Hello!

[Mads]

Hello!

I have not read the whole thread, so bear with me.

I’m 16, and I’ve never gotten any tutoring in programming, other than my interrest and willing to learn from looking at code (and I’ve done that for a good three years, since I could nothing). Also starting as senior this year (or junior, depending on the place… Exchange students don’t really get to pick).

This is by far the most friendly and helpful community I’ve stumbed upon thus far. I came right from the boards over at the RSPS scene, where most people don’t know anything about java, and the people that actually do gets annoyed with beginners. Since I came here people has been really nice, and the same applies to the java IRC’s I’ve visited for smaller help.

You’re probably not going to like this, and I’ll (maybe wrongly) just think that your teacher has been rambling about object oriented programming. That is a deadly boring topic when you just want to learn some syntax, and some “real” code. Once you are confident with the “real” code though, you’ll begin to wonder how the heck people get such nice features, and interresting games out of the same tools you master. The key: OOP, and design patterns (which are boring topics, if you start out with them). On the other hand though, it’s not nice learning those down the road.
A year ago I started to do more serious things than just mastering the language (or tried), and i’ve failed horribly, because I wasn’t able to do the problem solving and thinking out of the box.

It might be really boring to learn these things starting out, but you’ll have a WAY easier time than the approach that’s fun right here, and right now.

[Demonpants]

@Mads

Hello!

I have not read the whole thread, so bear with me.

I’m 16, and I’ve never gotten any tutoring in programming, other than my interrest and willing to learn from looking at code (and I’ve done that for a good three years, since I could nothing). Also starting as senior this year (or junior, depending on the place… Exchange students don’t really get to pick).

This is by far the most friendly and helpful community I’ve stumbed upon thus far. I came right from the boards over at the RSPS scene, where most people don’t know anything about java, and the people that actually do gets annoyed with beginners. Since I came here people has been really nice, and the same applies to the java IRC’s I’ve visited for smaller help.

You’re probably not going to like this, and I’ll (maybe wrongly) just think that your teacher has been rambling about object oriented programming. That is a deadly boring topic when you just want to learn some syntax, and some “real” code. Once you are confident with the “real” code though, you’ll begin to wonder how the heck people get such nice features, and interresting games out of the same tools you master. The key: OOP, and design patterns (which are boring topics, if you start out with them). On the other hand though, it’s not nice learning those down the road.
A year ago I started to do more serious things than just mastering the language (or tried), and i’ve failed horribly, because I wasn’t able to do the problem solving and thinking out of the box.

It might be really boring to learn these things starting out, but you’ll have a WAY easier time than the approach that’s fun right here, and right now.

I think you just need a good mix of hands-on programming, theory, and concepts in programming classes. Just programming, as you say, will leave you making bad code. But I don’t agree with you that you should learn to program first and concepts later, I think doing them side-by-side (along with theory to get you thinking) is the right way to go. I learned to program long before I learned any concepts and I think I suffered for it - now I have an aversion to learning new techniques and instead I quickly hack out solutions.

[Anthrax]

@Eli Delventhal

I think you just need a good mix of hands-on programming, theory, and concepts in programming classes. Just programming, as you say, will leave you making bad code. But I don’t agree with you that you should learn to program first and concepts later, I think doing them side-by-side (along with theory to get you thinking) is the right way to go. I learned to program long before I learned any concepts and I think I suffered for it - now I have an aversion to learning new techniques and instead I quickly hack out solutions.

Eli! I checked your site out man. It looks great and I checked out your resume. How did you learn how to program and such? The Kind Words section gives great insight about your abilities, and it leaves me curious as to how you became so talented. 8)

[ra4king]

Heh, I’m 16 and I’ve been programming for almost 2 years now.
I taught myself Java from a book, “Java, A beginner’s guide” by Herbert Schildt. Since then I made all imaginable kinds of command line games. Finally when I jumped into graphics, I made quite a few simple 2D games. All the designs, concepts, and theory came to me without really studying theory. It was all mainly common sense and adjusting my way of thinking. I did find and read an excellent book called Head First Design Patterns and it explained different way to layout code and patterns used and recommended. I strongly recommend this book for everyone learning Java because firstly, they used Java for all examples, and they explained everything in an easy-to-understand way.

[Mads]

@Eli Delventhal

@Mads

Hello!

I have not read the whole thread, so bear with me.

I’m 16, and I’ve never gotten any tutoring in programming, other than my interrest and willing to learn from looking at code (and I’ve done that for a good three years, since I could nothing). Also starting as senior this year (or junior, depending on the place… Exchange students don’t really get to pick).

This is by far the most friendly and helpful community I’ve stumbed upon thus far. I came right from the boards over at the RSPS scene, where most people don’t know anything about java, and the people that actually do gets annoyed with beginners. Since I came here people has been really nice, and the same applies to the java IRC’s I’ve visited for smaller help.

You’re probably not going to like this, and I’ll (maybe wrongly) just think that your teacher has been rambling about object oriented programming. That is a deadly boring topic when you just want to learn some syntax, and some “real” code. Once you are confident with the “real” code though, you’ll begin to wonder how the heck people get such nice features, and interresting games out of the same tools you master. The key: OOP, and design patterns (which are boring topics, if you start out with them). On the other hand though, it’s not nice learning those down the road.
A year ago I started to do more serious things than just mastering the language (or tried), and i’ve failed horribly, because I wasn’t able to do the problem solving and thinking out of the box.

It might be really boring to learn these things starting out, but you’ll have a WAY easier time than the approach that’s fun right here, and right now.

I think you just need a good mix of hands-on programming, theory, and concepts in programming classes. Just programming, as you say, will leave you making bad code. But I don’t agree with you that you should learn to program first and concepts later, I think doing them side-by-side (along with theory to get you thinking) is the right way to go. I learned to program long before I learned any concepts and I think I suffered for it - now I have an aversion to learning new techniques and instead I quickly hack out solutions.

Oh, I was trying to say that OOP and patterns should be learned the sooner the better, even though it might be boring

[Demonpants]

@Anthrax

@Eli Delventhal

I think you just need a good mix of hands-on programming, theory, and concepts in programming classes. Just programming, as you say, will leave you making bad code. But I don’t agree with you that you should learn to program first and concepts later, I think doing them side-by-side (along with theory to get you thinking) is the right way to go. I learned to program long before I learned any concepts and I think I suffered for it - now I have an aversion to learning new techniques and instead I quickly hack out solutions.

Eli! I checked your site out man. It looks great and I checked out your resume. How did you learn how to program and such? The Kind Words section gives great insight about your abilities, and it leaves me curious as to how you became so talented. 8)

Ha, thanks. Probably a lot of people on this forum would disagree with you, but oh well. I think I’m pretty good at what I do, but there are plenty of people who are better. I didn’t “become talented” or anything like that, I don’t think. Since I was very young I had an insatiable interest in video games, and ever since my older brother left his graphing calculator in my room and I was able to view the source code of some of the games on there, I’ve been hooked. I think, play, or make video games for the majority of my waking hours, so I just keep getting better and better at doing so. Just like anything it’s all about practice. And you’ll see the truly impressive members of the forum, like Kev, Cas, or Markus, have never stopped making games, regardless of what may be going on in their lives or how tired they are of each game. That’s the real key - the resolve to keep doing it and to finish something.

You’ll be fine, just give it a go!

PS - You’ve prompted me to update the portfolio portion of my website, I hadn’t done so in years.