test program I wrote for another post:

File System:
C:\Java\
  play\ [current directory]
    simple\
      Telnet.java
 
Compile:
c:\Java\play> [B]javac simple\Telnet.java[/B]
 
Run:
c:\Java\play> [B]java -cp . simple.Telnet[/B]

The class is called "Telnet" and is in the "simple" package. Packages are used to organize your code, and the directory structure should match the package structure.

You use "javac" to compile one or more classes. It's unlikely you'll be using 3rd party libraries (JARs) in your early classes, so it's as simple as that.

You use "java" to run your programs, always specifying the class that has the main(String[]) static method. You also must specify a classpath, similar to the OS's path: the location to find the class files to run. In this case, I specify "." (the current directory).

Notice that when compiling, you give javac a list of files, so you use the platform directory seperator (\ in Windows), for example "my\long\pkg\name\MyClass.java". When running, you give java a fully-qualified class name (including package). Here you use dots (.) to seperate packages and classes, for example "my.long.pkg.name.MyClass".

Okay, now I expect that was all fairly confusing and disorganized. But it should be enough to go look at a tutorial and understand it.

Good luck!

[Fyle]

Thanks a lot for the intro. I'll just have to dig deep into my book. Expect to see more threads from me in the near future, and this time with real questions and not lame requests for others to do my homework. I must admit that I'm embarrassed about that now.

Ah well. As I said, I'll try to get back to you guys with REAL questions soon

[David Harkness]

Originally posted by Ismar Iljazovic:
I must admit that I'm embarrassed about that now.

What really helps me let go of feeling embarrassed is the thought that "it could always be worse." Go read this little gem that someone posted while taking an exam! Ahhh, feel the shame washing away.

Note to the poster of that little gem: just remember, someone else started the Spanish Inquisition.

[Jeroen Wenting]

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!
Our weapon is fear and surprise...

[Fyle]

Originally posted by David Harkness:
What really helps me let go of feeling embarrassed is the thought that "it could always be worse." Go read this little gem that someone posted while taking an exam! Ahhh, feel the shame washing away.

Note to the poster of that little gem: just remember, someone else started the Spanish Inquisition.

HAHAHAHA!!! Woooow.. thanks for that one! Haha! That's just too damn hillarious

[Moritz Petersen]

Originally posted by Henry Wong:
I was recently in a demostration for Netbeans. (Version 4.?) Prior to the session the presentor asked what IDE everyone used. I would say about 80% used eclipse.

Henry

LOL!!!

[Fyle]

Seriously.. that makes sense to me. Netbeans is HUGE as a package.. and feels bloated. I'm sure it's great and all, but it feels like a Titanic among IDE's, whereas Eclipse is probably closer to a text editor in terms of "lightness". Just my guess. I did once install Netbeans but I've never really used it before. And I've never used Eclipse before.