After Learning Java Syntax, What Next? 293
Niris writes "I'm currently taking a course called Advanced Java Programming, which is using the text book Absolute Java, 4th edition, by Walter Savitch. As I work at night as a security guard in the middle of nowhere, I've had enough time to read through the entire course part of the book, finish all eleven chapter quizzes, and do all of the assignments within a month, so all that's left is a group assignment that won't be ready until late April. I'm trying to figure out what else to read that's Java related aside from the usual 'This is how to create a tree. This is recursion. This is how to implement an interface and make an anonymous object,' and wanted to see what Slashdotters have to suggest. So far I'm looking at reading Beginning Algorithms, by Simon Harris and James Ross."
Implement some of the exact same things in C (Score:5, Interesting)
By implementing a lot of the same things in C you can get a much better feel for what is actually happening underneath the covers.
learn something about embedded! (Score:2, Interesting)
Linux journal had a nice introduction article [linuxjournal.com] on embedded programming.
I've been doing embedded development work for the last 20 years, and am still enjoying it. It pays pretty good, and you'll be far less interchangeable with someone else than your typical Java programmer.
Find an itch and scratch it (Score:2, Interesting)
He seems to want reading options (Score:5, Interesting)
I see a lot of posts suggesting that he start writing real programs. That's good advice, but it might not answer the question. The submitter says he works as a security guard. As such, sitting focused at a laptop writing code might not be an option. He seems to just want suggestions for books to read. As such, I reckon a book on algorithms wouldn't be a bad direction to head (provided he's got enough math to follow along).
The only problem I see is that if he's taking these classes for college credit or working toward completing a certificate, he's going to be really bored with the later classes when he actually has to take them if he reads all the books beforehand. Either that, or he'll know enough to be dangerous and he won't pay sufficient attention to the guidance from his instructor.
Read more, code more (Score:4, Interesting)
Read more if you want, MIT's open courseware is great, donate if you can, i do. they are good refreshers.
There are pretty standard student projects, (like game of life, notepad, msg servers,)
You might want to move into more advanced topics, like javax or concurrent stuff like RMI
Algorithms are great to learn but sadly Ive had little chance to use em in real work, would'nt put too much stock in them for returns.
In any case, any algos you need most likely you will learn on the job, if something slows too much.
They are however fundamental if you want to be a proper engineer.(In my opinion anyway)
If you want real world experience, go look at the freelance websites and just copy down the specs and attempt yourself.
Dont need to bid, but these provide a snapshot of EASY projects in real jobs.
I also have some 100% real world work projects assigned to me if you want to do for free........ just kidding
Java Puzzlers (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:You've got one third of it (Score:3, Interesting)
I actually read halfway though the book skipping the exorcises, figuring they were too easy and I was wasting my time. When I started doing them, I realized how much I didn't know so I started back at the beginning and filled in all the gaps which really expanded my knowledge on the subject.
Re:How about gaining experience? (Score:3, Interesting)
Think about what you want to do (Score:2, Interesting)
It may be too early in your education to know what you want to do in your career, but I would start looking in to areas where you can specialize. Client/server architecture will always be a skill that looks good. If you want to go this route, look into learning Java Enterprise Edition. UI design is good to know, but with abundance of WYSIWYG editors that are available now, writing UIs is becoming less of a skill. UI design theory is still pertinent even if the coding skills are going the way of the dodo. Some other skills that will come in handy are writing web services, database interaction (with JDBC and JPA, both good to know), and multi-threading. I would also recommend the book Head First Design Patterns [amazon.com] to get started on learning how to design software (as opposed to just writing software).
I would agree with what a lot of people have been saying, though. The best thing that you can do is put what you know in to practice. Start out writing a small application for yourself. Write unit tests.Do some code coverage analysis on the code and make sure you are completely covered. You can start with Cobertura [sourceforge.net]. Get to know what APIs are available in JSE. I'm assuming that in an academic environment you are using the latest JSE (6), so I would also look into familiarizing yourself with JSE 1.4. There are some major differences between 1.4 and 5 (and not a whole lot of major differences between 5 and 6), and if you are working on legacy code in the future, it helps to know what differences there are. Write an app in whatever you are used to using, write it again with JSE 1.4. Check out an open source project and debug it. Get code coverage on the project and write tests to cover more lines of code. Most OSS projects would be happy to integrate tests that increase their code coverage. Look through the bugs that have been logged against the project. Pick something small, fix the bug, and submit patches. Get familiar with build systems like Maven 2 [apache.org] or ANT [apache.org]. That should keep you busy until next semester.
Re:Do we really want him writing code? (Score:3, Interesting)
So yeah, go forth and write code wherever you think it will be cool. Work on an open source project or two that you can point me at, or find a company with an entry level programming position -- there are plenty of them around! Do it because you like it and you'll do all right.
Ant (Score:3, Interesting)