Lots of people set out to learn a language, take a course and then at the end of it don’t know what to do next. They don’t feel they are a coder, they still can’t do anything of substance. We all go through this. There is a chasm between knowing a programming language and being able to do things with it. The next step is to learn to write an application. Continue reading “Having learnt the language now what?”
What programming language should I learn?
If you ask this question, there will be an avalanche of responses. The responses will probably be of the type, learn this language because its new/it’s in demand/it pays well. 
Continue reading “What programming language should I learn?”
Why do you want to be a programmer? The raw ingredients
I see lots of posts around the web about people who are interested in learning to program. From the questions they ask you can tell they have aspirations to be the next best thing since sliced bread. While all of this unharnessed enthusiasm is great we all need a sense of reality. So, what does it take to be a programmer?
Continue reading “Why do you want to be a programmer? The raw ingredients”
So you want to be a programmer? – love programming
People often post questions on the internet about how to become a top class
programmer. When I look at these posts I think about how I got from knowing nothing to being confident about coding. Continue reading “So you want to be a programmer? – love programming”
You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know
In an earlier post I listed Five ways to faster learning. Now all these ideas centred around having a plan on how you are going to learn. You need to decide where you are going and how you are going to get there. All make sense? Continue reading “You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know”
Five Ways To Faster Learning
- Focus on what you want/need to learn now – don’t read the book from cover to cover
- Create a learning plan of what you want to achieve
- Narrow your scope and learn about that, then move on
- Learn one thing at a time
- You can learn faster once you have some practical experience to relate to
Installing Apache log4j
When something goes wrong with your application in the field you will want all the help you can get to pin point the problem, or at least narrow it down. One tool that can help is a log file. Log4J is a great library that makes adding logging to you code easy. To download and use is simple Continue reading “Installing Apache log4j”
Wrap Java into an executable with Launch4J
A few years ago I set out to produce examples of desktop applications written in Java because I could find so few examples on the web.
The idea was to write a complete self contained application and package it up into an executable program that a user could install and click to run. The tool I chose to wrap the Java byte code up into an executable was Launch4J. To see where to get this tool and how to install read on Continue reading “Wrap Java into an executable with Launch4J”
Java Executables
One of the challenges when writing Desktop applications in Java has always been deployment. The write once run code anywhere concept has always been attractive but it has been the running of the code which has traditionally been the stumbling block.
Over the years there have been many solutions developed to overcome these challenges. Continue reading “Java Executables”
Installing Eclipse
Eclipse is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) which basically means it is tool to help you manage the building of your program. This is the tool that will be used in the examples that follow. You do not have to use an IDE but if you want to use it to follow along then read on for how to install eclipse, it’s very straight forward. Continue reading “Installing Eclipse”