Re: Good books for a complete beginner!

On 2005-08-30, potnisanish@xxxxxxxxx penned:
> Ah. sorry. That was meant to say guys. As to his question, I don't
> know why I picked it first.
>
> And to your question I had no idea that Java and Javascript were
> different. And actually I believe Monique is a boys' name.

Er, no. I've met several Moniques in my lifetime; none have been
male. Certainly I'm not.

But yes, Java and javascript are different.

And the reason I ask "Why Java?" is because, while I enjoy using Java,
I think it's both too much and too little for the budding programmer.
I would want to start with something simpler, where you have to "roll
your own" code. So much of Java is understanding the OO concepts
behind certain libraries and knowing which library or class addresses
your current problem best. I don't think Java is terribly conducive
to learning what's going on behind the scenes, and when you're just
trying to learn basic programming concepts, you're not going to have
room in your brain for things like when to use protected vs. private
vs. default, or why this static method can't use an instance variable.
Or why main has to be static ... the list goes on.

I remember that my CS Dept. thought it was a good idea to teach C++
rather than C initially, as it was supposedly "less confusing." I
never really understood pointers until several semesters in, when I
finally saw a malloc() for the first time instead of a new. The light
dawned. Simple, clean, and unintimidating as new is, it didn't speak
to the novice CS student that was me several years ago. malloc(), or
perhaps more accurately malloc() used in conjunction with sizeof(),
ugly and intimidating as it is, didn't hide what was really going on.

--
monique

Ask smart questions, get good answers:
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Attempt to de-mystify AJAX
    ... I jumped into Java Server Faces because you could supposedly use it without JSP, using straight java code for everything. ... And since it is still an approach to client event handling on the server, it is suggested to incorporate javascript where needed. ... Java doesn't run in the browser and interact with the DOM. ...
    (comp.databases.pick)
  • Re: Java Applet pulled from VMS Web Server
    ... Java Applet JAR file are not "surfaced" by AJAX? ... 2a) Created a socket and connect back to the VMS server that is hosting the ... Are you really saying that Javascript is incapable of accessing any of the ...
    (comp.os.vms)
  • Re: Java -> ActionScript?
    ... Performance in Groovy aufs Korn genommen... ... da ich JavaScript und Java kannte. ... gibt es eben eine MissingMethodException zur Laufzeit und gut ist. ...
    (de.comp.lang.java)
  • Re: Java Scripts in Internet Explorer
    ... JavaScript and Java, despite the similar names, are completely different things. ... Since the URL includes a domain name, perhaps the security settings of the browser is objecting to or blocking the new page being located on a different domain (a script on "http://www.yyy.com"; opening a new window for a page on "http://www.xxx.com";). ... Since the javascript:launchWindowcode appears to be opening a browser pop-up via a JavaScript function downloaded from the web site, I think a pop-up blocker is preventing your browser from opening a browser window associated with the site you are viewing. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie6.browser)
  • Re: Scatter/Gather in Java or Javascript & html (Dynamic class loading?)
    ... interface (or base class), then you can cast to that. ... He will if he's using Java to access them, but if he just passes instances over ... to JavaScript then the JavaScript embedding mechanism (whatever it is, ... ints and longs. ...
    (comp.lang.java.programmer)