Peter Bugla

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since Feb 12, 2002
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Recent posts by Peter Bugla

I'd return a collection interface (as general as possible,e.g. List) and (of course) put a statement in the JavaDoc comment of the method, what is actually returned (e.g. a List of House objects associated with the provided Owner parameter). So a programmer that uses your API can easily see, what he gets and you can profit from good encapsulation (see below).
BTW: Even if you return a House[] you should mention, what Houses you return (specify the semantics).
It's generally a good thing to keep the interfaces of your classes, your components, your programs, ... as small and as general as possible, (i.e. the level of encapsulation as high as possible).
The reason for this is simple:
Even if you don't expect that it might become necessary in the future to make changes on the class, component, ... later or if you don't expect that someone else will program anything using your classes, components, ... it might just happen.
"Worst case" (not that bad really, if you think about it ): You programmed something, (many) other programmers actually used it (using the available interfaces) and the necessity for significant changes in your classes, ... arises.
case 1: you offered only a very small and general interface --> no problem, you can change everything internally and you (most likely) don't need to change the interface
case2: you offered a broad and/or very specific interface --> if you change anything significant, it will (most likely) break your interface and all the points where you're interface has been used must be changed (causing a lot of anger ... leads to hate leads to suffering ... and of course $$$)
(Another more specific advantage of collection types is the possibility to use iterators, giving the user of the object a way to avoid getting all data at once. This sometimes gets important if you use distributed applications and / or large databases.)
If you had such a loud room for your test, I would contact http://www.prometric.com/ about this, to make sure your test center get's the trouble they deserve, and (if you want this) a second chance for your test. Hopefully Prometric kicks them a bit to change the conditions to make it better for future candidates.
The tests are difficult enough to solve in a quiet room.
I think it depends on what you want to do it for.
What are your plans for the future concerning this? Any direction you want to go, or just collecting a lot of titles for fun?
22 years ago

Originally posted by Bob Tai:
Now you finish with this task what are you going to do next?!
visit Disney world!!


Sure, but first I will take a walk on the moon
(some small steps for me ).
Well...at some time in the future I'd like to take the Developer Test, but I don't know, when I will start this.
22 years ago

Originally posted by Dan Lastoria:
... scroll down to see the answer. ... piece of crap PC.
Maybe this was the case here too?


Nope. No more answers. Nice try.
I think the monitor was 17" or sth. like that. The interface is not that great. The exhibit window for longer source code is a bit annoying,
because you need a small amount of time to arrange yourself with the windows, but it's not too bad.
(Tip to everyone: If you haven't taken this test before, you might want to spend ~10 min on the small trial test they will offer you to learn how to deal with the GUI.)
22 years ago

Originally posted by Valentin Crettaz:
Which one do you want? The Terran version?


Well, I don't think I still qualify for "mostly harmless" with 96% , so I think it needs to be a bit harder than the Terran version.
22 years ago

Originally posted by Valentin Crettaz:

I still hope you'll stay around for some virtual beers.


Sure. A Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster would be nice.

Nice smilie.
22 years ago
Congratulations, Richard!
22 years ago
BorderLayout honors some of the preferred width and height values:
The Components in North and South keep their preferred height (and get the width of the container). The Components at West and East keep their preferred width (and get the height of the container minus the height of the North and South Components if present). The Component in Center is stretched to fill the remaining space.
Well, perhaps you could phone the Sun Educational Services office you purchased your voucher from and kick some ass.
22 years ago

Originally posted by Rob Ross:
there has to be a correct answer, even if what they indicate is correct is really wrong.


Well, I just can tell you I tried out every mentioned answer (and a few more) in a small program about 20 minutes after I took the test (the test center is quite close to my office)
and there is no really correct answer.
It may be, of course, that the guy who wrote this question actually said, e.g. 1. and 4. is the correct answer.
Anyway ... another possibility for some people scoring 100% might be that the questions are not always the same, but taken from a pool like in many of the mock exams. I didn't read anywhere about this point, so I can't tell if it's always the same 59 questions or 59 out of let's say 1000.
(If I would have written the test I would have done the latter, to avoid some guys passing around the real questions and answers. Threats of punishment in case of NDA breaking is "nice", but I don't think it is able to keep a small amount of fixed information secret for a long time. But that's, of course, just my personal point of view.)
22 years ago

Originally posted by Valentin Crettaz:
Excellent job Peter
I hope you'll stay around and answer to some questions


Thanks Valentin,
not only for the congratulations, but also for your excellent answers! You seem to sleep with the Java Language Specification under your pillow.
22 years ago

Originally posted by Nikki Nguyen:
Congratulation on your exam. I have one question for you: There is question with multiple answers. Do they give you a hint how many answer should be?


Thanks, Nikki.
As it is mentioned at a lot of related websites and books:
Whenever you get a question with more than one answer to check, you get told how many checkboxes to check (e.g. "(check 2)") in the current version of the test, which makes it a lot easier, of course.
22 years ago

Originally posted by Corey McGlone:
This dynamic lookup is no different than what is occuring in your example.


Apart from this sentence you're right.
The situation mentioned by this thread's first post is a bit different, because we're in the process of constructing the objects, i.e. they are not fully initialized yet.
If you take the program from the original post
(with private already replaced by public) you get the following result:

It's interesting that the 2nd line states Bvar is 0, isn't it.
It happens because the instance variables are not initialized until the superclass is constructed which does make sense, of course.
Ideas for extremely difficult test questions come to mind.
I just wanted to point out, that dangerous side effects may arise by calling subclass methods from superclass constructors (respectively overriding superclass methods that are called in the superclass's constructor).
Hi,
I just passed the Test with 96% (57/59).
The overall test was not very difficult as far as I am concerned. I had enough time to go through all questions a second time, which was good, because I was able to spot and correct two mistakes.
The JQ+ questions, that I've seen discussed in the Certification Study board are a lot harder, I think, but that's fine, because the ability to solve these gives you a deeper understanding (of the meening of liff ) and more overall confidence in answering all these questions.
I took a lot of time since mid January to prepare for the Test, not to mention my 5 years of Java programming experience.
Books:
Buy "Complete Java 2 Certification Study Guide"
from Roberts, Heller, Ernest (often referred to as "rhe" here). You don't need another book.
Be sure to go to Sybex to check the errata list for it!
Read everything (besides Developer Exam related pages) and do every Test.
I also bought "Exam Cram Java 2" from Bill Brogden
and I wouldn't do it again, because a) it's still full of errors and b) his writing/language is not very precise and precision is the main non-technical point in this test. If there is a word in the question, it's there for a purpose!
RHE is excellent concerning this point.
Mock exams:
Do every mock exam you can get your hands on and make sure you understood why the correct answers are correct. If you consider buying one, go ahead,
but it's not a necessity
Java Ranch:
Have a look at the discussions in the Programmer Certification Study section: learn and participate (if you can answer questions).
If there are more complex things you don't fully understand you might find the solution here.
---
Now for the interesting part :
I had one Question, that was definitely missing
a correct answer.
I just tried it out (programming):
None of the 6 possible answers is right,
and I had to check 2!
I added a comment for the question, but I don't know, where this goes to and if it is read by anyone at all.
Does someone has an e-mail address of Simon Roberts or some other guy from SUN involved in the
test?
22 years ago