Hello Java World!
When my boyfriend suggested I should learn to code, I did not even doubt my answer: YES! I did doubt how: “would I be able to?” However, after spending the first month getting up to speed for the Java course, my enthusiasm kept increasing. Reading the book the first time, I honestly did not understand it. I reread it after I started some videos on Java and programming in general, and now I could at least mark what is important for me to reference and understand.
Once the course started, I was happy I invested in this. The two students with me were much older and thus had more experience with the terminology. So I did not feel lost, could communicate and ask questions. Even better? Once the course finished, I could understand the book better and mark where my biggest challenges were! I was making progress!
The challenge began after the course.
my first coding project
Like any newbie, I am starting with a game. The same game we began in the course. We did a basic start of the word lingo. My plan is to expand it with more functions like levels, variety of words, multiplayer and score keeping. And once I have a few of these project, create a simple GUI to run them.
I have already made some progress on the level choosing part, but I am still fixing some bugs around it, like input validation. What I love is how I finally came up with a notation system that will help me learn and track my progress (which I will clean up for the final version!)
I make use of:
//PROBLEM: to track any bug I find
//SOLVED: to track if I fixed it.
It really gives me an overview of what is happening so far. I am considering to start using dates as well to know how long it took me.
Once I complete this ‘level choosing’ stage, I need to fix the ‘continue game’ option. This is currently crashing when you want to try again due to the input type. Which is still giving me headaches with the ‘level choosing’ stage.
And after that we will look into using a dictionary for the ArrayList.
The most fun about this, is that I am actually understanding what I am doing now! Instead of guessing using examples of other games. Now I am able to think about what I need and search around for ideas on how it works and then implement the best option for my program.
What I definitely learned is that, there are many ways to code. But there is always an ideal way.
- less is best
- do not repeat yourself
- break problems down in smaller ones
Now, the doubt is gone. “Yes I can do this!” The more I practice, the better I get. ☺