Intro to Java :- Feedback Requested

[Carlus Henry]

Hey everyone,

This month's meeting is Intro to Java, and yours truly is presenting.
While I was sitting here preparing for the presentation, I had a great
thought and shared it with Dave. Dave agreed with me...In order for
this presentation to truly be successful, we would like to get some
feedback from everyone that is planning to attend. Rather than
writing this presentation on my own in a vacuum, we believe that it
makes more sense to get input from you.

With that in mind, here is the initial outline that I have drafted for
the presentation:

* Introductions
* Setting up your Development Environment
** Installing Java
*** JVM
*** Executables included in Install
** Installing Eclipse
*** Workspace
*** Workbench
*** Perspective / Views
*** JDT
** Java
*** Object Oriented Development
*** Example Code
*** Terms
**** Packages, Jar(s), War(s), Ear(s)
*** JavaDocs
*** Java Tutorial

What do you think? Is there anything that I am missing from the
outline that you want to learn more about? Is there anything that I
have included that should not be part of the presentation?

Remember, in order to get the most out of this meeting, please offer
your suggestions.

Thanks
Carlus

[Tom Jahncke]

Hi Carlus,

 

Sounds good to me.  You might want to check with Brian Curnow I know in the last year he held a brown bag for Intro to Java.  There are two other suggestion I would have.  Include the difference between JRE and JDK as this is confusing for new-bees when downloading and knowing which one to use.  You may also want to talk about the concept of a classpath.  Finally you want to tell them about the awesome m2Eclipse plug-in, just kidding :) 

 

Thanks,

 

Tom
>>> Carlus Henry <carlu...@gmail.com> 5/3/2008 3:36 PM >>>

[Jason Porritt]

I agree, that sounds like a great intro to get people comfortable with
Java and its development tools (Eclipse can feel a bit strange to
those of us used to Vim).

One other topic that I think may be worth mentioning, either as a part
of this intro or as a separate meeting topic, is the plethora of
libraries available to Java. I don't think it's possible to sit
through a conversation about Java without a reference to Spring, GWT,
Swing, etc. coming up. There are just so many of them, and it can be
a bit daunting to sort through them when starting a new project.
Which ones are well supported? Well liked? Work well together?
Especially suited to a particular app or coding style?

I think answering some of those questions would add a lot of value for
people who are new to Java.

Your local Perl monger,
--Jason Porritt

[Kyle Adams]

Maybe somewhere in there cover quirks of the language that typically trip up newbies.  For example: the difference between int and Integer and why you need to use == for one and .equals() for the other (and that's without autoboxing futher complicating things).

[Jason Porritt]

Is there an official announcement in the works? I know a few people
who would be interested but I don't see a time or "official" synopsis
for the presentation on the web yet.

--Jason

[Jason Porritt]

A few more thoughts -- again, possibly separate meetings. Maybe you
should do a whole series ;) I know there is plenty of documentation
on these topics, but it's not quite the same as hearing from real
flesh-and-blood people.

First, what about build tools? Anyone looking to do Java development
in a corporate environment (like many of us) is going to be very
interested in tools like Ant, Cruise Control, and whatever else is
available to automate build and deployment tasks. How do people
really use these tools?

Second, the ever-popular topic of testing. I still remember the
test-driven development in Eclipse tutorial you (Carlus) did at the
first BarCamp -- you made it look so easy!

--Jason

On Mon, May 5, 2008 at 2:20 PM, Kyle Adams <kada...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Carlus Henry]

I just submitted the abstract. It should appear on the website over
the next couple of days.....

On May 7, 9:20 am, "Jason Porritt" <jasonporr...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Is there an official announcement in the works? I know a few people
> who would be interested but I don't see a time or "official" synopsis
> for the presentation on the web yet.
>
> --Jason
>

[Carlus Henry]

On May 7, 9:39 am, "Jason Porritt" <jasonporr...@gmail.com> wrote:
> A few more thoughts -- again, possibly separate meetings. Maybe you
> should do a whole series ;) I know there is plenty of documentation
> on these topics, but it's not quite the same as hearing from real
> flesh-and-blood people.
>
> First, what about build tools? Anyone looking to do Java development
> in a corporate environment (like many of us) is going to be very
> interested in tools like Ant, Cruise Control, and whatever else is
> available to automate build and deployment tasks. How do people
> really use these tools?

This is a great idea!!! I would love to share with you during this
presentation the build and deployment tools that I have seen used, as
well
as my impressions of what is best of the breed. I am more than
willing to
answer questions like this that come up during the presentation, but I
wonder if like you mentioned, this would be worth it's own meeting to
do it
justice.

> Second, the ever-popular topic of testing. I still remember the
> test-driven development in Eclipse tutorial you (Carlus) did at the
> first BarCamp -- you made it look so easy!
>
> --Jason

Tests, Tests, Tests, Tests, Tests, Tests......I L-O-V-E Testing. Are
you
suggesting that we should hold a meeting on Testing and Test Driven
Development? If so, I like it.

[Carlus Henry]

That is what I get for trying to be fancy with my response. After
receiving the original post of this message, I can see that you are
not able to easily respond in-line on the Google Groups. I will
definitely not try to do that again. Here is my response to Jason's
suggestions:

Build and Continuous Integration Tools
============================

This is a great idea!!! I would love to share with you during this
presentation the build and deployment tools that I have seen used, as
well as my impressions of what is best of the breed. I am more than
willing to answer questions like this that come up during the
presentation, but I wonder if like you mentioned, this would be worth
it's own meeting to do it justice.

Test Driven Development
==================

Tests, Tests, Tests, Tests, Tests, Tests......I L-O-V-E Testing. Are

you suggesting that we should hold a meeting on testing and Test
Driven Development? If so, I like it. If you are interested in
helping to put one together, please let me know. We could forgo the
ceremonial style presentations and have a workshop. Possibly present
a couple of problems, and see how many different ways we can test
them. Solving problems is easy, writing the tests for them, can
sometimes be challenging..... :)

On May 7, 2:31 pm, Carlus Henry <carlushe...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On May 7, 9:39 am, "Jason Porritt" <jasonporr...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > A few more thoughts -- again, possibly separate meetings. Maybe you
> > should do a whole series ;) I know there is plenty of documentation
> > on these topics, but it's not quite the same as hearing from real
> > flesh-and-blood people.
>
> > First, what about build tools? Anyone looking to do Java development
> > in a corporate environment (like many of us) is going to be very
> > interested in tools like Ant, Cruise Control, and whatever else is
> > available to automate build and deployment tasks. How do people
> > really use these tools?
>
>