Jerry Rice

rant/ramble, read at your own risk:

I literally have 4 Java for beginner programmer textbooks, and more online with Safari's bookshelf. So, information is not exactly a bottleneck for the rate of my learning. Maybe like Sir Newton said, I am simply not ambitious or hard working... Idk. I certainly want to have programming skills, so I could essentially make the computer do whatever repetitive actions I'd like it to do. The computer is a powerful tool, and I'd love to be able to have control over that power. At the moment, I open up a textbook, and they just have theory and concepts, it just kills the fire inside of me. That's why I asked how long it should take to become an at least intermediate programmer, so I would know how much toil and frustration I would have to endure prior to realizing some exciting fruit of my labor.

lovely possibility:

On a separate note, besides the obvious security risks, does anyone else see the immense learning/teaching benefits of a n00b like myself working one to one through remote access (gotomeeting.com / logmein.com, etc.) for example with an experienced programmer, say in an IDE like eclipse with audio/webcam with Skype, helping to explain code and break apart complicated segments into simpler code, etc.


replies to previous posts:

I think my main problem is knowing what I want or what goal to set for myself. That's why I thought if I start work on software I find useful I would be more driven to program and to learn the computer science / programming best practices / theory along the way. To your point, Sir Dittmer, I would say I do want to use Java in my applications, because my school's Comp Sci dept. uses Java for the first two semesters. To Sir Francis's point, I'm with you on the do something original that you care about, and obviously, if you're really good at programming you can customize any software ad-infinitum, making it unique. To Sir Newton's point, I knew someone was going to say, "how fast you learn depends on you", in any case, that's the info that would help me out, I guess I need more metacognition. I can do hello world easy, but I want to make useful stuff, and I know that also depends on my definition of "useful". I plan on looking at the GWT.

Hello World - Java Ranch Community!

Shout outs to all my earthling humanoids out there

Long story is below. Short story: I just want to learn to program, and I'd like to do it in a motivated manner by working on projects I find useful. How long will it take me to learn to program basic useful things like firefox extensions, Facebook apps, etc.?

I am a complete programming n00b. I know about if/else, while, dowhile, for loops, incrementers, arrays, indexes, methods, method calls, and some other basic concepts, but I've never really built anything COOL. Nothing that I could show off to my friends/idols and nothing that really makes me go WOW.

The platforms I am interested in working on are: Facebook apps, iGoogle apps, Linux OS, Android (google phone OS), firefox/chrome extensions, personal finance GUI calculators, and stuff like that.

A lot of what I want to do is probably already done, but making it is the fun part. I really don't even have any good ideas of what to make anymore, so I might jump on an open source project or something.

I have a fair amount of free time on my hands, so I can spend a lot of time programming and learning what I need to know. Given that everyone's learning style is different, how long should I expect to toil away learning to program in an applied manner before I can really claim some mastery over the art/science? How long before I can build something I find useful, which again I understand is unique to me? How long will I just be "learning the language" as opposed to making things?

Thanks a ton everyone at Java Ranch
You're the best!

yeah I figured it out

you needed a

scan.nextLine();

to clear the new line character left in the input buffer from scan.nextInt();

I use the scanner class for input a bunch of times, and it works for the most part, except in this one particular section where I need to use it.

Apparently the JavaDoc for Scanner class isn't too useful, but does anyone have any idea what the issue is or how to fix it?

I'll show the expected output and the actual output below the code.

the problem appears in these lines:

displayLn(PROMPT_ANOTHER_BOUQUET); // ?????? inputChoiceAnotherBouquet = scan.nextLine(); if(inputChoiceAnotherBouquet.equals("y"))

which appear in the context of my larger program here:

package project1; public class FlowerDeliveryService2 { /** * @param args */ final static String PURPOSE = new String("FLOWER DELIVERY SERVICE"); final static String MAIN_PROMPT = new String("\"tiny\" is a maximum" + " of 4 flowers, \"medium\" a maximum" + " of 8 and \"big\" a maximum" + " of 12\nChoose a bouquet" + " size (tiny, medium, or big): "); // not sure about declaring a scanner at the class level, or about using //... the final and static modifiers on it final static String STRING_TINY = "tiny"; final static String STRING_MEDIUM = "medium"; final static String STRING_BIG = "big"; final static String BOUQUET_SIZE_ERROR_MESSAGE = "I don't know that size"; static int roses; static int lilies; static int carnations; static int totalFlowers; static double totalCost = 1.055*(20+(roses*3+lilies*2.5+carnations*2)); static boolean validateBouquetSize; static String bouquetSize; static String stringTotalCost = "The cost of the " + bouquetSize + " size bouquet with tax and delivery is " + totalCost; static java.util.Scanner scan = new java.util.Scanner(System.in); static int maxNumOfFlowers; static final String PROMPT_ANOTHER_SIZE = "Do you want to try another" + " size? "; static final String NUMBER_OF_FLOWERS_ERROR = "You have chosen too many" + " flowers for the bouquet size requested."; static final String PROMPT_ANOTHER_BOUQUET = "Do you want another" + " bouquet? "; static String inputChoiceTryAnotherSize; static String inputChoiceAnotherBouquet; static boolean sentinelValue; public static void main(String[] args) { displayLn(PURPOSE); do{ do { display(MAIN_PROMPT); // reading input bouquetSize = scan.nextLine(); // validating input if(bouquetSize.equals(STRING_TINY) || bouquetSize.equals(STRING_MEDIUM) || bouquetSize.equals(STRING_BIG)) { validateBouquetSize = false; } else { displayLn(BOUQUET_SIZE_ERROR_MESSAGE); validateBouquetSize = true; } } while(validateBouquetSize); // sentinel value sentinelValue = false; // prompting and reading input for # of flowers display("Enter the number of roses @ $3 each: "); roses = scan.nextInt(); roses = validateInput(roses); display("Enter the number of lilies @ $2.50 each: "); lilies = scan.nextInt(); lilies = validateInput(lilies); display("Enter the number of carnations @ $2 each: "); carnations = scan.nextInt(); carnations = validateInput(carnations); // summing total flowers totalFlowers = roses + lilies + carnations; // calculate cost if (bouquetSize.equals("tiny")) { maxNumOfFlowers=4; } if (bouquetSize.equals("medium")) { maxNumOfFlowers=8; } if (bouquetSize.equals("big")) { maxNumOfFlowers=12; } if(totalFlowers<=maxNumOfFlowers) { displayLn(stringTotalCost); // another bouquet? sentinel value again, maybe //... only need 1 input var // Ln is only needed because the scanner isn't working now displayLn(PROMPT_ANOTHER_BOUQUET); // ?????? inputChoiceAnotherBouquet = scan.nextLine(); if(inputChoiceAnotherBouquet.equals("y")) { sentinelValue = true; } else { break; } } else { displayLn(NUMBER_OF_FLOWERS_ERROR); displayLn(PROMPT_ANOTHER_SIZE); inputChoiceTryAnotherSize = scan.nextLine(); if(inputChoiceTryAnotherSize.equals("y")) { sentinelValue = true; } else { break; } } } while (sentinelValue); displayLn("Programmer: Jerry Rice"); } public static void displayLn (String textToDisplay) { System.out.println(textToDisplay); } public static void displayLn (int textToDisplay) { System.out.println(textToDisplay); } public static void display (String textToDisplay) { System.out.print(textToDisplay); } public static int validateInput(int input) { while(input<0) { display("You must not enter a negative value\n" + "Reenter a value: "); input = scan.nextInt(); } return input; } }

expected:

FLOWER DELIVERY SERVICE "tiny" is a maximum of 4 flowers, "medium" a maximum of 8 and "big" a maximum of 12 Choose a bouquet size (tiny, medium, or big): tiny Enter the number of roses @ $3 each: 3 Enter the number of lilies @ $2.50 each: 1 Enter the number of carnations @ $2 each: 0 The cost of the null size bouquet with tax and delivery is 21.099999999999998 Do you want another bouquet? y FLOWER DELIVERY SERVICE "tiny" is a maximum of 4 flowers, "medium" a maximum of 8 and "big" a maximum of 12 Choose a bouquet size (tiny, medium, or big): tiny ... Programmer: Jerry Rice

actual:

FLOWER DELIVERY SERVICE "tiny" is a maximum of 4 flowers, "medium" a maximum of 8 and "big" a maximum of 12 Choose a bouquet size (tiny, medium, or big): tiny Enter the number of roses @ $3 each: 3 Enter the number of lilies @ $2.50 each: 1 Enter the number of carnations @ $2 each: 0 The cost of the null size bouquet with tax and delivery is 21.099999999999998 Do you want another bouquet? Programmer: Jerry Rice